chris98251":1y7on7u0 said:
Completely disagree, the problem is that College isn't asking TE's to perform the same way, finding a TE that can both block and receive becomes more and more difficult. We asked Miller to Block more because of the huge deficiencies in our O Line, when cut lose such as the Atlanta game his whole game showed what a complete TE can do for you, and he did it with a messed up foot.
Given a TE that has the complete game and a decent O line your offense becomes much less predictable, why do you think we keep going back to the well trying to get one that has a complete game.
Well, you're kind of proving MHG's point. It's getting harder to find an inline TE now with the prevalence of the spread in college, so instead of fighting it and getting guys that don't fit your system or guys that don't quite work out for you, why not just go with more of a move TE that can motion into the backfield and give you flexibility in other areas ? If you really need to run the ball and get some short yardage, just move a Tackle eligible in instead of a TE. It's worked well for us in the past, and guys like Gilliam are pretty good at catching the football as well. Plus, OLmen can block better than TE's anyways.
Or, we could always draft that 400 lb TE from...was it Texas Tech ?
It also goes to MHG's post about drafting OL that played in college. Schneider and Cable have both said that you really can't count on most OL coming from college to make an impact right away, so they go away from that and grab athletes. I think they got too cute with it last year and it bit them in the ass, so I'm hoping they start going a bit more traditional at the position group.
The Cardinals are generally accepted as a team that drafts very well under Keim (I think that's their GM's name). They just traded a 2nd round Guard to the Patriots, a guy that was generally accepted as a good pick by all the draft experts. Every team misses when it comes to OL. It's why it's pretty much a position of need for every team in every draft (excepting the Cowboys the last couple of years, and even then they grabbed a couple).
