MontanaHawk05":35vrsnmn said:
Thanks for your thoughts, Attyla.
Fan perception is going to be interesting when it comes to the LT competition. Last year, when the OL got routinely criticized, I noticed a funny thing: the criticism towards Fant was much quieter. Not non-existent, but much quieter. I'm not sure why - my guess is that fans have a generally more favorable attitude towards UDFAs who outshine their stock than a free agent who doesn't.
I can't speak for everyone. I expect there is a taint of that in some circles.
I'd counter with a few things. We've had R6 -R8 guys in before (Bailey, Bowie, Hunt, Seymour etc.). Guys with similarly low expectations. And fans weren't more favorable to those necessarily. They were/are limited athletes with no discernable upside.
Fant is kind of in the Garrett Scott/Kristjian Sokoli camp. Guys that are impressive athletes. Still saddened that Scott never got the chance to show what he could do. Sokoli was an athletic specimen but basically never flashed that ability.
Fant already has flashed dominant quality at times. So he's very much unlike any of the other late round fliers we've had (suspect athletes or too raw to even shine on a limited basis). I think we should be very encouraged by how Fant is unlike the other late round guys we've rolled through here. There is a legitimate, reasoned basis for why Fant has earned that distinction of expectation.
MontanaHawk05":35vrsnmn said:
But Fant's drafting position didn't change how awful he was. He was the worst starting lineman on the team
No argument here. He wasn't any better (or worse) based on draft position. He was a very mixed bag.
The UDFA status didn't change the emprical outcome. However, I believe it's critical to judge all things in context. There is no realistic expectation that anyone should have had that he wouldn't be at times awful. Maybe at all times awful.
As bad as he was overall (and he was the worst). He also outperformed vastly what should have been expected of him. Even more than that, he actually showed stretches of play where he gave a brief window into tangible quality.
And in keeping with context, I would remind critics that Fant was basically playing the 2nd hardest position in the NFL. It's not like he was playing RG where raw/suspect players cut their teeth. He was playing the premier position on the line. Should there be an allowance for that? I would think so.
MontanaHawk05":35vrsnmn said:
Yet people have pretty much already made up their minds on Joeckel. So if the offense struggles in September, you know who's going to get blamed, perhaps justly. Given the possibility of Fant improving with a full offseason of work and the persistent sentiment of "well, a change can never make things worse", I fully expect there to be Chants for Fant come October.
I don't get that either. If Joeckel was a 3rd round pick, he'd have been considered successful. The same people that have already made up their minds about Joeckel are the same people that have begged for "just an average OL". Well Joeckel is basically that. If not even a shade above it. I have not made up my mind on Joeckel at all. At this stage, I see him as a very valuable bridge player for Fant. With the added bonus of positional flexibility which will allow for us to still recoup value from the sunk cost of his contract as the year progresses should the light start to come on for Fant. That's assuming Joeckel plays LT.
I don't think Fant will be ready this year. Showing flashes of quality is not meeting minimum expectation. Consistency is the metric. And it's simply not realistic to think that Fant will be there after his second training camp. But I do expect that having the under fire experience of half a season of starts will accelerate his development. Not only did it give him a solid base of what the life of an NFL left tackle entails. But to also go into this second camp with a measure of confidence that he can dominate.
He has so far to go based on his total absence of experience. But his development should be on a bullet train track this year. If it's October and he's being called on to start (injury or otherwise), I fully expect to see a different player. He may not meet the consistency needed. But he should be a lot closer. I could even be comfortable with a measure of expectation that he could be 'the one' by the end of the regular season should that scenario arise. The trick is to not get the franchise killed in the process.
