Kellers blocking has improved a bit but yes he is not a typical pass blocking TE. Graham on the other hand is more of a WR then a TE. He even lines up as a wr often. While its pretty obvious they are passing if both are on the field they would create ridiculous match up problems.
The Packers won the SuperBowl last year, largely because of their depth. If I remember correctly, they lost their starting TE, 3/4 of their secondary, starting ILB (Barnett)...etc etc. My point is, they drafted well. Because their depth stepped up, and the team didn't miss a beat. When Mangold went down earlier this year, the Jets were awful. Poor depth is a killer. And to Mambo's comment, not every player is a project player...c'mon dude. Is Cam Newton a project player?? jesus. If you want to say every new draftee is a crapshoot, then fine....but don't say every player is a project player. That's silly.
I don't want to see Ducasse out there at all unless it's as an extra TE to block since Mulligan is absolutely worthless. Since Mulligan isn't a receiving threat at all, I don't know why we don't just use Ducasse in that role instead. The only thing Vlad can't do that Mulligan can is do those pointless back and forth motions right before the snap that don't fool anybody or help in any way. So eliminate that crap and just use Vlad. Nelson I wouldn't have a problem with getting in there, but hasn't he been hurt since we picked him up? Learning the offense probably shouldn't be too hard.. 3rd graders know what plays are coming, so an NFL player who has played against the Jets and watched them in action should very easily be able to pick up this garbage offense. The guy I absolutely want to see more of is Pool, and I've been clamoring for this since he played very well down the stretch last year. I am a big fan of Pool and think he's far better than Smith. Once he is healthy I'm sure we will be seeing more of him.. don't forget, he started the Bills game before having to come out with an injury.
If/when we're mathematically eliminated, it'll be time to shake things up and see what we have on the roster.
Ducasse should be given one more year to prove he can play. Let's try to remember that last year he was a rookie and this year he missed some valuable offseason time due to the lockout.
Ducasse looks like a bust...A guy from the islands with the physical attributes, but lacking the football IQ "Me love football."
you stated that ... neither baltimore nor n.o. had great depth at TE going into last years draft also, ducasse and dixon were 9 picks apart ... not the full round youre making it out to be
Depth at TE won't make or break a team. I'm not sure why you zero'd on that. I'm not discounting their importance, but depth on the lines or in the secondary for instance, would be more important in the grand scheme of things, imo. I provided a few examples of players that would've been better choices, rather than some raw OLineman who couldn't pass block to save his life. Those are the types of players you take in the 6th round and hope they develop into something.....not in the 2nd round.
We knew when Vlad was drafted that he was a project player that was extremely raw. Not having OTA's and mini camp this off-season totally stunted his growth, but I definitely think it bought him another year with the front office so they can see if he can be developed into a talent in the off-season. I know this, as bad as he looked in the Ravens game, he also was able to get Ngata off the line by himself. There are physical tools here, it's up to Vlad and the coaching staff to put the tools together and make a player out of him.
I'd feel comfortable taking a 'project' as high as the 3rd round if you have multiple picks and your as sure as you can be about whom you've chosen with your first pick of that round. I agree, 2nd round is not the place to gamble on a project from a small school.
I was preaching the same stuff when it came to Vlad....i just think he should be showing some significant improvement by now. I used to use the "no offseason" excuse either...but if that were true, Cam Newton and Andy Dalton would be shitting the bed this season, and their position is a lot more difficult to learn than RT.
Yes, but Mangold went down after his primary backup was already lost for the season. Replacing perhaps the best center in the NFL is a undrafted FA rookie is not a game plan for success for any team. The real killer on the Oline has been Hunter. The bad part is he played so well the last few games of last season when replacing Woody its easy to see why the front office though he would plug right in. Greeny Bay is missing a lot this year, but don't let 10-0 fool you to think that they are just fine. If Rodges has a bad game that team is losing, because thier defense is a mess right now. It went from one of the top rated units in the league last year to just ahead of the Pats for worst over all this year. They win because thier offense is averaging 35 a game. I agree there is a difference with a project player and any draft pick. Ducasse was a huge project. Most players taken near his spot are expected to be abe to help sooner rather than later. The only good sign out of it all is they have included him in the jumo packages.
While I agree about the matchups, its jsut not what our idenity was supposed to be. A ball controll running team. Keller's blocking has improved, but I would not call it great, and maybe wince at good. Its average to below average. Sadly, I don't think Keller has panned out to what the staff was hoping for in a receiving TE and the rest of the bunch is throw away crap. Graham is going to be a very, very good one in this league for a long time. I would tend to think if we had both him and Keller on this squad, Keller would be departing via FA very soon.
I think you're missing the point on Pool by a long shot. Pool has made 0 impact plays, sure. But 0 impact plays means 0 good and 0 bad. Eric Smith? 0 good, and about 30 bad. I'll take "zero" impact over negative impact. By not hearing Pool's name a lot, you're leaving out sentences like, "Wow, Pool really got burned on that play," and "yet another missed tackle for Pool." Just think you should put that into perspective.
Nelson just joined the team, and he's not a good blocking TE. As bad as Mulligan is, I don't expect much from Nelson. Who'd have thought Cumberland was such a huge loss? That being said, Schotty should realize Mulligan isn't an NFL-calibre offensive player, and shouldn't be running 2 TE sets as much as he is.
I had a lot of concerns about Hunter this offseason after it came out that he was accidentally tipping plays to the Steelers in the AFC Championship game. I thought that that something that could easily be fixed with a little bit of coaching though and never thought he would play this poorly! My girlfriend knows the names of about 10 Jets players and Wayne Hunter is one of them because I yell at him on the television all too often.
