I've been wondering that for a while. I guess Mike DeVito is really underrated. Some people might not get this pick because it's not a need, but I love this pick! If any of our older OL go down (Faneca, Woody, Moore) this guy can fill in. In other words, we now have O-line depth. :beer:
I sat here all night, watching every pick come up, all the trades, and thinking that we weren't going to get this guy. When our pick finally came up and he was still there, I was just praying for it. Steal of the draft. Write it down. By the way, I love him as a replacement for Faneca, down the road, but I don't necessarily believe that will be his spot. Right Tackle might also be the place he winds up in the future, I always thought of Woody as a very decent stop-gap. And I'm still intrigued by the potential for Slauson at guard. Either way, this was the guy I wanted, and was very happily surprised to get.
I really wanted an d-lineman over an o-lineman - especially a project. Hopefully it works out and I'm wrong.
I totally agree, we need to keep this Oline intact. Vlad sounds like a great pick but he's still a project and we can't just throw him to the wolves just yet. While Faneca certainly hasn't lived up to his contract numbers, he's a solid veteran presence on the line and is still an excellent run blocker. Doesn't anyone remember the Adrian Clarke experiment? Losing Kendall completely ruined our 07 campaign when we couldn't keep any QB upright for more than 2 seconds. I'd hate to see what looks like our Super Bowl year fall short for the same reasons.
I hope we hang on to Faneca, unless we can somehow get a 3rd or 4th round pick for him, which is highly unlikely. Let Ducasse learn from one of the best guards in this league for a year. We can use Ducasse as a blocking TE maybe instead of Hunter. That's a hell of a blocking TE on the edge in certain situations.
Yeah, they said he could eventually be a RT.. I hope the plan is to let him sit and learn a few positions this year and then decide after the season.
I like this pick, but I want to keep Faneca this year since Vlad is supposedly raw. Faneca mentoring and Callahan coaching will make him into a beast. I did want a dl pick here but I feel that the dl prospects that the fo wanted all got picked earlier in the round.
its awesome to see someone who played high school ball with play for my favorite team. I always looked up to him since i played the same position too.
Agree with everything you said. He won't do much this year, very raw, but I think he will end up as our RT of the future. He's a really good athlete for a man his size to go with his awesome power, he'll have the ability to replace Woody in 2011 or 2012. This kind of tells me (along with the Faneca trade rumors) that Callahan must think Slauson is ready to play at guard.
This is the best possible pick at 61., when you consider value and need into the equation. We need OL depth. There's no "if" "and" or "buts" about it. Our guys started like 30+ games together without an injury. That's very lucky to me but you can't bet on that being the case every season which is what they would've been doing if they didn't get Mad Vlad. Also., these type of drafts is what having a good team affords us. We don't have to go "Sexy" pick but rather "Project".
This was a very nice pick, but don't be foolish and think this makes Faneca expendable. In 2011, maybe this kid can play OLG, but it aint gonna be this year. Rex isn't stupid enough to trade or release Faneca, that would pure PURE stupidity.
No way they are releasing Faneca. It's possibly they will try and trade him but Ducasse is going to be the future right tackle. Whether it's 2011 or 2012.
