mansquatch wrote:S197 wrote:I've been a pretty big supporter of Spielman and defend him often but he's not without his mistakes. The 2016 draft is shaping up to be a rather poor one especially if Treadwell can't turn things around. So it's not beyond the guy to misread things.
I agree on this statement. I really thought the Treadwell pick was the low water mark for Spielman. (One might argue that no one could have predicted the emergence of Thielen, but Treadwell has never been GREAT.) Hughes might challenge it though. Even if he pans out, they neglected their biggest areas of need, being DT and OG. What I said Friday morning could pan out, maybe they feel one of their projects is ready to start, however at this point it doesn't feel great. I really wonder if this draft will cost them a year if injuries hit on the OL and their backups are exposed. Same with D-Line.
It is easy to understand the feeling that the defensive minded coach might have had too much influence in round one.
Again though, I wouldnt say those positions were "neglected".
DT was a "need", however, we have two studs there as of now. I've said before, dont count out the possibility of locking Richardson up long term if he plays well and letting someone different walk. We drafted a DT with the #2 pick of the 4th. Which is reasonable given that we have our two starters that will be playing most of the game. No different than when we had Griffen and B-Rob but took Hunter in the 3rd. And yes it lists Holmes as a DE but Zim and Spielman both came out and said they are using him inside. Not outside. So we did in fact draft a DT. It would've been a much bigger need if we never signed Richardson. So in turn, the "need" was depth and we added to it plus Holmes has the possibility to turn into a good player with some coaching up. And if we need a DT because Holmes flops and Richardson walks, it's something that can be addressed next year. It's not something that HAD to be done this year. Someone mentioned that we should have drafted Phillips. Phillips is a nose and would be backing up Linval for a long time. There is no risk of losing Linval to free agency. There is a risk of losing Richardson. So Phillips was out of the question for me.
As for OG, yes another "need" but it seems like since the end of last year, Zim wants Remmers inside. He always had the option to leave Remmers at RT and start either Hill or Isidora at RG last year and didnt. He felt like the best combo was Remmers at guard and Hill at tackle. So now IN TURN, if we have been planning on keeping Remmers at guard for a while, our NEED isnt as much guard as it is RT. And we drafted a solid RT in the 2nd round that is a solid pass blocker. We dont just take an OT in the 2nd round to keep Remmers there for 3 more years while ONeill rots on the bench. Again, if Remmers is now considered a guard, we have Remmers, Easton, Isidora, Gossett and Compton (who started 5 games at OG last year). And I was never a huge fan of Remmers at guard but he also got moved there late in the year out of nowhere. Given a full offseason now to work on it, I could see him being much better. That position seems far from "neglected". Is it a huge group of studs? No. But it's far from "neglected".
And let's not forget, it was said multiple times on NFL network that Oneill has all the tools to become a stud LT down the road but will start out on the right side. So dont be surprised if he puts it all together and makes the switch to LT in 3-5 years. Or even sooner if they want Reiff on the right side.
All in all, from the naked eye, it looks like those positions could be "neglected" but in the end, they werent at all when you look into why we went this route. I'm happy with the draft and thought we killed it in FA. Overall, I'm pumped for the season!