Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Gigglepants
What about your 5th round TE? Is there a gronkowski type coming out this year? I know we'd have to get him earlier than the 5th if there was. Watching the Pats with RG and AH make me want an elite TE, I've already forgotten what that's like from the TG days.
Chase Coffman should he available, couldn't he be an elite weapon in the passing game? Obviously a liability in run blocking but who needs to run anymore.
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Mike Williams of Alabama is a tight end in the mold of a Jason Dunn type player - big, physical and is effectively another tackle on the edge. He is athletic enough to be effective in the pass game, but he's first and foremost a run blocking end - probably the best of that type in this draft.
If Moeaki is capable of coming back from his blown knee and having two very big wide receivers in Bowe and Baldwin, another pass catching type of tight end isn't really required. However, an effective run blocker like Williams is is something this offense has lacked since Dunn was let go/retired.
Williams has paved the way for two superlative running backs in Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson. He's a much better option to have in that role rather than having Moeaki stay back to cover Barry Richardson's huge blocking deficiencies or having McCluster try to keep defensive ends off of the quarterback.
However, Williams is a red shirt junior who hasn't decided if he's going to stay at Alabama or enter the draft. At this point, I'm almost thinking that he stays and works on increasing his receiving numbers which will help his draft stock in 2013.
I'm not really impressed by the tight end class this year outside of Dwayne Allen. It's definitely not the 2010 class, which was amazing - Gresham, Gronkowski, Graham, Hernandez, Pitta, Dickson, Moeaki and McCoy all are starters for their teams and Graham and Gronkowski had a record setting type season in 2011. (Though, considering who was throwing to them skewed their numbers a bit.) I think Fleener is the college version of Deon Branch - numbers and production skewed by who is throwing to him (in fact, I think all those Stanford offensive guys (Martin, DeCastro, Fleener) are a being a bit overvalued due to Andrew Luck's capabilities). (Which is why I really like Peter Konz - he had an even better year in 2011 and that's without 2011 first rounder Gabe Carimi to help him. The guy has just about every measurable and game performance to put him at "elite" level for his position.)