Twitter: Fisher draft leftovers re: Hitchens, Ealy, and Crichton

[JohnsKey19]

As I said in another thread, picking Hitchens is not the problem. What should worry Cowboys fans is it appears the front office is admitting they are not confident their star MLB can stay on the field. Therefore picking Hitchens in the 4th makes good sense.

 

[blindzebra]

The minute we drafted Hitchens I said this is more about Carter than Lee.

The light comes on than we are fine we have depth, a rotation to limit snaps and injury and great special teams, it doesn't we have a new MLB (Hitchens) and WLB(Lee).

 

[Alexander]

Another fun quote about Hitchens:

The Cowboys selected Hitchens in the fourth round, and Jones informed Hitchens of the selection. After exchanging pleasantries, Jones said: “You’ve got a special teams coach over here that laid in front of the train for you. Whatever you do, you’re going to have to be the best special teams player we’ve got.”

http://thegazette.com/subject/sports/iowa-lb-goes-to-dallas-20140510

 

[TellerMorrow34]

Hitchins will be good for when/if Lee does go down a few games or also to get out there and just give Lee some rest and try and keep him healthy.

 

[Tobal]

They could have had hitchens later on, why not go safety, or even perhaps a rb at that point.

I didn't like this pick, but no we don't know if we could have had him. All it takes is one of the 31 other teams to want him and he's gone. To me the real question you ask is if we don't pick this guy can we find someone with similar ability if he's taken?

Frederick was better than any other center, they really needed him they didn't think they could find a center later in the draft or after cuts that could do what he could..... Same with Demarcus Lawrence this yr.....

Hitchens to me seems to be the guy you take the chance that he will be there later because he just doesn't seem to be special to me. FWIW which isn't much.

 

[Eddie]

Virtually every player drafted is initially thought of as a back-up... granted there are some in the 1st and 2nd rounds that were chosen to fill an empty or nearly empty void on the roster, but most are coming into a situation where the drafted player is at least initially playing behind an established player of some capability.

And when you get to the 4th round? Yeah, all the players chosen are back-ups to one extent or another.

But I'd still like to see some of the post 4th rounders make a push for a starting position in a year or two. That's how we build the team. All too often, Jerry Jones picked players to specifically be backups. That's a poor approach. We need players who we deem possible to start a few years down the line.

 

[unionjack8]

Another fun quote about Hitchens:

The Cowboys selected Hitchens in the fourth round, and Jones informed Hitchens of the selection. After exchanging pleasantries, Jones said: “You’ve got a special teams coach over here that laid in front of the train for you. Whatever you do, you’re going to have to be the best special teams player we’ve got.”

http://thegazette.com/subject/sports/iowa-lb-goes-to-dallas-20140510

2009 pick

 

[cowboyfan4life2]

I didn't like this pick, but no we don't know if we could have had him. All it takes is one of the 31 other teams to want him and he's gone. To me the real question you ask is if we don't pick this guy can we find someone with similar ability if he's taken?

Frederick was better than any other center, they really needed him they didn't think they could find a center later in the draft or after cuts that could do what he could..... Same with Demarcus Lawrence this yr.....

Hitchens to me seems to be the guy you take the chance that he will be there later because he just doesn't seem to be special to me. FWIW which isn't much.

I am not saying this is the end all be all, but he was graded on espn as a 30, the lowest by far of any fourth round pick. In fact some of our 7th round picks had higher grades on them.

 

[Alexander]

2009 pick

I thought we were beyond that kind of thinking where we were allowing coaches to "lay in front of the train" for players they want. I suppose not.

It just goes to show you one of two things, either we constructed a board that rated players as fourth round choices based on special teams abilities or we jumped the board to get a player that a coach felt could justify a niche role.

 

[AbeBeta]

They could have had hitchens later on, why not go safety, or even perhaps a rb at that point.

Don't people get tired of saying this? You absolutely don't know this and rely on mocks and evaluations from sites that do very little work on mid-to-late round prospects.

We'd be hearing the same thing had we gotten Shazier in the first. "We could have had him later... should have traded back"

 

[cowboyfan4life2]

Don't people get tired of saying this? You absolutely don't know this and rely on mocks and evaluations from sites that do very little work on mid-to-late round prospects.

We'd be hearing the same thing had we gotten Shazier in the first. "We could have had him later... should have traded back"

Until we see them on the field, that is all we have. I am not saying that Kiper and Mcshay are geniuses, but they do a lot of work on the draft, they scout and grade every one of these players.

 

[AbeBeta]

I am not saying this is the end all be all, but he was graded on espn as a 30, the lowest by far of any fourth round pick. In fact some of our 7th round picks had higher grades on them.

Gee a sports news outlet's ratings. They spend far more time on the early round guys. For like three rounds I stared at the same names on their "best available" - one guy who was on the list since late in the 2nd went 200th overall.

These are not rankings anyone should think reflect reality

 

[AbeBeta]

Until we see them on the field, that is all we have. I am not saying that Kiper and Mcshay are geniuses, but they do a lot of work on the draft, they scout and grade every one of these players.

They don't spend anywhere near the time on it that pro teams do and they spend the bulk of their time on the early picks.

 

[cowboyfan4life2]

Gee a sports news outlet's ratings. They spend far more time on the early round guys. For like three rounds I stared at the same names on their "best available" - one guy who was on the list since late in the 2nd went 200th overall.

These are not rankings anyone should think reflect reality

That just isn't true they spend time on everyone, even the guys from Marist and Mcgill college. They spend more time on the early round guys, but they scout everyone.

 

[Alexander]

What should worry Cowboys fans is it appears the front office is admitting they are not confident their star MLB can stay on the field.

Actually admitting it and doing something about it, albeit in a fumbling manner, is actually a positive step. Normally you would get them "hoping" Lee could make it a full season. This is at least not complete denial that his health is a concern.

 

[unionjack8]

what should be worrying is our propensity to be atrocious in round 4. since 2009 it reads like a whos who of pathetic picks. you would think one of them would be contributing something to this team

 

[Alexander]

They don't spend anywhere near the time on it that pro teams do and they spend the bulk of their time on the early picks.

Kiper and McShay, probably not. But you do see some of the others like Brugler and Rang concentrate on later round types. Just depends on how willing and deep you are to dig for the information.

 

[AbeBeta]

That just isn't true they spend time on everyone, even the guys from Marist and Mcgill college. They spend more time on the early round guys, but they scout everyone.

So what. You spend 30 minutes scouting a guy and give him some ranking. Those rankings -- particularly for the lower end are massively imprecise.

The funny thing here is if you look at those rankings, you'll see teams like the Seahawks routinely making what appear to be questionable choices. A guy ranked a 45 in the 2nd. A 39 in the 4th. A 30 in the 5th. A 30 in the 6th (when a 62 was available!!!). Another 30 in the 7th. If you go by the rankings you'd say they loaded up on 7th round/udfa prospects. They must be morons .... or it could be that the pro scouts they employ did more work on those guys than the talking heads.

McShay and Kiper know that how they do in the later rounds has zero impact on their reputations.

 

[Gaede]

What's funny is I've come to like Hitchens as a player.

But the logic behind the pick just makes me angry. They literally did the exact same thing in 2009. Drafting backup and special teamers when other major needs should take priority

 

[AbeBeta]

What's funny is I've come to like Hitchens as a player.

But the logic behind the pick just makes me angry. They literally did the exact same thing in 2009. Drafting backup and special teamers when other major needs should take priority

That logic is flawed. You draft guys who can contribute the the game day roster. The cold, hard fact is that you need players who can do something on ST if they can't crack the starting lineup.

Plus who on earth really believes you are drafting guys who are going to come in and start immediately in the fourth round? Just about every guy taken in those rounds projects to someone who you hope develops into starting material. Where are all these late round starters?