tm1119;5089622 said:
All I know is that the 2nd round pick that was supposedly by far the best player on the board better be able to win playing time over last years 6th rounder who could barely get on the field. I'm guessing that if the organization felt as good about Hanna as everyone here seems to Escobar wouldn't have been the pick in the 2nd round. Love Hanna's athleticism, but there obviously has to be some serious flaws in his game for him to be 6th rounder pick, and then struggle to get on the field over the like of Phillips. I'm going to assume he can't block and doesn't like the physical part of the game.
Hanna has the strength but definitely needs to work on his technique and pad level if he wants to become a more effective inline blocker.
As for the complaints of him not seeing the field much last year, he was a 6th rounder and most of them have major flaws in their games that have to be fixed for them to be productive at the next level. Hanna was a great athlete but was not a great football player at OU for whatever reason. The scouts saw enough in him to make them think he could be converted into an effective NFL player. Every team passed on him 5 times even though he had by far the best Combine of any TE. Heck, he may have had the best Combine performance of all the players there on the athletic measurements tested. He was very dominant for his position - actually outdid many CBs. So there much have been some pretty significant holes in his game for him to fall that far even though he came from a big program and had elite athleticism.
As for Escobar, my own thoughts are that he was picked because he was a BPA at that point of the draft (allegedly ranked in the low 20s on our board) for us. He was majorly downgraded after the Combine because of a poor 40 but did well on other drills. Since he was supposedly a big WR type TE he got pushed all the way down into 2nd-3rd draft proejctions whereas he was a 1st rounder in many mocks before the Combine - much like TFred. I suspect the real reason Escobar was selected here wasn't because of worries about whether Hanna could be an effective 2nd TE. I think he was chosen because the staff feels Witten's tenure as a dominant receiving TE may be happening in the next 2-3 years which means they need to groom a new #1 guy to take his spot in this offense which is very TE reilant. It is going to become even more TE-dependent than ever before after the renewed emphasis on the 12 personnel grouping.
I actually like the chances of both TEs. I think Escobar has a bit of Tony Gponzalez in him. I hope Hanna has a little Vernon Davis in him but that remains to be seen. I think they can be an effective trio with Witten that can cause nightmare matchup issues for DCs when they are on the field together so long as they can all become average blockers and for the opposition to keep LBs in the game to defend against the run. Whereas with MartyB the extra TE was usually a blocker and dumpoff receiver because of poor OL play and because Marty was never a reliable receiver, I think the intention is that this will be a balanced offense. Perhaps even one where we can go up-tempo and prevent DCs matching up with us for down and distance. It could be a more extreme form of what the Pats have been doing.
Anyhow, I think everyone will come to appreciate both of the young guys. Wes Philips has probably the biggest job to do on offense after the OL coach.
