Scout's Big Prediction: Hanna Contributes More Than Escobar

[TheCount]

Escobar has been drafted as Witten's replacement. In 3 years Witten will probably be ready to retire and Hanna will step as the inline TE. He needs a couple of years to get stronger and develop his blocking technique while adjusting to the routes he needs to run in the NFL..

This is the only way the pick makes any sense, but things will get really awkward if Witten isn't ready to go in 3 years. It also means 3+ years before Escobar sees #1 type reps. I don't think TE's are so valuable that you'd need to get one 3 years in advance.

 

[jobberone]

Escobar has been drafted as Witten's replacement. In 3 years Witten will probably be ready to retire and Hanna will step as the inline TE. He needs a couple of years to get stronger and develop his blocking technique while adjusting to the routes he needs to run in the NFL.

Hanna is the complimentary speed guys to those two and will create mismatches all over the field. He just has to block enough to make teams want to play base against us in the 12 package. If teams go to nickel I want him to block well enough to open big holes for the RB.

I think people mistakenly believe Witten is going to play forever. I think he averaged less than 7 ypa last year which is a career low. He is slowing down and is not the threat down the seam that once used to be. A big part of the modern NFL receiving TE is threatening down the seam now that Safeties aren't allowed to blow up defenseless receivers. Escobar will bring that part of the game back once he gets going and will take some load off of Witten.

I fully expect Hanna to outproduce Escobar as a receiver this year as Escobar adjusts to the NFL.

I don't know yet who is Witten's replacement and I'm not sure they are going to replace that position on the team anyway. I guess if you consider Witten primarily a receiving TE then yeah I think Escobar can do that So could Hanna IMO. I don't consider Witten an inline blocker really. He's merely adequate as a blocker and that might be a tad of a stretch. There's no way to predict how big Hanna or Escobar will get although I suspect they will try to keep their speed and still bulk them both up some. Hanna looks to me like he has the best body to fill out but that's just a guess. Escobar is taller and could probably carry 265 or so and still be agile. I think both need to block. I still envision Hanna as a TE/F back and Escobar as a TE/WR but that could change as they mature.

 

[Hoofbite]

Until proven otherwise, 6 years says they can't run the 2TE offense effectively.

 

[arglebargle]

The Cowboys can survive an injury run better this year. Not sure what the median is for serious injury, but my guesstimation sez 5-7 major injuries each year. The Cowboys can run a two TE offense even if one player has a problem or is knocked out. A run of injuries (like losing your first three center candidates) can't be forseen, but just one or two won't hamstring the reciever core this year. Austin and Witten played a number of games injured last year, where they were merely threats, not actual weapons.

 

[TwoDeep3]

Not sure this is breaking news.

Escobar is a rookie. Hannah has played a year and was showing something late.

Not saying Escobar will not work out. But as it stands Hannah has an advantage merely on being here last year versus the rookie season of Escobar.

 

[fishspill]

Escobar is here to increase red zone effectiveness; absent that, he's likely unnecessary. Same ol', same ol' by me, give him 3 years to show his worth then resign or dump.

 

[tantrix1969]

Escobar has been drafted as Witten's replacement. In 3 years Witten will probably be ready to retire and Hanna will step as the inline TE. He needs a couple of years to get stronger and develop his blocking technique while adjusting to the routes he needs to run in the NFL.

Hanna is the complimentary speed guys to those two and will create mismatches all over the field. He just has to block enough to make teams want to play base against us in the 12 package. If teams go to nickel I want him to block well enough to open big holes for the RB.

I think people mistakenly believe Witten is going to play forever. I think he averaged less than 7 ypa last year which is a career low. He is slowing down and is not the threat down the seam that once used to be. A big part of the modern NFL receiving TE is threatening down the seam now that Safeties aren't allowed to blow up defenseless receivers. Escobar will bring that part of the game back once he gets going and will take some load off of Witten.

I fully expect Hanna to outproduce Escobar as a receiver this year as Escobar adjusts to the NFL.

this is my line of thinking as well, imho Hanna has much more of an impact this year as Escobar deals with the transition to the NFL

 

[theogt]

Escobar has been drafted as Witten's replacement. In 3 years Witten will probably be ready to retire and Hanna will step as the inline TE. He needs a couple of years to get stronger and develop his blocking technique while adjusting to the routes he needs to run in the NFL.

Hanna is the complimentary speed guys to those two and will create mismatches all over the field. He just has to block enough to make teams want to play base against us in the 12 package. If teams go to nickel I want him to block well enough to open big holes for the RB.

I think people mistakenly believe Witten is going to play forever. I think he averaged less than 7 ypa last year which is a career low. He is slowing down and is not the threat down the seam that once used to be. A big part of the modern NFL receiving TE is threatening down the seam now that Safeties aren't allowed to blow up defenseless receivers. Escobar will bring that part of the game back once he gets going and will take some load off of Witten.

I fully expect Hanna to outproduce Escobar as a receiver this year as Escobar adjusts to the NFL.

I'd say 3 more years is on the extreme low side. He doesn't depend on speed. Assuming he wants to, he'll play into his late 30s.

 

[Eskimo]

I'd say 3 more years is on the extreme low side. He doesn't depend on speed. Assuming he wants to, he'll play into his late 30s.

I don't think it'll be on the extreme low side for Witten's career. He has already completed 10 years in the league. If he does 3 more that'll be 13 years. He has absorbed a tremendous amount of punishment during his career so I think he'll actually probably be looking to retire and not grind it out anymore. Only time will tell but I don't think he'll age the way Gonzalez has - he has taken a lot less abuse than Witten so I wouldn't use him as a predictor for Witten's career.

The other aspect to consider is whether he is still the best TE on the roster in 3 years. It is far from a given that he'll still be better than the pups at that time. This is a young man's game and career arcs change in the blink of an eye. From our current vet core the only guy I expect to still be great is Romo.

 

[Idgit]

This is the only way the pick makes any sense....

I don't agree with this at all. If we want to run the 12 set, we better have more than two TEs on the roster. Getting by with a player like Phillips (who's a fairly good TE) wasn't enough last season.

I'm not sure I'd have prioritized it as highly as Jason Garrett obviously did, but I completely understand why they added a quality player to that position group. Factor in the red zone implications with Escobar, and it's even more of a no-brainer.

I'd say 3 more years is on the extreme low side. He doesn't depend on speed. Assuming he wants to, he'll play into his late 30s.

I'd say so, too. I'd be surprised if Jason Witten doesn't retire a Cowboy, and I'd be surprised if he's done in three years.

I also don't think he slowed down much, if at all last season. You just need to look at his stats to see that there were a lot of ways last season was an anomaly for JW. It's not surprising that his averages dipped when they were clearly using him differently than they have previously. How he was used might have changed, but I don't see how anyone can truthfully say he was actually *less* productive.

 

[Hoofbite]

Escobar has been drafted as Witten's replacement. In 3 years Witten will probably be ready to retire and Hanna will step as the inline TE. He needs a couple of years to get stronger and develop his blocking technique while adjusting to the routes he needs to run in the NFL.

Hanna is the complimentary speed guys to those two and will create mismatches all over the field. He just has to block enough to make teams want to play base against us in the 12 package. If teams go to nickel I want him to block well enough to open big holes for the RB.

I think people mistakenly believe Witten is going to play forever. I think he averaged less than 7 ypa last year which is a career low. He is slowing down and is not the threat down the seam that once used to be. A big part of the modern NFL receiving TE is threatening down the seam now that Safeties aren't allowed to blow up defenseless receivers. Escobar will bring that part of the game back once he gets going and will take some load off of Witten.

I fully expect Hanna to outproduce Escobar as a receiver this year as Escobar adjusts to the NFL.

I dunno. I think it's hard to judge him based on YPA when the team was basically supplementing a non-existant running game with short, quick passes. Also, he's the safety valve and the OL couldn't hold up long enough on a regular basis to let anyone get all that far from the line, much less a TE. The first month of the season he wasn't healthy at all and had like 5.5 YPA in that span, helped out significantly by the Bears game. Prior to that he had 76 yards on like 19 passes in his direction.

Is he slowing down? Probably but he's never been a guy who's had all that much speed. He's also never been a guy who's racked up massive amounts of yards after the catch. He might get a couple but he isn't breaking anything open. You put him in a situation where all he can really do is get a couple yards upfield and then sit down so Romo has someone to throw to before the play breaks down and he's not going to get much beyond the point of the catch.

 

[jobberone]

Not sure how long Witten will play. He had 4.56M restructured into a bonus this year of his 5.5 base salary and is contracted thru 2017. I'd say 35-37 is about it for him. He'll be 35 in 2017.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Only time will tell but I don't think he'll age the way Gonzalez has - he has taken a lot less abuse than Witten

How did you determine this?

 

[jazzcat22]

If Hannah plays before Escobar then it was a bad pick.

Not necessarily, Hanna has a year up on Escobar, as it will be his rookie season. Come back in 3 years, and reassess that statement. But still doesn't even mean then it was a bad pick.

 

[TheCount]

I don't agree with this at all. If we want to run the 12 set, we better have more than two TEs on the roster. Getting by with a player like Phillips (who's a fairly good TE) wasn't enough last season.

I'm not sure I'd have prioritized it as highly as Jason Garrett obviously did, but I completely understand why they added a quality player to that position group. Factor in the red zone implications with Escobar, and it's even more of a no-brainer.

I guess the quick answer is that you don't need to burn a 2nd rounder to have "more than two TE's on the roster".

Maybe you're right but we've been here before, I'll believe it when I see it. I just wish we didn't have to keep burning valuable picks to try and prove history wrong.

Bennett wasn't all there mentally but there were quite a few times I saw the guy running down the field, wide open, waving his arms in the air and Romo never even looked his way because he was the 5th read on the play.

 

[KB1122]

I didn't like the part of the article about Escobar needing to play faster. They can't yell him into being a faster player. They knew his 40 when they drafted him.

 

[theogt]

I don't think it'll be on the extreme low side for Witten's career. He has already completed 10 years in the league. If he does 3 more that'll be 13 years. He has absorbed a tremendous amount of punishment during his career so I think he'll actually probably be looking to retire and not grind it out anymore. Only time will tell but I don't think he'll age the way Gonzalez has - he has taken a lot less abuse than Witten so I wouldn't use him as a predictor for Witten's career.

The other aspect to consider is whether he is still the best TE on the roster in 3 years. It is far from a given that he'll still be better than the pups at that time. This is a young man's game and career arcs change in the blink of an eye. From our current vet core the only guy I expect to still be great is Romo.

The wear and tear on his body just goes to whether he wants to play or not. It has nothing to do with whether he can play. He doesn't have any abnormal quickness, speed or agility that he needs to continue playing, so there's nothing that can fade that will force him to stop playing.

Now, if he decides he doesn't want to play anymore at some point, then that's another thing. No one can predict when that will happen.

 

[Idgit]

....Bennett wasn't all there mentally but there were quite a few times I saw the guy running down the field, wide open, waving his arms in the air and Romo never even looked his way because he was the 5th read on the play.

I don't like burning multiple high picks on second TEs, either. But at least Bennett was a contributor. If he's not getting looks from Romo, I'd say it's more likely he hadn't earned the trust by being an reliable receiving option. Romo's proven over and over that he can get the ball to players who are consistently where there're supposed to be, and our offense is built around taking advantage of what the defense gives us, and they weren't worried about giving us Martellus Bennett all that often.

 

[Deep_Freeze]

It's hard for me to see the bold as a good use of resources though. In particular when you have invested what we have at WR. I think fans scratch their heads because they see Witten, Hanna & Rosario as a perfectly suitable collection of TE weapons, especially when you see Dez, Miles & a highly touted draft pick as the WR's and a RB as talented as Murray. All the above will be compromised if we fail to protect the QB again. I think that is everyone's hesitation on this pick.

To be fair, neither Terrance, nor Rosario was on board when Escobar was picked. And I'll add that I am certainly pulling for Escobar. I just wanted another talent to add to our greatest offensive weakness - the O-line.

I see the upside with Escobar, big target, 12 personnel packages, eventual Witten replacement, etc. Hopefully it all works.

Yeah, I guess to me Terrance and Escobar were sitting right there when we picked Escobar, that should tell us which position they saw as more important cause the grades were very similar.

I don't have a problem with them using those picks on TEs if they use them, if they don't then you will hear me complain. All of our WRs are/have been limited except Dez with Miles (injuries), Terrance (rookie), Harris (slot only), and the rest of the midget crew I can see why they would want more dynamic weapons out there.

Give me a choice between Escobar/Hanna and Harris....I choose the TEs every time and twice on Sunday especially when its 3rd and 5 or less.

 

[jobberone]

Many seem so hung up on the fact he's labeled as a TE and the fact he's a 2nd rounder. I assume the second rd part is the high pick and the fact Fasano and Bennett were second rounders, too. Well, who cares about the latter fact. He was drafted where he was projected and the guy can catch the ball. Better than anyone on the team. He's a receiver. He's a move TE but that also means he's a move receiver. Romo needs weapons and they gave him one plus he's to help run the 12 and 13. And there's the argument about the OL. Ok, that's a fair argument but it's predicated on the assumption the OL will suck this year because we didn't spend a second on an OL. Not sure Escobar wasn't the better talent than what was left to draft on the OL or safety for that matter.

So I don't see the problem with drafting the guy. All draft picks are a risk.