Idk, like I said, it pushes our 1st round pick from the Rams down.
Trade him to the Bucs and that possibly helps the Bucs beat the Rams in 2 weeks and the playoffs to help our pick from the Rams…but I suppose it wouldn’t matter if we get a 28th pick from Rams and the 32nd pick from the Bucs or vice versa.
While I agree you can’t pay him that…do you honestly thing we are using him to his strengths? Teams like KC and SF place an emphasis on ensure their TE’s are always part of the game plan…not just when we are down our starting 3 wr’s.
I think Hock is talented and has shown…not often enough this is agreed upon…he has the ability to change games. We just have never used him effectively unless we were forced too. He becomes and after thought all to often IMO.
I did say I would be open to a trade but want a premium as I don’t think we can get better by substracting talent!
Now I am not advocating a TE in the first…so put the gun down, but remember when they were drafted. They were before a premium was placed on the position. All of those individuals went to the right situation at the right time…Kittle likely looks like a 5th rounder if drafted here while Hock may look all-pro if drafted by SF or KC
We are talking about a RB…. that even you have acknowledged doesn’t stay healthy on a regular basis.
This RB is in year 3 of his career… which means he has 1 more year under contract.
The trade proposals I had in my poll had 3 options with a 2023 pick in the 2nd round… which would allow a RB to be selected and under contract for 3 years beyond Swift’s deal.
The other 2 options included a 2024 first round pick… which is quite rich for any RB.
Don’t trick yourself into thinking Hock was taken “in a different time in history.” He wasn’t. There have been 3 drafts since Hock was taken, and only 1 TE was taken in the 1st round. That guy was productive - when they moved him to WR.
I do think that certain QB’s seem to look for their TE’s more than other QB’s. Remember how Ebron went to Indy and with Luck he looked great, Stafford and Goff don’t seem to look for their TE’s as much and with Goff you’d think that he’d target his TE’s more since he likes the shorter throws.
We also don’t get better by taking a position that serviceable and making it a hole that will need to be addressed in either draft or FA.
Again I don’t want to pay him top money and if we can get a premium pick them do it …but if he knows his true worth and it’s in line with an extension that doesn’t leave everyone scratching their heads then he is more value to us that way.
While we are not talking the span of 10+ years what I mean is that those you listed severely outplayed their draft position this creating a premium for the TE position.
Teams are always looking to recreate the lightening in a bottle and typically force square pegs in round holes by over drafting them. I don’t believe that if a TE is the highest rated player on a teams board that they will bypass them…like previously…just die to positional value.
That’s not what happened. Again, there have been 3 drafts since Hock was taken and only 1 TE has gone in the 1st round of the draft. The year Hock was drafted there were only 2 TEs…Hock being one of them. The year Kittle was taken there were 3 TEs taken in the 1st round. The year Andrews was taken there was 1 TE taken in the 1st round (by his own team, ironically).
There hasn’t been a mad rush to grab TEs in the 1st round. We were just stupid. Results like Hock, Ebron and Pettigrew are not outliers when it comes to 1st round TEs. Its what other teams have experienced as well, and what you should expect from the position. Is that worth a 1st round pick? Nope, never.
I understand your point but am just saying that I think we are getting away from “positional value” as guys vastly put preform their draft status.
I remember when we took Hock and believe it was Quinn that said positions like TE were evolving because of the mismatch they were creating. I think that was a direct correlation to guys like Little, Kelce and others being actually game planned around.
I am not advocating for taking a player 5 rounds early just because…but I believe what would have been late first round talent will be pushed up to middle or top if they are talented. We have just fucked up more then once with this thinking.
If ya get a decent trade offer and don’t want to pay him $10+ million per year like the other above average TEs…. what is the compensation needed to make a deal???
A first would be ideal but would settle for a second.
Cash wise…that is tough. I know he’s gonna want like 15+ but if we could get him for a 4/48 with 40 guaranteed I would sign him to that but not sure he would