Bob's a bit of a curmudgeon these days. He had a bit of a falling out with the organization and it shows. I didn't think his evaluations were all that harsh, but in some cases he focused too much on the negative. From a scouting perspective that seems fair, but I believe it was Ron Wolf who used to say "tell me what a player CAN do, not just what he CAN'T do", so from that perspective some of Bob's evaluations aren't very complete. Still, on balance a lot of what he said was fair and useful, if a bit snarky at times.
The one part of what Bob said that I kinda have a problem with is that he seems to suggest Gute should have traded those two first round picks to have taken one of the top 5-6 receivers, but then doesn't completely defend or advocate which player exactly he would have selected in place of Watson. I didn't particularly see any of those top-6 as true #1 type guys. To me they mostly looked like #2's who had warts themselves and weren't worth trading both firsts for.
London and Burks have trouble getting separation and they are "contested catch" type guys. That probably works better in college. Wilson and Dotson are kinda small. Williams was hurt and not ready to play. Leaving Olave as the best option in my opinion, but while he's fast and a seemingly skilled route runner has his own warts that make him less than ideal in ML's offense, most importantly he can't/won't block. (Something Doubs is also questionable at.)
What I'll be thinking about as time goes by is whether the smarter thing to do might have been to just take Watson at #28. Pass on Wyatt. If you needed DL help, take Travis Jones at #59. At #53 they could potentially have taken Alec Pierce, Trey McBride, or Skyy Moore. I'll be watching how those players do over the next few years in comparison to Watson to see which would have been the better way to go.
The one part of what Bob said that I kinda have a problem with is that he seems to suggest Gute should have traded those two first round picks to have taken one of the top 5-6 receivers, but then doesn't completely defend or advocate which player exactly he would have selected in place of Watson. I didn't particularly see any of those top-6 as true #1 type guys. To me they mostly looked like #2's who had warts themselves and weren't worth trading both firsts for.
London and Burks have trouble getting separation and they are "contested catch" type guys. That probably works better in college. Wilson and Dotson are kinda small. Williams was hurt and not ready to play. Leaving Olave as the best option in my opinion, but while he's fast and a seemingly skilled route runner has his own warts that make him less than ideal in ML's offense, most importantly he can't/won't block. (Something Doubs is also questionable at.)
What I'll be thinking about as time goes by is whether the smarter thing to do might have been to just take Watson at #28. Pass on Wyatt. If you needed DL help, take Travis Jones at #59. At #53 they could potentially have taken Alec Pierce, Trey McBride, or Skyy Moore. I'll be watching how those players do over the next few years in comparison to Watson to see which would have been the better way to go.
