We had a TE retire and replaced him last year with Hill. We drafted Casey as an athlete more than a tight end and apparently the Texans are not considering him a TE anymore. He is mainly a FB now from what I hear, with possible other uses in special formations. So you could say that last year we added our future starting FB and we added a blocking TE. In other words, one TE gone, one brought in.
This year we took a flyer on Dickerson in the seventh. We took a player who was about 10 positions from being an UDFA. I'm not going to fret about who we picked at that spot, no matter what he plays. And the almost undisputed fact is that he was picked to be a WR, not a TE.
This year we also actually did select a real TE, Graham, someone who greatly resembles OD. Someone who exactly fits our system. So this year we added one replacement for OD as protection if he leaves, someone who fits our system better than Dreesen. Dreesen is a real tweener in this league--not a great a blocker and not really speedy enough to fill the function that OD fills for us. Dreesen also is a LS but I'm thinking Casey is our future LS.
We also signed a free agent TE recently and some people freaked out about that. I haven't even bothered to remember his name because to me he is just camp fodder.
Since Smithiak took over, I really don't see any of our picks wasted because of the position of the player. I DO see a lot of them wasted because we misjudged guys (Frye, Okam, Brink, Harrison, etc). But hey, that happens to all teams.
|