2017 in-season moves

[Arky]

Originally Posted by Warren

This one is a little interesting. Robinson was a power forward at NC State and Barry. He's spent the last couple years playing basketball in Italy and hasn't played football since high school. I know the season is almost (officially) over, they've been playing out the string for a while, and he was signed to the practice squad rather than the active roster, but I wonder why they sign a guy during the season who seemingly hasn't put on pads since 2011 rather than waiting less than a week and signing him for the offseason program.

Dunno, just a warm body for a week of practice?

At 6'8", 225 lbs, that's one tall, skinny TE....

[barrett]

Originally Posted by Arky

Dunno, just a warm body for a week of practice?

At 6'8", 225 lbs, that's one tall, skinny TE....

They only call these guys TEs because that's what they were 25 years ago. They are inline receivers. They don't block any more or any more effectively than most WRs.

[Warren]

Originally Posted by Arky

Dunno, just a warm body for a week of practice?

At 6'8", 225 lbs, that's one tall, skinny TE....

FWIW, he's officially listed at 6'7", 240 lbs., so maybe he's bulked up some from that Italian cuisine (and shrank an inch).

It just struck me as a little odd to use an in-season practice squad spot on a guy who can't possibly be close to being ready to play if they need him. The only mentions that I could find of him being involved in football since high school are tryouts in the last month or so with the Eagles and Bucs -- he hasn't been on another practice squad, in a training camp, in arenaball or the CFL, etc. But then again they have TEs Anderson and Malleck on the roster and Conque also on the practice squad, and are using OLs as blocking TEs.

There have been success stories with NFL teams turning basketball players with little or no college football experience into receiving TEs (Antonio Gates, Jimmy Graham, Julius Thomas, etc.) so I've got no problem with giving a look to a guy with the physical traits for the position. It just seems like more something they'd do in the offseason, but I guess at this point there's not a whole lot of risk in using a practice squad spot on a potential project.