Quote:
Originally Posted by The Pest
Do you feel like Tremon Smith fits that mold?
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Yes in that he's the kind of talent that I think you can/should target every draft.
No in that I think his almost total lack of awareness in his limited game action suggests that he's not one of the steals that you will occasionally stumble into.
That approach is going to yield precisely dick 4 times out of 5, in all likelihood, but it doesn't have to hit often to be hugely beneficial. And I'm not saying cut him because his physical tools say he should get at least one more shot to stick, but he's the kind of guy you are constantly layering. Add another guy just like him next season and give that guy a season or two. Rinse, repeat. Constantly have 1 or 2 guys like that in the chamber to see what they have.
Yeah, I think Smith is exactly that kind of approach, but I don't think he's likely to amount to a ton. C'est la vie - there's little organizational capital invested in him so if you move on from him, you're not really hurt.
I also think most teams wildly underutilize UDFA's. Give me 10 UDFA's over my 5th, 6th and 7th round picks and I'll be happier with the pile of 10 UDFA's that I can comb through more often than not.
I wish I knew how to do a search for UDFA productivity over the last 5 years and compare it to guys drafted at least in the 6th and 7th rounds. The 5th may be a little ambitious but I'm betting there is at least as much production culled from the undrafted ranks every year than there are from those last couple of rounds. Ward vs. Smith is a great example of it.