Don't sell him short Mr Negative Nancy.. Odd thing is, if before today anyone told me that Andrew Hartline would be groomed to play C/G/T instead of Andrew Gardner I'd say they were nuts. But here it is, T at CMU, G/C for the Dolphins, the signs are there Conu. Besides, maybe we could trade him for Justin Smith...
The thing to notice is that he is moving inside. That's what's important if you're saying he may see time at tackle. He's being given time at C too.
Exactly Conu, Hartline is being coached up the way Garner was last season, a natural Tackle at Arkansas, Sparano moved him around inside as well. Most also tend to forget that Garner was waived last season as well, put on the PS, then bumped to the Roster once other teams started sniffing around and maybe trying to sign him. I do think Garner had a better body type for that Utility role, thicker thighs, thicker torso, Hartline looks a bit thinner through his lower half. And the more I look at Clifton Geathers' measurables the more I like the pickup, nearly 6'8, 300 pds, 4.9 40, be interesting to see if he has any run time as he appears to be a more athletic Tony McDaniel.
Nate Garner was not a natural tackle at Arkansas. He did some work on the scout team and some ST's work as a Tackle but played Guard all the way up until his senior year.
It was enough for the Jets then Sparano to take a shot on him. Arkansas had a Utility Olinemen Robert Felton, who I liked but he just wasn't athletic enough to make the jump. I went back and looked up WalterFootball's rankings of the UDFA/Fringe players they picked up, and most were ranked where Sparano mentioned 6-7 rd picks. Where they may have found a gem was in Micah Johnson, he dinged his knee late in the yr, ran a poor 4.99 at the combine, got that down to a 4.84 at his pro day, if fully healthy that could be down in the high 4.7 range, or lower, right now.
There's a big difference between showing ability to get kicked outside versus having to be moved inside. That speaks to something and it isn't straight up versatility.
Bingo. I would have a hard time justifying moving a player from a position of higher value inside and then trying to move him out again. If you get moved out most times you'll stay there rather than come back. The same goes for the opposite too.
Depends, was he moved inside due to a lack of ability, or due to some 4 star tackle prospect being signed? The one good thing about Hartline playing Tackle at CMU, the Sun Belt (?) conference had some good passrushers in it, and the Chippewas did pass all of the time, he may not be a fantastic drive blocking candidate, but he is familar with pass pro, and he had some 47 game starting streak. Well, you can see why Sparano likes him.