I personally doubt Giovanni Bernard falls to the 2nd round pick. I'm not a big fan of Zach Ertz. I'd rather have Joe Fauria. In the situation outlined I'd look more to a combo of Giovanni Bernard and Joe Fauria rather than Giovanni Bernard and Zach Ertz, or Tyler Eifert and Montee Ball.
I should qualify it. They're both BIG and strong humans, and big and strong nets Fauria some pretty effective blocks at times. But one has a clue what he's doing in terms of blocking technique, and consistently shows great attitude in it...and the other doesn't. It's sort of like Sean Smith and the tackling/run support thing. In actuality he's been for the most part a slightly below average tackler. But a big part of that is his natural size and strength advantages. If he were a smaller guy he'd be an atrocious tackler/support player. Similarly if Joe Fauria were a smaller player he'd be an atrocious blocker. If Gronkowski were a lot smaller he'd still be a good blocker.
Phil Lutzenkirchen is a really underrated blocker. He goes 100 mph everything he does and really throws himself into it. You would kind of look favorably on a Fauria/Lutzenkirchen combination but then that's sort of the opposite of what the Pats have. The on the line guy for the Pats is a devastating blocker whereas the H-Back is really not a great blocker at all but a gifted receiver/ball carrier. But then I guess Gronk is just kind of special and hard to find. The combo of Fauria and Lutzenkirchen would be closer to what the Saints have with Jimmy Graham and David Thomas. That wouldn't be so bad, now that I think about it!
Fauria is alright, he is a physical specimen for sure and seems like a good kid. You gotta wonder if this staff wants to draft another TE that can't block though, sheesh. I'm all on the Eifert train myself, along with a lot of other people here. So much balance and only 1 inch shorter than Fauria, puts up good stats this year with inconsistent QB play. I wouldn't mind if we traded back into the first using one of our thirds and a late rounder to get him at the end of the round. While we are on the topic of RB's and UCLA, I really like that Franklin kid that they have. Tough, underrated, pretty fast runner. Check him out if you guys got the chance. I don't think we draft RB though.
I like Johnathan Franklin a lot. Joe Fauria has the potential to block well and shows it at times, like Jimmy Graham did. He just doesn't know how. Or at least he didn't until Jim Mora Jr got to town. But the bottom line is what Fauria can consistently do in the end zone, that's not normal. He's hell to try and defend there, or up the middle of the field for that matter. Joe Fauria is and always has been a superior prospect to Egnew but I can see how taking a Fauria would feel like a re-do on Egnew. I don't think you can have enough of those big time mismatches players though. They have the potential to make things so difficult for a defense.
Point taken, homie. I'm glad to see someone who is as high on Franklin as me (is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?). What do you think when you compare Fauria's blocking with Egnew's blocking in their final years of college? Just curio.
No doubt about it Fauria better and more consistent this year than seen out of Egnew in college. Also asked to execute more pro-like tasks. There are just a lot of times when you look at Fauria's instincts and technique in blocking and you're like...what the hell was that? He gets the job done because he's humongous.
Not all of them are starters. It's OTs with 25% participation or better, and includes quite a few backups.
just trying to give it the proper context... when you say he's the 4th worst tackle in the league, it's not accurate.
Here's the proper context... Jonathan Martin... He's one of 73 tackles that PFF has charted this year. He's tied for 54th in least sacks allowed... six sacks this year. He's given up 2 "hits" on the quarterback, that's tied for 7th.. he's given up 38 hurries, that's tied for 69th. He's 70th in overall rating.. according to PFF. If you take the total sacks/hits/hurries and divide that by snaps... he's actually 62nd Jake Long BTW, is 13th.
