FanPost

Jumping into the mind of Gene Smith

After a day to take in all the craziness the draft was for the past 3 days its given me time o think about some of the picks, mainly the Punter pick. I know not everyone is thrilled by this pick and neither was i when i hear it, and there is no way to justify it but i think i might have found out what Gene was thinking.

He said he would rather have a starter in the 3rd than a back-up. And while the logic makes sense, for a punter it seems weird, then i remembered that in a way Gene did this last year. While everyone was asking to a receiver in the draft Gene said he felt comfortable with who we had and i think thats what he felt about the corner and O-Line positions. In his eyes with the addition of Ross we have another year to wait til we really need to worry about tacking a real corner. As for the o-line, I'm going to guess Gene felt our o-line was solid, sand when you look at what he was seeing, our o-line was going to be fine then Britton and a couple other got hurt over the season and we had to throw rookies into the fire that needed a little more time. Those rookies, Rackley and Battlefield, will be aided, like Gabbert, by the ability to go to OTAs and a full mini camp.

What does this mean about a punter, well during the season we were all annoyed with play of special teams, which had dropped down since the year before. Thus Gene saw this as a need so to insure his guy wasn't taken in the 4th where we didn't have a pick, he swooped him up there to take care of a need and still pick up in his eyes a starter. Mix this in with what Mr. Holmes said about the possibility of this being a safety net if Scobee holds out it really turns out to be ok and while i would have rather taken a Massie or someone the team still improved through both free agency and the draft and may just be able to contented in a now weaker division. It is after all year 4 in Gene's 5 yr plan, and in Gene we trust.

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