Phins Rock wrote:
wkloiber13 wrote:
What is there to handle? Swope is a better fit than Austin. He ran the same 40 yard dash time at the combine despite being four to five inches taller and thirty pounds heavier than Austin. Swope has played under our current offensive coordinator and knows every receiver position in that offense. He'd be able to transition into the new offense very quickly. Once better, in 2011 when he played with our quarterback Ryan Tannehill at A&M, he was Tannehill's go-to-guy. He racked up over 80 catches for over 1,200 yards and 11 touchdowns that season.
While Austin is a good young prospect with blazing speed, he's severly undersized, and the last time we drafted an undersized player from West Virginia he didn't fare too well. While I'm not calling him Pat White, I have to admit his mini-size scares me a bit.
I don't care if Swope ran a 3.7. He's not even close to Austin in terms of speed, quickness, acceleration, etc. There's a reason why one is being touted a top 20 pick and the other a 4th round guy. Swope is Davone Bess...That's it. Maybe a little faster, but I'm not sure he's as quick running underneath routes.
Either way, him and Bess on the same team is just redundant.
Austin is not just a slot WR. He's a weapon similar to Percy Harvin, in that he'll line up at RB, WR, return kicks/punts, and offensively because of his skill set you can get creative with him; much more so than Swope.
I just don't see how the two are comparable. You're of course entitled to your opinion, but I think you're undervaluing what Austin is. I'm not a fan of his at 12, but he's a much more versatile, explosive player than Swope.
The stopwatch would beg to differ with you.
Also, Swope can play every single receiver position. At A&M he was moved all over the field, in fact he played a significant amount of snaps on the outside. There is nothing relegating him to a slot receiver role at 6'0" 205lbs. Not his size or his style of play.
The reason I like him more than Austin is because Austin costs us a 1st or 2nd round pick and Swope would only cost us a late 3rd or mid 4th. Swope is a known commodity to our staff and he's a trusted receiver to our quarterback.
As far as player comparisons, Swope has been compared to Wes Welker and Jordy Nelson, two very good players. I'm sorry but if NFL talent evaluators are comparing him to Welker and Nelson and he's available in the 4th round, why on earth wouldn't you take a shot that he's going to be as good as one of those two guys???