Re: Zach Sudfeld, how good can he be for us?
Go ahead and hope
Whether injuries or something else in the scouting reports, everybody "bet" that he wasn't a good value
for the next 3-4 years, because that's what you're drafting when you draft a rookie.
Do all those bets add up to "it's a lock"? Nope. Once on an NFL field he could be productive.
Were all those bets on a single year's production? Again, nope -- the injury history could be irrelevant for a year and still come back to bite you. One-year wonders are okay but not a stellar return when you're trying to build for the long term.
Now, if you drafted with full knowledge that 2013 would be the last NFL season evah, do I think Sudfeld's draft stock would rise? I think so, because "injury concerns" could rear their head any time, or never. That being the case, by reducing the number of years played, you reduce the possibility that the injury happens in year 1.
So what we would need Sudfeld to do is make it through a year (and a post-season) healthy. He's more likely to be able to do that once than multiple times, if the problem is injuries.
Limit the question to "can he help out this year," and (given the detractions,) the possibilities look somewhat better.
That said, there are several guys who've had some success at the NFL level in camp too. So that's worth thinking about.
On a related topic... Um, anybody gonna complain the next time we see a video of Gronk dancing after we lose a big game now?
Get well soon Gronk... even if you party too much and yer made of glass... at least you didn't kill nobody