Good stuff. I suppose the reasons why I am a bit more reserved than most are the facts that 1) he’s struggled with his weight, 2) he’s still recovering from an injury, although I’m assuming that they felt comfortable enough to take a chance or the trade and physical wouldn’t have gone through, and 3) if he’s really that big, quick, etc, and has progressed so much then why didn’t SF keep him for at least the 2018 season where he was still under a cheap contract?
Better yet, if his measureables were so good why wasn’t he drafted until the 7th round? Not meaning to be pessimistic, but these are fair and legitimate questions. From what I understand, the 49’ers were quite unhappy with him and he has a very limited sample size of only playing in one full season back in 2016. I am skeptical that we can predict him at LT (Scar claims Cannon isn’t moving) with the information that we currently have now. Perhaps a good showing in TC + the preseason will help to justify all of the hype.
First of all, please allow me to clean up an area where I inadvertently misled you by providing incomplete information. Brown, though considerably bigger than Waddle, had
slightly better athleticism scores than Waddle. However, Waddle's athleticism scores were pretty crappy, so the comparison is more a backhanded compliment than a recommendation. I didn't intend to imply that Brown's scores were "good".
Second, Brown was extremely raw coming out of Florida (as a two-year JUCO transfer) ... where he'd played Tackle
only when their starter was injured, and then was moved to Guard for his Senior season. Combined with his not-quite-inspiring athletic testing numbers, the fact that he's an exceptionally large human being was probably the only reason he was drafted at all.
"Only played one full season in 2016" is maybe a bit misleading.
- In 2017, Brown played 100% of the snaps at Tackle through 10 games until he was injured (670 total snaps, including 75 at LT filling in for Joe Staley for one game).
- In 2016, he played 100% of the snaps at RT (1036 total).
- In 2015, as a rookie, he replaced Erik Pears as starting RT for the last two games (Pears had struggled with knee issues most of that season).
So, Brown has had 28 games of starting experience, which is four more than Waddle had in Detroit before he was acquired by the Pats.
I really couldn't say whether SFO was "quite unhappy" with Brown. I
do know that the Broncos (Von Miller's team) were trying trade for him a day or two before the draft (according to multiple independent media reports), but that ultimately, the price was too steep (supposedly Denver's #71, straight up). The Pats got a much better deal, but only
after the Niners had selected McGlinchey in the 1st round.
So, it's anything but clear that the Niners were "eager" to move him. OTOH, with his reported weight-maintenance issues, and his weak run-blocking, it seems reasonable to think that they were at least willing to let him go. They certainly have several other potential Tackles on their depth chart to work behind McGlinchey and Staley, including an RFA who they signed away from the Seahawks in 2017 (Garry Gilliam).
I honestly pay no attention to projections that he'll be the Pats 2018 starting LT, and I take no responsibility for them. And I have no intention of trying to "justify all the hype", which is just so much worthless bullsh*t to me.
Based on what I've taken the time to learn about Brown, I'll say that there appears to be a pretty good chance that he'll be useful to the Pats, one way or another. Given that Brown just turned 25 last month and that Cannon turned 30 just a week ago, there's at least
some possibility that he
could become a long-term Cannon replacement in another year or two, but that's about as far as I'm willing to go.