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View Full Version : How Rob Blanchflower Fits with the Pittsburgh Steelers



Shoes
05-13-2014, 10:23 PM
It is hard to speculate too much on a seventh-round draft pick. The odds are typically pretty long that he will make the final roster. Those odds are made longer when the player selected is injured and not especially talented.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2059529-how-rob-blanchflower-fit-with-the-pittsburgh-steelers

He's a tough kid playing with a bilateral sports hernia. Might be a nice option to put him on IR and keep him for a #2 next season. But we need to draft a TE next year to step into Millers shoes.

steelreserve
05-14-2014, 02:04 AM
Meh. I'd take him over Paulson sight unseen, because he barely played better than a corpse. Not the most glowing recommendation here, but it would be difficult to downgrade the last tight end spot from where we were. One place where a blind roll of the dice has nothing but upside.

Texasteel
05-14-2014, 08:22 AM
It is hard to speculate too much on a seventh-round draft pick. The odds are typically pretty long that he will make the final roster. Those odds are made longer when the player selected is injured and not especially talented.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2059529-how-rob-blanchflower-fit-with-the-pittsburgh-steelers

He's a tough kid playing with a bilateral sports hernia. Might be a nice option to put him on IR and keep him for a #2 next season. But we need to draft a TE next year to step into Millers shoes.

If not for the surgery probably would have gone a couple rounds sooner. Likely drafted for future depth, and maybe ST. Like you said, let him set for a year, then see what we have. Our future TE will probably be drafted next year.

one side only
05-14-2014, 10:56 AM
Can't see how they can place a player on IR if he isn't injured. Branchflower conducted his own Pro Day. The Steelers met with the guy and picked him, so they must be satisfied with his health at this point.

Michael Palmer, a former UDFA, is a journeyman who caught 1 pass for 8 yards last year, 22 catches for 131 yards are his 4-year career totals. David Paulson was a seventh round pick just like Branchflower, and Paulson has produced next to nothing.

I'd say Branchflower would have to perform very poorly in camp and the pre-season to not oust either Palmer or Paulson.

Psycho Ward 86
05-14-2014, 12:31 PM
didnt palmer beat out paulson for the #3 spot eventually? the suck at tight end is hilarious

steelreserve
05-14-2014, 12:40 PM
Plenty of teams put guys on IR for pretty borderline reasons; the league's definition to be eligible is anything that will keep you out for 6 weeks or more. Personally, if I was a typical 7th-round draft pick and unlikely to make the team because of injury, I wouldn't be too unhappy about sitting on IR and collecting a full NFL salary for a year instead of being cut or sent to the practice squad for about a quarter of that pay.

I don't think they'll put him on IR though, because it prohibits the player from practicing. So a whole year would go by and he wouldn't develop at all, while costing us half a million dollars in cap space. To do that for a 7th-round rookie would be almost unheard of; most of the time, teams just reach an injury settlement with rookies and cut them loose unless they're high picks or there are extreme circumstances (e.g., Marcus Lattimore) - in other words, rookies who they definitely see in their long-term plans.

I guess Baron Batch was a recent exception to this, though, so we'll see. If I had to guess, I'd think it much more likely Blanchflower gets put on PUP and then they decide midway through the season whether to keep him (or maybe Spaeth or Paulson is hurt and he simply replaces one of them while they go on IR). That's if he really is injured and can't win the third TE job outright, which is still entirely possible.