I'll tell you what Watford has a ton of desirable traits.
His feet seem outstanding. If you saw the combine, and they have it condensed on that draft video,
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-combine/0ap2000000153401/2013-Combine-workout-Earl-Watford, it shows his outstanding feet. He's pretty fluid. More fluid than a lot of the tackles. I can see him playing there perhaps. He has the athleticism to be an emergency type guy and perhaps something more later. That said he's a guard and if you watch that video he was keeping up in lateral movements to Eric Fisher's moves who is graded out to be a very athletic tackle.
What I also like is Watford's strength. I remember when watching the combine seeing some guy pushing Warmack back in these attacking drills. A couple did. Watford was one of them, and I believe the most pronounced push back. So I feel this guy has strength and good feet, which in any round is what you want out of a guard pick. I also suspect we really want our guards pulling and bashing people on the 2nd level.
Maybe BASK wanted Schwenke. Maybe they had someone else in mind. Or maybe this was their guy. Either way because they stuck to their board, they at worst pivoted to this guy with such desirable attributes. But it wouldn't surprise me that he was their guy. He fits everything we think they are trying to do.
I can definitely see the traits they liked about him. He has to make the leap from small school to NFL, but physically, he has the tools that good guards have.
I have a feeling this guy has a good chance to be a steal.
Funny enough McShay in his judgements said this is our most questionable pick, but it's splitting hairs as we really didn't have a bad pick and its the 5th round.
I think he's wrong. This to me is a very underrated pick as the only thing that looks bad about this kid is what school he went to.
I do think Swope will be in the mix at some point (maybe early) on the bubble screens and the like that BA will run. Once you get the ball in someone's hands on those screens, you want them to run hard. Well the kid runs like a rb, because he was a rb. But has turned himself into a helluva receiver.
I think this kid is going to have a role such as that on this team. Over the middle, deep, and screen. I can't wait to see this kid catch one of those bubble screens with Floyd blocking for him.
I won't say much about the running backs, all I know is you need to be able to move the chains before you should worry about having a home run hitter of a rb. I think we got one of those guys. A power back to help us move the chains, pass protect, and can catch. All around power back with more quickness and agility then people expect. Taylor looked like a guy who hit the hole hard on those power plays. Ellington while surprising was a very great value pick who has good talent, just lacked a bit in his 40.
Who knows if they work out, but they definitely have the attributes to. They definitely look like good fits for this team.
Looks like we drafted guys we know how to use effectively. I didn't expect to come out of this draft feeling good about our RB core. Now I do. We got two bangers and two shifty backs. If Williams makes something of his career we could have quite the backfield. We'll see though as all we got right now is potential.
Just wanted to chime in about these guys.
