Round 5: Pick 173; Tedarrell Slaton DT, Florida

[Rainmaker90]

3 hours ago, DWhitehurst said:

Only 27 bench at 330pnds. Heck, Amari Rodgers bench was 24.  That tells me that like some of these other picks (e.g., Newman), Slaton needs to be on a serious strength/conditioning program. 

Meh, take it with a grain of salt. It shows muscular endurance more than strength. 

[Donzo]

4 hours ago, SpeightTheVillain said:

 

He was a one man show that day against A&M. 

UF had three good DTs returning for 2020. Then one dropped out because of covid and injuries. For A&M another one (Kyree Campbell) was suspended. So, it was just Slaton, some big DEs and a true Fr. at DT that game... Slaton was valiant that day. If he plays like that for GB the DL is in good shape.

[Chili]

5 hours ago, SpeightTheVillain said:

 

That's a great looking tape but one have to realise he was up against OL who went undrafted in this year's draft. If I can find some video I am very curious to see how he does against better competition.

Love the leverage, technique and power he displayed. That is what we want in our DL. He was the heaviest DL in the draft who has shown the abilty to move instead of just being a fat run plugger and he lasted all the way to the 5th. Guys like that normally would get taken earlier so I think we were quite fortunate here considering the weak DL draft class.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Chili

[Refugee]

7 hours ago, DWhitehurst said:

Only 27 bench at 330pnds. Heck, Amari Rodgers bench was 24.  That tells me that like some of these other picks (e.g., Newman), Slaton needs to be on a serious strength/conditioning program. 

Bench gives a little indication of strength but is not really going to tell you how much power and anchor a guy has. If you look at his build he’s fairly unique. All legs, which are massive, with a short but thick torso and long arms. When I saw how high his hips were I looked to see if he played too upright but he seems to have good flexibility and quickness to get low.

27 is not a low number on the bench, especially for guys with long limbs. The power and quickness in his lower half are what will win him battles. All rookies need to up their strength and conditioning but this guy is still coming in strong. 

He’s also my later round draft crush so far.  DL seem to have a high bust rate in the NFL but this is not the time of year to be pessimistic. He will have his opportunity to improve this line. 

[minnypackerfan]

1 hour ago, Chili said:

That's a great looking tape but one have to realise he was up against OL who went undrafted in this year's draft. If I can find some video I am very curious to see how he does against better competition.

Love the leverage, technique and power he displayed. That is what we want in our DL. He was the heaviest DL in the draft who has shown the abilty to move instead of just being a fat run plugger and he lasted all the way to the 5th. Guys like that normally would get taken earlier so I think we were quite fortunate here considering the weak DL draft class.

The other thing I liked was his awareness.  He isn't just charging into the man in front of him with head down.  His eyes are up and looking into the backfield and he is reacting to what he sees.  That may be partially due to his size which I believe was listed at 6'5".  Plus his arm length is almost 33" which is not bad.  He was an offensive lineman in high school so to move to defensive lineman and learn these techniques takes a while.  Slaton can do more than just bull rush and he still has a lot of upside.  He got his weight up to 380 pounds at some point early in his career with Florida which concerns me.  But if he can keep his weight down to between 325-330 and continue to work on technique, I believe we have something here.  His 10 yard split time in the 40 yard dash was also impressive.

[Scoremore]

Never know how these guys are going to work out.  If he is committed and work hard he has a chance.  All for the pick just wish Gutey would have hedged his bets a little more and take at least on more big man for the DL.   Well now we need this guy to hit.

[Refugee]

9 minutes ago, Scoremore said:

Never know how these guys are going to work out.  If he is committed and work hard he has a chance.  All for the pick just wish Gutey would have hedged his bets a little more and take at least on more big man for the DL.   Well now we need this guy to hit.

This is true but 1st year DL are rarely dominant.  I hope he shows up well situationally, and develops from there. I wouldn’t be surprised to get a stopgap vet and hope Keke takes a step, and Lowry at least plays average before he sees the door next season. We definitely don’t need a lot of guys on the DL with a strong OLB room who can fill in some of the edges, but we need some more quality in that rotation of true big men in the middle. 

[Kepler]

6 hours ago, Rainmaker90 said:

Meh, take it with a grain of salt. It shows muscular endurance more than strength. 

Yeah that's probably true. 225 for these guys isn't that much and it's just reps at that point

[CWood21]

53 minutes ago, Scoremore said:

Never know how these guys are going to work out.  If he is committed and work hard he has a chance.  All for the pick just wish Gutey would have hedged his bets a little more and take at least on more big man for the DL.   Well now we need this guy to hit.

IF this was a stronger DL class, I would agree.  Day 3 was where the DL value picks came in.

[R T]

1 hour ago, Refugee said:

Bench gives a little indication of strength but is not really going to tell you how much power and anchor a guy has. If you look at his build he’s fairly unique. All legs, which are massive, with a short but thick torso and long arms. When I saw how high his hips were I looked to see if he played too upright but he seems to have good flexibility and quickness to get low.

27 is not a low number on the bench, especially for guys with long limbs. The power and quickness in his lower half are what will win him battles. All rookies need to up their strength and conditioning but this guy is still coming in strong. 

He’s also my later round draft crush so far.  DL seem to have a high bust rate in the NFL but this is not the time of year to be pessimistic. He will have his opportunity to improve this line. 

You are over selling and misrepresenting parts of his physical makeup. The guy is 6'4 with 32.625" long arms, those are short and he has small hands 9.125". His wingspan is only 80.125" also. In comparison to others like Bobby Brown III who is also 6'4 with 34.75" long arms, 10.50" hands and a 85.50" wingspan. I will be a fan of his as long as he is a Packer and hope he has great success for them, but he is what he is.   

[Refugee]

29 minutes ago, R T said:

You are over selling and misrepresenting parts of his physical makeup. The guy is 6'4 with 32.625" long arms, those are short and he has small hands 9.125". His wingspan is only 80.125" also. In comparison to others like Bobby Brown III who is also 6'4 with 34.75" long arms, 10.50" hands and a 85.50" wingspan. I will be a fan of his as long as he is a Packer and hope he has great success for them, but he is what he is.   

His arms may not be overly long for a guy of his stature, but what stood out to me is how long legged he is compared to shorter torso and I guess relatively shorter arms. I don’t get caught up in things like arm length unless you get to trex, Lowry levels.  Even then, there are more ways to beat a guy than by having an extra inch of arm length. But look at Slaton’s build and tell me you don’t see a massive set of legs carrying around a smaller torso. Those legs can move for a man of that size. 
 

*Also, Brown went almost 60 picks earlier, it’s not surprising a guy going that much higher would have more prototypical size. 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Refugee

[KManX89]

From what I gather, he's purely a NT, only used to spell Clark and not anchor him. Could be nice depth, but man I wish we could've nabbed a plug-n'-play 5 tech. We could've had Nixon if we didn't trade our 4th, but we'll take what we can get. 

[Leader]

Interested / hopeful this guy from UofF can give us a Snacks impression and free up Clark to be more of a disruptor.
Our LBing corp would appreciate it as well.

[DWhitehurst]

4 hours ago, R T said:

You are over selling and misrepresenting parts of his physical makeup. The guy is 6'4 with 32.625" long arms, those are short and he has small hands 9.125". His wingspan is only 80.125" also. In comparison to others like Bobby Brown III who is also 6'4 with 34.75" long arms, 10.50" hands and a 85.50" wingspan. I will be a fan of his as long as he is a Packer and hope he has great success for them, but he is what he is.   

Exactly. Strength is tied to bench numbers. Of course, arm length plays a role. But give me a break. My peak bench max was 24 as just a 230pnd gym rat with 33 arms when I was 25 years old. Do not tell me these guys don't need more strength and conditioning work. Many do coming out of college, as their bodies are still developing, reaching their biological peak at that 24.5 year old average. Seriously, I stick with my assertion from experience. 

[R T]

5 minutes ago, DWhitehurst said:

Exactly. Strength is tied to bench numbers. Of course, arm length plays a role. But give me a break. My peak bench max was 24 as just a 230pnd gym rat with 33 arms when I was 25 years old. Do not tell me these guys don't need more strength and conditioning work. Many do coming out of college, as their bodies are still developing, reaching their biological peak at that 24.5 year old average. Seriously, I stick with my assertion from experience. 

Good that you can find a way to add your own personal accomplishments to a posting, but what the hell does any of that have to do with what I said.