Round 5: Pick 173; Tedarrell Slaton DT, Florida

[ReadyToThump]

Love this pick. Although I was really hoping we drafted Twyman. Oh well. Can't have em all.

[PossibleCabbage]

2 hours ago, KManX89 said:

From what I gather, he's purely a NT,

He's an NT mostly because he's a player you very much want to have moving forward instead of side to side and "head up on the center" or "in the A-gap" is where that's safest, but not the only place you can use it.

[moretti19]

Didn’t we used to play raji at NT and Picket at 5 tech? 

[MaximusGluteus]

Here's another breakdown of Slaton from the same guy, this time against Alabama.  There's a lot to like, and of course plenty to work on, but he's a good value pick in the 5th for sure.

 

[DWhitehurst]

2 hours ago, R T said:

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. 

Lol. You pointed out Slaton's arm length. It is not unduly long to affect his bench numbers negatively. We can't explain his numbers on such arguments. My argument is simply that like alot of 22 year old players coming out, many still have strength they can gain through a good program.  Slaton wants down to 315pnds. He can and presumably will do so in a strength and conditioning program. His bench numbers (strength and stamina) can and will improve. 

[vegas492]

Me likey.  Got a big guy up front.  Clark is there.  Keke is there as the quicker guy.  Lowry is Lowry.  I like the group much more with this addition.

Plus, if he stinks, we can call him Turdell Sharton.

[Joe]

On 5/2/2021 at 8:34 PM, DWhitehurst said:

Lol. You pointed out Slaton's arm length. It is not unduly long to affect his bench numbers negatively. We can't explain his numbers on such arguments. My argument is simply that like alot of 22 year old players coming out, many still have strength they can gain through a good program.  Slaton wants down to 315pnds. He can and presumably will do so in a strength and conditioning program. His bench numbers (strength and stamina) can and will improve. 

Stamina is really his only major issue and being 360 lb.s killed his agility I suspect. We could be looking at this pick a couple years down the line and marveling at the steal we got. The pundits were all oohing and ahhing about how he was borderline unblockable at points in the season, so if he can slim down to that 315 weight(personally I hope he stays at 330) and then put on healthy weight up to 325 perhaps, he can be that unmovable force in the middle freeing up Kenny to cause some major damage.

 

On 5/2/2021 at 7:12 PM, moretti19 said:

Didn’t we used to play raji at NT and Picket at 5 tech? 

they were kind of interchangeable. Pickett was more of a run stuffer while Raji collapsed the pocket.

[DWhitehurst]

Agreed. My initial post was not to disparage Slaton. It was just to say that he has alot of room yet where he can develop in terms strength, stamina, technique. I'd say the same of Royce Newman (23 bench). 

[Refugee]

This means nothing as to how this guy will turnout but is nice to get a sense of scale with the other rookies. TJ is not a small man. 
 

https://fb.watch/5v402zZIjW/

[craig]

Love that clip.  That sense of scale is really helpful.  

[R T]

Not sure how he could pop in shorts in non contact drill, but Andy is seeing something. 

Andy Herman

 

@AndyHermanNFL

 

 

It doesn’t mean much because there wasn’t a ton of meaningful reps happening and there’s obviously a lot of different players to try and watch in a short period of time, but TJ Slaton was definitely the player that popped to me at practice today.

[Joe]

7 minutes ago, R T said:

Not sure how he could pop in shorts in non contact drill, but Andy is seeing something. 

Andy Herman

 

@AndyHermanNFL

 

 

It doesn’t mean much because there wasn’t a ton of meaningful reps happening and there’s obviously a lot of different players to try and watch in a short period of time, but TJ Slaton was definitely the player that popped to me at practice today.

Not seeing anything on Slayton...maybe you were referencing Amari Rodgers?

[R T]

6 minutes ago, Joe said:

Not seeing anything on Slayton...maybe you were referencing Amari Rodgers?

? I copied and posted a tweet from Andy Herman, I'm not referencing anything but his tweet. If he said TJ Slaton, I'm guessing he was watching some pass rush drills and liked Slaton's movement skills? Maybe he meant Rodgers, I don't think so, but maybe. 

[Rodjahs12]

I'll say this I'm not crazy about the film but if this kid can figure out how to use his size correctly look out. The thing that really stood out to me was how often he'd just lose his balance and end up getting washed out of a play because of it. He's very hard to move when he has a good base so figuring out how to carry his weight will be a huge part of him working out for us.

[craig]

Will be interesting how the long-term effort is for a guy like this.  Might be easier to give it everything you've got for 15-20 snaps a game, versus HS where he probably played every snap?  Will be curious to see how much motor he'll have.  On the other hand, might be hard to stay focused and to see any relationship between effort and any tangible payoff when you're hanging out on the practice squad?