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[struby3]

2 hours ago, 49erurtaza said:

 

I'd bring him in if he came cheap. He can still be a solid TE if he plays in the right system.

[Forge]

28 minutes ago, struby3 said:

I'd bring him in if he came cheap. He can still be a solid TE if he plays in the right system.

Don't know that he's better than anything we have, and the concussions are a major issue. Not even sure that he's coming back from that last one to be honest. I wouldn't want to bother based on that alone. He's apparently still recovering from it and it happened in week 12. 

[48 1/2ers]

3 hours ago, Forge said:

You know you're pretty awful when it costs the team 200K more to get rid of you than it does to keep you and they still cut you anyway....

Assuming that they made this move as a june 1 cut. 

I like Hikutini and all but Fleener is immensely more talented. If he passes a physical I say we sign him to a multi year deal. 

[Forge]

3 minutes ago, 48 1/2ers said:

I like Hikutini and all but Fleener is immensely more talented. If he passes a physical I say we sign him to a multi year deal. 

Figured that's what they would do just to get some savings this year. Still, when it costs you more to cut a guy than keep him (even if you're spreading it over 2 years), you haven't really nabbed a replacement (84 year old Ben Watson not withstanding), and they still cut you anyway, that's just pretty brutal. 

[y2lamanaki]

2 minutes ago, 48 1/2ers said:

I like Hikutini and all but Fleener is immensely more talented. If he passes a physical I say we sign him to a multi year deal. 

Was a big fan of Fleener coming out, and still a big fan. But this is not the type of guy you give a multi-year deal to right now. I agree with you - as the competition/overall talent for the 3rd spot is virtually nonexistent (would love to see Hikutini develop, though), I would hope we'd give him a look on a 1-year no strings attached year. Upside is a good talent at the 3rd, or maybe even 2nd TE over Celek. Downside of injury history is minimized by the length. 

[oldman9er]

Loved me some Fleener also. If he'll take a marginal deal.. 2 yrs with an easy team out in yr 2.. do it. 

2 years

2018 - 3 mil base, 1 mil SB 

2019 - 3.7 mil base, 1 mil SB

Take it or leave it. 

 

Think he'd sign it, or we would offer it? 

[GW21]

No interest in Fleener from me. I’d rather just roll with Kittle, Cele, and Hikutini.

[Chrissooner49er]

I intentionally waited until someone else brought him up first. You all know he was my draft crush from that year...

I would still like to see him in a 9er uni! Hikutini or not, don't care. Let's have some competion.

[big9erfan]

1 hour ago, Chrissooner49er said:

I intentionally waited until someone else brought him up first. You all know he was my draft crush from that year...

I would still like to see him in a 9er uni! Hikutini or not, don't care. Let's have some competion.

I think TE is not a strong position for us.It doesn't look to me like Hikutini will amount to much. Celek is pure JAG. And Kittle sis young with some promise, but to me it's still unclear exactly where he will top out. Even if he's good a noffense with two good TEs to worry about is doubly hard to defend.  The way Shanny keeps putting offensive pieces together to run the kind of offense he wants I'm tthinking a hjigh level TE would just be one more piece for him to have in his bag of tricks.

[Forge]

5 minutes ago, big9erfan said:

I think TE is not a strong position for us.It doesn't look to me like Hikutini will amount to much. Celek is pure JAG. And Kittle sis young with some promise, but to me it's still unclear exactly where he will top out. Even if he's good a noffense with two good TEs to worry about is doubly hard to defend.  The way Shanny keeps putting offensive pieces together to run the kind of offense he wants I'm tthinking a hjigh level TE would just be one more piece for him to have in his bag of tricks.

That's certainly not Fleener. 

Also, Hikutini was a UDFA last year. Let's give the kid a chance to breathe a little bit. Are the odds stacked against him actually becoming anything? Sure. But man, I thought I was quick on the trigger to bounce off people. Developing players does take time. We all want to develop players, but apparently don't want to take the time to do it. Pretty fascinating, honestly. 

[Chrissooner49er]

All I want is competition...there, I spelled it right this time. 

[Forge]

1 hour ago, Chrissooner49er said:

I intentionally waited until someone else brought him up first. You all know he was my draft crush from that year...

I would still like to see him in a 9er uni! Hikutini or not, don't care. Let's have some competion.

People in here seem to be latched on to the way they viewed him as a prospect as opposed to what he has actually done in the league, particularly the last few years. One, he's almost strictly a move tight end. No value in his blocking because he's terrible at it, which means that he's an awful fit as a third tight end, who's primary role is usually to block. I'm not taking him over Kittle at this point, and honestly, Celek is probably the better all around player when you factor in blocking and special teams. 

Coby Fleener was basically the third tight end on the saints last year behind Josh Hill and Michael Hoomanawanui. Let that think in for a second. I'd probably put both of those guys on the level at or below Celek at this point. Even when he was perfectly healthy, Fleener was only in on about 35% of the snap counts last year. He's just not a good football player. 

[y2lamanaki]

1 hour ago, Forge said:

People in here seem to be latched on to the way they viewed him as a prospect as opposed to what he has actually done in the league, particularly the last few years. One, he's almost strictly a move tight end. No value in his blocking because he's terrible at it, which means that he's an awful fit as a third tight end, who's primary role is usually to block. I'm not taking him over Kittle at this point, and honestly, Celek is probably the better all around player when you factor in blocking and special teams. 

Coby Fleener was basically the third tight end on the saints last year behind Josh Hill and Michael Hoomanawanui. Let that think in for a second. I'd probably put both of those guys on the level at or below Celek at this point. Even when he was perfectly healthy, Fleener was only in on about 35% of the snap counts last year. He's just not a good football player. 

I get the hesitation, but disagree with a lot of the reasoning. If you want me to solely look at Fleener with the Saints, he still has fewer than 100 yards less than Celek has in his entire 6-year career. And Celek is perfectly fine as a blocking TE, so i disagree that's all the 3rd TE would need to be. If he can be a weapon, it's more than Hikutini provided or is likely to provide this year. That's not abandoning Hikutini - he's a practice squad project. That's a perfect spot for him. And if he beats out Fleener? Great! But Fleener is certainly better competition than our current 4th TE 95% of us here will need to look up to remember his name.

[Forge]

53 minutes ago, y2lamanaki said:

I get the hesitation, but disagree with a lot of the reasoning. If you want me to solely look at Fleener with the Saints, he still has fewer than 100 yards less than Celek has in his entire 6-year career. And Celek is perfectly fine as a blocking TE, so i disagree that's all the 3rd TE would need to be. If he can be a weapon, it's more than Hikutini provided or is likely to provide this year. That's not abandoning Hikutini - he's a practice squad project. That's a perfect spot for him. And if he beats out Fleener? Great! But Fleener is certainly better competition than our current 4th TE 95% of us here will need to look up to remember his name.

And see, I just don't care enough about adding competition at a TE3 spot to even use up the salary, and I don't think there's any gain from taking snaps away from Celek to give them to Fleener. Fleener may add a better downfield presence in the passing game, but you're taking the hit on your blocking, so for me, it's a wash. Given the snap percentages, the net gain from Celek to Fleener in the passing game as well, I also don't think that his impact in the passing game would be as great as people think it would be. 

But I've never been a fan of Fleener. Never understood why this forum loved him so much coming out. 

I would never hate on something like a vet minimum deal to add some competition, but it'd just be sort of meh to me. I'm certainly not shelling out a couple of mil on a one or two year deal. Like I said, just don't view him as a good football player. 

[y2lamanaki]

6 minutes ago, Forge said:

I would never hate on something like a vet minimum deal to add some competition, but it'd just be sort of meh to me. I'm certainly not shelling out a couple of mil on a one or two year deal. Like I said, just don't view him as a good football player. 

Yeah, I don't want to give him a multi-year deal either, but I would be okay if it's a small 1-year, 3 million or less. I think you are getting a good receiving option.

In the end, I doubt we go after him. But I'm all about upgrading any spot on the 53. And I think 3rd TE is a good spot for that.