The 40 time is pretty shocking to me. He certainly doesn't play that slow on tape. I've watched several different videos on him now and if I didn't know how he tested out I would have guessed he'd be in the typical 4.7 something range. He's not a burner, but he certainly isn't slow. Despite his pedestrian numbers at the combine, I could see him eventually being a TE we could split out wide at times as well as using him in the slot. Remember, Finley ran a 4.82 at the combine. Given how much Dick-Rod has had to work on his body in the last few years we also may be able to speed him up a bit with some proper training as well by finding his natural playing weight.
There are some decent highlights in this clip which is a vid people may not have seen. I like how quickly he gets off the snap (particularly at the 1:10 mark) and how natural he is at plucking the ball out of the air on a variety of the different receptions in the video. His quickness off the snap shows up in all the videos at draftbreakdown as well.
http://www.patriots.com/media-center/vi ... f7f54f3317He has natural hands and is just a naturally big dude at 6-4, 260 or so and you can tell he's a solid overall athlete. He doesn't lumber out there. He's very fluid. He shows willingness in his blocking and his explosiveness at the snap could be important there as he develops. He's apparently very smart and coachable.
In a different draft maybe he drops to the 4th, but I'm not surprised at all that we took at the end of the 3rd with a supplemental pick. I doubt he would have dropped much if we hadn't taken him.
One major thing in terms of this year is that he is young having come out as a true Junior. That could definitely limit what he is able to do this year, though his big body may help in that regard.