I think the Hartline pick could turn out to be the best draft pick that we made this past draft. Vontae Davis was picked because of potential. Pat White was picked because of need. Sean Smith was picked because you cant pass up a guy of his ability regardless of your needs. Patrick Turner was picked because of our need for a big WR and his potential to be a stud in the future. But Hartline...that was counterintuitive. There was no good reason to pick Hartline. We had just picked a WR. He wasn't like Sean Smith, obviously the best player on the board. I was thinking Duke Robinson all the way...and happy to think about having DR on the board. When I saw BH crawl across the tracker, I was like, WTF?
But the coaches obviously looked past production. They looked at ability. They looked at circumstance (why his production had dropped off so abruptly). And I think they looked at this guys passion for the game. Hes the kind of guy that if you lost all of your CBs due to injury (or swine flu) he would go out and play CB and give a great effort. Somehow this FO saw what no other FO saw in BH (not many fans, either). If he works out like it looks like he might, IMO, he would be the gem of this class.
I say this because Hartline was coming off a sub par season. So often, the scouts get caught up in production and statistics (see the reaction by the ESPN experts when we picked BH). Its early, but early returns look good.