Auden Tate is Much Better Than Most People Think

[grampahol]

When Tate was initially picked in the 7th or whichever round it was, I forget I was initially skeptical. Why was I skeptical? Somewhat slower? No.. The round? Not really. I made the common mistake and I paid attention to what certain people here wrote, that he was too slow, a low round pick and so forth. Then I had to think of why I was always for the underdogs in these matters in the first place and something Marvin often said, it doesn't matter how you get on the team. It matters what you do once you're on the team.
We often put far too much emphasis on the first round pick as if that's the only pick that matters and we do this year in, year out like clock work, but the vast majority of the best players on this and nearly every team come from picks other than the first round. If the truth were that the only players worth having were all first round picks football would have 1 or 2 players on any team or they'd do away with rounds altogether and just pick players and never tell the public which round or position they were picked at all. (which would probably be far more fair in the long run)
Since we usually don't get the first overall pick except on rare occasion to me it's a non-factor most seasons. One of the very best players this team has had was a 4th round pick from Georgia and several have been undrafted which makes me wonder why in hell we go through this every year regardless of pick position be it the first pick or the 32nd or the 534th for that matter.
When players are rookies it's usually a crap shoot either way, first, seventh or undrafted. Hell, they're young men just leaving college entering a grown man's game to earn potentially millions upon millions of dollars. How many young men do you personally know who leave college and go on to earn millions of dollars with big brand endorsement contracts? I dare say not many and predicting those kinds of accomplishments is nearly impossible.
While I think Joe burrow will go on to have a fine NFL career truth is I really have no idea if he'll ever make it in the league. He might get injured or just wash out and not live up to expectations. It happens all the time, but it also happens that some guy almost nobody knows about will inevitably grow into their young bodies and become a huge star in the same league. It appears that Auden Tate will be one of the later, a young guy who gets off to a rocky start, but through hard work, determination and a little luck finds a nice, sweet niche in his spot and may just become a big star in his own right. Still, I have no idea how high or low his ceiling is, just that he's impressed several among us and the coaching staff enough to want to keep rooting for him.
Heck, for that matter I root for every player in stripes and hope they all have the greatest season(s) anyone whoever put on stripes ever had..and that includes John Ross as well.