Quote Originally Posted by Mister Pittsburgh View Post
What are you talking about? How can you even say that? He says he can't envision a rookie coming in and being an impact, but it has happened in nearly half his drafts over the last 9 years. If I fell down my front steps 4 mornings out of the next 9 I would look pretty moronic to wake up on the 10th morning and say 'I can't envision falling down the stairs this morning'
Dude... all he is saying is he doesn't draft players hoping/needing them to have an impact the 1st year. If they do have an impact it's a plus but if they aren't up to speed or take a year or 2 to "get it" we aren't up sh#ts creek due to putting all our eggs in the rookie basket.

If Ben was expected to have an impact the 1st year he would have started from day 1. Same with Mendenhall and a few others. In a few RARE cases we had a guy start on day 1... but those cases are few and far between.

Pointing out guys who were forced into starting roles due to injury isn't proof we expected them to have an impact. DeCastro probably wouldn't have beat out Foster if he remained healthy.. he would have probably replaced him later in the season or played due to Gilbert falling on another guy. Again, we didn't draft DeCastro to play on day 1. Fans want us to plug rookies in but the FO uses a different approach.