Coby Fleener intel from @NateDunlevy of @ColtsAuthority

After the Saints signed Coby Fleener I wanted to go straight to a trusted Colts blogger to give me his thoughts. Nate Dunlevy is a guy I’ve worked with a couple times over the years and he’s as solid as it gets in the blogging community. He’s a part of Colts Authority who is with us on the Sports Daily Network. I dropped him some questions and his answers are below:

Andrew from Saints Nation: A lot of fans are pissed because the Saints gave $7 mil per year to a tight end that never had more than 54 catches in a season. Others say his value will be maximized and he’ll do much better with Brees and Payton. Your thoughts?

Nate from Colts Authority:

There isn’t any reason I can see to think that Fleener will perform better in New Orleans than Indy. His problem was never a lack of targets or advantageous matchups. He simply wasn’t reliable or physical enough. He has questionable hands and didn’t fight through his routes with the kind of consistency you’d like. He plays more like a big wideout than a tight end, but doesn’t quite have the hands for the position. He was in a perfect offense and paired with a perfect QB for him to be successful, and he really just wasn’t. 

If they have Fleener in blocking, then they aren’t using him correctly. I think he’s a “meh” blocker; it’s not his strong suit, so I wouldn’t have him in more than necessary.

Will the Colts miss him? Did you feel like he was important to keep?

Oh no. Fans were expecting Fleener to be gone since his second year. He’s your basic fungible pass-catching tight end. Nothing special. There are a lot of guys with his particular skill set in the league. 

Any other overall thoughts? Good pickup? Disaster signing?

I would view this a two-year deal. There’s almost no chance he’ll be worth a cap hit of $8 million in his third year. So, it comes out to a roughly 14.8 million for two years. That’s pretty pricey for a guy who will be hard-pressed to have 60 catches and 800 yards. He isn’t going to be a focal point (or shouldn’t be at least) in New Orleans. Feels like a pretty large overpay, but he does have some upside. There’s a non-zero chance he breaks out, but a much much much much higher chance that he’s already posted his best season in the NFL.