How are we replacing Dockery?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Grim21Reaper

Why not? Wade has the talent to be a starting tackle. Tackles are more skilled than guards.

It's not that simple.

Dockery was huge, 340 pounds or whatever, and an incredible drive-blocker. Wade is 6'8" and 315 pounds or whatever. He's very athletic, I think he'll be an upgrade over Dockery in terms of his ability to get out into space and lead-block on pulls. But in terms of goalline and short yardage packages, he's a significant downgrade from Dockery. When it comes time to just line up and mash the opposition, Wade's height is going to become a problem. When you're that tall, it becomes a lot easier for a DT to get underneath you and gain leverage. Plus, Dock was just bigger and stronger.

Wade can be a decent fill in, as long as Saunders manages to scheme to take advantage of his abilities. Luckily, Saunders likes to run on the edges and likes his linemen athletic. KC's line was never all that big, and he turned them into a great running team. He'll need to get Portis and Betts out on the edge and let Wade do a lot of pulling into space. But if he relies on Wade to drive-block and expect him to do as well as Dockery, we're in for a rude awakening.

Ideally we'd find a G in the draft who is built like a big G (rather than a T like Wade is) and who is fast enough to get into space. Wade may be a solid option as a stopgap, but I definitely don't like him as a long-term solution. I want to see us trade down from 6 and secure a pretty talented G in the 2nd or 3rd round.