Hogs Haven
Just relax and give it some time
When Adam Peters drafted Ben Sinnott in the second round of the 2024 draft, I was ecstatic. I’d fallen in love with him early in the lead up to the draft and, given where they selected him, the front office may have even been higher on him than I was. They took him at pick No. 53.
In the post-draft aftermath, it came out that Peters’ former organization was poised to grab the athletic tight end as well, if Washington hadn’t first:
“The lack of production behind Kittle, 30, is why the 49ers closely studied the position in this year’s draft class and likely would have used their second-round pick, No. 64 overall, on Kansas State tight end Ben Sinnott if he had been available.”
Regarding Washington’s selection of Sinnott, we’re fortunate enough to have video of when the actual pick was made, involving a discussion between Assistant GM Lance Newmark, Kliff Kingsbury, Josh Harris, Peters, and Dan Quinn. A transcription of the conversation is below (and the full video can be found in the following tweet).
Peters: Kliffy!
[Kingsbury enters frame]
Peters: There’s a guy here, we going to pick or trade back?
Kingsbury: What do you think?
Peters: Think we’re getting a tight end.
[inaudible chatter]
Kingsbury: Let’s do it. Zach, let’s do it. Do whatever it is. He’s tough as shit. Let’s do it.
Harris: Will he play with Zach on the team?
Kingsbury: Oh yeah.
Peters: Hell yeah, he can play anywhere.
Newmark: He’s extremely versatile.
Peters: He’ll play. He’s fast, and he’s got a ton of upside. His athletic profile is really, really good. He’s just scratching the surface. He [inaudible] really, really good.
Peters [to Quinn]: All in?
Quinn: All in. Once you showed me the tape of him, I was all in. I like the finishing and [inaudible], that’s our identity. Make sure that keeps coming to light with all these picks. Like, every single one of them so far is making that come to light. He’s another one that does that. We can always add flash later, we need like real [muted].
Peters [to assembled front office staff]: We think this guy is going to be really, really, really good. He can do a lot of different [muted]. He’s tough and he plays the way we want to play. This is the fourth “Commander” out of four.
It was clear from Peters’ take that Sinnott was “just scratching the surface” that - even though he was a second round pick - there was a belief that he was still early in his developmental journey. The unanimity of the group’s enthusiasm also comes through in the exchange.
There were lots of good reasons to think the future was bright for Sinnott, even if his drafting wasn’t...
