Originally posted by Pillbusta:
Unless there is more injury to key players I can pretty much guarantee we should be able to field a better team than last year. This was apparent to me at the conclusion of camp last season. I saw us NOT sell out for Percy while crab and Cully went down prior to the season and AJJ stunk it up leaving us with NO speed at WR and VD as the only field stretcher. I knew we were long in the tooth in the secondary and that we had to acclimate Vance McDonald. I knew we had just Gore and two situation RBs around him. I knew we had no number 2 and 3 WR to start the year. I knew we had to get younger and deeper. I knew we had to deal with our injuries and play the one seeded schedule. I knew that Kap had to start his first full season in spite of all this.
BUT then I realized that...Kap would have that year under his belt and that we would get deeper and better at WR. We would get healthy and replace an older weaker Goody on the OL. We would get real every down help for Gore at RB. We would have Vance a year further along and QP as well. We would have Crab back healthy. We would get Tank and Lattimore in action. And I knew we would have 13 picks 6 top100 to address the youth speed and depth at DB and still stockpile talent for the future. I said then prior to 2013 and during it that no matter how good we were then we would be better now. Bro, I hate to break it to you but we are. Substantially!
We had Boldin as number one and no two or three. We lost at least two games last year because we didn't have VD or a two and three WR. Those games were at NO and vs CAR. We lost to IND because Roman inexplicably stopped running the ball and we just got our usual beat down in SEA but not having a two three and VD certainly made your job easier!
SEA deserves all the bragging rights of the champion especially since you beat us on the way to it but I know and our fans know what our situation was and we know we have tangibly improved significantly and we believe in this team!
Every team can make the exact same argument. Rice played half a season on a bumb knee only catching 16 passes before it gave out and Harvin didn't see real time until the Super bowl. McCoy our 2nd string TE was on IR to start the year so we had to play our rookie Willson and Miller missed time due to injury also. McCoy re-signed also. Okung missed nearly half the year and Unger missed significant time and played banged up all year plus our RT was out for significant time. Wilson was the most hurried QB in the entire league all year due to that and didn't have the weapons he will have to start this year plus he is now going into his 3rd year when most QB's see their biggest growth.
you can do this for any team and the guys that we are high on like Scruggs, Williams, Hill, Mayowa on and on look like they could be impact players. Our draft also looks like we got a very good WR in the second and 4th on and on but again until those guys take the field and prove they are really good enough I don't factor them in.
We lost Tate a good WR that was not going to see significant playing time even if we resigned him because of Harvin, Baldwin, Kearse and Rice are all proven products that will split time and Pete likes to get the rookies on the field. Heck even Lockette caught balls in the super bowl while the game was still close. The D-lineman lost have already been replaced by proven products in Bennett and Avril and Bowie and Bailey have already played significant snaps in replacement of Giacamini when he was injured.
You guys have some great talent but you have some big question marks also. Three starters in the secondary gone. Goodwin gone and Gore and Cowboy are another year older and I know I said it before but that is the big elephant in the room. Gore and Cowboy are the leaders on that team and they won't be easily replaced. Your rookies and guys waiting in the wing might turn out to be great but the odds of finding your Gore or Cowboy is extremely low (at least next year) while the odds of them seeing significant drop off is not.
You still haven't answered who are these guys your so high on going to be replacing.