I know Edwards sucked for us last year; there's no way around it. I meant only to use him (and Morgan) as examples of solid WRs whose injuries ruined their production and hurt us offensively--in other words, giving some credence to the idea that bad luck with injuries contributed to some of our offensive ineptitude. I'm not saying Ginn is a major threat or anything like that, but he was a pretty good option to have as a 4th WR (his originally intended role) who could come in and run a reverse and have a shot taken downfield once or twice a game. Playcalling was a huge improvement upon that piss-poor game plans of the past decade, and I have unbounded faith in this coaching staff, and particularly Harbaugh, to improve and innovate the offense. Going forward, however, I would like to a bit more imaginative RZ play calling (which did improve late and as we know was a casualty of the abbreviated offseason) and mix of pass and run. It seemed that we had too many possessions that were all run (or at least runs on 1st and 2nd) or all pass, usually ending in 3-&-Outs or only slightly better.
Looking at the responses so far, it appears that we're split into 2 camps: those that think Alex is holding us back and those that think our WRs are holding us back. I"m more inclined to agree with the WR issue, though I admit waffling on Smith. He can make big plays, he is clutch, he only figures to get better, but he's too inconsistent and for most of the game too cautious with the ball. Of course, Smith and us fans have to tread this line (Smith's conservatism) carefully. By opting to take as many sacks as he did or going for the 3 yard out route instead of the tough throw, he likely saved us a lot of turnovers and helped us win a lot of games. Nonetheless, I think it's for this reason that at times find myself dreaming of a healthy Peyton Manning QBing this team, even after having talked myself into Smith for the most part.
[ Edited by merm49 on Feb 28, 2012 at 11:23 AM ]