Originally posted by paulk205:
Seattle are a very good team and have a very good chance of doing damage in the playoffs, athough it's way too early to talk SB for anyone - all teams are one injury away from disaster. I find all this Seattle-related angst in this forum bizarre to say the least. Let's get our act sorted out first and get to the playoffs, and quit worrying about Seattle. Anyway, even if they do win it all, I would bet good money it's not going to be because they tend to sign our castoffs.
I mean, jeez, I liked Daniels as well, but this Nate Davis-like moaning and gnashing of teeth is hard to comprehend. It's all very simple: like about every other NFL team out there, we have a problem with backup QB. If the starter misses time, teams hope to get around .500 out of the backups starts. More often (recent history: Chicago, Houston, even the Raiders) the season is a writeoff because the backup doesn't cut it. Don't judge by Kaep last year, he was brought in exactly to be the QB of the future and he just got his chance earlier than planned.
So, the team have been trying all sorts of moves to address the back QB issue as much as it can be addressed: we traded (cheaply) for McCoy who had made actual NFL starts. He doesn't seem to be the answer. We tried Wallace for the same reason - and cut him for the same reason. Now we're bringing Skelton in. It's clear that management puts a whole lot of importance on having a veteran backup, and one that has actually started actual NFL games at that. A developmental QB is a luxury for their purposes. The PS is the place for such a player, and I'm sure they meant to put Daniels there if he cleared waivers. He didn't. Time to move on.
Cam: when season started everyone commented how stacked we were at OLB compared to last year, particularly if you count Tank coming back shortly. The Aldon debacle left a big unexpected hole there, but (1) it's not as if anyone expected his troubles to flare up so spectacularly; (2) Cam would still not have been the answer.
Hawkins: I was disappointed at him being cut, and I do think that of all the cuts he would have been the most help if he had stayed on. Kyle Williams (whom I usually support) has been a big disappointment both at WR and PR, although at least he holds on to the ball. Perhaps Hawkins would have been a better alternative, but that's all hindsight.
Our management sometimes gets unjustified credit for stacking the team with talent, when a lot of our stars were brought in during the previous, much-maligned regimes (both draft and FA - Justin anyone?). Similarly, they get lots of unjustified flak for not being able to sign every FA out there and not keeping every project in the world, as if there was no cap to fit under and no 45-man active squad to fit everyone in.
Well, Seattle is no doubt a genuine concern, so I don't understand why you say is bizarre. In all likelihood, the playoffs will have to go through Seattle, if we can't beat them, don't you think is a problem ? LOL.
Yes, in the meantime, we have to sort ourselves out, but I am sorry, the bulk of the moves the FO has made are at the very least questionable. Before we talk about BJ, let's talk about John Skelton. John Skelton, really ? The QB with the worst TD/INT % in 2012, 2TDs and 9 INTs. Do you like Skelton ? Besides, who signed McCoy in the first place ? Whether BJ can play now is debatable. At the very least, he outperformed McCoy and Tolzien in the preseason. And really what is the problem with playing a rookie ? Many teams do it. Why can't I judge Kap ? Can I judge other rookie QBs ? I will leave the top picks out of the discussion like Luck and RG3. What about Russell Wilson ? 3rd rounder right ? Too high up ? How about Kurt Cousins ? 4th rounder, how about it ? Still too high up ? You don't want me to pull the Tom Brady card, do you ? And by the way, we never played Wallace, oh sorry, my mistake, we did for 2 mins. We didn't even extend him the courtesy to evaluate him properly. All we did was we forced McCoy to take a massive paycut and nothing more.
OK, Cam, noone said he was the answer or anything along those lines. He was an improving player who could contribute and showed encouraging signs in the preseason. So, we traded him for a 7th, what's the sense in that ?
Hawkins, now we are talking. At least we agree on something. A dynamic player who can also return kicks. Can you explain to me, why did we cut him and kept only 5 WRs ? Didn't we learn anything from last year about injuries ? 5 WRs, really ? Even last year we had 6. OK, here we go again, Patton goes down with a fractured foot and we are left with 4 WRs unless you count Osgood on special teams. Could it be because Hawkins caused the 2 infamous penalties ? LOL. The kid apologized and that still wasn't good enough ? It was a preseason game for cry out loud. I am sorry this isn't hindsight, he already showed some of his worth in the preseason, but we just chose to ignore it.
Of course, we can't sign every single FA, that is not where the contention lies, is about signing the right ones.