Quote:
Originally Posted by RustShack
I can't believe how much value people here give the TE position.
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Its not exactly like Gonzalez is a run of the mill tight end. He's a possession receiver and a very good one, which is clearly a valuable offensive commodity.
We DO need to replace Gonzalez, but not necessarily with a tight end.
For all the people who try to dismiss Gonzalez's value by saying "how many playoff games did we win with him", well...how many playoff games did we win with Willie Roaf? Obviously, left tackle is a meaningless position.
How many playoff games did we win with Priest Holmes? Obviously, a multi-faceted running back like Holmes is meaningless.
How many super bowls did we win with Derrick Thomas? Obviously, a pass rushing linebacker is worthless.
How many playoff games did James Hasty win in KC? Obviously, a physical shut down corner is irrelevant to our playoff success.
How many playoff games did we win with Deron Cherry? Obviously a useless player that wasn't really meaningful to building a championship squad.
Championship teams can be built in many ways. Priest Holmes and Tony Gonazlez were the two weapons that drove our dominant offenses during the frist half of the millenium. Holmes and Gonzalez reallly strained the linebackers and safeties, which opened things up for mediocre receivers like Eddie Kennison to make plays. An unusual way to build a dominant offense, but certainly it worked. That offense was good enough to win a championship, but we didn't develop the other side of the ball.
Hell, the "Vermeil strategy" failed not due to philosophy, but due to bad drafting.
The fact is, Vermeil had an incredible year and a half run of offensive talent acquisition.
He added Trent Green, Eddie Kennison, Willie Roaf, Priest Holmes, and Casey Weigman within a very short span of time. The only real mistake was WR Johnny Morton. Most of those guys were spare parts, only Roaf was a starter.
If we had any kind of reasonable drafting, the "Vermeil plan" would have worked. About the only useful players drafted under Vermeil were LJ and Jared Allen (plus maybe Scott Fujita).