Originally posted by Memphis9er:Originally posted by kelson49er:The OP and those fervently agreeing are making the mistake of overvaluing our own players. Every single fan base is going to see "potential" in their own guys. It's because you're a prisoner to seeing them ball in the preseason, and then seeing a few flash plays every year. The "what if" keeps you from seeing what career NFL talent evaluators are likely seeing, combined with the latent hope that "our guys" who we drafted and have become attached to will become stars. Our wanting and hoping overrides pretty clear and evident truths.
Here are some examples from recent history at other positions. Think about Cassius Marsh for a second. We all saw him flash in 2017 and thought, "wow, this guy could be good, it would be awesome if he got it together and balled out." Many of us thought he could be a real NFL starter. Now look at Bosa -- absolutely no comparison. Just complete night and day. Bosa is what a real NFL starter/star looks like. Same at QB. Gosh golly gee whiz, CJ Beathard showed some moxie in his starts in 2017, even arguably a spark for our offense as compared to Hoyer. It would have been a really cool story and feeling if he became a real NFL QB. But then, Jimmy came and we instantly saw the difference and what a real NFL QB looks like.
If we dropped Bourne tomorrow, he would just be 4th/5th option on a different team at best, if not completely clear waivers and sit for a while. If Goodwin doesn't re-sign with us this off-season, there will not be a bidding war for his services. He'll become a #3ish receiver on a "meh" team. Meanwhile, let's say in some fantasy world we grabbed AJ Green. He would instantly be our #1 option on the outside and none of us would really question it. Just a mere eyeball test after about a game or so would make people forget about all the dudes we argue about now. It would be the same as it was when we saw Bosa compared to what came before, or when we saw Jimmy in comparison to his predecessors.
All that said, here's my realistic WR roster assessment:
- Goodwin: he's okay, but we should be fine letting him walk or re-signing him to only a 1-2y deal on the cheap;
- Pettis: I've seen enough to be perfectly fine if Kyle wants to jettison him this offseason. There's potential if he sticks around, but again...just potential right now.
- Samuel: Keeper so far, but I haven't seen anything that screams "#1 option." He's a complimentary piece.
- Hurd: big wild card, have to keep him and see how it shakes out.
- Taylor: again, all we have is a flash and potential and kind words from the coach. If he can't get healthy and perform in real games soon, he has to go.
- James: a few flashes, but one would think that if he could fill Taylor's role or be a consistent contributor, he'd be on the field more.
- Bourne: see above, great kid but he just doesn't have the tools to ever break through to be an average/above average starter
- Matthews: completely expendable. Again, if he was the dependable vet people want to think he is, he'd be on the field catching passes given our abysmal receiver performance.
Moral of the story: don't let sentiment and your proximity bias to this team affect your judgment. We don't have a true #1 or even really a dependable #2 right now. If we did, we'd all see it in games because we have a coach who would exploit it and (probably) a QB who would reliably get him the ball. We really kinda suck at WR right now, and I think we've seen enough from all but Deebo and Hurd to know that they probably won't become consistently good NFL players.
Kyle disagrees with you.
Go on.
