You are too hung up on this "starter" label.
As expected. Now you backtrack. Everyone does.
I guarantee fans care way more about that label than the team does. He starts where he's needed. Where and when someone plays is more important. Getting hung up on the term starter is like saying our SLB is a bigger deal than our nickel CB, just because one starts in base D and one doesn't - when the nickel DB plays twice as many snaps.
It isn't at all. It's calling an overpaid non-starter for exactly who and what he is. An overpaid non-starter. Now you want to change conditions to meet your own lowered expectations.
All that said, if everybody is healthy on this roster he's probably the "starting" DE opposite Tank, sliding down to DT on passing situations for Quinn.
Sounds like a role player, not a starter. Starters play their roles and play them well. Role players get bounced around or find "somewhere to fit in".
But the entire DL is rarely healthy so it's probably a moot point.
If and when someone gets hurt, it will be your "moot point", until then, and when talking about potential roster cuts, it is very much a valid one.
You've repeated ad infinitum your disdain for the dude's salary cap hit this season (to the point of incorrectly calling it his salary on some threads) on any thread that DL play is discussed.
More 'fun with semantics'. Hiding in the grey areas rather than simply admitting what is true. Overpaid is overpaid.
We get it. Some of us disagree. I've repeated that his salary, while maybe a bit higher than I'd prefer, is hardly an albatross or mismanagement of funds. The dude is a player. For an avg. of $6 million/year he's about at that level. He may not be worth the $10 mil cap hit this season but it's not some injustice.
Overpaying is the definition of a "mismanagement of funds", especially when it's overpaying a guy without a true starting role.
