sago1;2000322 said:
Frankly I think you too much of a homer if you believe we've got real depth behind TO. Love Witten as a quality complement to TO but w/o TO it easy to take Witten out of the game; besides he occasionally has to help block for Romo. So we left with Crayton whose a good #3 but lacks speed; Hurd is another Crayton; Austin has speed but lacks consistence in catching passes; good grief he barely made the team last year cause he dropped so many passes in TC/preseason games. Maybe Stanbach comes up big but do we count on him to carry the load if TO goes down? Also, sorry but I wouldn't count on Terry Glenn making that much of a contribution. Since it takes most of the season for a rookie WR to make a contribution, it's time to get one now so our WR coach can develop him as quickly as possible.
How so?
Do you expect all 5 of our WRs to be TOs? We have more depth at WR than most teams. Crayton is never going to be a number one type of WR, but he's a very capable number two.....and a very good number three.
Austin, Stanbach, and Hurd are all developmental types. You have to be patient with them. They're exactly what you want in developmental WRs. They have potential and they contribute on STs.
What we lack is a true number two to develop into a number one guy. This is why I'm in favor of drafting a WR in round one or two. I don't think we need to draft more than one WR this year. It's more important for us to draft more than one CB.
Here's what I see:
Owens number one....No-brainer. He's still one of the best in the NFL.
Rookie at number two...This is one of our biggest needs. Right now, there's no one ready to take the mantle when TO either retires or starts to diminish. You're right in stating that it takes a WR time to develop. That's why I think it's important to draft one NOW.
Crayton at number three....Very good third WR. Crayton has proven valuable in several roles. He's not a lead WR....we found that out the hard way.
Stanback, Hurd, Austin at number four.....I don't know why everyone is so down on these guys. The word "bust" is bandied about too much on this forum. Everyone expects instant stardom from even the PS guys. I guess that comes from living in our "microwave" society.
For sake of arguement, let's say we do draft another WR later in the draft. What exactly do they bring to the table that Austin, Hurd, or Stanback don't? All we'll get is another developmental WR to START OVER with.
Austin has already proven that he's a good returner....why would we replace him? Yes, many will point to the Washington game where he had a big drop. But he's still developing. Hurd made some big catches this year, and some nice ST stops. Stanback is a guy the coaches are very high on......Ireland loved this guy.
It took Jake Reed several years to develop a good set of hands. Jerry Rice was also on the verge of being labled a bust because of poor hands (which he developed later).
I wouldn't object to taking two WRs.....because I'm always in favor of improving the team if possible....but we have a bigger need at CB. That has to be filled.
