That’s the root of the problem and why there’s so much anxiety about our WR situation and why quite a few people started wanting a WR taken high in the draft. Reggie and Marvin started together since 2001, not many elite receiver tandems stay together as long as that because most teams choose 1 receiver. The Bengals did it this year, the Cardinals are in danger of doing it too. Especially after Breaston showed he was pretty good himself, and they might think they have leverage with that but they’re being idiots.

The only other recent one was Holt and Bruce. Add to Reggie and Marvin being together for 7 seasons, and being pretty healthy until 2007 but that’s when we drafted Gonzo so and didn’t have Hall, Garcon, Tamme, and Santi. But after Dilger and Pollard ended up leaving, we ended up with our best receiving TE. So we always had someone to rotate. So we never saw these guys because 1) All of them have been on the team for 1 season except Hall who’s at a whopping 2 seasons 2) We never had to put any of them in because they weren’t as good as who was on the field 3) We actually have had the majority of our games as tight games were at this year so there really was no “developmental” time in games.

Under those circumstances, I am asking you, in fact, I’m asking everyone who wants a receiver in the first or second regardless of BPA (because they think we need it and Peyton’s somehow not going to put up 4000 yards even though he’s only done that once in his rookie year, and that was actually our most dominant team in 2005) is what exactly would you like to have seen from Hall or Garcon? And Tamme and Santi both went on IR, and they were starting to see playing time so they may have actually produced by the end of the season. If they had drafted a first round wide receiver in 2007, he wouldn’t have seen the field in 2008. Period. The starting lineup at receiver would still be Marvin, Reggie, Dallas, Addai in that order during non 3 WR sets and Marvin, Reggie, Dallas, Gonzo, Addai in that order during 3 WR sets. Marvin didn’t miss that many games, he just didn’t have a good year.

So, as Richard, MRW, and myself have been saying for months, let’s give the receivers we actually used draft picks on just like we would this season (except these our guys have experience) a chance to show why we thought they were good picks at one time. I mean, I’m not ready to give up on pretty much our entire draft class of 2008 after one season. I think Polian has a better track record than that.

This message wasn’t directed at anyone in particular. It’s more of a random tangent that I just decided to go off on. In fact, I pretty much forgot why I started typing it to begin with, so nobody get offended. Well, you can get offended if you think that we should take Nicks, or one of the other of his tier (which would be second tier by the way with quite a few other receivers) at 27 regardless of who’s on the board. I’ll stand by that.

Oh, and by the way, I don’t think Hart will usurp Addai but would be a much closer level of talent compared to Rhodes and Addai. That’s not a knock on Dom at all (I still like him even if we let him walk, maybe they were ticked he walked to Oakland last season or like Hart a ton, who knows?) but more an assumption as to how Addai will bounce back, our line will be so much better next season if we stay healthier and the rookies aren’t rookies and actually had Peyton not out with a knee injury, and how good I believe Hart could potentially be if he recovers and can see the field early this season.