What's the Story With McCants?

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Originally Posted by joecrisp

The thing to remember, though, Ramseyfan, is that McCants missed a significant portion of the minicamps and training camp due to a shoulder injury. That time was critical to his learning the offense, and it also allowed guys like Thrash and Jacobs to establish themselves on the depth chart. So it's not just that once McCants actually did start practicing, that he didn't perform well; he had two other solid receivers competing with him that didn't miss nearly as much practice time as he did, and they both performed exceedingly well-- showing a good understanding of the offense, running excellent routes, and catching nearly all of the passes that were thrown their way.

Yes, Gibbs watched film of McCants, and was excited about his potential, and that's why they signed him to a nice new contract. But once that deal was signed, McCants simply didn't show up in practice. I don't care how good he looked at times last year, he had to carry that over and show improvement in the offseason in order for Gibbs to want to put him on the field. Obviously, that wasn't the case.

There are some people that practice well and others who play well. McCants is the latter and not the former. But, that isn't sufficient justification, in my mind, to keep him off the field. Thrash and Jacobs are excellent recievers, however, neither of them are the tall big jumping red zone target that McCants is; they're both speedy deep-threats. I'd like to see McCants in the mix because our current lineup has not been as effective in the red zone as I'd like.

I also am unsure as to why the Rock is not in on short-yardage situations. He pushes the pile and proved his ability to do so last year when Dockery was a rookie and Samuels was injured. He just seemed to be able to do what Portis has been relatively unsuccessful at - 3rd and short situations.

I've been puzzled by a few personnel moves Gibbs has made:

-cutting Bauman but keeping Jimoh (yes I know Bauman was short)
-cutting Ohalete but keeping Clark (yes I know Ohalete wasn't speedy)
-bringing in a 34 year old QB in Brunell for $40 million
-cutting Regan Upshaw but keeping Demetric Evans

I don't question that Gibbs will bring us a SB trophy and I know I don't know half of what he knows, but some of his personnel moves have left me saying, "he did what?"