building for a superbowl?

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

Of course, injuries can happen at any turn but TE is the one position we have legitimate depth, by which I mean if one player goes out there is NO dropoff in production from that position and you want to eliminate that depth? Hell, if we were 3 deep and saw great potential out of our 3rd TE then sure, let's look at it but do you remember what happened last season when we were starting our 4th RG of the season, our 3rd LT of the season and our 4th RB? We don't have the luxury of trading one of the best young players on our team for a hope of a couple of college kids. That's just foolish if you ask me.

Honestly, on the open market, what would Cooley get us? Maybe a mid 2nd round pick? He's not elite enough to garner a bounty of picks, certainly not the value to build a team around.

Which 'young inexpensive players with anticipated potential' have we 'cast aside' for proven veterans? Quinton Ganther?

No, no I'm not saying we have cast aside young players with lots of potential; I'm saying that is often the choice which has to be made -- letting go of draft picks, (which would be the young, inexpensive players) in favor of free agent veterans. George Allen Sr. was famous for this.

In a way, tight end is one of those positions that you can get later in the draft, perhaps through undrafted free agency and incorporate in your offense without seeing much of a dropoff. Especially if the offense you run isn't so heavily reliant on TEs. Ideally, you want your wide receivers getting most of the catches and the yardage. I can't really say for sure how heavily involved the TE is in Shanahan's offense. But if Cooley makes up a significant facet of his scheme, then Cooley's not going anywhere and this conversation is moot.

Maybe someone with more time than I have can go back and look at Shanny's offense and see about what percentage his tight ends actually caught the ball. For instance, if wideouts made up anywhere from 60 to 70% of the passes caught, leaving 30 to 40% split between tight ends and running backs, then you might say that TEs aren't as vital to his offensive attack.

The other big thing you have to consider is whether incredible depth at tight end is more important that quality offensive linemen. If you had to choose between two really good TEs or some starting O-linemen, I'd choose the O-linemen.