I think you guys are completely misunderstanding nerdmann's point. He's trying to say that this offense is so deep, tight end is the ONLY position that we can't replace our starter. In other words, tight end is the only position in which there is a steep drop-off from starter to backup. He wasn't ridiculing Thompson for failing to have an elite backup to Finley.

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Oops, I read that Finley was the only guy, not position.

If he means the Tight End position, why say Finley specifically? Especially since Finley is a rare ... wait I'm repeating myself again.

Yeah take that excuse you made for him and shove it where the moon spins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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*sigh, Nonstop*

Perhaps not emphasizing it enough, I wanted to counter that by saying there are a couple of key positions which Ted deserves blame for adequately filling: OLB and RB.

If he saw Kuhn capable enough to be our third RB, then that is cool. But surely he would have realized the steep drop-off in speed from Grant to B-Jack and Kuhn. Now, we're limited to calling our runs inside the tackles.

And I do not expect him to replace Clay with another all-pro pass rushing threat, but surely he realized the combination of Jones/Poppinga/Zombo would struggle to even hold Clay's jock. In other words, the best he does to replace him is bring in an undrafted rookie who must learn the 3-4 OLB position.

It is unfair to criticize Ted for being too draft-pro and emphasizing younger inexperienced players because thus far most of his draft picks and younger players (Shields, for example) have done decent in replacing lost starters. However, he wrongfully in my opinion shortchanged us in a couple of key positions.

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You raise excellent points, AADP. However, in my defense, I want to point out that I was merely clarifying what I perceived to be nerdmann's position, not stating one of my own.

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Where exactly did you do this above? ;)

(The *sigh* bit was, frankly, from posting as a means of procrastinating from editing more important work, only to realize that this means of escape just resulted in one more thing to edit 🙂 )

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