I was calling for Thompson to start seriously looking for Clifton's replacement at least a year before the Super Bowl season. I wasn't calling for Tauscher's that early because his decline seemed to happen all at once...one year he was their best lineman, the next year he was operating on fumes.
Driver is a different case. We're not talking about letting the "starter" go. No one seriously wants him as the starter. The question is not whether he offers more than Jennings, Nelson, or Jones. Nor is it Driver vs. Cobb. It's about whether Driver has enough to offer to let a practice squad or another player with "potential" go. Does anyone think Borel or Gurley or Smithson or _anyone else that might be replacing Driver has any real shot to beat out any of the top four in the next three years? Seriously?
We're talking about "wily veteran with declining skills" vs. "potential #5 WR plus special teams player". That's all.
Frankly, there are examples of the latter floating around this time of year every year. And there always will be. If Driver gets beat out by a better "special teams player and #5 WR," then by all means, its time. But until he does? Bah.
Letting Flynn go and hoping for Harrell et al to fill the shoes when Aaron Rodgers goes down? That's a gamble. Letting a practice squadder miss "valuable reps" because you're hanging on to DD for the preseason? That's a dime-a-dozen non-worry for a GM of Thompson's caliber. Any GM that find a #5 receiver/special teamer in seventy-two hours should be stuck with the Vikings or Redskins or Bears.
Hanging on to a starter too long is a far different thing than hanging on to a #5 receiver too long. Heck it's a far different thing than hanging on to a #3 or #4 receiver too long.
Now, if Gurley shows himself to be the next Gary Lewis/Ted Hendricks this preseason, _then_ I would cut Driver in his favor. Frankly, based on his kick blocking abilities, it wouldn't have surprised me last year -- because that's a major special teams skill you see very little of today with the post-Lewis rule changes. (Finding even a gunner is less difficult.) But frankly, unless some #5 shows serious special teams skills like that -- and I don't mean just showing the "potential" to be a good coverage guy; or if you really believe that last year's playoff game was DD emptying the last bits from his tank -- you don't get rid of DD.
Me, I'd rather have a wily veteran leader and character guy with marginal skills as my #45 game day player than some practice squadder with potential for ST and #4WR.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)