[30gut]

Originally Posted by SirClintonPortis

There is much more hoping needed at the WR position for us than at the OL starters. We have to hope Moss's age has not caught up with him, that Gaffney can replicate his season....Wille Smith had a longer audition to showcase his stuff and he did quite well; hence, hoping for him is more plausible than hoping for the WR corps to magically transform itself into on that rivals the better ones in the league.

Good points and without turning this into a longer debate then neccesary I think the opposite of what you're saying above is true.
I'm talking specifically about Moss and Hankerson the expectations for the rest of the receiving corps is no different then any other NFL team that is trying to develop young WRs.
As far as the 'hope' theory goes for me there is less hope required players have actually achieved the level of play desired (Gaffney, Moss) vs expecting players that have not yet to reached the expected level of production.
Willie Smith was good for an UDFA back-up, Polumbus also was decent for a back-up, Jammal Brown was well terrible as a starter.
If the season started now we would not have a competent RT on the roster but even without Garcon and Morgan we would have 2 competent WRs in Moss and Gaffney.
And that ulitmately is the difference.
We would be hoping that Brown, Smith and Polumbus improve to a level that we've haven't seen yet(or recently in Jammal Brown's case).

Football Outsiders...Gaffney, without controlling for variables such as scheme, other receivers taking pressure off of him, play action effectiveness, o-line quality, etc might have indeed performed better than Moss last year, but that does not necessarily prove that he is the better, more valuable player on the field physically....
Also, if we are to use these stats to predict future performance, the real matter is whether past DYAR and DVOA is a good indicator of future DYAR and DVOA values.

I understand your point here but I'm not using FBO to predict anything.
I posted the their stats as a reference.
And of course FBO metric has limitation every stat does but the limits you address apply to Garcon and Morgan just like the apply for Moss and Gaffney.

Garcon had even worse QBs and a worse supporting cast.

I would say that QB is a push, but lets not forget Garcon was playing with Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark.

Did the signing of Garcon and Morgan improve the WR corps? Yes.
But, again for me I think RT more so they any other position on offense was the weakest link on our starting 11.
I'm an oldschool type guy and I think physical superiority at the point of attack is the single most successful way to improve an offense.
I think finding a definitive upgrade at the RT position, more then any else, would be the most beneficial to support a rookie QB.
If people expect a Cam Newtonesque season from Griffin people shouldn't overlook the quality of Newton's OL.