Chris Cooley Released

[Paintrain]

Originally Posted by SBXVII

? To me Paul struggled. He didn't show me enough to believe he has surpassed Cooley. I saw one good play and that was his TD catch on a corner end zone route. Otherwise hogwash.

Personally I think the team is trying to cut corners where they can and if they can get players who play different positions then they are happy. Paul can play WR in the worst case, can block as a TE, and plays Special Teams well. About the only think I like about him is his Special Teams ability.

Let's not lose sight of the future with this move. Even though we are on the cusp of the 2012 season, many moves (like this one) are about 2013 and beyond. We aren't going to compete to be a deep playoff run team this year but in 2013 with upgrades at C, RT and CB we can be. This move was about giving Paul the opportunity to develop over a full season to being a weapon at TE. They clearly moved him there with the future in mind. Let him play, learn and develop.

Removing the emotion from the Cooley move, from a pure football move it's close to a no-brainer. Cooley was older, slower and coming off of major injuries in 2 of the last 3 seasons. Taking away how I feel about him, it's tough to argue against it. Paul is younger, faster, much bigger upside in 2012, 2013 and beyond to not give him the chance to blossom.

Then if he is hogwash, which goes against virtually everything that insiders have been saying all camp, he gets replaced again by a younger player. At the end of the day, this is our backup TE position we're discussing.