The reason why you take a chance on Marshall and Moss is because they are elite talents that throughout their careers produced at a high level.
I think Marshall is bi-polar and is on meds to keep him balanced. He still says dumb things but whatever...
Harvin has been going backwards for four years now and is not the player he was in MN.
Personally, I don't think Harvin has ever gotten the chance to consistently produce at a high level because of the quarterbacks he's played with. He doesn't have the "starts" but his talent pops on the screen when you see him play.
The best QB he's played with is probably Wilson, who is not a prolific passer by any means, or an aging Favre in 2009 when he was a rookie.
I watched the Bills opening game this season against the Colts due to an interest in seeing how Rex's defense was going to look. I was impressed with Harvin in the game. He had 5 catches for 79 yards and a TD, also had a rushing attempt for 9 yards.
The TD he had was a 51 yard fly route where he just ran past a corner who was singled up on him in off coverage. That's not easy to do. I was impressed by it, as some had suggested he had lost a step and didn't have the same explosiveness.
Now, The corner was Darius Butler, so feel free to insert any "seen that before" joke, Lol. But Butler has played better with Indy, and if nothing else, always had good straight line speed, running a 4.41 in the combine (which is the same time that Harvin ran). My problems with Butler were always regarding his fluidity in and out of breaks, lack of physicality, and struggle to find the ball in the air. But on this play, Harvin just simply blew by him and beat him in a foot race, which impressed me. Overhead shot in the video below shows it well.
RB is the biggest need imo, but OL is a close second, still im not hearing anyone's sugestion on it.
Cannon sucks and Solder has a major longevity issue. So the first thing is drafting a Tackle.
the second is to upgrade the guard position. Mathis going to Denver was a major coup, he helped their running game so much this season.
Anyway, Jackson and Mason could improve for sure, but i cant stand to see Brady being eaten every other play. We need a better, proven player.
My suggestion is Alex Boone. He used to be a pro bowler, until the 49ers become a disarray of a franchise. He's 29, i bet he would be willing to come here and his price shouldnt be too high.
Sign the beast BB
I agree, OL is definitely not being talked about as much as it needs to be. The thinking seems to be that just because Scar is back, everything will be fine.
The longevity of Solder and Vollmer are definitely issues. Those guys have been beaten up over the years. Even when healthy, Solder has been solid but is nothing spectacular in my opinion.
And we've never adequately replaced the loss of Mankins and Waters. Those guys were upper echelon talents. Maybe some of these young guys can develop into good full time starters, but we'll have to see.
I feel that sometimes the Pats are too reluctant to just think they can plug and play middle/late round guys that they can coach up. While they've been very successful doing it, it's burned them in some big games IMO, where their line has been dominated by superior talent. Sometimes you need to spend the draft capital/money on the better talents like Mankins.
I like the suggestion of giving Boone a shot at the right price, he'd bring some rugged physicality to the guard position for us. I know people have had character concerns about him in the past, but I'm not familiar enough to remember all the details about it.