Originally Posted by
steelreserve
Mike Adams was also injured for his last two seasons with what turned out to be a career-ending back problem. I don't think we'll ever know if he could've been any good.
If you want an indicator of how much of the OL's success is talent versus coaching, look at another guy: Marcus Gilbert. There was a classic example of a player with talent who just couldn't figure it out, and was struggling and probably on his way to getting demoted and then replaced. He gets a little coaching and suddenly, what do you know, he's superb.
Or: Oh no, Pouncey and DeCastro were hurt the couple of years before Munchak arrived, that must have been the reason for our problems, right? Well, Pouncey was hurt for the whole season two years ago WITH Munchak, and the OL barely missed a beat. Same guys.
No, you're not going to grab any old guy off the garbage truck and turn him into a star LT, but with Munchak, find a guy with average or above-pound talent and you get an adequate player instead of a dumpster fire. The bar is way, way lower than it used to be without him. It's not going to take $10M a year or a top-10 draft pick to be decent at that position.
Anyway, there's not even any reason to "Let Villanueva walk." We have him for the next two years for very little money guaranteed, three if we want him. At that point, Ben's 37 or 38 and probably retiring. I don't even understand the question here.