To be clear, I think the offense is going to be noticeably worse without OBJ. Teams will be able to stack another man in the box and, on passing plays, do what they did to Jarvis two years ago. Stefanski is going to need to be creative with guys like Hunt in order to overcome the extra focus against our run game and shot-passing game.
Perhaps. However, I do see an outcome where it's actually better without him. To no fault of OBJ, our QB just hasn't figured out how to come up with a great balance in his progressions when he knows OBJ is a superstar wanting to be fed. That's why, even on a TD pass to Harrison Bryant against the WTF team, he ran straight over to OBJ and Landry and told them he love them and to be patient.
That is NOT the kind of mindset you want your QB to have.
And as much as I dislike Brandon Marshall, he said that based on his experience in the NFL it's something that goes through a lot of QBs heads. If they have that superstar, larger-than-life type of WR on the field they're always thinking about throwing them the ball.
The questions we need to ask are:
1. Does the net positive of Baker more freely distributing the ball without worrying about feeding a megastar outweigh the more rigid and restrictive presence of a defense that doesn't have to worry about OBJ? Simply, if Baker improves, will that be greater than the defense improving without worrying about OBJ?
2. How much did defenses actually try to limit OBJ given the fact that Baker struggled to get him the ball? Why was he open so much this year if they did everything to try to stop him? They know everything we know and far more. It feels like the Colts, Steelers, and Bengals were more focused on trying to stop the run than trying to stop OBJ.
Long post short: we really don't know, but we'll see.
