Wharton or Gross?

Both players are up for a new contract and assuming we can only keep one which do we go with?
On one hand Gross has been pretty consistent for us when playing on the right. He has been nothign special but above average at least. Last week however was a poor game for him. Both he and Bridges whiffed on several blocks one leading to a sack. He didn't look good. He's probably gonna command more money than Wharton as well.
Wharton has been very good for us thus far. He has had his trouble with speed rushers, but has played much better this season. He is coming of a knee injury though. So who do we go with?

 

I consider both players about average. They both play well at times and there are times when that's not the case. I'd like to keep a line together long enough for them to have time to gel. Maybe that's too much to ask in this day and time.

My gut feeling is they will improve over the season, barring injury.

It's supposed to a very rich draft as far as tackles go, so that is in our favor. There is also a high boom or bust factor with rookie tackles. Mr obvious says we may end up with a good one or not.

What I think will happen is the FO will set a value on both players and if someone outbids their worth, they will go the extra mile to keep the other. I'm just using the Witherspoon/Morgan situation as the proable approach.

What I'd like to happen is If we can only afford one, at this point I would probably keep Wharton and draft a RT. Mainly because the spot where we will likely be drafting and I want the running game improved.

 

I've always liked the thought of Wharton at RT, if we could upgrade at LT. As well, he's probably the better value. The part that's hard? Finding a left tackle.

As for the knee, I don't find concern there.

If we kept Gross instead, that's fine. I'm sure he's the better player, theoretically, but I haven't seen much of it in action, and the cost will likely be higher. He's been a little mistake prone lately as well.

 

get rid of gross and make some room to make moves.

 

The good thing about Wharton and Gross is that they can both play left or right tackle fairly well. The bad thing is that neither of them is much more than above average at either position. Neither is dominating or approaches elite. I would prefer we keep one of them and play him at RT and then find an upgrade at LT. I do not care so much which one we keep. Gross is a little better but not so much that I would pay a whole lot more for him.

If there were some way for us to trade up and take Jake Long that would be ideal.

 

Wharton.

 

Wharton, without question. Hopefully he'd be cheaper anyway, but when he's not matching up against elite speed rushers you almost never his name during the course of the game, which is a good thing. Unfortunately it sounds like JR thinks of Gross as a pillar of the team.

 

Wharton > Gross.

 

I would like to keep them both, if it were financially possible. A decent set of bookend tackles is not a bad thing to have. An upgrade would be nice but hard to accomplish.

 

Considering that neither player is above average, I don't think an upgrade would be that difficult, but it would take a financial or draft investment that I'm not sure we're up for. It would definitely be helpful if we could replace one with a guy who, while remaining adequate as a pass protector, could actually be a force in the run game.