Haven’t you read K9 comments? BJ was literally no loss at all in his eyes sooooo…. Must be true.
That was not what he wrote...
Fact is that Monti did a complete re-build. First year he purged the roster and the team fielded the worst roster in the NFL - but the results were not the worst. It was actually a middle tier team once the franchise QB was back.
In 2nd year he build the depth of the team, so the team now, while not the best, a very very deep roster either through solid but not spectacular starters or high potential 1st or 2nd year players. We do not know if these high potential young players will develop into stars, quality starters, back-ups or flop.
BJ was one of those players. Potentially good, but at this point only potentially. BJ might have been a B+ (I think star potential would have shown already), he might have been a C, a D or F. We do not know how it would have translated on the field in an actual season game.
What makes BJ injury so bad is that it's at the one single position where Monti didn't secure depth.
We can argue if that was mistake or not. I do understand the rational behind. We do not know who Monti tried to sign in Free Agency, but fact is that this year's draft was very strong at positions of need for the team and he decided to secure better talent than normally would be available at those positions. This draft was weak on pass-rushers with one Elite talent with huge injury concerns and a couple of good 2nd tier players. Next year's draft meanwhile look to filled with talent at the position.
While passrushers are one of the most important positions on a NFL team, Monti took the right calculated decision to let that be the one position that was not truly fortified.