They are just moving to the WR parts they will keep going forward. Gibson/Hartline are prime cut bait for salary relief this offseason. We will save roughly just over $6 million cutting both of them (but will incur dead cap).
Still not convinced on ditching Hartline. He's consistent, he stays mostly healthy, he's got good hands. He makes a real effort to always bring the ball down in bounds and there were some really good catches from him last year. I was reviewing Hartline's catches from last year and to me it seems that his low YAC result from: 1 - A big focus on bringing in the catch. He was diving/reaching for a lot of the catches and perhaps that longer frame of his gives him a longer/larger target area for Tannehill. 2 - When a hit is incoming he has a heavy tendency to brace for impact rather than attempt a side-step or jump, meaning he goes down more often than he evades contact. I'm curious to see his number of drops/fumbles because this tendency to protect might results in a safer down rather than keeping his body open for speed but losing a bit of ball protection. It could be that it's just a mental trait, rather than intentional but he is if prioritising making the catch and then protecting the ball over staying open to move then I think that has value. Especially if he's just not that agile. 3 - He's just not that agile or fast, and I think he knows that. It seems he can be knocked off balance quite quickly. All told, he doesn't shy away from taking a hit and he seems to work with what he knows he has. His long frame seems to be the source of both strength and weakness. One the one hand he can stretch/reach/drive for a ball. On the other hand, longer people tend to be easier to bring down unless they've worked on power.
Mostly healthy? Hartline has had the injury bug big time the last 2 years. Again, I like what he brings to the table - just don't like it as a pencil in #1/#2. Anyway - something to keep in mind that may have to do with the distancing from Gibson we're seeing: http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/player/_/stat/returning/sort/kickReturnYards
