I don't believe people think he was the "major issue". He was just an issue.
I know people want to be optimistic about the OL, including me, but we all know they weren't fantastic. They a middle of the road unit at best right now. Objective rankings everywhere say that. Where the optimism comes is that maybe they'll crack top 10 with time together since last year, as it's mostly the same guys. Regardless, OL should get better and better with more and more time together. Keyword is should. Also, someone like Wright should see more improvement. Again, maybe a lot are guilty of optimism, but I think everyone would GLADLY have taken replacements for center and RG. No one loved those guys last year.
Also WRs... everyone knows that someone like Mooney wasn't fantastic. Sure, he's probably better than what we saw, but that doesn't mean people didn't want to upgrade him. Universally, everyone wanted WR upgraded. No one wanted to pay Mooney and that was totally solidified when we saw his contract. No one here wanted to pay that... I can't remember a single person being sad he was gone.
Getsy was universally trashed. No need to go deep on that one.
So, I'd say a majority of the fanbase very readily would've welcomed changes on the OL, WR, and OC always. That's an indication that people definitely didn't believe Fields was the only issue. The thing though is Fields has a contract thing to work through soon, and there's no single position where an upgrade can make the most difference like QB. So, it makes sense to try to make that move without making Fields shoulder all the blame. People always wanted to make this a "is Fields the problem" kind of issue, but no one person is the problem anywhere (except the McCaskey family).
sports.yahoo.com
