Shutdown CBs come at a premium in the NFL.
Pete's issue is that he sticks with a strategy regardless of the pieces he has on hand. To his credit, it works to some extent. We are always at a minimum above average.
But Griffen not being a shutdown corner that plays press well, does not mean he cannot play corner. It means he is not a #1. Or at least an above average #1 in our scheme. He doesn't look terrible to me though, just not exceptional or even above average.
The problem is who you would replace him with. We don't have Sherman anymore. He cannot be a #2 for us, which is what he should be.
So we either have to hope we can get lucky in the draft after a spending a #1 on a good corner (pause to let the laughter subside...), or hope we have a guy in the wings that is at least not tremendously worse. Then we can avoid the 2nd contract on Griffin and save some money.
But there isn't much chance getting another shutdown corner for a few years, so expecting the our corners to produce at a shutdown corner level (or expecting the defense to be what it was) might be the expectation that makes no sense here.