His priority is always pass game threat. Always. So he would be more than willing, I believe, to go 12 sets on par with 11
if he had sufficient pass threat from his 12 set personnel.
It's an important distinction in this kind of conversation IMO.
So if in the draft he had managed to get his hands on Kincaid or LaPorta that would have been the change in personnel necessary to facilitate a pivot to 12. Because then he's got Higs & Long as his Y TE options. And the pass threat he requires at F to pull the extra wideout off the field. Because he is more than willing to use his WRs in that F role as we saw with Skow, and he just drafted Nacua who is a poor man's Kupp in that he's got sneaky ability to get open underneath as a big target.
What this means is that he's gonna see who is his best in that role, and it'll be called 11 if it's a combination of wideouts running those responsibilities. But we won't see him transition to 12 until he's got a smooth threat he requires that is good enough to pull a wideout off the field.
Could it happen this year? Well it is unlikely the draft pick, who has some nice raw ability, is going to be good enough year one for that. Maybe next year he can provide that and even then it's a longshot. No the guy who is our hope for this year is Hopkins, who has sufficient time fiddling around on this roster and learning the ropes and is in that window where he's going to need to put up or get cut. Chances of Hopkins stepping up... I have a hard time with that. I don't understand why he can't dress when our position has been weak over the recent past seasons, and Super Bowl/playoffs performance aside I wonder if the staff dislikes him or something. So idk. But our hope for a true 12 set spike is Higs & Hopkins.
Now some may mention Long there. But Long is not the guy McVay will require as a pass threat to pull a wideout off the field. He is Higs' replacement while they try again and again to hit on a TE which to be perfectly honest probably doesn't happen with this pick. The top TEs are always dawgs. This guy has nice potential but he's an accessory piece type not a steak dinner.
