Well you said we should trade both Howard and Brate at this point. To me that suggests you are meaning now. Would have been a relevant thing to say before the trade deadline not a few weeks after. And Brate had 10 catches last week. Howard had 4 catches and a touchdown the week before. Trading them next offseason when and if we were to do that would open up two more holes. Not having those guys who attract multiple defenders on numerous plays throughout the game means game planning is easy on the other side since we only rushed the ball 8 times last week... and that's let's cover godwin and Evans because they have no offensive threats at tight end in the middle of the field or in the flats. Game set match. I think you are underplaying the Importance of having those guys to keep the defense honest.
I think they would be better off investing in a higher end #3 receiver. They target Perryman more then they target the TE position. And you are right. They did target Brats a lot last game. So we can go off of last game as an example, or a history of unproductive TE's through the course of history on a BA coached team.
If you are truly telling me that you can't see the difference in production between our TE's in Dirks offense, and our TE's this year, I guess I would have to say we will just have to agree to disagree.
Everybody including Bruce Arians himself, has acknowledged the tight end does not play a large receiving role in his offense.
As far as creating and filling holes. I agree with that philosophy when it comes to our offensive line, but finding a strong blocking tight end is not a tough thing to do