Who are these better downgrade options? Charlie Dean? Will Kelly? Josh Worrell? Matt McGuinness? Sam Skinner? Will Gould?
I don't know how we can reasonably expect these guys to come in and start pumping out better scores than Khamis & Rory Thompson...
Isn't this the thing, we don't know yet. Maybe they're a mid season draftee who slots into half back somewhere, maybe they get a look in when Essendon or similar implements full tank mode.
Who knows. I just know I've been burnt at this stage of the year previously going down to someone who seems like the best of a bad bunch of options, who ends up making nothing much in terms of dollars and disappears.
It's everyone's personal judgement on the risk around these guys. If I was in the market for a def rookie this week I'd be looking at Thompson at 123k and Khamis at 127k, and considering them against Kemp at 156, and probably against Reid at 201 (who has by far the best JS) and trying to work out whether I'm taking a short term cash grab of 50 or 60k, whether I'm hoping for a warm body during the byes, or whether I'm hoping for long term bench coverage.
Everyone's team will have different needs, and everyone will have different appetite for risk.
Good luck with whichever way anyone goes. It will be interesting looking back and understanding what the best move was