With the Saints fans asking about out Tight Ends I started wondering.  What happened to Barnidge?  Some people were expecting him to break out.  I wont mind admitting that I was one of those people.  Rosario is often considered our best receiving TE but isn't that also a strength of Barnidge?

In his only significant NFL season (2009), Barnidge had 12 rec, 242 yards, and 0 touchdowns.  He had a long reception of 55 yards and a average of 20.2 ypc.  

The one thing I was able to see with these stats is that Gary Barnidge is explosive when he does catch a ball.  Some people support moving Rosario to WR because we have no better options and he seems like a reliable set of hands but I haven't heard anyone suggest Barnidge be moved to WR.

This confuses me because Barnidge is faster, and seems to have more of a wider receiver-like body.  He is a TE so he does have a big enough body to create some mis-matches with CBs and he has some break-away speed.  Obviously he isn't going to out run any DB but he is faster than Rosario.

 He obviously isn't getting production as a TE. So why isn't this being considered as an option?  Is there something that he lacks?