Good rebuttal. My take is that the loss of Moss and Linehan had a big effect on Culpepper, if not the loss of Matt Birk at center. The problems for Daunte however are that he's NOT getting these guys back, is coming off a major knee injury, and needs time to get comfortable with his receivers, which he might not be able to do because of his knee injury. And the knee injury will limit his mobility, which will be something he'll have to learn to overcome being that he's a scrambling QB, which is something you don't want to force on him while rushing him back to play. Changing his supporting coaches, cast, and playing style, ALL while still being in the process of coming back from a serious knee injury, are a recipe for failure, and the Dols would be best served not playing him this year but keeping him as the 3rd QB so as to allow him to practice with the team, saving him for next year. But that's likely not how it's going to go down, and I'm completely fine with that.
And as for last year, his only good games (i.e. where he threw more TD's than INT's) were against 2 of the worst teams in the NFL: the Packers and the Saints. He also fumbled 5 times in those 6 games, and the inordinate number of sacks has to be a concern as well. Will he get sacked less with the Dols? Hard to say he will.