Monday Mania - March 2nd, 2009 - Free Agency - The Good, the Bad, and the Stupid
It’s been a week full of surprises and a lot of stupidity as well. One team, the Redskins, are renowned for being dumb and they’ve pretty much kept on track, along with some others. Something I found interesting about this season more than others is a lot of “older” veterans getting resigned or picked up very quickly.
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Good
Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel to Kansas City for a 2nd round pick. Actually, this goes beyond “good” and right up there to exceptional. Cassel had the franchise tag on him and Pioli called the Pats bluff. Though, honestly, who actually thought the Patriots were going to levy out $30 million to QB’s in one season? Cassel for a 2nd round pick was good, getting Vrabel on top of that is exceptional. Excellent move.- Kerry Collins resigned with the Titans. This is the best move they could make at the QB position with the exception of following it up with trading away Vince Young. Collins was the leader of that team and pushed them into the playoffs.
- Fred Taylor to New England. Very under valued Vet running back.
- Kellen Winslow traded to Tampa for 2009 2nd round pick and 2010 5th round pick. Winslow was more drama than production and they need the draft picks.
- Jeff Saturday resigning with Indianapolis is huge. 3 more years of Jeff Saturday is great for Team Peyton.
- Keith Brooking signing with Dallas. The Cowboys needed another linebacker to play the middle and Brooking has been a tackling machine with 1100+ tackles in 11 years. Brooking is also a major field general which should help in Big D.
- Bart Scott to the Jets. It was obvious this was going to happen with Rex Ryan at New York.
- Channing Crowder, the inside linebacker, resigning with the Dolphins reassures they have solid presence up the middle to stop the run for quite awhile longer.
- The Saints re-signed Jonathan Vilma who is probably their best defensive player
- Mario Williams is picking up a new and very talented teammate in Houston with the signing of the former Cardinal Antonio Smith. Smith is very good and underrated and it will benefit both of them.
Bad
Chris Canty signs with the Giants for 42 million with 18+ gauranteed. Canty was a defensive end in the Dallas 3-4 and is “prototypical” for that system being 6′4″ and 305lbs. This isn’t necessarily a terrible signing but the Giants really dumped a lot of money into a guy that they feel can play defensive tackle and defensive end. There wasn’t much evidence in Dallas that Canty is going to excel at defensive tackle and he’s not exactly the fastest guy around the corner either. Canty is only going to become an overpaid above average defensive linemen which will be more of the same.- Jeff Garcia and Byron Leftwich not being signed already. With so many teams unsure of their QB situation or backup QB situation how are these guys still out here? Either of them could start for a lot of teams with Garcia doing nothing but very well when he steps on the field. I’d tack Chris Simms on here but I think he’s going to stay in Tennessee for a chance to take Collins spot down the road which is a great move.
- The Buccaneers released all of their leaders! Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn, Ike Hilliard, Joey Galloway and some others are all gone. I know they want to get younger but they could borderline on very bad next year at this rate. They followed this up with resigning Michael Clayton to a 26 million dollar deal. Clayton has been spotty at best and is going to be the #1 receiver now? What are they thinking?
- Denver had a lot of injuries at running back last year so they went out and signed Correll Buckhalter. Wait, what? Buckhalter has been okay at times but for a team that needs durability he’s just not it. Buckhalter has played in 16 games only 1 time in his 5 year career while averaging less than 6 carries a game. Those are some pretty rocky stats.
Stupid
- I’m not sure how you could slice it but the Bronco’s are just being absolute fucktards with Jay Cutler. Cutler found out he’s being used as trade bait and is obviously not very happy. Who were they trying to get? Well, supposedly, Matt Cassel. There are a couple HUGE problems here. 1. Cutler is implanted as the current leader of that team and played very well on a very average team last season. 2. Matt Cassel over Cutler? Gimmie a break. I think Cassel is going to be very good but Cutler is on great pace to be a top player in a couple years and Cassel is just starting his “pace.” 3. They’re now just denying it. Cutler is fuming mad (who wouldn’t be?) and Denver is just saying it’s totally untrue. Lying about this will not help anyone involved. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
The Redskins. It’s always the same with these guys. Dan Snyder is ready to pay big money to just about anyone. Washington picked up Albert Haynesworth to a huge contract along with re-siging DeAngelo Hall. Why? Haynesworth is the same guy that takes plays off when he feels like it and stomped on Andre Gurode’s face. Yeah, Haynesworth is as talented as they come but he’s going to get $30 million in 13 months 
(21 million dollar ‘option’ at the start of next season) so he only has to play well enough to get that option paid. Snyder just bought a way to sell some more tickets, however. Also, Washington even offering to keep Jason Taylor for 8.5 million a year is chock full o’stupid. The guy hasn’t done shit since he went dancing and wasn’t commited enough to show upfor training camp 70% of the time. Yes, Taylor isn’t signing with the Redskins because he couldn’t commit to be at 70% of training camp. I like his reason, family time, but Taylor needs to just retire and go do something else at this point.- Arizona can you seriously not find a way to convince Kurt Warner to stay? The Cardinals probably won’t even make the playoffs next year if Warner is not the starter. Warner is asking for 14 or 15 million a year but he has played like a Top 5 QB and should be getting it. 14 million a year for 3 years and a chance to be very very competitive each year isn’t worth it? Get out of the NFL if you think that!
- TJ Houshmandzadeh hasn’t signed yet. This could be considered stupid on a couple of levels. One, it means that Cincinnati hasn’t blown him away with the truckload of cash they should be offering him to stay with their miserable franchise. Two, it could also mean TJ is actually considering staying there! The Vikings are hot on his trail and if both parties are more smart than stupid they’ll work it out.
- Brandon Marshall getting in a fight and arrested. I don’t care that the charges were dropped or thrown out this kid needs to grow up.
Non NFL Story
Jeff Pearlman (jeffpearlman.com) was on the Jim Rome Show today with a gnarly anecdote on Barry Bonds. He told a story about a photographer for the Pirates that “wished Bonds was dead.” The back story is that some of the maintenance personnel for the Pirates were killed in some sort of accident involving the work. The photographer was running a fund raiser for the families of the ones that were killed and was selling autographed items from the Pirates as a way of getting money. Bonds wasn’t playing with the Pirates at the time but was well revered in Pittsburgh and the Giants were playing the Pirates that week so the photographer saw him and asked if he would sign something for the fund raiser. Bond is quoted as saying, “Fuck you I’m not signing shit,” and walked away.
Hyper’s Thoughts
- I don’t pray but I sure hope the guys involved in that boating accident are found alive and well
- How in the hell does Dan Orvlosky get 9 mill for 3 years while Garcia and Leftwich aren’t signed?
- I recently put together a second computer to adminster this site from my living room and play Word of Warcraft on. Pretty bad, huh?
- I can’t agree with people telling Cutler to stop whining or just get over it. Cutler is being treated like the fall back option in a bad relationship. No one wants to be that guy.
- Contracts are balooney. Haynesworth contract is really 4 years 48 million but that is nice to read as 7 year 100 million. He’ll never see more than that 48 million if he even gets that far.
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2 Responses to “Monday Mania - March 2nd, 2009 - Free Agency - The Good, the Bad, and the Stupid”
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March 2nd, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Just in response to your Barry Bonds anecdote, about 10-15 years ago when I was working at a local CBS affiliate I was on a production crew with someone who had just gotten hired after working at QVC for several years. It IS second hand but he had a great story about how they had asked Bonds to come in and do an hour (paid) pimping Baseball collectibles. Apparently, even though he had signed a contract agreeing to do this, he came into the studio with some “friend” of his who was some sort of artist of some type and asked if he could come on with him to give his friend some free exposure for his work. The QVC producer said no, that it wouldn’t really be appropriate, so Bonds refused to go on air until they agreed. Apparently there was a pretty heated argument in the studio between Bonds and the producer and the words “I’m Barry Bonds” game from Bonds mouth multiple times while telling the producer how it was going to be. QVC had to give in or they would have been up shit creek, so apparently Bonds’ buddy got is free pub.
You know what, just ignoring the last few years and the steroids imagine how different the public would feel about Barry Bonds if he had actually act someone civilized around the media and in public.
March 4th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
That’s the thing with Bonds… he’s never shown anything other than being an arrogant prick. Maybe if he showed a little bit of “humanity” as people like to say less people would care or maybe MAYBE believe him a little that he didn’t roid but that’s just not the case.
With A-Rod coming out I think it’s 100% that Bonds was using and anyone who thinks otherwise probably has the last name of Bonds or Bush.
Ken Griffey Jr is still the best hitter/player I’ve seen who I would very much believe is on the straight and narrow.