BrooksMustGo |
04-19-2006 10:14 AM |
I have a few thoughts on the Grant subject.
As is fairly well known by now, I have no problem at all with dealing Grant. I'll even give a few reasons in this post. I also have no problem that my good friend WhoDi and I disagree on this particular move. From what I'm reading, WhoDi seems to believe (I don't want to put words in your mouth so please correct me if I'm not reading you correctly) that a team doesn't get better by giving away good players who have a track record of being good on this level. I do not dispute that Grant is good. I don't think he's "great", but he is certainly good.
My take on the Grant situation is this.
1. Grant is entering his contract year. Facing this prospect, the organization has 2 options. We attempt to sign him to a lucrative deal right now. We wait to attempt to sign him and see how he plays after this coming season. If we chose to make a run at him now, I wouldn't feel comfortable paying him top 7 money after last season and hope he plays up to his price tag. If we wait until next year, we are faced with the ugly options of either franchising him or letting him walk. As a DE, I think he would be silly to at least not test the market. Either option isn't really pleasant to me. I would hate to franchise him. I would even worse hate to see him walk without getting value for him. That value can work for us.
2. This draft has several prospects on defense that I would consider "can't miss". I have no problem at all in staying at #2 and drafting Williams. He could be a bust I suppose, but I like that risk. He has the tools to be the best DE in the NFC. If we could trade down, I'd like that even better. If we took Williams at either 2-5, then I think we're in a win-win scenario. Hawk is also an appealing prospect, but I like Greenway almost as much the dropoff between the two guys ins't that great. I'd be deeply in favor of a scenario that would land us Williams and Greenway in round 1.
3. If we take Williams, we can't keep Grant. This just isn't hard for me to see. No platooning in a contract year. If we take Williams, we need to be on the phone with teams like Green Bay, Denver, the Jets (if we can't land their 2nd 1st rounder). Taking Williams forces us to move Grant at a point when we can get value for him.
4. If we deal Grant, we could end up with 2 quality starters. The math is just too hard for me to overlook. As I see it, Williams (unproven though he is) is no net loss from Grant. Winding up with a player like Greenway would make things that much better and provide us a net gain.
Will I be crushed if we don't take Williams? Not really--unless of course we take some OG from San Fernando Valley A&T that no one's ever heard of at #2. So to summarize, I'm OK with Williams, Ferguson or Hawk at #2, basically in that order, but would be very pleased with any of those guys. If we trade down, don't go so far as to miss one of the elite prospects.
So I disagree with my friend WhoDi, but politely so. I think I understand where he's coming from and he has a significant point. It's hard to trade away a proven "good" player on a maybe. I think my overall take at this point is that I'm willing to given Payton's talent evaluation the benefit of the doubt. Were we talking about Haslett wanting to trade Grant, I'd be violently opposed to it. Haslett could screw up rubbing suntan oil on the Hawaiian Tropic Girls.
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