He's right though...Belichick is not high on giving the guaranteed type money a top 5 player. Especially a successful organization like the Pats, where they essentially started there current success by signing mid to late level free agents to short term/non guranteed money deals (the exact opposite philosophy of a team like the Skins)
Would they want top 5 talent? Sure...but I'm comfortable saying you will never see a Belichick/Pats team trade into the top 5 ever. What you saw last year, with moving up to get Mayo is the ceiling. Their philosophy is to stock pile picks down the line...like they do this year with 4 picks in the 1st 2nds...which they will certainly away at least one for future picks.
Fact is alot of teams like drafting that high. If you tell Al Davis he can have the #2 pick or the #17 pick he'll take #2 every time. So it wasn't a weird statement to begin with but whatever.
On the other hand New England didn't move up last year to get Mayo. They traded down. They had the #7 pick from San Fran. Then Traded down to #10 with New Orleans and also got pick #78 out of it.
For that matter Tom Brady was backup to Drew Bledsoe until Drew was injured.
Cassell prooved to have it all including mobility in the pocket where he was the third highest rushing yardage QB in the NFL. He also turned in a NFL top 10 QB Rating of 89.4. while winning 11 games and losing 5.
Cassell managed those accomplishments despite suffering a league high 47 sacks.
Jay Cutler finished with an 86 QB rating with 25 TDs and 18 Ints while being sacked a mere 11 times (only Kerry Collins had less at eight).
wil..
Cassell prooved to have it all including mobility in the pocket where he was the third highest rushing yardage QB in the NFL. He also turned in a NFL top 10 QB Rating of 89.4. while winning 11 games and losing 5.
Cassell managed those accomplishments despite suffering a league high 47 sacks.
Jay Cutler finished with an 86 QB rating with 25 TDs and 18 Ints while being sacked a mere 11 times (only Kerry Collins had less at eight).
wil..
Hey I'm a USC fan so I'm happy the guy had success and got the big payday. He But KC's O-line and WR's are a far cry from NE's. It's all speculation at this point but I just don't see him as much better than Thigpen at this point. Props to NE for buying low/selling high. They took advantage of a great season by MC which is what the Browns should've done LY with Derek Andersen.
KC has a ton of other holes so I'm more than happy to see them throw away a high 2nd round pick and 15 mil worth of cap space for Cassell.
As for Cutler, he's a mopey little bitch sometimes but it's obvious the tools are there. He just needs to mature and stop thinking his cannon arm can fit a ball anywhere he chooses. That's what gets him in trouble with the INT's.
Interesting that Detroit and Tampa were trying to work a 3 way deal with NE & Denver thinking Cutler could be had for Cassell and picks b/c Josh McD would want to be reunited with Cassell. Damn glad that didn't happen.
PS...I got your email Bar, thanks in advance.
KC has a ton of other holes so I'm more than happy to see them throw away a high 2nd round pick and 15 mil worth of cap space for Cassell.
As for Cutler, he's a mopey little bitch sometimes but it's obvious the tools are there. He just needs to mature and stop thinking his cannon arm can fit a ball anywhere he chooses. That's what gets him in trouble with the INT's.
Interesting that Detroit and Tampa were trying to work a 3 way deal with NE & Denver thinking Cutler could be had for Cassell and picks b/c Josh McD would want to be reunited with Cassell. Damn glad that didn't happen.
PS...I got your email Bar, thanks in advance.
On its face KC got the better of the deal.Giving up just a 2nd rounder for MC and MV.But, any NFL owner with a half a brain knows well that you cna't keep two QB's sucking up 25% of you cap space.What the inept owners didn't know is that when you snooze you lose.Pioli is no dunce and knows Cassel. Chiefs are getting a good deal.
What the Pats did was free up 20 mil. in cap space smack in the middle of free agency and now have 4 picks in the first two rounds.....This from a Brady,Harrison,Maroney, Adlius Thomas less 11-5 team. Oh my!
Looks like the Patriot dark ages of missing the playoffs are over.See you next year boyos!
What the Pats did was free up 20 mil. in cap space smack in the middle of free agency and now have 4 picks in the first two rounds.....This from a Brady,Harrison,Maroney, Adlius Thomas less 11-5 team. Oh my!
Looks like the Patriot dark ages of missing the playoffs are over.See you next year boyos!
Winners and losers: Broncos blow it.
The Denver Broncos have just stumbled into the stupidest predicament of the offseason.
They’ll spend the next several hours and days and weeks denying it, but the world will know better: The Broncos flirted for a moment with the idea of acquiring New England Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel. A league source confirmed to Yahoo! Sports that the Broncos showed legitimate interest in acquiring Cassel – a move that inevitably would have spelled a trade for Jay Cutler.
Ultimately, Cassel went to the Kansas City Chiefs, but the Broncos already had opened Pandora’s Box. Indeed, it’s an unambiguous signal. Considering another starting quarterback shows a lack of total confidence in the current one.
Now the spin control will be shifted into high gear for the Broncos over the next few days, with a semantics game about having to “answer the phone” when someone calls. Certainly, you have to answer the phone, but if you’re 100 percent sold on your franchise quarterback, you don’t explore Cassel’s price tag. According to a source, the Broncos did just that, and now they’ll have to pay for it, via a round of awkward denials and attempts to mend hurt feelings with their star player.
It will be interesting to see how the situation plays out, considering the Broncos will have an easier time dousing this story than they will soothing Cutler. He has shown in his brief NFL career that he doesn’t take being slighted very well. And for a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback, there are few things more embarrassing than having your franchise looking at another potential starter.
As Cutler told the Denver Post Saturday night, “I’m upset. I mean, I’m really shocked at this point. I could see why they want [Matt] Cassel. I don’t know if they think I can’t run the system or I don’t have the skills for it. I just don’t get it. Or if they don’t think they can sign me with my next contract. I just don’t know what it is. I’ve heard I’m still on the trading block.”
Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels denied Cutler ever was on the trading block, telling the Denver Post, “He’s our quarterback. We’re excited about this season.”
Let the spin begin.
Here are some of Saturday’s winners and losers on the second day of free agency …
Winners:
• The Kansas City Chiefs:
Picking up quarterback Matt Cassel and linebacker Mike Vrabel and surrendering only a second-round pick is a very good move. Had the Chiefs already had a long-term contract in place with Cassel, it would have been a great move. Instead, the deal comes with additional risk. I’m going to assume that the Chiefs will get something done because they won’t want to pay Cassel the astronomical franchise-tag sum for this season ($14.65 million) and then risk reaching an impasse next year and having to franchise him again at a whopping $17.58 million for 2010. Bank on them reaching a six-year deal before training camp. Now Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli and new coach Todd Haley have their franchise quarterback. All of the sudden, this team is looking like a contender for a Miami-esque rebound in 2009.
• The New York Giants:
We still are waiting for an upgrade at wideout, but the Giants landed their top two defensive targets: linebacker Michael Boley and tackle Rocky Bernard. Boley is athletic but a little soft against the run. He will benefit from the system and playing next to Antonio Pierce. Bernard is a very active defensive tackle who should be fantastic in the Giants’ rotation on the interior of the line. Even if they don’t land Chris Canty – which looks like less of a priority now – this defensive front looks loaded for next season. Cornerback still is a little thin, but it will benefit greatly from the push that will come from the front four.
• The Denver Broncos: From a leadership and experience standpoint, the additions have been very solid. Granted, guys like safety Brian Dawkins, linebacker Andra Davis and running back Correll Buckhalter are a little long in the tooth, and Denver might not get a great deal of mileage out of them. But the team – and the defense in particular – could use some leadership. Dawkins will add that in spades and make sure guys are where they should be. Davis will add some experience in a 3-4 alignment. Adding Canty as an end in that defensive front would kick this class up another notch.
• The Houston Texans:
The team went into the offseason seemingly only a move or two from finally realizing its potential. Keeping Eugene Wilson was a plus, as was moving backup quarterback Sage Rosenfels for a fourth-round pick. But the Texans took their biggest step of the offseason by adding defensive end Antonio Smith, who had a solid career in Arizona. Smith is balanced against both the run and pass and adds great size to the Texans’ defensive line. He greatly will benefit playing opposite Mario Williams and should up his sack numbers. If Houston can get Amobi Okoye back on track, this could be one of the AFC’s better defensive lines.
• The New Orleans Saints: They still have work to do on the defensive side of the ball, but they did well in retaining offensive tackle Jon Stinchcomb and linebacker Jonathan Vilma. The re-signing of Vilma was particularly masterful. Had New Orleans signed Vilma before he hit free agency, the fourth-round pick the Saints sent to the New York Jets for him would have escalated to a second-rounder. And that was an extreme problem, because New Orleans already had promised its second-round pick to the New York Giants as part of the Jeremy Shockey trade. So signing Vilma before he hit free agency would have triggered a disastrous scenario: The Giants would have gotten the Saints’ first-round pick, and the Jets would have gotten their second-rounder. In essence, by allowing Vilma to hit free agency and then re-signing him, the Saints saved their first-round pick.
Losers:
• Linebacker Ray Lewis: His agent, David Dunn, already is doing damage control, talking about how much Lewis loves Baltimore and how he’s a symbol of the team’s defensive greatness. It smacks of a free-agent failure. The market for Lewis just never has materialized. But don’t blame Dunn. Lewis never has grasped his true value to the world outside of Baltimore. He might be a superhero to that organization. But to anyone else who has to shell out a massive deal, he’s just a super-pricey free agent who will be 34 when the season starts and likely not worth his paycheck by the time the third year of his deal rolls around. Lewis is worth exponentially less to any team but the Ravens, and now he finally is figuring that out.
• The Detroit Lions: Seeing Cassel sent to Kansas City for a second-round pick had to sting. Somehow, Daunte Culpepper doesn’t instill great faith. While there’s no guaranteeing Cassel will be a star for the Chiefs, a second-round pick is a modest gamble, and it’s saying something that Pioli thought enough of Cassel to deal for him.
Look at it this way: If the Lions draft Georgia’s Matthew Stafford, they will be staring at a six-year contract that comes in around $75 to $80 million, with at least $35 million in guaranteed money. Detroit likely could have had Cassel – who has one season as a proven NFL commodity – for the same terms. Then the Lions also would have retained the No. 1 overall pick. So, which is better? Having Stafford and the No. 33 overall pick? Or having a more proven Cassel and the No. 1 overall pick? Personally, I’d have taken Cassel and retained the option of drafting a franchise left tackle or Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry.
• Wideout Laveranues Coles: The fact that he still doesn’t have a deal is troubling, considering Coles walked away from a guaranteed $6 million payday with the Jets in 2009. When he left that money on the table, the natural assumption was that something fishy was going on and that Coles already had another lucrative landing zone in place. But now that he hasn’t gotten a new deal, it just looks like Coles was betting he could land a whopper of a deal in free agency. But the wide receiver market has been ultra-weak, to the point that Cincinnati’s T.J. Houshmandzadeh may have to return to Cincinnati to get a solid payday. Like Ray Lewis, it’s looking like the 31-year-old Coles may have grossly overestimated his worth.
YahooSports.com
The Denver Broncos have just stumbled into the stupidest predicament of the offseason.
They’ll spend the next several hours and days and weeks denying it, but the world will know better: The Broncos flirted for a moment with the idea of acquiring New England Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel. A league source confirmed to Yahoo! Sports that the Broncos showed legitimate interest in acquiring Cassel – a move that inevitably would have spelled a trade for Jay Cutler.
Ultimately, Cassel went to the Kansas City Chiefs, but the Broncos already had opened Pandora’s Box. Indeed, it’s an unambiguous signal. Considering another starting quarterback shows a lack of total confidence in the current one.
Now the spin control will be shifted into high gear for the Broncos over the next few days, with a semantics game about having to “answer the phone” when someone calls. Certainly, you have to answer the phone, but if you’re 100 percent sold on your franchise quarterback, you don’t explore Cassel’s price tag. According to a source, the Broncos did just that, and now they’ll have to pay for it, via a round of awkward denials and attempts to mend hurt feelings with their star player.
It will be interesting to see how the situation plays out, considering the Broncos will have an easier time dousing this story than they will soothing Cutler. He has shown in his brief NFL career that he doesn’t take being slighted very well. And for a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback, there are few things more embarrassing than having your franchise looking at another potential starter.
As Cutler told the Denver Post Saturday night, “I’m upset. I mean, I’m really shocked at this point. I could see why they want [Matt] Cassel. I don’t know if they think I can’t run the system or I don’t have the skills for it. I just don’t get it. Or if they don’t think they can sign me with my next contract. I just don’t know what it is. I’ve heard I’m still on the trading block.”
Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels denied Cutler ever was on the trading block, telling the Denver Post, “He’s our quarterback. We’re excited about this season.”
Let the spin begin.
Here are some of Saturday’s winners and losers on the second day of free agency …
Winners:
• The Kansas City Chiefs:
Picking up quarterback Matt Cassel and linebacker Mike Vrabel and surrendering only a second-round pick is a very good move. Had the Chiefs already had a long-term contract in place with Cassel, it would have been a great move. Instead, the deal comes with additional risk. I’m going to assume that the Chiefs will get something done because they won’t want to pay Cassel the astronomical franchise-tag sum for this season ($14.65 million) and then risk reaching an impasse next year and having to franchise him again at a whopping $17.58 million for 2010. Bank on them reaching a six-year deal before training camp. Now Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli and new coach Todd Haley have their franchise quarterback. All of the sudden, this team is looking like a contender for a Miami-esque rebound in 2009.
• The New York Giants:
We still are waiting for an upgrade at wideout, but the Giants landed their top two defensive targets: linebacker Michael Boley and tackle Rocky Bernard. Boley is athletic but a little soft against the run. He will benefit from the system and playing next to Antonio Pierce. Bernard is a very active defensive tackle who should be fantastic in the Giants’ rotation on the interior of the line. Even if they don’t land Chris Canty – which looks like less of a priority now – this defensive front looks loaded for next season. Cornerback still is a little thin, but it will benefit greatly from the push that will come from the front four.
• The Denver Broncos: From a leadership and experience standpoint, the additions have been very solid. Granted, guys like safety Brian Dawkins, linebacker Andra Davis and running back Correll Buckhalter are a little long in the tooth, and Denver might not get a great deal of mileage out of them. But the team – and the defense in particular – could use some leadership. Dawkins will add that in spades and make sure guys are where they should be. Davis will add some experience in a 3-4 alignment. Adding Canty as an end in that defensive front would kick this class up another notch.
• The Houston Texans:
The team went into the offseason seemingly only a move or two from finally realizing its potential. Keeping Eugene Wilson was a plus, as was moving backup quarterback Sage Rosenfels for a fourth-round pick. But the Texans took their biggest step of the offseason by adding defensive end Antonio Smith, who had a solid career in Arizona. Smith is balanced against both the run and pass and adds great size to the Texans’ defensive line. He greatly will benefit playing opposite Mario Williams and should up his sack numbers. If Houston can get Amobi Okoye back on track, this could be one of the AFC’s better defensive lines.
• The New Orleans Saints: They still have work to do on the defensive side of the ball, but they did well in retaining offensive tackle Jon Stinchcomb and linebacker Jonathan Vilma. The re-signing of Vilma was particularly masterful. Had New Orleans signed Vilma before he hit free agency, the fourth-round pick the Saints sent to the New York Jets for him would have escalated to a second-rounder. And that was an extreme problem, because New Orleans already had promised its second-round pick to the New York Giants as part of the Jeremy Shockey trade. So signing Vilma before he hit free agency would have triggered a disastrous scenario: The Giants would have gotten the Saints’ first-round pick, and the Jets would have gotten their second-rounder. In essence, by allowing Vilma to hit free agency and then re-signing him, the Saints saved their first-round pick.
Losers:
• Linebacker Ray Lewis: His agent, David Dunn, already is doing damage control, talking about how much Lewis loves Baltimore and how he’s a symbol of the team’s defensive greatness. It smacks of a free-agent failure. The market for Lewis just never has materialized. But don’t blame Dunn. Lewis never has grasped his true value to the world outside of Baltimore. He might be a superhero to that organization. But to anyone else who has to shell out a massive deal, he’s just a super-pricey free agent who will be 34 when the season starts and likely not worth his paycheck by the time the third year of his deal rolls around. Lewis is worth exponentially less to any team but the Ravens, and now he finally is figuring that out.
• The Detroit Lions: Seeing Cassel sent to Kansas City for a second-round pick had to sting. Somehow, Daunte Culpepper doesn’t instill great faith. While there’s no guaranteeing Cassel will be a star for the Chiefs, a second-round pick is a modest gamble, and it’s saying something that Pioli thought enough of Cassel to deal for him.
Look at it this way: If the Lions draft Georgia’s Matthew Stafford, they will be staring at a six-year contract that comes in around $75 to $80 million, with at least $35 million in guaranteed money. Detroit likely could have had Cassel – who has one season as a proven NFL commodity – for the same terms. Then the Lions also would have retained the No. 1 overall pick. So, which is better? Having Stafford and the No. 33 overall pick? Or having a more proven Cassel and the No. 1 overall pick? Personally, I’d have taken Cassel and retained the option of drafting a franchise left tackle or Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry.
• Wideout Laveranues Coles: The fact that he still doesn’t have a deal is troubling, considering Coles walked away from a guaranteed $6 million payday with the Jets in 2009. When he left that money on the table, the natural assumption was that something fishy was going on and that Coles already had another lucrative landing zone in place. But now that he hasn’t gotten a new deal, it just looks like Coles was betting he could land a whopper of a deal in free agency. But the wide receiver market has been ultra-weak, to the point that Cincinnati’s T.J. Houshmandzadeh may have to return to Cincinnati to get a solid payday. Like Ray Lewis, it’s looking like the 31-year-old Coles may have grossly overestimated his worth.
YahooSports.com
KC made a definate upgrade.
For the Pats it was addition by subtraction,
What the Pats did was free up 20 mil. in cap space smack in the middle of free agency and now have 4 picks in the first two rounds.....This from a Brady,Harrison,Maroney, Adlius Thomas less 11-5 team. Oh my!
Who got robbed in this was the Broncos via the dumb fuckin Bucs.
This what went down..
Broncos Cutler to Bucs.Bucs 1st and 3rd rounder to Pats.Cassel to Broncos.
However...like I said earlier you snooze you lose.Bucs waited to long and the KC/Pats trade paperwork had already been filed.
Maybe because Tampa has this guy who is better than Cassell
2007
After two tremendous seasons, Johnson entered the 2007 season on the Walter Payton Award watchlist and as a Preseason All-American. In Johnson's first game of the season, he passed for 403 yards and 4 touchdowns. He then followed it up with two straight games of six touchdowns. Against Davidson College, Johnson passed for a career-high 428 yards and 6 touchdowns. Johnson finished the season with 2,988 yards and a school-record 43 touchdowns passing, one interception, and a career-high 726 yards and two touchdowns rushing. Johnson finished the season as the school's record-holder in career touchdown passes and passing yards; he already owned the school record for career completions. Johnson finished the season by being named a third-team FCS All-American and a Payton Award finalist.
[edit] Professional career
[edit] 2008 NFL Draft
After his senior football season, Johnson was invited to play in the 2008 East-West Shrine Game in Houston, Texas, and was named the game's Offensive MVP after finishing the game with 5 completions out of 11 pass attempts for 78 yards and a touchdown and 103 rushing yards on three attempts.
Despite his small school background, Johnson had his name on many team's draft boards. He was aided by his impressive NFL Combine performances, in which he posted the best 40 yard dash time (4.55), broad jump and vertical jump of any quarterback in the 2008 NFL Combine.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-1>[2]</SUP> He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the 25th pick of the fifth round (160th overall) in 2008 NFL Draft.
2007
After two tremendous seasons, Johnson entered the 2007 season on the Walter Payton Award watchlist and as a Preseason All-American. In Johnson's first game of the season, he passed for 403 yards and 4 touchdowns. He then followed it up with two straight games of six touchdowns. Against Davidson College, Johnson passed for a career-high 428 yards and 6 touchdowns. Johnson finished the season with 2,988 yards and a school-record 43 touchdowns passing, one interception, and a career-high 726 yards and two touchdowns rushing. Johnson finished the season as the school's record-holder in career touchdown passes and passing yards; he already owned the school record for career completions. Johnson finished the season by being named a third-team FCS All-American and a Payton Award finalist.
[edit] Professional career
[edit] 2008 NFL Draft
After his senior football season, Johnson was invited to play in the 2008 East-West Shrine Game in Houston, Texas, and was named the game's Offensive MVP after finishing the game with 5 completions out of 11 pass attempts for 78 yards and a touchdown and 103 rushing yards on three attempts.
Despite his small school background, Johnson had his name on many team's draft boards. He was aided by his impressive NFL Combine performances, in which he posted the best 40 yard dash time (4.55), broad jump and vertical jump of any quarterback in the 2008 NFL Combine.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-1>[2]</SUP> He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the 25th pick of the fifth round (160th overall) in 2008 NFL Draft.
