The thing is, Harvin will definitely have more migraine headaches and then if Wilson cannot repeat his awesome rookie season he will just become a cancer to Seahawks just like he was with the Vikes.
This... is the exact opposite of what I've heard from every other Vikings fan. It's hard to say what the evaluation is here, because true Pro Bowlers at the height of their career aren't traded often in the NFL. Champ Bailey is the only recent example that comes to mind. That was was Champ + a 2nd for Clinton Portis. Jay Cutler and a 5th brought back Orton, two 1st, and a 3rd. The Ravens, though... the fuck. Remember how everyone got mad at Al Davis when he only got a fourth for the seemingly washed up Randy Moss? A sixth for Boldin is approaching unfair to the rest of the league. Have you considered the "Now he'll be healthy, just to piss us off" idea? Also, the last time he missed a game with a migraine was December 12, 2010.
My perferences for how the Harvin situation could play out were ordered like this: 1. Resign Harvin to a reasonable contract. 2. Trade Harvin for a good selection of draft picks, no less than a first rounder. 3. Accept his contract demands and overpay him. 4. Trade him and get crap back. I like Harvin and think he's a great player, but I was extremely uncomfortable with the Vikes paying top-5 receiver money when his average production for a single season has been 70 catches, 825 yards, 5 TDs, a rushing TD and a return TD - on top of his health concerns. Best case scenario in my mind was giving him a mid-tier contract, in line with his production, and signing Mike Wallace to give the Vikes another viable receiving threat. Worst case scenario in my mind was them overpaying Harvin, which would take them out of the running for either Wallace or Jennings; creating a situation where the Vikes go into the 2013 season with him as the only reliable receiver and getting overused, leading to more injuries.
He hasn't missed a game in awhile but he was still having migraines. Harvin is a versatile and explosive player but he wanted too much money, complained too much and the versatility makes him an even further injury liability. There's a reason teams don't use their top WRs and RBs for returning picks and punts all that often, too much money invested in them for the high risk of injury.
Let's put it this way. With Harvin gone, anem one Vikings WR. Go ahead, I'll wait. Our top WR right now is the 4th round pick from 2012. For fucking real? We wanted our QB of the future to build and improve this year, right? Yeah, let's give him Pop Warner level targets, see what that does for his confidence/numbers.
Vikes released Winfield now, must[I hope] have some big plans. As far as Harvin, it was either pay him a lot of money or trade him. I think the trade was a good deal.
Well, I am quite pleased with the Bears day, for multiple reasons. First, Kellen Davis would could be replaced by one of the players in the puppy bowl and no one would notice. He was a turnstyle as a blocker and couldn't catch shit. Bennett is a big upgrade in blocking and receiving. Second, they desperately needed to improve their line, and Bushrod is likely better than every other person on the Bears current offensive line. Third, this effectively helps destroy two of Cutler's built in excuses for not performing. His excuses last season were that he didn't have protection (he didn't) and he only had one good receiver (he did). Next season, he'll still have Marshall, but he'll also have a healthy 2nd-year Ashlon Jeffrey and Martellius Bennett, not to mention a healthy Forte in the backfield, so he will undoubtedly have the weapons. This is Cutler's contract year, and it is time for the Bears to see if he truly is the future of their franchise or not.
Brady must be pissed about Welker not getting resigned. I thought the understanding was that Brady would take less money so the Pats could sign better guys?
Re: Re: 2012 NFL Season From what I read that was the agreement, you know Brady has to be questioning that call.
Re: Re: 2012 NFL Season It's okay, they replaced one scrappy white slot receiver with another by signing Amendola. Now Amendola just has to NOT fall apart.
I know nobody cares about the Bills, but I found the release of Fitzpatrick a little strange, but also a little relieving. They owed him his full $10m this year, so they could have kept him as an expensive backup for basically no loss. Instead, they cut him and eat the money, which is odd. But it shows a commitment to do what's needed, so... I just hope this uprooting of the organization (most of the coaching staff, the quarterback, even some fairly core players) will provide the culture shift needed there. They have far too many highly talented players out on the field, including one of the best rushing duos in the game, to put on the crappy showing they've had over the last couple years. The Welker thing is weird to me, since they're averaging the same yearly pay to get Amendola as Denver is paying for Welker. But it's signature Patriots - everyone is a replaceable tool on the field.
Re: Re: 2012 NFL Season I was under the impression it was more about Talib, who made a pretty significant impact on their pass defense.
Is is just me or do more teams seem to be making moves this year than normal? Denver is looking pretty scary with the addition of Welker. Miami has made some pretty big moves, they're still a ways off but getting better on paper, the Bears pick up offensive lineman (wha what?) Arizona, never mind, and KC picking up Smith. Tampa picking up a great corner and looking to pick up Revis too? This feels like a lot of moves. Granted some or most won't be that great but some of the gaps (AFC East) might be closer than what they were last year.
Amendola is good, and younger, but he has also only played 12 games in the past two seasons due to various injuries. All it takes is one big hit to wipe him out, and considering the position they want him to play (slot guy who gets a lot of yards after the catch), he is going to take a lot of abuse. Say what you will about Welker, the guy was kind of a machine in terms of his durability. He was always there. I'm not so sure Amendola will hold up to the same kind of abuse, so I don't think he'll ever turn into the security blanket for Brady that Welker was.
Here's the thing about injuries, though: we talk about players being injury prone, but as often as not, we're imagining patterns in randomness. Sure, there are the sort of injuries that linger (for example, Miles Austin's hamstring) but in Amendola's case, we're talking about broken bones and dislocations. While style of play matters, holding that constant, these are pretty freak injuries. Unless your story here is that Amendola literally has weaker bones than Welker, I have a hard time imagining that Welker staying healthy while Amendola gets hurt is primarily attributable to the characteristics of either. They're both tough sons of bitches (see: Amendola's quick recovery last year), but one has gotten luckier with injuries than the other. Also, Amendola is (1) a better vertical threat than Welker, and (2) near the bottom of the NFL in drop rate.
I think the big thing though is that Welker ran the routes the exact way Brady wanted them to be ran. It seems like personal ability is second to how good of a job you run the play. I don't remember any recent successful Pats receiver outside of Moss being an athletic freak, just someone who understood the plays and timing. I know Amendola is a solid slot receiver, if he can do the routes as good as Welker he will probably be fine. With Welker, Brady had exactly what he wanted though. I also am not a big believer in players being "injury prone." It's mostly just bad luck.
Whether anyone can run routes as Welker does, I don't know. But if anyone in the NFL can match him, Amendola would be on the shortlist (along with Boldin, Fitz, Nicks, and Jennings). Bill Barnwell's article today mentioned something important: Everyone holds Amendola's lost season against him because it happened on Week 1. Well, Wes Welker also suffered a season ending injury. He was just lucky enough to tear his ACL in Week 17, not Week 1.
Not to mention the fact that DA has better stats coming to the Patriots than WW had coming to the Patriots. Here the Patriots fans can be excited about the system opposed to everyone using the fact "its a system" against us.
Donald Driver retired. Jennings is in talks with the Vikes and last but not least, T'eo interviewed with the Packers. huh.