Top Corner or Star Back: Bailey Makes It Clear

At first I was going to put this in the News Wire forum but thought this article might be good for some discussion:

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/7403302

I think the trade was good for both teams- it addressed weaknesses both had... considering we were gonna lose champ anyway, it's a coup that we were able to nab portis.

I agree that it was a good trade for both teams, but if corner is such a needed position, then why didn't Denver give us Portis and there 2nd round pick?

How about we wait til the end of the season to see which player had the bigger impact before we judge this trade.

I think the trade will work out fine for both teams.

I think the trade will work out fine for both teams.

Couldn't agree more.

"I think Champ is the best corner in the game," said one NFC personnel director. "But I'd go with the running back. I think you can control the game with a good back. Joe Gibbs will do that in Washington with Portis. So I give the edge to the back."

A running back can control the game because he has the ball. All you have to do is not throw towards the shutdown corner, and you have taken him out of the game (granted that is the objective)...but the bottom line is that Champ would have walked anyway. So if we said no to Denver about the 2nd round pick, they would have just got him via F/A. And we would have gotten nothing.

I still think it was a stupid trade on our part. A great cover corner is much harder to find than a good running back. Plus we throw in a second rounder which just makes the trade that much more stupid. We could have gotten a quality d-linemen with that pick.

I disagree with the assessment that we "threw in" a second round pick. It sees to me that we essentially traded a second round for Portis. Bailey had one foot out the door. When we franchised him, there was no indication whatsoever from him that he would ever sign the tender or play a single down this season for us. There were grumblings that he was more than willing to ignore the tender and sit out the year to reemerge next year as a free agent.

To get Portis for a second round pick plus a player who more than likely would not have ever played another down for us again (and I don't care who it is at that point) is a coup. Especially a player who did not want to be here anymore.

We got the best of that trade, hands down.

Agree with Dave Butz, he was gone regardless so they salvaged the best deal possible. I think that we'll see him struggle in Denver.

Portis will thrive in DC and everyone will forget about the 2nd round pick.

Wasn't the second round pick necessary to make the salaries work? Anyway, no knock on Champ but in the grand scheme of things I think we did ok. We got a stud running back, replaced Champ with Shawn Springs (let's see if he can revert to the Springs of a couple of years ago) and besides Springs won't have to do as much as Champ had to if the rest of the defense steps up, which I think they will.

Don't want to be a conspiracy theorist here, but I might go so far as to say if not for Dan Snyder, people wouldn't be so quick to judge this trade. But it's another way to attack him for being too hasty.

Only time will tell what happens. I think the Broncos will love having Champ there but we won't be shedding any tears of sadness here in DC, only in tears of joy when Gibbs is holding the Lombardi trophy in February.