Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Mattyk72
I don't think they were planning on looking at another QB but when Culter became available it changed everything. The writing was already on the wall when you consider they haven't tried to extend Campbell already. It's put up or shutup time. Alot of people out there do see Cutler as a big improvement over Campbell, not just our front office.
|
Well said. The Broncos traded with the Bears because they valued Kyle Orton more than Jason Campbell. Allegedly, the Broncos also valued Brady Quinn – who hasn’t done a thing – more than Jason Campbell (In our proposed three-way trade, the Browns would have sent Quinn to Denver, Cutler to Washington, and we would have sent picks all over the place. This trade is probably why we made a separate inquiry with another team about trading Campbell – because neither the Broncos nor Bears wanted him.) Consider our first rounder in 2009 is more valuable than the Bears’ and our 2010 first round pick will probably be more valuable than theirs; the Broncos essentially took less valuable draft picks because they didn’t want Campbell.
What do we learn from this?
1. The Redskins don’t think Campbell can be a franchise QB.
2. Atleast 3 other teams in need of a quarterback (Denver, Cleveland, and the mystery team to whom we shopped Campbell) don’t think Campbell can be a franchise QB.
3a. No one thinks Campbell is worth a 2nd rounder (We let it be known that we wanted to trade him for a 2nd rounder – any one interested in paying that price would have made inquiries and we would have heard something about it.)
3b. As little as this team thinks of him, Campbell is actually more valuable to them than he is to anyone else.
As you said, this is put up or shut up time for Campbell. 2009 is Campbell’s last chance to ever have a realistic shot at starting for a professional football team. If he doesn’t play good enough for the Redskins (who, ironically, over-value him) to resign him, no one else is going to look at him as anything other than a backup QB (which is probably what he’s best suited for anyways).
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by GTripp0012
Peter King says our final offer was two firsts and Campbell. As predicted, Campbell is more valued by this organization than he is by the Broncos, so the Redskins weren't really even all that close. But still, that's kind of a crazy-stupid offer for one guy, and as soon as the Broncos mentioned the words "first round pick", we should have high tailed it out of the discussion altogether.
|
Peter King wrote about this in his MMQB on SI.com today. He interviewed Bears GM Angelo, who historically, loves keeping his draft picks. When you look at their drafts over a 12 year period (ignoring the past 2 years), only 4 of 12 first round picks became solid starters. Only one turned in to a “franchise” player – Brian Urlacher. The only QB they drafted in the 1st round was Rex Grossman – so that shows you what type of QB you can get if you only use ONE first round pick on a guy.
IF (and please understand I’m just saying IF) the Redskins were certain that Campbell was not “the guy” and IF the Redskins were certain that Cutler was “the guy,” then two first rounders is NOTHING at all. Here’s my reasoning:
The hardest thing to find in football is a franchise QB. Nearly very year in the draft, a supposed “sure-thing” franchise QB is drafted with one of the first 5 picks. The vast majority of the time, the guy doesn’t live up to expectations… that’s why there are so few teams in the league who have a “franchise QB”
Across the league, only 50% of first round draft picks become solid starters. If you hit one year, chances are, you’re going to miss the next. Yes, it would be nice to “hit” every year, but that’s just not realistic. Statistically speaking, it takes TWO first rounder’s to get one great player anyways. So in that light, why NOT trade two first rounders for a guy who you feel is an absolute LOCK to be your franchise QB for the next 10 years?
Once a team gets a franchise QB, then everything else seems to fall in place. If you have a franchise QB, you don’t need to surround him with “stars.” Just give him good, solid players (rounds 2-4 usually work well for this) and everything else will just fall into place.
I said all that to try and understand/justify the logic of our front office in pursuing Cutler. That said, in the end, I think we lucked out by having the Bears outbid us. Campbell seems to have a fire lit under his a$$ and seems determined to prove everyone wrong. His agent told JLC that Campbell insinuated he would be a much more vocal leader in 2009. Whereas before, he never seemed to be very passionate, now he’ll be sure to let everyone know who’s in charge when he steps on the field. If Campbell does this, it may inspire his teammates to play harder as well.
Whether Campbell truly takes his game to the next level remains to be seen, but now that everything’s settled down, I feel I know one thing for certain:
Jason Campbell will be a better player in 2009 than he would have been if we hadn’t tried to acquire Cutler.