Yakuza Rich
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Pacman Thoughts and Other League Stuff
by Yakuza Rich
http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com
The Cowboys have reached an agreement in principle with the Titans for a trade to acquire Adam "Pacman" Jones. From my understanding of the deal, it's essentially for a 4th round pick in 2008, with the following caveats:
1. If Jones does not get reinstated/never gets to play for Dallas, the Titans give back a 4th round pick in 2009.
2. If Jones does play for Dallas and does play well (not just play, but play well) the Cowboys will give up another 4th round pick in 2009.
I'm a bit conflicted about the deal simply because I don't trust Jones. Oddly enough I've had a lot more faith in Tank Johnson and Terrell Owens. If there's one thing that Jerry Jones has learned from the Parcells era is that it's quite alright to take in players with problems in the past, but you need to paint them into a corner where it doesn't cost the team much to cut them if they have to and the player knows this is probably his last chance in the league.
This is probably toeing the proverbial painted line given Parcells just didn't give up draft picks for many quality veterans, especially troubled vets. But Pacman provides Dallas with a few different qualities since he is at times a great corner (although he can't tackle), a tremendous punt returner (something Dallas is lacking) and now Dallas doesn't desperately need to get a cornerback in the first round.
Chances are that Pacman will see most of his time in the nickel since he has to get back into football playing mode and he'll likely be the punt returner, something teams don't like having starters do since if they get injured or hurt on a return, you can really screw up the team. Think of when Newman got hurt against the Lions on a punt return in 2006 and the 5 minutes of crisis the team had.
Personally I think the Cowboys overpaid for Pacman as they were the only buyers for his services and the Titans clearly wanted to unload on him. Even still, at a worse case scenario Pacman does get reinstated and plays for Dallas and then gets in trouble again and Dallas loses a 4th round pick for a guy that was with the team for less than a year. And let's face it, if this was a move made by the Patriots, fans from around the league and the media would be praising this to high heaven. And last I checked, Jerry Jones has the same amount of Super Bowl rings as Bill Belicheck, except Jerry didn't need videotape to do it.
As far as the draft goes, the Cowboys would be smart to draft a corner no later than round three. For starters, there's no guarantee that Pacman will be reinstated and right now the #3 corner on the team in Alan Ball. Then there's the fact that both Terence Newman and Anthony Henry turn 30 and 31 respectively this season. In fact, I'm pretty sure that this is Henry's last season with the team.
I'm confident that Dallas will draft a running back in the first round. They only have one real tailback on the team with Marion Barber and in Jerry-speak (which I'm fluent in), he pretty much stated "we are going to get a tailback in the draft." Given everything I think that the tailback will come down to either Felix Jones or ECU's Chris Johnson. Jerry has talked about wanting to get that "WOW player" in the draft and Johnson is the closest that fit the bill. And from my lone scouting source he believes that teams feel he is a late first round material. So I wouldn't be surprised to see Johnson taken by Dallas with the 22nd pick.
After that I see a bit of a surprise as I think Dallas will go after either Kenny Phillips (Miami) or Tyrell Johnson (Arkansas St.). Dallas is NOT going to get rid of Roy Williams this year because he's an $8 million cap hit. The problem with Williams is he's played very average since midpoint of 2006 and it's at a time in his career when he should be getting better instead of getting worse. He should have thrived in Phillips' aggressive scheme, but instead regressed. It's alright to be an average player, but not when they are paying you top dollar. And there should be a concern that his play will be below average next season. So if possible you'd like somebody cheap that can come in if needed and if you plan on releasing him after the 2008 season, you'd like to have a player with some experience to come in and do the job.
- The Commanders made offers for both Chad Johnson and Anquan Boldin and were subsequently turned down. The offers were reported first and thirds for both guys. This makes me laugh on a few different levels.
1. For all of the talk from Skins fans that "Snyder learned his lesson about giving away picks" these moves flush that theory down the toilet.
2. For all of the talk that the Skins would "never go after a player like Terrell Owens" they went after just as big of a malcontent in Johnson. Except the difference is that Johnson actually has a quality contract. Owens was paid like the 40th best receiver in the league and had the audacity to be paid as a top 10 receiver.
3. I laugh any time I see or hear of Commanders failure.
I think this tells that they are not too keen on where they are drafting. The are projected to either go WR, CB, or DE in the first round. CB is their best bet, but since they wanted to make the trade, something tells me they didn't want to choose between WR or DE at the #21 spot. So I figure they will pick up a WR or DE in he first and a CB in the second round.
All of that being said, the joke is sort of on me. If the Commanders had made a trade (although Johnson's speed scares me), it would have been a horrible move for Washington. They have serious needs at O-Line with all of their returning starters being at least 30 years old next season. They also need a CB, a DE, probably a LB (McIntosh got hurt last year and Marcus Washington is no spring chicken) and perhaps a safety with Reed Doughty being a questionable commodity. By giving up a first and a third in all likelihood the 2nd round would the be the only contributor for 2008 and they probably would not be able to re-load for the future, particularly on the O-Line, if they did not have a first and third round pick.
- The Vikings acquired DE Jared Allen in a trade with the Chiefs, once again making Chiefs GM Carl Petersen one of the worst and most overrated GM's in all of major professional sports. The Chiefs haven't won a playoff game since 1993 (you thought Dallas was bad) and they are in rebuilding mode. It's understandable to be in rebuilding mode if you had a bunch of veterans like Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, Troy Aikman, Charles Haley, Moose Johnston, Jay Novacek, Mark Tuinea, etc, etc, etc on your team and they won championships (or at least a playoff game) and they pretty much wound up retiring or getting hurt at the same time. But here's the Chiefs who haven't won a playoff game in nearly 16 years and have only one certain Hall of Famer on their team (Tony Gonzalez).
And perhaps this is just my opinion, but getting a great weakside 4-3 Defensive End is one of the most important and toughest things to find in the NFL. Typically teams cannot find the Jason Taylors of the world, so they find a decent weakside and strongside DE and get some pass rushers at DT to help get the pressure they need. Peterson fell into Allen in the 4th round, yet could not keep him happy (Peterson has the faculty for doing that) and now Allen is off to Minnesota, at 26 years old, ready to dominate the league. The only problem for the Vikings is that they still need a QB. Perhaps with the team they've built they can make the playoffs consistently with Tarvaris Jackson at QB, which is something that Cowboys fans should note since they play in the same conference. But, it's going to be tough to do anything in the playoffs with Jackson as the QB. That may be something that Carl Peterson would take, but I'm sure Vikings fans have a different opinion.
by Yakuza Rich
http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com
The Cowboys have reached an agreement in principle with the Titans for a trade to acquire Adam "Pacman" Jones. From my understanding of the deal, it's essentially for a 4th round pick in 2008, with the following caveats:
1. If Jones does not get reinstated/never gets to play for Dallas, the Titans give back a 4th round pick in 2009.
2. If Jones does play for Dallas and does play well (not just play, but play well) the Cowboys will give up another 4th round pick in 2009.
I'm a bit conflicted about the deal simply because I don't trust Jones. Oddly enough I've had a lot more faith in Tank Johnson and Terrell Owens. If there's one thing that Jerry Jones has learned from the Parcells era is that it's quite alright to take in players with problems in the past, but you need to paint them into a corner where it doesn't cost the team much to cut them if they have to and the player knows this is probably his last chance in the league.
This is probably toeing the proverbial painted line given Parcells just didn't give up draft picks for many quality veterans, especially troubled vets. But Pacman provides Dallas with a few different qualities since he is at times a great corner (although he can't tackle), a tremendous punt returner (something Dallas is lacking) and now Dallas doesn't desperately need to get a cornerback in the first round.
Chances are that Pacman will see most of his time in the nickel since he has to get back into football playing mode and he'll likely be the punt returner, something teams don't like having starters do since if they get injured or hurt on a return, you can really screw up the team. Think of when Newman got hurt against the Lions on a punt return in 2006 and the 5 minutes of crisis the team had.
Personally I think the Cowboys overpaid for Pacman as they were the only buyers for his services and the Titans clearly wanted to unload on him. Even still, at a worse case scenario Pacman does get reinstated and plays for Dallas and then gets in trouble again and Dallas loses a 4th round pick for a guy that was with the team for less than a year. And let's face it, if this was a move made by the Patriots, fans from around the league and the media would be praising this to high heaven. And last I checked, Jerry Jones has the same amount of Super Bowl rings as Bill Belicheck, except Jerry didn't need videotape to do it.
As far as the draft goes, the Cowboys would be smart to draft a corner no later than round three. For starters, there's no guarantee that Pacman will be reinstated and right now the #3 corner on the team in Alan Ball. Then there's the fact that both Terence Newman and Anthony Henry turn 30 and 31 respectively this season. In fact, I'm pretty sure that this is Henry's last season with the team.
I'm confident that Dallas will draft a running back in the first round. They only have one real tailback on the team with Marion Barber and in Jerry-speak (which I'm fluent in), he pretty much stated "we are going to get a tailback in the draft." Given everything I think that the tailback will come down to either Felix Jones or ECU's Chris Johnson. Jerry has talked about wanting to get that "WOW player" in the draft and Johnson is the closest that fit the bill. And from my lone scouting source he believes that teams feel he is a late first round material. So I wouldn't be surprised to see Johnson taken by Dallas with the 22nd pick.
After that I see a bit of a surprise as I think Dallas will go after either Kenny Phillips (Miami) or Tyrell Johnson (Arkansas St.). Dallas is NOT going to get rid of Roy Williams this year because he's an $8 million cap hit. The problem with Williams is he's played very average since midpoint of 2006 and it's at a time in his career when he should be getting better instead of getting worse. He should have thrived in Phillips' aggressive scheme, but instead regressed. It's alright to be an average player, but not when they are paying you top dollar. And there should be a concern that his play will be below average next season. So if possible you'd like somebody cheap that can come in if needed and if you plan on releasing him after the 2008 season, you'd like to have a player with some experience to come in and do the job.
- The Commanders made offers for both Chad Johnson and Anquan Boldin and were subsequently turned down. The offers were reported first and thirds for both guys. This makes me laugh on a few different levels.
1. For all of the talk from Skins fans that "Snyder learned his lesson about giving away picks" these moves flush that theory down the toilet.
2. For all of the talk that the Skins would "never go after a player like Terrell Owens" they went after just as big of a malcontent in Johnson. Except the difference is that Johnson actually has a quality contract. Owens was paid like the 40th best receiver in the league and had the audacity to be paid as a top 10 receiver.
3. I laugh any time I see or hear of Commanders failure.
I think this tells that they are not too keen on where they are drafting. The are projected to either go WR, CB, or DE in the first round. CB is their best bet, but since they wanted to make the trade, something tells me they didn't want to choose between WR or DE at the #21 spot. So I figure they will pick up a WR or DE in he first and a CB in the second round.
All of that being said, the joke is sort of on me. If the Commanders had made a trade (although Johnson's speed scares me), it would have been a horrible move for Washington. They have serious needs at O-Line with all of their returning starters being at least 30 years old next season. They also need a CB, a DE, probably a LB (McIntosh got hurt last year and Marcus Washington is no spring chicken) and perhaps a safety with Reed Doughty being a questionable commodity. By giving up a first and a third in all likelihood the 2nd round would the be the only contributor for 2008 and they probably would not be able to re-load for the future, particularly on the O-Line, if they did not have a first and third round pick.
- The Vikings acquired DE Jared Allen in a trade with the Chiefs, once again making Chiefs GM Carl Petersen one of the worst and most overrated GM's in all of major professional sports. The Chiefs haven't won a playoff game since 1993 (you thought Dallas was bad) and they are in rebuilding mode. It's understandable to be in rebuilding mode if you had a bunch of veterans like Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, Troy Aikman, Charles Haley, Moose Johnston, Jay Novacek, Mark Tuinea, etc, etc, etc on your team and they won championships (or at least a playoff game) and they pretty much wound up retiring or getting hurt at the same time. But here's the Chiefs who haven't won a playoff game in nearly 16 years and have only one certain Hall of Famer on their team (Tony Gonzalez).
And perhaps this is just my opinion, but getting a great weakside 4-3 Defensive End is one of the most important and toughest things to find in the NFL. Typically teams cannot find the Jason Taylors of the world, so they find a decent weakside and strongside DE and get some pass rushers at DT to help get the pressure they need. Peterson fell into Allen in the 4th round, yet could not keep him happy (Peterson has the faculty for doing that) and now Allen is off to Minnesota, at 26 years old, ready to dominate the league. The only problem for the Vikings is that they still need a QB. Perhaps with the team they've built they can make the playoffs consistently with Tarvaris Jackson at QB, which is something that Cowboys fans should note since they play in the same conference. But, it's going to be tough to do anything in the playoffs with Jackson as the QB. That may be something that Carl Peterson would take, but I'm sure Vikings fans have a different opinion.
