This is why I don't subscribe to ESPN's "insider" content. Their "insiders" for pro football personnel are none other than the mindnumbingly dense writers for Scouts Inc. In their teaser paragraph (which features the supposedly juicy catch phrase that gets you to drop $20 a month to read their garbage) Scout Inc.'s Jeremy Green offers us this well thought out conclusion:
Oh, and he is also the son of Arizona Cardnials coach Dennis Green. The same Dennis Green that just signed Edgerrin James via free agency. I wonder if there's a little bias here?
The gist of Jeremy's article (which I can't link to because you need to pay for it) is the Colts should not have re-signed WR Reggie Wayne this offseason. Wayne was disposable in Jeremy's eyes, and any number of low cost wide receivers in free agency, or in the draft, could take his place. Jeremy goes on to say that if the Colts had let Wayne go, they'd have enough to re-sign Edgerrin James, David Thorton, and Larry Tripplett. It's at this point in the article where I stopped reading for fear that Jeremy's utter stupidity might rub off on me.
Forget for a moment that Jeremy's dad signed Edge in Arizona. Forget the fact that Jeremy thought drafting Courtney Brown first overall in 2000 was a good idea, passing up players like Brian Urlacher, Shawn Alexander, and John Abraham. My problem here is a major news outlet (ESPN) is paying this moron money to write his opinion about things he simply doesn't understand, even though he is supposedly paid to understand them. I'm not sure what Jeremy scored on the math section of the SATs, but it seems pretty clear that he can't do basic addition and subtraction when it comes to the salary cap. Maybe this is why he is no longer Director of Pro Personnel in Cleveland.
David Thornton agreed to a five-year contract that averages about $4.5 million annually with the Tennessee Titans. The deal also includes $8 million in bonuses. Edgerrin James signed a four-year contract worth $30 million with the Arizona Cardinals (again, coached by Jeremy's dad). James also received an initial signing bonus of $7 million and gets a $4.5 million roster bonus. The base salaries for Edge's contract are $3.25 million for 2006, $5.25 million for 2007, $5 million for 2008, and $5 million for 2009. That's almost $20 million in the first two years!
It doesn't take a math genius see that if the Colts had overpaid and signed Thornton and James to matching deals (or deals worth more), it would have been impossible for them to re-sign defensive starters like Raheem Brock and Gary Brackett (who led the team in tackles last year). Re-signing Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, and Bob Sanders to contract extensions this season would become a fantasy, as almost all of the Colts salary cap would be tied up into three offensive players (Manning, James, and Harrison). David Thornton (who was fifth on the team in tackles last year) would be the highest paid defensive player on the team, making more money than Pro Bowlers Freeney, Sanders, and Cato June.
The bottom line here is Jeremy Green is an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm sure Cleveland fans rejoiced the day this yutz was kicked to the curb in Dawg Town for his bonehead moves running their personnel department. Yet, ESPN wishes to charge you to read his "expert" opinion, an opinion that was just shot out of the sky by a blogger that charges nothing for people to read his blog.
I have begged my friend to discontinue his ESPN subscription and use his $20 a month on more important things, like buying me beer! Sadly, he is still bamboozled into thinking ESPN writers know what their talking about.