On the National Football Post site today, Mike Lombardi breaks down what teams might take part in the expected raffle for Matt Cassel. He thinks the Vikings are the most likely of the quarterback-needy teams to push hard to deal for Cassel.
Lots of discussion on this topic at the Post. Over 100 comments and counting.
Anyway, acquiring Cassel from New England will be costly. And one wonders if the Vikings can stomach trading a first rounder, plus the other draft pick it will likely take to pry Cassel from the Patriots, considering they traded three high draft picks for Jared Allen last year.
Football fans tend to get too infatuated with holding onto draft picks. The point of having them is to use them to pick up players that will improve your team. Whether a team does that by drafting college players or use the picks to trade for established NFL players on other teams – it makes no difference to me. I had no problem with the Vikings trading for Allen.
But would I feel the same if the Vikings decide to trade multiple picks for Cassel?
Nope.
My belief is if a team is going to trade away draft picks for a player – especially a first rounder – that team has to acquire someone with a track record of outstanding productivity. Any trade is a gamble. But all things considered, I’d feel comfortable with my team trading draft picks for a player who has shown for a number of seasons that he’s very good.
Keeping that in mind, here is Allen’s NFL track record at the time the Vikings traded for him: 2004 – 31 tackles, nine sacks; 2005 – 55 tackles, 11 sacks; 2006 – 65 tackles, 7.5 sacks; 2007 – 64 tackles, 15.5 sacks.
Now here’s Matt Cassel’s NFL track record: 2005 – 13-24, 183, 2 TDs, 1 INT; 2006 – 5-8, 32, 0 TDs, 0 INTs; 2007 – 4-7, 38, 0 TDS, 1 INT; 2008 – 327-516, 3,693, 21 TDs, 11 INTs.
There are plenty of people – like Mike Lombardi – who are very high on Cassel. And I’m not going to pretend he didn’t have a very good year in 2008. But Allen had proven he was a legitimate difference-maker with four previous seasons of highly productive play. He even got 15.5 sacks playing with Tamba Hali, Alphonso Boone and Ron Edwards.
Matt Cassel has proven he can play very well (for one season) when he’s throwing to Randy Moss and Wes Welker. Could he do it again throwing to Bernard Berrian and Bobby Wade?
The Vikings have to do something at quarterback, so they'll consider Cassel. They’ll look at game tape and make a determination from their studies whether to make the Patriots an offer. But trading high draft picks to acquire Cassel isn’t the slam dunk trading for Allen was. It’s very risky, and if the Viking do it, I have a feeing they’ll regret it for a long, long time.
Mr. Big
Adrian Peterson wants to bulk up and is talking about playing at 230 pounds next season.
Putting aside the fact Peterson already has a body made of granite and doesn’t need to bulk up, when I hear Peterson talk about putting on eight-to-12 pounds, I don’t think about him losing some speed, I think supplements. And I don’t want the franchise messing around with anymore supplements than he has to (I’m sure he takes some) in an effort to put on muscle he probably doesn’t need.
We've had enough problems with Vikings players and supplements the past two seasons.
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4 comments:
I agree. Matt Cassell's price would be too steep to pay, and I'm not convinced that he's not just a product of the Belicheck system.
There may not be many better options, but this is definitely not worth it. I highly doubt Cassell could replicate his numbers of last year in Minnesota.
I also think the Peterson news release to be confusing. I believe that strength training in sports can be taken to a level that actually inhibits performance instead of helping it. Continually pushing your body beyond its limits takes a toll. It seems as if the lift-aholics tend to suffer more from injury than the other players.
On a tangent, I think weight training for pro sports athletes is more about vanity than performance in some cases. I guess this is fine, everybody wants to look good (or have the hype of how much he can lift surrounding him)- but whether a guy becomes a markedly better athlete because he can bench 20 reps vs 15 reps is debatable. If this were always the case, we would just draft all of the oiled-up body builders, put em' in pads and hand them a football.
In other words, I'd rather have Peterson not fix what's not broken. Being the best RB in the league is good enough for me. The extra lbs may slow the tough guy down.
AD - if you want to work on something this off-season, try ball control.
I have no doubt that he would have won the MVP if not for his costly fumbles down the stretch.
Travis:
As you point out – how much can an extra 12 pounds really help Peterson? Even at 218 or whatever he weighs, it's rare when Purple Jesus gets the worst of a collision. He's already a very physical back.
Do you remember Scott Mitchell? He had one great season in 1993 after backing up Dan Marino. Then entered 1994 as a free agent where the Detroit Lions paid him a truck load of the Ford's money, only to see him disintegrate and never get close to the performance that he had in that one golden year in Miami.
Matt Cassell, could go to his next team and be a franchise stud, or he could be Scott Mitchell the sequel. The cost of first rounder draft choices that it would take to acquire him, to me indicates a too big of a gamble when we know that we already have the ups and downs of Tarvaris Jackson and can utilize the future first rounders to fill other holes or look for a Matt Ryan type (a QB gamble at a lower cost).
I haven't given up on Tarvaris, but would entertain a crafty vet to guide him or that he could watch for a season or two. But who that is...? McNabb or Warner came to mind but I don't think that they will be available.
As for Adrian and his weight... I'm wondering if after two season of play if the Vikings have evidence that he loses too much weight over the course of a 16+ game season and that this may be a way to have him heavier and stronger at the end of the season when it is needed the most. Could that be the reason?
Luft:
I certainly do remember Mitchell. In particular, I remember him and Warren Moon engaging in a shootout on (American) Thanksgiving Day in the Silverdome as the Lions beat the Vikings. One of the more entertaining games I've ever watched. He, Barry Sanders and Herman Moore looked great on that day. I don't quite understand why he couldn't keep it up.
You could be right about Peterson losing weight as the season progresses and they want him to put on extra weight so he'll be stronger. But does that make any sense, physiologically?
What I mean is, if he comes into training camp at 230 and loses 10-15 pounds as the season progresses, will he feel any stronger than if he comes in at 218 and loses 10-15 pounds? He's still losing the same amount of weight.
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