The blog is back!

Posted by Taz

So the living hell caused by studying for the bar has not ended yet (the exam is next Tuesday to Thursday), but my head hurts from studying, so I'm going to give a few updates on things going on.

Cowboys: Why I'm fine with cutting Terry Glenn

In case if you have not heard, this happened today. Terry Glenn is finally cut. Jerry is claiming that he wants the young receivers to develop. This would probably explain why there has been little movement on the front. Unlike the rest of us, 1 million doesn't mean too much to Jerry if it gives him a better shot at the Super Bowl, so it's probably the explanation why there has been so much foot dragging on this issue.

Personally, I'm fine with it. While a healthy Terry Glenn is better than everyone's favorite split personality wide receiver (no one ever seems to think that TO could just be a complicated man...instead we are shocked when athletes do not have dumbed down personalities that any moron can relate to), it seems like his knee is going to go out. The fact that the team was pushing for microfracture surgery AND he refused has to say something. Do you know how serious microfracture surgery is? If you follow the NBA, you know how many times this surgery has ruined a career (Penny Hardaway...and lil' Penny, Chris Webber, Antonio McDyess, and Darius Miles...assuming a NBA career consists of having one skill [athleticism], while having no other pertinent skills [work ethic, desire, shooting ability] and averaging 10 points a game while using racial slurs on your ethnically identical coach).

Terry Glenn is an injury waiting to happen, meaning we are going to have to depend on the young guys anyways. You might as well let these guys get extra reps, and then call Glenn up if you need the help. I somehow doubt someone is going to claim him off waivers, thereby getting the right to pay him $1.7 million this year for his salary for a receiver who might suffer a career-ending injury at any moment in time. Regardless if you agreed or disagreed with the fact that the Cowboys didn't draft a receiver in the draft, the reality is that these young guys are going to have to step up and we might as well fund out sooner than later


Eagles: Is the Eagles' method of spending ever going to catch up with them?

Check out profootballtalk.com's report and this from philly.com that discuss Shawn Andrews' being MIA for the day. Is this a contract holdout, or something unrelated to money? No one knows for sure, but I'm more interested in a trend that I have seen for years: the tightwadness of the Eagles. In previous years, the Eagles have signed their core players to long-term, high signing bonus, low yearly salary contracts, and play hardball with players who try to hold out. Smart financial sense, but I wonder if it makes players more nervous or less willing to play for Philly. In fact, I predicted years ago that it would lead to an overall decline in their team. While their team has not been doing as well, you can blame that on better division rivals and the chronically injured McNabb.

But why am I so against the Eagles' method? First of all, the perception may be off. They seem to pay well for players who generally are top tier, such as the massive extension for Donovan McNabb, and good salaries for Asante Samuel, Jevon Kearse, and Darren Howard. These moves always seem to make sense at the time (though Kearse and Howard eventually became busts, at the time they were pretty good players). Moreover, the players they do choose not to pay, such as Jerimiah Trotter , Bobby Taylor, Troy Vincent, and Corey Simon, seem to go off somewhere and suck. So obviously, they are doing something right.

I think I base this opinion off the T.O. incident, which I still believe could have been averted if the Eagles just threw a couple million more at him. But maybe they are smart and won't overpay/extend older and second tier players like other teams will. I guess I'm more sympathetic to teams that are aggressive spenders like the Redskins and Cowboys. Then again, I've never seen a team throw money at second tier free agents like the Redskins (no one would know Randal-El if he wasn't throwing 2 point conversions with the Steelers), and the Cowboys have not won a playoff game in over a decade. So while I am a bit skeptical about being fiscally conservative with spending, it's worked for the Eagles, who before last year owned the NFC East for the past decade. Several years ago, I predicted that it would eventually catch up with them. So far, it hasn't.


Giants: Justin Tuck is not happy that the Giants are getting zero respect

Tuck made some comments the other day about the Cowboys "trying to buy" a super bowl. While his comments may not be totally accurate (considering the Cowboys spent a ton of money extending players they already had the rights to, traded for Adam Jones, and signed Zach Thomas), his point is loud and clear. The Giants hate the fact that no one is talking about them. Look at any preseason rankings. ESPN has the Giants as 6th, behind the Cowboys and Jaguars, and if you look around at other preseason predictions, many have the Cowboys winning the division. So I don't blame the defending Super Bowl Champions for being annoyed.

But they really shouldn't be suprised, since they have been disrespected since their Super Bowl run. This lack of respect originates from last year, when everyone thought the Cowboys and Packers were by far the two best teams in the NFC. The Giants were considered to be a step below, yet in the playoffs beat both of them, and the juggernaut of a Patriot team. Objectively, they beat 3 of the top 4 teams in the NFL to the Super Bowl. But perceptions remain for various reasons. They lost to all three of those teams in the regular season. Eli Manning didn't start playing well until the end of the year, and the team began to click then. Plus I think people don't like the Giants for various random reasons (Jermey Shockey, they are from New York, Eli seems to be the most boring person ever). So instead of people thinking that the Giants were legit, people thought that they were the 3rd best team in the conference.

(And for the record, I'm still not sure which class of 2004 QB I dislike the most. Ben Rothlisburger I feel is overrated because he has a pretty good team around him and by all accounts is an arrogant prick. I still find Eli as a weinie because of the stunt the Mannings pulled with San Diego during the draft. And every time I hear about Philip Rivers, he seems to be talking smack to just about anyone, despite the fact that his team is no higher than third best in their conference. Then again, 2 of them already have won Super Bowls, and San Diego is a threat to win it all each year, so they are doing pretty good for themselves).

Anyways, in the offseason, they lose Michael Strahan to Fox TV, along with a couple other contributors who seemed to be the beneficiaries of being on the team who won the Super Bowl (Gibril Wilson is this year's "Dexter Jackson/Larry Brown Award" winner for cashing in on a performance that the Giants fans I regularly talk to seem to call nothing more than average). Plus, the Cowboys seem to get more stacked, along with New England, Indy, Jacksonville, San Diego, and Green Bay not going away. It should be no suprise that the Giants are getting disrespected.

So Justin Tuck has to live with it for a few more months. If the Giants can come out and show that last year was not a fluke, then he can taunt everyone who was wrong. Until then, he should probably stay away from football websites and sportcenter.


Redskins: I'm not a big fan of the Jason Taylor trade

Yeah...if my team lost two defensive ends in one practice, I would be on the phone making a panic trade as well. But leave it to Danny Snyder to turn a panic trade into one of the biggest splashes of the offseason.

What I don't like about the move is that the Redskins seem to be in transition this year. Between hiring Jim Zorn (who I swear could be the name of a Bond movie villian), overhauling the reciever unit, and still having to deal with the ramifications of the utterly tragic Sean Taylor death, I don't see the Redskins contending for the title this year.

As you know, the problem is that Taylor is near the end of his career, and giving up a 2nd and 5th round pick is a lot for a one year rental. If I'm the Giants and lose Justin Tuck, or San Diego and lose Shawn Merriman, I would call up Miami and make this trade in a heartbeat. But for a team that is probably a year from contending in the ultra-competitive NFC East (wow...three years ago I would have called this division "Eagles and Friends"), I see this as wasting a couple of picks that could help down the road for a stop-gap solution.