Originally posted by NCommand:
Meh, we tried to move up last year and it didn't work. And who wants a late 7th? Next year going into the draft we may have even less real holes to fill. But the bottom line is, we traded a developed 7th round pass rushing OLB for a late 7th rounder next year. Period. The Harper deal had nothing to do with it. If we wanted a 4th TE, we would have kept Gray and "continued" to develop him but we risked him to the PS and lost him. The loss of Gray is what is correlated to Harper; not Cam. The FO could have cut a number of other players if they needed a spot for Gray/Harper. If "next year" we can get even half the production out of that late 7th based on what Cam did ALL pre season (not one game, people), we still don't break even b/c we lost his potential production this year on ST and security if there is an injury to ANY OLB. And rule #1 on a 3-4 defense, you never get rid of your pass rushing OLB's. Ask the Saints/Colts how hard they are to come by! Typically, I love almost all of our moves. This is just one I certainly disagree with no matter how people try to justify it. But like I said, we can revisit it next year. We can watch Cam this year and see how he does (BTW: I was totally cool with the Haralson move). Then we can compare production/value once we see how that late 7th was used.
+1. Nice post and on the money, IMO. Again, Cam was developing nicely as a pass-rushing, end-setting vs. run OLB. Sure, we have Lemonier and Skuta as back-ups...again, Lemonier is a rookie and is still adjusting to two things; 1) the OLB position (played DE in college), and 2) the NFL game, speed, etc. Skuta is also adjusting to a newer position as he was an ILB with Cincy. Regarding making room for the new WR Harper, I'm still not sure why we couldn't cut Stupar instead...now, we're rolling w/ five ILBs for the time being w/ Stupar. I'm not still not sure about the Cam Johnson trade...must be more to it than what we know, some behind-the-scenes stuff w/ what the coaches know, saw in practice, etc. I'm hoping this turns out all right but on the surface would have liked to have kept Cam and let Stupar go when Harper arrived.