I have a question for you. It's serious so think before answering.
Who is a bigger drag on his team, Darrius Heyward-Bey with the Raiders or Michael Crabtree with the 49ers?
Take a moment. OK. Here's my answer.
Heyward- Bey is the bigger liability by far. In his first pro game last night he caught no passes for no yards. That's a lot of nothing. JaMarcus Russell threw to him 4 times so DHB is oh for 4. That's 4 wasted plays. On other plays DHB looked open but I get the feeling Russell generally looks the other way and has no confidence in DHB. And why should he? Louis Murphy, another beginner, caught 4 passes including that dramatic 57 yarder for a TD that almost won the game. So DHB is a general drag on the team.
Crabtree on the other hand is no drag at all on the 49ers. He is present in the sense of being absent. He does nothing good but unlike DHB he does nothing bad. You've got to give him credit for that.
So far the 49ers are getting more out of their famous draft choice than the Raiders get from theirs.
I think it's too early to say. DHB is obviously an Al Davis project, whereas Crabtree would theoretically come into the league with a more established skill set. HB was having trouble with his routes more than just simply not catching JaMarcus' kind of wild throws.
The flipside of the coin, Lowell, is that DHB has the potential to help his team win--that's good, by the way. Crabtree has the potential to walk to the kitchen and get a gatorade--not helping his team, that's bad, by the way. Advantage--DHB.
There is a standard about rookies who are REAL GOOD or GREAT! They come to the team and make a immediate impact. Look around the league and there are rookies who are starting their first year and making an impact. Also they immediately part of the composite of the team and prove why they are!
Of course some rookies take a year or two to become good, but the really great ones, at every position make an impact right now!
That's what REAL GOOD SCOUTING is about. Look at the Steelers and New England, they both have scouts and coaches who can see right now who can make that immediate impact and grab them right under the eyes of the other teams. Again it's all about good scouting and good coaches!
Another big negative for the Raiders: all the cap money
he is eating up for the next few years. and it is
umlikely to be worth it, production-wise.
The 49ers/Vernon Davis is similar.
that is not DHB's fault, but the systems.
Crabbaby, costs nothing, and the 49ers are likely
to find suitors for him next March, and when those
picks come into play, there should be logical
rookie salary cap (NBA-style), and the 49ers will
really come out in good shape.
gary
Mr. Cohn. I have noticed that intelligence in sports reporting has been migrating to the PD. The game is played on the field by professional athletes. The Raiders Managing General Partner insists on fielding a team that plays in his brain. At least the 9rs ownership seem to be wising up about getting people on board that athletes trust and respond to. The Raiders have a lot of raw talent. One together mediocre "team" can blow that apart. At the professional level trust is important. A bunch of raw talent playing alone is fun to watch. Just won't win much.
God must be looking out for the 49ers:)
A bit silly, no?
Really, really lowell, did you just write this? Really?
Garbage!
Not garbage. I find it to be a welcome input. The inner game is what I trust reporters to share. I have no desire to penetrate into a reporters reality. I am sure that it is not easy. Trashing reporting has to be one of the least thing that a fan can do. Second to trashing officials that cause you to masturbate about the what could have been. Mr. Coen is right on with his post. It keeps football alive.
It may initially appear that the Niners have less drag on their squad vs. what the Raiders are carrying with DHB.
But your point is likely to become irrelevant...Consider the obvious long-term effects towards each team.
A ) The Niners will not likely ever be able to realize any gain nor ever see any offensive stats to be produced by Crabtree.
Especially when he re-enters the draft for next year.
B ) The Raiders will see a gain in their offensive production with DHB. It will likely take a few games for DHB to sort out his position and hopefully he will develop some chemistry with Russell. I would like to see DHB go up the middle, just like Zach Miller does. Russell is most accurate with passes up the middle and I betcha DHB can run a little faster than Zach Miller.
Lowell has an excellent point. It would be interesting who the 49ers could sign with the same kind of money they would shell out for an unproven rookie. This might be silver lining in signing or trading for a veteran who could provide instant experience and game. Besides, the 9er vets are fed up with Crabtree...
Five reasons why the Niners should consider bailing on Michael Crabtree.
1. Thanks to his redshirt Freshman year, Crabby would have been a Football Eligibility Junior, and an Academic Senior this year. Most people turn 21 during or after their senior year. Crabtree just turned 22. Is he academically challenged?
2. He is, most certainly, math challenged if he believes that he can ever make up for the money that he would have made this year by holding out and re-entering the draft in 2010. Any way that you cut it, it means loosing a year of earning power. Mathematically, the only way to recover from that is to DOUBLE the money that the Niners are offering for the first year, DOUBLE the money that he could have made on endorsements, and considering the time-value of money, DOUBLE the investment return he would have had on his money for this year (not bloody likely in this market!). That’s just if he wants to break even on the holdout. Does he think that he will do that and more? Does anyone?
3. Perhaps he is counting on the “cap-less season” in 2010, but that could qualify him as “reality challenged”. If it were his plan to capitalize on a no-cap year, he would have been better off staying in school and getting another year of training, experience and (dare I say it?) maturity under his belt. Now he has too many hurdles to overcome in order to achieve any meaningful financial gain.
A) He has only two years of college varsity experience, and they werein a very NON-NFL scheme.
B) He will have been away from any kind of Football for a full year. His skills and reaction time (which may not be up to NFL standards in the first place) will certainly atrophy during that time, no matter how much he “works out”.
C) He has the same injury to his foot that has had no effect on some NFL players (T.O.), but has derailed other careers. What will it do to Crabby? BIG QUESTION… No physical… NO ANSWER…
D) Crabtree and his agent are FORBIDDEN to negotiate or even contact any NFL team other than the Niners until draft day 2010. He can’t take a physical for them. He can’t “leak” his physical’s results to them. He can’t work out at the combine. He can’t answer any questions regarding his time through 40 yards, or the health of his foot. Neither he nor anyone representing him can interview with a team, so no team will be able to ascertain his mental/emotional/commitment status, nor even how much money he wants!
Teams will have way too many questions, and no answers at all. The 2010 draft will have a ton of demonstrated talent at WR. Crabby will be nothing but a big question mark. Only a desperate team will waste a first round pick on him. He goes in the second or third round, and there goes his money!
4. This guy has way too much baggage. Do you really want to sign someone whose “advisor” cum “spokesperson” was once a bodyguard for Pacman Jones? That is just asking for trouble.
5. His Diva Quotient is way too high. He wants to be a WHAT? A FASHION DESIGNER? Coach Singletary reduced him to TEARS with just words? What’s going to happen when some big safety sends him a 220 lb high velocity wake-up call that says, “HiYa, Mikey! Welcome to the NFL!”? Will he have the character to take an NFL caliber reality check, or will he run home crying to his diva entourage/family? I’m betting that he’ll grow really short arms and really long legs. See ya!
Whether you chalk up his bad judgment to lack of intelligence, or lack of maturity, or lack of character, or lousy advice, or just plain greed, this guy’s delusions of entitlement prove that he is not worth the trouble he brings with him. He has waited too long to be of use to us this season. His diva nature will be a cancer in the locker room. His family baggage, especially their connection to Pacman Jones, will be a potential time bomb off the field. He is nothing but trouble.
Niners, Please, Do Not Sign Michael Crabtree. Wait until 2010 and trade your rights to him for a draft pick. Even if it’s for Mr. Irrelevant, it will be an improvement.)
I really don't know why this fascinates me so much. It must because I can't find a logical reason for this kind of behavior. If he were injured, he'd sign and rehab on the 9ers dime. If it were really about money, he'd being making a case for his worth, not dodging phone calls from the team owners. If it were about the team, he would have told his agent to tell the 9ers to trade him or he wouldn't sign. The only other explanation I can think of is: HE ALREADY HAS ANOTHER DEAL.
But who would make a deal with someone they can't employ for a year? And why? Can Crabtree be such a unique talent? No, by all reports, he's good, even very good. But with no NFL experience, he can hardly be rated great. And what team could be sure to be in a position to draft him next year? The deal would have to be with a team that thought they would not need the draft to get Crabtree rights.
But wait. The CBA will expire after the 2010 season. You can bet smart teams are already examining what might be possible between the lapse of the CBA and and new agreement. No salary cap, for one thing. Probably something else dealing with the rights to players and draftees. Jerry Jones is already on record as saying revenue sharing is "on the way out". (It also cost him a $100,000 fine for revealing NFL strategy in the media).
So, if a team knew the rules were going to change, and knew how they might change, and didn't care about the rest of the league (small market teams, for instance) and didn't mind going against the league, what could they do?
Can they make some sort of deal outside of the league to keep a player from signing with another team? Could they then engineer a way to get the rights to him in the absence of any agreement between the union and owners (and maybe more importantly, between the owners)? And if they could, could they make it worth more than what is already on the table?
Just fascinating.