The Ravens lost Jason Brown and were not even interested in making a call to Ireland to see what it would take to bring in Cameron's 2nd round pick to fill in his spot. Am I missing something here or are we all over rating Samson's play.
Now that you got me thinking about it Border, I'm not all to fond of where we sit pick wise in the 3rd with regards to talent available for our needs.... so packaging those 2 or even using our 3rd to move 2b up might still be good since we have a 4th not far behind our 3rd.
Not happy with the trade. Miami could really have used him for depth and potential starter at Guard. I still have faith in the FO, but this trade was in favor of the Raiders. Last season the OLINE lost 2 starting guards and Satele had an injured shoulder. I don't think any center is going to look great with weak guard play on both sides of him. The entire OLINE did not run block very well last season. But when you look back they used the passing game EARLY and OFTEN during the entire season. It was the running game last season. The wildcat was great and should improve some this season. But the entire OLINE played bad last year on running plays. He is worth more than we got...plain and simple. Let's just hope we come out on a trade like that this season... Jake Grove is a Hokie...I love VA TECH...but he is injury prone and does not have the mean streak that he did while in college. He might continue his injury streaks...but let's hope it does NOT HAPPEN. Miami will be spending more picks on the OLINE this season & not just late 2nd day picks.
Once again I really think we are over rating Satele. We sign Jake Grove to take his spot. Grove weighs the same as Samson but is taller. We also bring in Berger. Then we keep Ike Ndukwe. Something tells me that the hype about Satele was overplayed. Either that or us Finatics know something about Samson that Sparano an O-line coach, Ireland and Parcells don't. I highly doubt that.
I am not elated, but I think that many people are missing how great the value is of moving up from the bottom of the 4th round to the top of it. As Muck pointed out, it is equivalent to a 5th round pick in value. In real terms, it means we could snag a pick with a third round grade who falls a bit. The guys you get at the top of round four are light years better than the guys at the bottom of round four, imo. Around mid-4th round is where the talent tends to sharply decline to third-tier players, imo.
Also, as has been mentioned, once we acquired Groves it was obvious to most NFL GM's that we would move Satele. Not much leverage there. Timingwise, we *had* to sign Groves while he was available and worry about shopping Samson *if* and when we got Groves signed. I wrote in a post a month or so ago that the only way to get value for Samson would have been to carry him until training camp, like Jason Taylor, and wait for a team with an injury or obvious bust draft pick at center to come calling. That would have meant waiting for a pick in 2010. The other thing is, if we have an offer now for Samson, who's to say we'll still have any offers for him later? If we did not take the Raiders trade, maybe we end up not getting a better offer later. Obviously there has not been a bidding war for his services. If Matt Cassel, a franchise QB, and Mike Vrabel, a former pro-bowl LB, are worth a second... who in their right mind could argue that an underperforming second round center is worth more than a 5th and a 6th (the value we essentially got for Samson). The market is not valuing player trades very highly right now, it seems. This is part of why Boldin hasn;t been moved, imo. No way the Cards will get a 1st for him, and maybe they aren;t liking the lowball offers they're getting either. Time to realise all the lowball offers in the league *aren't* lowball... the market for trades is simply showing a preference for the value of draft picks over established players right now. Probably due to the cost benefit of draft picks being cheaper than established players.
Bingo.... However I really think trading lower picks is a fantastic way to gain very good players taken much higher.
For all the talk of depth, I think Joe Berger is the backup center and swing guard right now. And at 6-5, 315 he has the dimensions we like. Satele could have been kept for depth. But really, if a guy doesn't fit he doesn't fit. And if you can get something for him, great. They will draft someone who fits their mold better.
For our quest to become a power running team, Samson fits us like a glove.........on OJ. You just made our argument for us. Thanks. LOL. What kind of offense are we supposed to be? I'll answer it- A power running one who wears down defenses. Satele was NOT injured early on and he DID have Smiley playing next to him if you recall, and during that time, Satele was a subpar run blocker for a smashmouth running game.... hence the need to "pass EARLY and OFTEN" an use the "wildcat" as more than just a wrinkle, instead of our preferred game plan of pounding the ball. We are NOT a Wildcat offense. This is NOT our identity. If Parcels could choose to not run it at all in leu of ramming it down teams throats like the Giants, he would pound it constantly....and maybe use the Wildcat from time to time for some added dimension.
The problem with Berger is he has never started a game, if we were looking at a swing Guard/Center Samson made more sense. That is until Ireland fell in love with McDaniel, making a giveaway trade needful to recoup the draft pick we gave up for him. To me this is not one of Ireland's better moves but then again I thought the same about the Booker trade last year.
This is absolutely true...the fans have painted Satele as a great C, but his play has said otherwise. He's was the 2nd best OL in 2007 (that's not saying much) and the 3rd best this year (and the other two starters were hurt much of the year, so what is that saying)...I think that a lot of us felt we should be get more for him, but a 5th and 6th is not bad comp. for a mediocre C...
Raiders C Samson Satele said his experience playing against the 3-4 defenses will help in games against the three other teams in the AFC West. [Editor’s note: We agree, as long as being blasted by the nose tackle into the legs of the quarterback counts as “help”.] http://www.profootballtalk.com/category/rumor-mill/
Satelle was supposedly injured last year http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/other/sfl-flspdolphins24sbmar24,0,3143860.story Interesting if true. That may explain some of his short comings last year. Nevertheless, the Trifecta were aware of this and still chose to sign Grove.
The Dolphins will get the Raiders 4th round pick, which is the 8th pick in that round, and the Raiders 6th round pick also the 8th of that round. In return, the Raiders get 2 year starter Samson Satele and the Dolphins 4th round pick, number 26 in that round.
Surprisingly, Al Davis and Bill Parcells have had a cordial football relationship for YEARS. In the 70,000 seat stadium they are seated beside each other at the NFL combine annually. I think Gil Brandt adjoins them too.
It appears as though the Dolphins were looking for at least a fourth and the Raiders did everything they could to keep that pick.
