It's a #2 TE guys. It has nothing do with Fasano who they recently gave an extension to and love. Is a #2 TE even going to get much playtime in this offense? I mean do you really take any of our WR's out of the game for a #2 TE except in short yardage running?
Apparently we run a very similar offense to Mike Martz's: we don't like throwing to tight ends. Conversely, why would you take away offensive flexibility by not having a capable backup TE? Just for injury insurance alone you want a guy who isn't totally incompetent.
maybe that has happened since daboll came over here and he knows there is nobody here to fill that role because ben watson caught 68 balls last year in the cleveland offense
Well I've seen enough. If the Browns are willing to listen, I'm sending Phil Merling to them for Evan Moore. Absolute no-brainer.
Well I've got a Cleveland blogger swearing to me that Evan Moore is not for sale that he's going to be too valuable to the offense this year.
He's literally a wide receiver. He lined up split wide more than any other tight end in the league, 87% of the time. There are wide receivers on that team that probably line up at wide receiver less often than Moore. Why even treat it like anything other than a 3 WR formation when he's on the field?
Carlson is in the final year of his deal and they did just sign Miller. Carlsons shoulder could be the reason they signed Miller but if all it costs is Phillip Merling then ill take the chance on Carlsons shoulder. Ill even pack Merlings bags for him and I like Merling more then most Dan Gronkowski was an Ireland find in Dallas during Ireland's last year there; he was used as a FB/H-back type I believe. Id probably try for Rosario or Virgil Green because Denver has such a glut and those two are kind of similar in that they arent great blockers but pretty good receivers, Green having more upside though. Whose mind is in a bottle? That's against the TOS. No minds in a bottle! Not a chance in hell imo. Scheffler was someone they really wanted for Stafford because of his ability to work the middle of the field. Even behind Pettigrew, I dont think there is anyway they move him for Merling...Maybe for Starks they would but Im not sure I make that trade I thought Moeaki played excellent last year. He was a really strong blocker and overall PFF had him graded as the 6th best TE. He can definitely get better as well as KC targets him more and becomes more of a passing team. I am officially titling this "How to make 75,000 Jet fans cry". I was at that game...complete and utter silence when that play happened.
PFF rated Bennett the 3rd best TE last season, mainly on the strength of his blocking ability. They had Witten and Bennett, 1st and 2nd for all TEs when it comes to blocking.
I like Rosario, he is a former Duck, but if we want him then why didn't we pursue him as a free agent? The Broncos just recently signed him. That would suck to trade Merling for a guy that 2 weeks ago we could have gotten for no compensation other than money.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who saw this coming. Unfortunately, despite what they want to do, they're going to find that if they want quality they're likely going to have to give up more than Merling.
To me, the fact that we now have to be beggars is most disturbing. No word of us attempting to sign Heap, trade for Olsen, sign Boss. Even less regarded TEs like Rosario, we never went after, now here we are talking of trading a good player for something less than we could have gotten in free agency or traded for.
Exactly! Kevin Boss signed with Oakland for 4 yrs/16 mil...we couldn't have afforded to make a competitive offer for him?
If Jerry busts, he will IMO be the absolute worst pick this regime has made. They had the guy for a week at the Senior Bowl, and even working first hand with him couldn't get a better handle on his character or potential? Then to add insult to injury, we left 4-5 good TEs on the board to take Jerry. Tony Moeaki, Aaron Hernandez, Jimmy Graham, Dennis Pitta, etc.
Olsen did sign an extension with Carolina when the trade was made. Pretty substantial one as I recall.
And what's the point? Kevin Boss has been a pretty picture-perfect mold of Anthony Fasano, but last year he had massive problems catching the ball. He caught nearly 20% less passes and dropped an amount of passes befitting someone thrown the ball twice as often as him. Can you really justify running a two-TE set with Kevin Boss over putting Brian Hartline on the field?
Depends on how good a backup one wants to pay for. Maybe, yeah, 4 mil a year for the #2 TE is too rich. Two TE set with two very good blockers may be helpful if one wants to establish the run, rather than 1 FB, 1 TE. It's a moot point now as for Boss. He is a Raider and Ireland is looking.
2 TE sets are actually pretty tempting to use against 3-4s. It's expensive but I can't think of too many combos of TEs that you can run at a team like the Steelers that would actually win the ball at the line of scrimmage. It's probably easier though to attack those teams with a spread out field though. Just curious but in four WR, but whose out there with their dime package? (say the Steelers)
Fasano's new deal was a $2.1 signing bonus, $1.9 salary this year, and $3.6M next year. Merling gets $700K this year, and is a FA in 2012. Last year, Daboll used a 2nd TE a lot. Watson had 932 snaps. 95%, with 68 catches. Royal had 303 snaps, 33%. with 5 catches. Evan Moore had 193 snaps, 20%, 16 catches, 20 yard average, 5.4 YAC, 1 TD, and 2 drops.
Maybe we should just try to sign Alge Crumpler. He is 33 yrs old, but he was ranked the 3rd best run blocking TE last season by PFF and the 10th overall TE. He wouldn't help the passing attack all that much but 2 TE sets with he and Fasano would be a pretty big help to the running game. He'd only cost money, and even at 33 has to be better than Mastrud or Shuler.
Alge Crumpler is available? Are you ****ing kidding me? We haven't signed him? That guy can get open in the red zone, doesn't stop hustling, and would be a major help when we need it most.
Oh I agree with you on that one, but somehow he chased down David Harris last year. Still in the red zone, I think he could probably produce an extra eight points for Miami just through his receiving as well as four by his excellent blocking. The way we play ball CK that could be worth a win (perhaps two).
Alge resembles a beached whale these days, but he still is one of the better blocking TE's in the league. I'd much prefer a TE who has average blocking ability and is more of a pass catching threat to pair with Fasano.
I don't get all the uproar over a #2 TE. I don't expect the 2nd TE to play all that much anyhow. Fasano is a quality starter, a very good blocker and a pretty good receiver. The notion that a TE has to be some kind of speed demon to threaten the seam is nonsense. Virtually no TE's (outside maybe Vernon Davis) strike fear in the hearts of safeties because of their speed. Even the fastest TEs (in the 4.5 range) are no faster than the average safety and the safety is not being asked to pick up the TE at the LOS in most cases. If Fasano runs the seam, the safeties have to respect it or they will get burned. With a pretty nice set of WRs and Reggie Bush, who I think will be used a lot as a receiver, I don't see us using 2 TEs very often in passing situations. Sure, it would be nice to upgrade there, just as it would be nice to upgrade everywhere, but I don't see a need to spend a lot of resources on a #2 TE. If Merling is goign to get cut anyhow, then go ahead and see if you can trade him and get some depth at another position, but . . .
