This sums it up perfectly. It's fair to question Tanny for guaranteeing Hunter's salary but once that ship sailed and the organization saw Hunter wasn't responding then Tanny did the best he could and tried to rectify his mistake. We know that Tanny worked out Marcus McNiel but he wasn't healthy. He tried for Otah but it didn't work. In the end it cost him 1.5 MIL in cap space with a marginal chance Smith can turn into a serviceable player. In the end Tanny weaseld out of a bad decision without too much damage.
I'll take not much better. Any amount better is fine. Smith is younger, and has potential. Hunter, flat out sucks and has shown no signs of improvement. To me he looks like he has gotten even worse than year. Thank God he is gone. Hopefully, Smith will be like Maybin. Be crap for his previous team, and be a pleasant surprise for the Jets.
I for one am not confident. I have repeatedly said on this board that both the Bills and Jets are middle of the pack, average football teams. That's it. They both have a shot at the wild card. The Bills will look horrible at times this year and look great in others. So will the Jets. The problem is that neither team is good enough to maintain consistency. The difference between this year and others is not that I feel the Bills "have arrived," its that the meeting between the Bills and Jets will be much closer than it used to be. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Jets get blown out on opening day. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Bills get blown out. I wouldnt be surprised to see a close game. I wouldn't be surprised to see a sloppy game. With these two teams, anything can happen, no one knows what you're going to get on any given Sunday with these two. Its unpredictable.
Bart Scott, Calvin Pace, and Eric Smith alone save 18 mill if cut after this year. All of them are on the way out. If Ellis continues his good preseason play we can also cut Pouha and save 3 mill. Jason Smith will neve see a dime of that 11.5 mill roster bound. The cap situation is not as bleak as you make it out to be. Smith is here to be a back up. If Howard falters no one wanted to see Hunter back in. This is 1.5 mill of addition money for a higher quality of O-line depth. Those complaining are fucking crazy.
Sharing some Rams fan perspective on Jason Smith... A couple of these people sound like they were high-hopers for Smith, as opposed to many of us who outright trashed the existence of Hunter, but I for one think Smith may be a killer in the swing tackle role that we would have used Hunter in. He sounds like he is a mover as a run blocker in motion.
All good and nice, byz, but... Any play with WFH = fail. Some play with Jason Smith = success. Seriously, whoever trades anything for WFH gets fleeced big time, since WFH is worth absolutely NOTHING. (Sure, I am not being fair to NOTHING but I can live with that.)
I'm not sure that encompasses the situation, but I can share your enthusiasm for the subtraction of Hunter via trade. We are still locked into 4mil for a guy that is not guaranteed to add anything to the football field versus 2.45mil for a guy that would have added little, which is still a gamble. I think the Jets may have jumped on this because of Smith's previous TE play at Baylor, combined with his impressive play in the running game. Which will be nice, if it works out.
This is what I think I know: 1. WFH, at the age past 30, didn't offer any upside whatsoever. He was a backup RT and a 6th swing tackle at best. Obviously, he was slightly light to move in (6'5", 317 lbs) so... there you go. You are stuck with what you've got. 2. Jason Smith comes at 6' 5", 308 lb frame as well; but he's still young, and has much better footwork than WFH. (which isn't saying much, since WFH doesn't have any semblance of OT footwork or agility to speak of anyway.) He still can pack some more weight, and move in if needs be. The thing is, though, he won't be a starter. He would be a backup at best - simply because of the concussion history he has. Sure, sucks to be that kid, but from a franchise perspective, you can't find a better horse for a backup role than that. 3. Yes, I am giddy (Ding, dong, WFH is GONE!! YEAH!!!) but I still look at this OL unit with some degree of apprehension. We'll see how they perform this year.
I didn't see you acknowledge his concussions, though. Smith could be one swing man safety hit from useless to this team for 2012. Hunter was at least bearable as the sixth man, as much as I hated the sight of him. At this point, it may even have been a better option to cut him outright, depending upon how the season plays out. And I wasn't even a fan of cutting him after the option was picked up. It's still a big gamble, IMO. if it pays off, I'll love it, but right now it's as up-in-the-air as any situation on the team.
Those were good write ups about Smith. They pretty much wrote that same stuff I have read on reports on Smith. Good run blocker, with good footwork but is a liability in the passing game. Thanks for posting byz
This trade was pretty much a no-brainer. It was obvious the Jets could not trust Hunter in a back up role. If something happened to either of their starting tackles, starting hunter means seeing Sanchez carted off the field. Consequently, they really couldn't keep Hunter at all and Hunter would have been cut, with the $2.5 million guaranteed money being eaten. The question then is are the Jets better off getting a marginal starter in Smith as a backup (and paying $1.5M for it) or picking up someone who's been cut by another team at the end of the week to be a backup. You'd have a lot of competition to pick up any half-decent veteran tackle that would have been cut and they might have ended up paying $1.5M in a bidding war anyway for an older veteran that got cut. Whatever veteran tackle they picked up would need time to acclimate to the playbook and the other players on the o-line This way they get a veteran marginal starting tackle, they get him now instead of waiting for the final round of cuts and, given his physical tools, he might actually turn out to be pretty good tackle once he's been coached up. Maybe he turns into another Maybin or he's peaked and he doesn't get better. Either way, he's much better than Hunter and probably better than what you'd be able to pick up after final cuts. Once again, pretty much a no-brainer.
So the Rams took Schottenheimer, Clemens, Mulligan and Hunter off our hands. Hell of an operation they got over there in STL.
Don't forget Vernon Gholston. He's on the D of course but the Rams are just scooping up the Jets most hated players.
Per Brian Coz: "Source confirms that the Hunter-Smith trade was not reported to the league by 4 p.m. today." Thats not good...?
