Cory Williams Missing

[KYPack]

Brohm doesn't really figure into the trade and not signing Thompson, as far as the trade itself is concerned, since Thompson had no way of knowing Brohm would be the pick. Now, if Brohm fails, then Thompson failed to capitalize on a sweet deal.

Come on. Corey Williams was going to be a FA, got paid $38M, and we got a second round pick for him. Think about that.

No, he wasn't. We tagged Williams the franchise player. He was gonna get 6.36 million from us. We just moved 7 mil into 2009, so we had the bucks. I agree that TT made the right move, but we didn't save 38 mil, CW never saw that offer from us, that's what his agent negotiated from the Browns.

The Browns cleverly figured they were gonna move a spot RDT in a 4-3 to LDE in a 3-4 and have a solid player. Williams was a big, fat, fish out of water the whole season for Cleveland.

That's why Savage and Crennel are available for any team that wants 'em.

Would we have done better with Williams here, playing in his old spot? Yeah, maybe. That was definitely a trade that screwed both teams so far.

Maybe Brohm has an epiphany and we do some good in the deal after all.

[wist43]

Lol, when I read the thread title I thought that he actually had gone missing, milk-carton style.

lol, me too

[wist43]

Any way you slice it, TT orchestrated himself a huge hole at DT, and it hurt the team all year.

Is Williams worth $38 mil??? No... the argument in my mind is preemptive signing at a lower number. For young guys that play out their first contract, have shown upside and production... the argument is always preemptive signing.

By not making him a discounted offer earlier he was all but assured of seeing Williams walk... b/c afterall, he wasn't worth what Cleveland paid for him, but he's still a very nice player, and would have been a huge boost to the line this year.

[Harlan Huckleby]

I honestly think Brohm has a good chance of coming through and redeeming himself.

I don't. I did see anything hopeful there. I'm more encouraged that Flynn will contribute as a backup.

I would trade BRohm for a 5th round pick and the biscuit from SKinbasket & Retail's contest.

We did miss Corey Williams, but that does not make it a bad move.

Williams is just one piece of a collective screw-up on the defensive line. I think it was a bad move. They could have kept him for one more year to see how the iffy players came around. But I know the argument on the other side has merit too, don't want to refight the battle.

[Pugger]

Maybe we missed CW but he wasn't all that hot when he had to start for us last year after Jolly and Cole went down. I think the lousy play of Jolly and Pickett this season plus losing Jenkins was more of a factor in our horrid D line play than the loss of Williams. The only starter on the D line that played decently was Kampy and you need more than just one guy trying to rush the passer.

[cheesner]

Any way you slice it, TT orchestrated himself a huge hole at DT, and it hurt the team all year.

Is Williams worth $38 mil??? No... the argument in my mind is preemptive signing at a lower number. For young guys that play out their first contract, have shown upside and production... the argument is always preemptive signing.

By not making him a discounted offer earlier he was all but assured of seeing Williams walk... b/c afterall, he wasn't worth what Cleveland paid for him, but he's still a very nice player, and would have been a huge boost to the line this year.

'Preemptive' signing is a great move for high character players like Kampmann, and a bad idea for players like Cletidus Hunt, Freeman, and Corey Williams.

Maybe CW had a tough time with the new system, or maybe with that fat paycheck he no longer felt the need to hit the weights so hard and spent his time enjoying the good life. His half sack was an impact not missed by the Packers this season.

[DonHutson]

Is Williams worth $38 mil??? No... the argument in my mind is preemptive signing at a lower number. For young guys that play out their first contract, have shown upside and production... the argument is always preemptive signing.

The fact that they have done that with every player they really wanted to keep, and that you never heard about any kind of attempt to sign Williams, would seem to tell you what they thought of Williams.

I agree with Cheesner, I think they expected him to go in the tank when he got paid.

[Partial]

I don't. They wanted to avoid paying another linemen big bucks when they were paying Kampman, Jenkins, Pickett, and Harrell good money. When they drafted Harrell the writing was on the wall for CWill.

It was a good trade, in hindsight and in foresight. Teddy lacked the foresight to fortify the line, though.

[wist43]

Yes, the fact that we do not know these guys personally... how they conduct themselves in the locker room, what type of personality they have, work ethic, overall attitude, etc... we can't know that.

If the organization sees a guy as a knob... we can't take that into account as we don't see it. It may be reported on by some of the beat writers, but even they are reluctant to hang a guy out to dry, unless he's someone like a PacMan Jones, and it's blatently obvious.

[wist43]

I don't. They wanted to avoid paying another linemen big bucks when they were paying Kampman, Jenkins, Pickett, and Harrell good money. When they drafted Harrell the writing was on the wall for CWill.

It was a good trade, in hindsight and in foresight. Teddy lacked the foresight to fortify the line, though.

He understocked the DL, and overstocked WR... took his BPA, as always; but, this goes to my overriding criticism of TT... how do you eventually have all the pieces together and have a complete team capable of making a SB run???

[Guiness]

Is Williams worth $38 mil??? No... the argument in my mind is preemptive signing at a lower number. For young guys that play out their first contract, have shown upside and production... the argument is always preemptive signing.

The fact that they have done that with every player they really wanted to keep, and that you never heard about any kind of attempt to sign Williams, would seem to tell you what they thought of Williams.

I agree with Cheesner, I think they expected him to go in the tank when he got paid.

It's a good point, and one we'll never know the answer to. We had a good to very good player on our roster, and let him go. Why? The answer probably lies in that they didn't like him much for some reason, or thought Harrell would come around - and I tend towards the former, because Harrell had shown no signs of being able to fill his shoes.

Other players TT/MM have let go were because they just weren't very good anymore (Hendo) or we had a suitable replacement (Koren). One notable deviation from this could be Tracey White.

[Guiness]

No, he wasn't. We tagged Williams the franchise player. He was gonna get 6.36 million from us. We just moved 7 mil into 2009, so we had the bucks. I agree that TT made the right move, but we didn't save 38 mil, CW never saw that offer from us, that's what his agent negotiated from the Browns.

The Browns cleverly figured they were gonna move a spot RDT in a 4-3 to LDE in a 3-4 and have a solid player. Williams was a big, fat, fish out of water the whole season for Cleveland.

That's why Savage and Crennel are available for any team that wants 'em.

Would we have done better with Williams here, playing in his old spot? Yeah, maybe. That was definitely a trade that screwed both teams so far.

Maybe Brohm has an epiphany and we do some good in the deal after all.

I tend to agree that this is a trade that, short term, didn't work out for either team. Brohm certainly didn't help us this year, and CW was, well, missing. Down the road, CW might adjust to his new surroundings, and Brohm might develop...but that's down the road.

Even if you subscribe to the idea that he would get lazy once he was paid, giving him the franchise deal effectively puts him back in a contract year. He might not have been happy, but I'm betting he would've played like hell.

[Partial]

I don't. They wanted to avoid paying another linemen big bucks when they were paying Kampman, Jenkins, Pickett, and Harrell good money. When they drafted Harrell the writing was on the wall for CWill.

It was a good trade, in hindsight and in foresight. Teddy lacked the foresight to fortify the line, though.

He understocked the DL, and overstocked WR... took his BPA, as always; but, this goes to my overrided criticism of TT... how do you eventually have all the pieces together and have a complete team capable of making a SB run???

I wouldn't have gone the WR route myself, but I can't fault him for the trade.

It was an awesome deal, as Harv has pointed out. Certainly doesn't coincide with the tough guy attitude they want to bring to the team.

[Gunakor]

Any way you slice it, TT orchestrated himself a huge hole at DT, and it hurt the team all year.

Is Williams worth $38 mil??? No... the argument in my mind is preemptive signing at a lower number. For young guys that play out their first contract, have shown upside and production... the argument is always preemptive signing.

By not making him a discounted offer earlier he was all but assured of seeing Williams walk... b/c afterall, he wasn't worth what Cleveland paid for him, but he's still a very nice player, and would have been a huge boost to the line this year.

I don't understand how people think TT orchestrated himself a huge hole at DT. Follow the timeline. When TT drafted Justin Harrell, he was roundly criticized for it because we did not need another DL. We had too many already. The next offseason TT unloads just one DL, bringing us back to where we were before drafting Justin Harrell. And now the cupboard is bare?

I don't get it. TT didn't empty that cupboard during the offseason. He got rid of one player on a DL who many of us had criticized him for having too many of. With CW we have too many DL, yet without him we have too few, at least by the logic I've heard from many Packer fans. What would they have done, traded away just half of CW? Would things have been more perfect with 5 and a half DT's rather than 6 (too many) or 5 (too few)?

[Lurker64]

Mostly, I find fault in that Thompson didn't take a single defensive tackle at any point in the 2008 NFL draft. Not that he didn't take one with one of his second round picks, but that with nine picks he never took a shot at a big man who could develop. Taking Pat Sims instead of Brohm or Lee (hopefully instead of Brohm, what a wasted pick) would be reasonable. Frank Okam instead of Breno or Sitton wouldn't have been ridiculous. We had a couple of shots at Ahtyba Rubin.

It wasn't a great draft for defensive tackles, but wasn't there somebody in the seventh round that could have sat on the PS for a year that would have been more worthy of a seventh round pick than Brett Swain or "Trading away the pick for a 2009 pick"?