|
Four Downs with Dang & Doc
by Brian Davis and Paul Hopkins
21/8/2009
This week Dang and Doc chew the fat over Michael Vick landing in Philadelphia and ask whether after two pre-season games Vince Young is on the verge of taking back his starting job. Elsewhere Michael Crabtree continues to hold out, so the boys consider (again) whether the rookie salary cap needs to come in. And the guys get serious by questioning whether Donte Stallworth’s punishment fits the crime.
 The addition of Michael Vick will make no difference to the performance of the Eagles this season.
 DANG FICTION ! – One of the most exciting Quarterback’s of recent times, going into one of the best offenses of the 2009 season, it’s a match made in heaven. The Eagles have no real wild cat package of note, sure, DeSean Jackson can take the direct snap but how well can he throw it? Vick is the ideal man to come in and work some trickery, gadget plays, decoy’s and quarterback option plays. He’ll likely be lining up at Running Back, Wide Receiver as well as Quarterback and will be a defensive nightmare with his speed, let alone his presence. The thought of McNabb and Vick on the same team, on the field at the same time is quite literally a mouth watering thought and one that I am going to be hugely anxious to see once the season is underway. He’ll offer a whole new playbook to the Eagles with Andy Reid certain to get him involved once he’s cleared his 6 week ban from our friend Roger. He’s also played in a West Coast offense so it may not take him too long to get up to speed with the playbooks. It’s a truly exciting time if you are a Philadelphia fan right now. This team is for real, this team will go to the Super Bowl I’m sure of it.
DOC FICTION ! The only ways that he won’t have a positive impact on the Eagles this season is that either he a) gets injured or b) doesn’t get his ban lifted. Because, at the absolute minimum defensive coordinators will have to spend a portion of their week working out where on the field Vick might end up, meaning they wont be thinking about McNabb, about Westbrook or about Jackson or Maclin. Picture this scenario; McNabb under centre, with Westbrook behind him, Vick alongside him or in the slot, DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin ready to fly down the outside; who’s going to stop that? Or maybe Vick taking the snap with Westbrook in the backfield and those two speedsters out wide? There’s no easy way to say this but the Eagles have added another X factor that can only be beneficial for them. It’s an upgrade behind McNabb at QB, it’s a QB with legs to relieve pressure on McNabb and they can see what else they can do with him. Because after being out for two years, nobody knows. We got a glimpse of this kind of thinking in Andy Reid’s press conference where he more or less refused to say what they would look to do with Vick. Logic assumes he’ll take over the wildcat from what Jackson did last year but Andy wouldn’t say, and nor should he. Keep them guessing. It’s a brave move signing what people believe is a PR disaster, but he’s still an incredible athlete and this move makes them even firmer favourites at this point in my mind for the NFC.
 Based on their performances thus far in pre-season Vince Young will take back the Titans starting quarterback job from Kerry Collins.
 DANG FICTION ! – Collins offers the steady, if unspectacular hand at the Quarterback position. He’s the clear-cut leader going through pre-season and into the regular season. The Titans have added some nice new weapons in Nate Washington, Kenny Britt and Tight End Jared Cook (who is having a very impressive training camp) for Collins to throw to. Justin Gage looked really good last at times last year and will continue to be a safe pair of hands for Collins. Whilst Collins isn’t mobile, he has the presence of mind to read the defense, his new receivers will only aid him as they’re much improved on what they went through last year with. It’s down to Collins to throw the starting job away or to take a big injury to give Young any real game-time. Sure, I think we’ll see Young on the field, perhaps mopping up duties and he’ll probably get a look in similarly to how Vick will in Philadelphia, in the wildcat, for now though, he’ll remain entrenched as second choice ahead of Paddy Ramsey. He also has to prove he’s head-strong and show some pocket poise, he’s not in College now and can’t make every other play with his feet when he has nobody to throw to. Collins is a great mentor for Young to learn from if he’s to be the future starter in Nashville. Watch and learn Vince, your time will come.
DOC FICTION ! Having now ploughed through both games the Titans have played thus far, I’ve still not seen enough to say that Vince is going to take the job back. It is, of course always much harder to tell from pre-season what the season will bring, and whilst Collins has probably raised this question through his sub-standard play, I don’t think Vince has done enough to take the job back. Part of me thinks he is still trying to re-gain the trust of his team-mates after his publicised meltdown last season, but he looks and comes over as more mentally stronger, which was the big issue. Some of the other more technical issues Vince had still look to be there but he hasn’t regressed and if anything people appear to have been quietly optimistic about how VY has done thus far. So I expect to see him stick around a bit longer in Tennessee than it maybe looked a few weeks back, but this is still Kerry Collins’ team for the moment.
 With the end of the Michael Crabtree hold-out not in sight, it again proves there needs to be a rookie salary cap.
 DANG FACT ! – Absolutely. These guys need to remember that this first contract is all about getting your second and third contracts in the NFL, those are what really matters. The fact that a guy who has never seen the field of play within the NFL, despite how good they may have been in college, can get their agents to demand more money than what a seasoned veteran with Super Bowl rings and Pro Bowl honours can earn, is quite frankly absurd. The fact also that an agent can demand top 5 money because he feels that’s where he should have been drafted despite him falling to pick ten and because the Raiders are damn right stupid passing him up, is even more absurd. He fell to pick ten, he gets pick ten money. The fact that the Raiders screwed the whole top 10 up, by not only reaching for a late first rounder, but then also giving him an enormous contract that screwed the scale up is nonsensical. No wonder Eugene Parker is demanding more, but he has to remember Mike Singletary, Jed York and Scott McCloughan are certainly not Al Davis and his bunch of misfits. Crabtree may well be good enough to walk on to the team with little practice or few training sessions, but the bottom line is, you only learn and get better, by getting out there and getting involved, running your routes, catching the balls thrown to you. Personally if I were Crabtree and he wants to play as much as he says, I’d fire Eugene Parker, tell my interfering cousins who are in for the money and the fame ride to poke off and sign the next bit of paper put in front of me from the Niners Front Office.
DOC FICTION ! It’s rehashing an old view I have but why do we need to have rules about it, when if its something that bugs owners etc that much then they can do it anyway simply by not paying them the ever-increasing amounts that dwarves the cash paid out to their players who have been there and proved it for years? It defies logic that they continue to give out more and more money but question whether they should when they hold the power. I remember saying at this point last year actually I think it was earlier but if owners etc want to lower the cost of their rookies they don’t need a salary cap to do so. All they have to do is agree to bring the cost down themselves. If no-one offers more than last year’s player taken at the same level in the draft, then where is the player and his agent going to go? At worst back to college, only to re-enter next year and face the same again. We hear this argument every year and at the end of the day, it’s the owners and GM’s who drive the cost up every year because they sign the contracts and the cheques. If they didn’t then we wouldn’t hear the same arguments regurgitated year on year. The league could do something if it wanted but is it worth the fight with the NFLPA? Probably not, so just follow each others lead and hold your ground and make them accept less for unproven commodities whilst dangling the carrot that if you prove you’re good enough, the cash will follow. It just won’t come before you do anything.
 Donte Stallworth has escaped lightly for his crimes with a 30 day prison sentence and one year suspension from the NFL.
 DANG FACT ! – A 30 day prison sentence, one year suspended from work with no pay, but with the chance to come back after, for killing a man whilst over the legal limit? It’s not really a deterrent for impressionable youngsters out there is it? If Donte Stallworth can get away with it Even if it was a one year prison sentence and a 30 day ban it wouldn’t be enough. Is 30 days worth the price of a man’s life? Is Donte Stallworth truly remorseful? Will he be thinking about the man he killed on Christmas morning? Will he be thinking about that man’s family on Thanksgiving?
Did he really think he could get away with driving at 7.15am after being out partying the night before? It’s remarkable to think that he’s got less than what Michael Vick got for his part in the dog fighting scandal. It just shows that the $ really can buy you anything these days, even the price of a man’s life to stop you doing time.
DOC FACT ! And never has a truer statement been used in this column. I find it morally disgusting that this is the sum of the penalty for what might have been termed as manslaughter, but really through negligence and arrogance is little more than window-dressed premeditated murder. Stallworth might have admitted culpability for the crimes although really did he actually have any other choice? but why should that go in his favour when you consider he knowingly got into his car over the alcohol limit and then proceeded to run down and kill an innocent man leaving work? It’s a farce he gets what was actually 24 days in jail just because he said yeah, I did it. Sorry about that. And then Random Roger decides to go lenient, meaning a man who killed another person will not miss less time than someone who led a dog-fighting ring or did what Adam Jones did nothing specifically, but generally for being a bit of an epicenter of trouble and violence. Basically, the football penalties boil down to whether you stand in front of Goodell and make him feel like the big man he’s desperate to be by apologizing and kissing his feet. Do that and he’ll look favourably on you, and he has gone soft on Stallworth there’s no two ways about it as far as I’m concerned. Because Michael Vick had the temerity to mislead Goodell over two years ago Random Roger decides to administer his own form of double jeopardy punishment. So after being bankrupted and spending two years in jail Roger has to punish Vick some more. Why? The only reason is to assert yet again that you don’t mislead the almighty being that is Roger Goodell. Are dogs worth more than humans in his mind? Is the risk of a militant animal group kicking up a fuss worse than a family being left without a father? Clearly it is in Random Roger’s mind. At minimum Stallworth should have a multi-year (i.e. at least five) ban from the NFL, and if it ends his career should we give a damn? At least he has the rest of his life left, which is more than Mario Reyes has.
Don’t forget you can leave feedback for Dang and Doc and keep up to date with all the latest news from the Diner on Facebook and Twitter feed
|
