| COchief |
09-22-2018 08:51 AM |
He generally seems to play slow and looks ten years older on the field, something about that injury or maybe his motivation has fallen off. He looks like DJ 2 years ago, just doesn't have the speed or fire anymore. I will say he is fantastic at setting the edge on his side and containing and occasionally blowing up sweeps/screens/off tackle runs which is an underrated skill that doesn't always hit the stat sheets. Buttons use of him is also in question, but that is a whole other can of worms.
My general feeling on mega second contracts the last few years is just trade them or let them walk and take the 3rd. I'll take two young, healthy, hungry and relatively cheap Dee Fords/Hitchens/Raglands/Kpasses over a $20 million LB gamble any day. Same for any future Berry types, give me the Abdullah/Parker (2015ish)/3-5th round draft pick over our other $20mm gamble who took the team for every single red cent his agent could get. If one is that valuable just franchise them year to year. Essentially the modern NFL RB approach, get that cheap first contract and then make the smart business decision.
I wasn't screaming from the podium when the numbers came out on both deals, but I can say my gut feeling was they were both too much with no options for the team regarding cut/trade. ROI between 50/29 has been crap the last 3-4 years, two salaries combined are probably north of $100 million+ and in return we got one good season out of 29 and the rest are hurt/gimpy/average years between the two. Locker room/team/rah-rah stuff aside, both of those deals are a huge fail at this point.
|
