I hate the “praise Jesus” stuff myself, but compared to what we had before, Joey Harrington, Kitna is a big improvement. Kitna has eaten the ball for a sack more and he’s had the green light to throw in Martz’s system. Trust me, Kitna’s not perfect. He’s roughly averag. The difference betweein him and Harrington was amazing. I shit you not.
Yes, that’s how low the bar is.
I don’t disagree that Kitna was an upgrade over Harrington, but that’s just dissecting shades of grey on the shittitude scale, IMO.
I love referencing that Bill Maher schtick about how if atheletes are going to praise God when they win, they need to be consistent and BLAME God when they lose.
The difference between Harrington and Kitna was day and night. The way the team played was far superior. He can make throws Joey can not even dream. Theoretically Joey had the tools to be a star. Apparently he did not.
I hate the religious crap Kitna spews. I wonder if he feels god has deserted him for his evil ways now.? But I see him as a better than average QB.
Kitna is a good team guy, so therefore the team is arguably “playing better for him” then they were for Harrington after his honeymoon wore off.
Could it be argued that the Lions gained some offensive line talent prior to installing Kitna?
When I watched the Lions play (rarely) under Harrington, I always felt that a lot of his crappy play was attributable to poor offensive line protection.
When Kitna was here with the Bengals, he had Chad Johnson, Rudi Johnson in his prime, a stellar offensive line group, etc, and all he could muster was 8-8 as his best season, hence my belief that he is truly mediocre at best.
He always had the knack for throwing the crucial INT that ruined games/playoff chances. Or spontaneously fumbling without contact. He does have very small hands and suspect arm strength.
Watching Harrington eat the ball constantly for sacks and skip the ball to wide open receivers got very old.
Trust me, the first game, I was happy with the switch. It’s not even close.
How good do you think Kevin Jones would have been pre-injury behind a solid offensive line?
Why would you extend the same courtesy to Joey Harrington?
He was David Klingler with another uniform…
Chris Brown signed with the Texans over the weekend for 2-years and $3.6 million. Considering only $800k of that is a bonus it’s a pretty cap friendly deal and it seems like a pretty good price for the guy. He’s had trouble staying healthy but he’s also shown some flashes of brilliance. He looks like one of those guys that could have a break out year in the right circumstance. The Texans probably aren’t it, but I bet he wins the starting job.
He was another guy I would have liked to see in a Bears uni for that kind of price. He’d have been a decent alternative to Benson at a good price, I’m guessing Kevin Jones will be quite a bit more expensive than that. Time will tell.
Psst… he already had his breakout year. He rushed for just over 1000 yards in his second season, and hasn’t done anything since.
There’s a difference. Kevin Jones is good. He had a monster of a rookie season despite playing half of it and put up some solid numbers with limited playing time in the Martz system. We jettisoned him because of the injuries and his salary cap number. I’ve heard that the Lions are actually talking about getting him back at a cheaper price (I don’t think I put much stock on that, though).
With Jones, you could see that he was pretty good. You couldn’t see that with Harrington. There’s a reason that Joey’s on his 4th team now.
DJ Hackett is off the market after signing with the Panthers to a 2 year deal worth $3.5 million. The Panthers have pretty much remade their WR corps adding Hackett and Muhammad to run with Steve Smith. I’d be impressed if they had a better QB situation to go along with that.
I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but that seems like another pretty cheap contract for a proven guy like Hackett. The Bears should have looked harder at him. Looks like the Bears are standing pat until the draft. I really hope this doesn’t mean they are targeting a WR with their #1 pick, too many questions about the WRs in this draft and we need lineman much worse and they aren’t available in free agency,
Look at the WR deals signed this season.
Bernard Berrian - 6year, $42 million.
Javon Walker - 6 year, $55 million.
Jerry Porter - 6 year, $30 million.
Bryant Johnson - 1 year, $2 million.
DJ Hackett - 2 year, $3.5 million.
That just doesn’t jibe.
I don’t want to sound like a homer, but if you can snag a Mario Manningham in the draft in the second round, I think you’ll be happy with that. He’s got game speed and he’s a pretty damned good route runner.
Well, if that list proves anything its that GMs will overpay for speed or even perceived speed time and time again. Porter is a one-trick pony; he can run downfield from the slot really, really fast, but makes no guarantees about actually catching the ball once he gets there.
Walker had excellent speed before two severe knee injuries; is he really worth paying $55 mil to find out if it’s still there? Not a chance, IMHO.
For Berrian, see Jerry Porter, although he’s at least proven that he can catch the ball without needing Jerry Rice and Tim Brown to draw away every defender.
I’m not impressed by Johnson, but he and Hackett came astonishingly cheap considering what the other guys got paid. Other than Berrian and Hackett, the three players on the list are has-beens or never-was’s… but one of those two is going to be 1,200-yard receiver this year, and my money’s on Hackett.
If I were the Eagles, I’d have paid for Walker. He’s very good after the catch and McNabb had an amazing year when he had a receiver like that (T.O.)
I’ve seen him show up in a few Mocks in the late 1st round and he hasn’t even had his Pro Day yet I don’t think. Getting him in the middle of the second round might turn out to be a steal. Though just about every team at the top of the draft needs a WR so I’d be shocked if he got past the Dolphins, Rams, Chiefs, Jets, Ravens, Saints, Bills and Broncos the second time around.
Also, the Bears don’t have a stellar track record with former Michigan stars and I hate Michigan personally, so I’m pretty OK with us not taking him. The biggest issue I have is that there are positions which are much more scarce which need attention in the second round.
Joe Flacco!!!
Apparently Stewart is done for 4-6 months after having toe surgery. Always what you want to hear about a young running back. Mendenhall probably just earned an extra couple million.
Yeah, Mr. Stewart is now coming at a much lower draft position.
Really, I’m sure you’ll be fine with any of the receivers, Omni. Chicago has such a good tradition of receivers and…oh…wait a minute…
I think it’s the water. It must muddy the speed or something.
The WRs are probably just fine. It’s just the QBs only learned about the legalization of the forward past a couple seasons ago. They are still trying to sort that out.
Yeah, a stud farm for quarterbacks you have not been.
Shush, you.
One of my favorite ESPN articles on the topic, for Insiders.
That was written in 2005. Here in 2008 things still have not improved.
Well, in all fairness, for about seven and a half games in 2006 it looked like Rex Grossman was going to the Pro Bowl.
Perhaps he was the victim of a truly cruel practical joke and thought he’d been traded to the Rams or something, then noticed that his jersey was the wrong shade of blue in Week 8.