- hcreight
- Mar 19, 2007
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My name is Oliver Queen...
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Professor Funk posted:
If the Miami Dolphins seem to be trying hard to get him the Jets have to make an attempt to acquire him because playing Peyton Manning and Tom Brady twice apiece would be loving hellish
God hates the Bills.
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Feb 9, 2012 04:34
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- hcreight
- Mar 19, 2007
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My name is Oliver Queen...
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I'm starting to picture a scary alternate universe where every animal in existence has an enormous forehead.
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Feb 9, 2012 04:42
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- hcreight
- Mar 19, 2007
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My name is Oliver Queen...
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Grozz Nuy posted:
Very good, if not completely ideal. Most of the important pieces on both sides of the ball are locked up for the near future on pretty team-friendly deals, or still playing out their rookie deals like Bowman and Aldon Smith. They have three important free agents: Alex Smith, Carlos Rogers, and Dashon Goldson. Obviously if they sign Peyton retaining Alex becomes a nonissue. If the Niners are interested in Peyton they're keeping it very close to the vest, which makes sense because they're still in the process of negotiating with Alex. Because Harbaugh's only been here for a year and Baalke for two, it's hard for me to have a really complete sense of how they operate. But here's my best guess as to how the possibility of Peyton to the Niners could make sense.
At this point in his career, we can logically presume that the most important thing to Peyton Manning is winning another championship before he is forced to retire. He'll want to be paid like an elite quarterback of course, but that's mostly an issue of pride because he's been paid like a premier player for over a decade and has been doing extremely lucrative endorsements for nearly as long (and could continue doing them even after retiring from the NFL if he wanted). The Niners are, by a pretty wide margin in my opinion, the most competitive team with both a need at QB and the financial wherewithal to make the deal happen. Somebody in the last thread mentioned that the offensive line could be a factor because of his health issues, and in theory I agree, but all the teams likely to compete for him (Jets, Arizona, Seattle, Miami, Washington, Cleveland, and San Francisco) all have mediocre to outright awful offensive line units, so I would say in the grand scheme of things that's probably negligible. Unless the unthinkable happens and New Orleans fails to bring back Brees, there's no team with a stacked offensive line that doesn't already have their QB situation taken care of.
The Niners are also unique in the group of teams likely to pursue Peyton in the sense that they're not looking for a long-term solution at QB, so the fact that Peyton will inevitably be a 2-3 year stopgap at best is not a serious hindrance. Even if they retained Alex Smith it would likely be a 2 or 3 year deal anyway due to the presence of Colin Kaepernick, who is presumably being groomed to take over as the long-term future of the franchise at the position. It's just hard to gauge how much interest the Niners have in Peyton at this point, but they absolutely should, because even with Alex's improvements QB play was still one of the major factors that prevented them from going deeper in the playoffs, and because two of the other likely suitors (including the team that may be the most serious right now) are within the division. Signing Peyton would both dramatically improve the Niners' offense and considerably hamper the Seahawks' and Cardinals' ability to improve theirs. It's not without a considerable amount of risk, of course, but it's a solid strategic move for a number of reasons beyond the basic 'better QB makes you a better team'.
The Niners' front office has implied, if not directly stated, that they would prefer to retain their free agents but have no qualms about moving on if the price tag is not to their liking. Baalke definitely showed he was willing to do this last season: Aubrayo Franklin, David Baas, Nate Clements, Manny Lawson, and Takeo Spikes were all left for other teams, and the Niners were prepared to walk away from Goldson as well until it turned out nobody wanted him (something that will change this time, I'm sure). In basically every case, Baalke replaced the player in question with someone who was equal or better but much cheaper (Baas with Jonathan Goodwin, Clements with Rogers, Lawson with Ahmad Brooks, Spikes with Bowman). Sopoaga is really only an average NT, but shifting him to that position allowed them to slot Ray McDonald in at LDE who proceeded to have an excellent year. Franklin had an underwhelming year himself in New Orleans so I'll call that one a push. Baalke had a reputation for being a very savvy scout when he was hired and between last offseason and his two very good drafts so far, the results have definitely borne that out.
Like I said, I have only a limited sample of how he operates so I'm working on guesswork here. But I would not be surprised if should the negotiations with Rogers' and Smith's camps not be proceeding to the Niners' liking before the start of free agency, Baalke lets the two of them walk, tags Goldson, and uses the money the franchise had earmarked for Rogers and Smith as a package to make a play for Peyton. Losing their best corner would certainly hurt, but the gain in offensive production would almost certainly completely offset it and more. I bet Baalke could find an undervalued veteran cover corner in free agency to adequately take his place, which is what Rogers himself was in the first place.
If the worst outcome happens and Peyton takes a hit in his third game back that forces him into retirement, the Niners are arguably better protected than the other teams likely to pursue him, because it just means that they learn what they have in Kaepernick a little sooner than the ideal. Unless of course one of the other teams hires a bubble starter like Henne or Campbell to back up Peyton, but that would be less money to spend on further improving the team around him.
The Niners have the money to sign Peyton and if Manning follows the logical incentives the Niners would be his best shot at winning more Lombardis. The obstacles as I see them are how willing the Niners are to taking on his health risks (I suspect they're monitoring whatever medical details are being released very closely), and how willing Harbaugh would be to taking a superstar into his team-first collegiate style of coaching. I don't honestly know how much Harbaugh's blue-collar shtick is honest belief and how much of it is borne out of necessity considering the roster he had to work with this year (talented, but without any big stars at traditional skill positions). I suspect it's some of each. But the one thing that this season has made clear to me is that Harbaugh is competitive in the extreme, even among the spectrum of intensity required by an NFL head coach. If he believes that Manning gives him a good enough chance to win a championship to be worth subverting his 'message', he'll probably be willing to pull the trigger.
...I've thought entirely too much about this scenario considering the actual likelihood of it happening, if you couldn't tell. Sorry to interrupt all the (hilarious) Peyton logos.
This long, thought-out post has one fundamental problem: it is not formatted into the shape of Peyton Manning's head.
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Feb 9, 2012 08:15
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- hcreight
- Mar 19, 2007
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My name is Oliver Queen...
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nuncle jimbo posted:
Yeah if theres one thing sa needs it's more casual misogyny and memes
I hate you all
Wait what?
edit: oh you mean Reddit. My bad, carry on.
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Feb 10, 2012 04:15
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Feb 9, 2012 04:34
