Well what does sound like an up and coming linebacker? Overpaying for an older Bart Scott who has worked off of Ray Lewis' success his entire career? What we got was a sure tackler, a young presence, and one of the few dolphins left from a few years ago. We may not have signed a big name guy, but who the hell else was available?
I don't care about Bart Scott and who he lived off of, I don't care who else was avalible and I don't care how much you lile the guy. The question you posed was,
I don't know what the hell is up with some people on crowder. God forbid we keep an up and coming, 25 year old linebacker, who contributes 100+ tackles a year.
I answered your question with facts, like it or not.
It would have been stupid to let him walk. He may not get many passes deflected or sacks, but he does get triple digit tackles. He is a ball hawk. Joey porter gets sacks. You don't see them putting Joey Porter in coverage do you? They use him to his abilities. Crowder is a run stopping linebacker, and that is what he will always be.
It would have been even more stupid to sign him to the contract he was looking for, cause no one in the league was interested in signing him to that kind of a contract casue he isn't worth and hasn't proven to be woth that kinda money.
Its also a team game remember? Guys work off of eachother. Of the many games we won by a one possession score what happened? Sound defense. It took an entire defense doing their job to win those games for us. It took what doesn't show up in the stat column. It took heart, leadership, and a hell of a backbone to be put in those situations that many times.
Yes, I remember, and you need to improve any way you can AND manage your cap. Vonnie Holiday was a terrific leader and locker room guy, just a fantastic "team" guy! But he was older and due too much money. So rather than strp the team finacially the FO made a decision to release him. What's the point? You don't make decisions on the team based on one thing, you have several things to address when making decsisons. Crowder saved his job with the Dolphins, by lowering his demands, not his only statistic, tackles.
Resigning Crowder didn't fill a whole, it prevented one from being made right in the middle of our defense. Sometimes the stat columns don't mean anything, and we all know Crowder brings more to the field than what numbers say. The guys on the team like him, and theres no doubt in my mind they trust him. Thats what it takes to win football
games.
Resigning Crowder was a move the FO wanted to make, but only if it was for the right price. It had nothing to do with creating or filling "holes". The guy's in charge aren't going to pay more for a player than they think he's worth regardless of the hol;es they create. Channing was just hours from hitting the market and the only reason there wasn't a "hole" to fill was because Channing sucked it up and took less money cause Maimi wasn't going to flintch on their numbers. You can think whatever you like, this new FO has a plan and they will not make a move they beileve won't be in the best interest of this team. Channing was free to go, bottom line.
