OK Guys(and Girls) now that we all are taking the "wait and see approach" lol until Camp, I thought I would touch back and get some input on one of our front offices most controversial decisions of the off season.
Signing Jake Grove instead of Jason Brown:
Grove: 6-4, 300, 29 years old, history of injuries in Oakland, Sparano and Ireland really liked him coming out of V-Tech. Five-Year, $29.5 million, Including $14 Million guaranteed.
Brown: 6-3, 320, 26 years old, wanted to play for Mia, would have been the ideal candidate to replace the "undersized" Samson Satelle. Five-Year, $37.5 Million, Including $20 Million Guaranteed.
The knock on Samson was that he was undersized and was not getting the "push" against those huge NT's in our division that Sparano wanted. Of course we all looked at the size of Brown and his background and immediately thought he would be a very solid signing according to what the FO was looking for in our new Center(Power run blocking style and very large in bulk and size). However we opted to save roughly $7 Million dollars over the course on five years to sign a smaller(than Brown) center, a guy with a short history of injuries, and a guy 3 years older.
In hind sight it looked like we opted for the bargain in signing grove, but did we lose value in signing him instead of going the extra mile to get Brown?
Is Brown being 10-15lbs heavier and 3 years younger than Grove really worth spending almost $7 million more dollars?
I will admit that the thought of a huge 26 year old stud center was very appealing to me. I was thinking, "man put him on the line with Thomas and Long and we have three extremely young studs on the O-line." But lets think about it from the Front Offices perspective.
Grove was recruited heavily out of college by Tony and Jeff. He is extremely stout at the point of attack and has a nasty attitude towards opposing defenders. He has a history of holding his own against some guys in our division(Wilfork, Stroud, Jenkins). They love his quickness off the ball. They love his ability to move the guy in front of him. So basically they love a lot about his game, plus they truly believe that when they get grove into our off season workout program he will become less injury prone. I believe we will see grove put on 3-7lbs of muscles by opening day.
In all i believe we made the right decision in going with grove over Brown. Grove is a more seasoned veteran who's attitude will rub off onto our other o linemen. Brown was a guy we would have had to get into a bidding war for. Grove signed for less and they believe he will give us what we need and that is that presence in the middle.
Thanks
Q
Signing Jake Grove instead of Jason Brown:
Grove: 6-4, 300, 29 years old, history of injuries in Oakland, Sparano and Ireland really liked him coming out of V-Tech. Five-Year, $29.5 million, Including $14 Million guaranteed.
Brown: 6-3, 320, 26 years old, wanted to play for Mia, would have been the ideal candidate to replace the "undersized" Samson Satelle. Five-Year, $37.5 Million, Including $20 Million Guaranteed.
The knock on Samson was that he was undersized and was not getting the "push" against those huge NT's in our division that Sparano wanted. Of course we all looked at the size of Brown and his background and immediately thought he would be a very solid signing according to what the FO was looking for in our new Center(Power run blocking style and very large in bulk and size). However we opted to save roughly $7 Million dollars over the course on five years to sign a smaller(than Brown) center, a guy with a short history of injuries, and a guy 3 years older.
In hind sight it looked like we opted for the bargain in signing grove, but did we lose value in signing him instead of going the extra mile to get Brown?
Is Brown being 10-15lbs heavier and 3 years younger than Grove really worth spending almost $7 million more dollars?
I will admit that the thought of a huge 26 year old stud center was very appealing to me. I was thinking, "man put him on the line with Thomas and Long and we have three extremely young studs on the O-line." But lets think about it from the Front Offices perspective.
Grove was recruited heavily out of college by Tony and Jeff. He is extremely stout at the point of attack and has a nasty attitude towards opposing defenders. He has a history of holding his own against some guys in our division(Wilfork, Stroud, Jenkins). They love his quickness off the ball. They love his ability to move the guy in front of him. So basically they love a lot about his game, plus they truly believe that when they get grove into our off season workout program he will become less injury prone. I believe we will see grove put on 3-7lbs of muscles by opening day.
In all i believe we made the right decision in going with grove over Brown. Grove is a more seasoned veteran who's attitude will rub off onto our other o linemen. Brown was a guy we would have had to get into a bidding war for. Grove signed for less and they believe he will give us what we need and that is that presence in the middle.
Thanks
Q
