Wow, the number of additions

[Joey 22]

A solid draft is one that most of the draftees make the team and contribute. ..Hmmm, I think last year's draftees did that. Of course the jury is still out on all these players, their only in their 2nd season. But the fact that all except one made the team is very good in it's self, especially when you have a late rounder, (Hadnot), doing a creditable job and getting good comments by the new staff.

There are only 2 1/2 mistakes I'm awhere that ppl said Speilman make; 1. giving up a 4th rounder to move up one spot to get carey. 2. trading the 3rd we got from St. Louis to get Gordon, and 1/2, possible giving Philly the 2nd for AJ who's a question mark in terms of worth at this point. Those are points of arguments and speculation in my humble opinion. The biggest is the giving up the 4th, which I feel has merit. The others don't bother me. Now the good.

Booker and a 3rd.
Good risk money wise to bring in Boston.
AJ--We needed another QB to take over.
Hadnot (Gem so far)
Poole (Was playing well enough last year to allow us to trade surtain)
James (will be anchor of OL)
St. Clair (suprisingly good play)
Welker (best kr\pr we've had in awhile)
Bua (had to have video clip made of his hit, highlighted on espn)
Pope...played solidly while Zach was out. (Only reason he didn't start--Z.Thomas (should we say more??)
S. Morris..(FB talented enough to play HB)
Howard..(Played a lot year one, other part of cb acquisition that allowed us to trade Surtain)
Possibly Carey
Possibly McIntosh, both of the last two we'll know more about this year.
Having the Guts to revamp our OL..thank God, we have have suffer, but we're on the right track in that requards.
Did not overpay for Woody
Did not overpay for Tait
Guy has consistently shown an eye for late round talent, and undrafted talent..i.e Banks, Roundtree, Y. Bell, C. Jenkins..and now Pape possibly.
I'm not going to add the many players I think he had a hand in picking up or recommending to Wanny.
AND MOST OF ALL, he did not leave us in CAP HELL.

His good outshined the bad for sure.

Feeley was no half mistake, but mistake and a half, no matter how good he turns out to be he was a 3rd stringer 27 yo at the moment (no spring chiken) and didnt show much EVER. He was a 5th rounder when drafted and didnt prove anything to be worth more than that.

 

[Joey 22]

I'll give Saban credit when its due, he brought in great coaching. But I do question his moves in the draft and in free agency. I'm still not happy with the Ronnie Brown pick at #2, I could be wrong but I think we shouldve either traded down or taken the best value in Braylon Edwards. RBs are not worth top 3 picks, because u can find good starters in the 2nd and 3rd rd. If Brown turns out to be a Jamal Lewis or an LT I'll admit I was wrong but the guy is 24 (pretty old for a rookie RB and he didnt even start in college) He also took a big risk in the 3rd rd. on a guy like channing crowder who has an attitude problem and is 1 injury away from retirement already. And in free agency he spent alot of money on has beens like Kevin Carter and Tebucky Jones, these are guys who havent been great producers in years and we even gave Carter a multi-year contract. I was a little dissapointed at Sabans personnel moves and I think the team may regret giving him so much power. Butch Davis was suppost to be a sure thing out of college also if you remember and where is he now? Davis got Cleveland to overachieve, so he was good as a coach but his downfall was that he made the personnel decisions, as it was for many good coaches in the past. Spielman wasnt that bad, and I think hell get another shot at being a GM in the future. I just cant wait to see what Saban can do during the games, because Im not impressed so far with his personnel moves.

Ronnie is 23 and will be until December, when the season will be pretty much over for us.

 

[Joey 22]

Ok, I understand we started out the year in a bad cap situation. That still doesnt explain to me why Kevin Carter was given a 5 year-30 million dollar deal and Tebucky Jones was given a 2 year 8.85 million dollar deal, not to mention he gave Vonnie Holliday a 2 year 5 million dollar deal. It these were young players with upside Id understand giving so much money, or even if they were 28 year olds in their prime I'd understand. But these are 3 players who's best days are behind them. Kevin Carter hasnt had a good season since 2002, Tebucky Jones is overrated and is a major weakness in pass coverage, Vonnie Holliday hasnt been good since 2001. Yet Saban gave these guys over 40 million in contracts just to be stop gaps? In college they dont have free agency, so why is everyone so confident a guy like Saban with no previous NFL personnel experience has to be right on such questionable free agent signings. Im not saying I hate Saban or even that he's going to fail. But the moves he has made in free agency and in the draft have not been "Belichek" type of moves like I was expecting. Instead he's given big contracts to big names that havent produced in years and he's drafted players based on talent alone and not on attitudes and intelligence like Belichek does. This is our best draft in 6 or 7 years yet 2 out of our top 3 picks have questionable personalites and Crowder is an injury risk, not to mention he spent the #2 overall pick in the draft on a 24 year old RB who couldnt beat out the Caddy for carries. I'll judge how good this draft is 3 years from now. For now I'll remain skeptical. Hopefully I'll like Saban more as an Xs and Os type of guy then I do as a personnel guy. I have liked the coaching staff he's brought in.

Again Brown is 23, Tebuckys contract has barely no signing bonus, if we fire him next year it will cost us about 500 K, you also have the wrong numbers on Hollidays contract, and Kevin Carter is very good he is like a JT playing DT undersized for DT but kills oponnent backfields, of course the last 2 years hasent been very productive because he isn t playing DE anymore. And McDougle was an amazing signing dont you remember that one? While Pitts offered him 3 years and like 10 millions he signed here for 1 year and 800K.

 

[MDFINFAN]

Feeley was no half mistake, but mistake and a half, no matter how good he turns out to be he was a 3rd stringer 27 yo at the moment (no spring chiken) and didnt show much EVER. He was a 5th rounder when drafted and didnt prove anything to be worth more than that.

That's my assessment and I'm sticking to it.. :D We got Feeley for what we got him for, now I hope he plays like we gave a 1st for him..if he's our long term solution he was worth it..

 

[KillerJosh373]

Joey22,
Ok, Ronnie is 23, that still doesnt explain why Caddillac Williams beat him out for carries. I understand that maybe his workouts were better then Caddy, but I personally would rather draft based on college production and not workouts. If Brown couldnt steal carries away from Williams in college I think if anything Caddy shouldve been the pick at #2. I got all my cap information from the salary cap section of this website ( you can check if you want), so if it is wrong you should tell the people in charge of Finheaven. I agree that Mcdougle was a good signing for a very good price, I never said Saban was doing everything wrong. I liked drafting Matt Roth and Travis Daniels, and I liked the Mcdougle and Donnie Spragan signings. He's also done a great job at bringing in coaching. I just have some concerns and Im not going to look at all of Sabans moves with teal colored sunglasses.

 

[VanDolPhan]

You can't take the contract figures for guys like Vonnie Holliday, Cater and T. Jones at face value. Most, if not all of the older guys we've signed this off-season won't ever see close to the full duration of their contracts. The base salary for the majority of these is pretty low, and the signing bonuses were very reasonable.

Correct. The Carter contract is a prime example. It can be as short as a 2 year $8 million deal.

 

[Merman]

Carter's contract could be a one year $6 million deal.

He received a $4.5 million signing bonus, $500k roster bonus due 7/1/05 and $1 million base salary.

Next year 2006, he is due a $3 million roster bonus and $1 million base salary.

That's $10 million for 2 years without his NLTBE incentives in 2005.

2007 has a $3 million roster bonus too.

Carter is a great player and a model citizen though he is 31 years old.

 

[Daytona Fin]

Ronnie is 23 and will be until December, when the season will be pretty much over for us.

thanks for the confidence fellow finfan.