Originally Posted by
LukeDaniel
He certainly caught fine on Sunday, didn't he? He caught well enough to catch 54 balls last year, including two of the nicest catches of our season in the opener against PIT and an extremely tough catch for a TD in Seattle.
I'm not saying he has good hands. It's not like this is Ricky Dudley reincarnated, though. He's not nearly as bad as you are making him out to be. As a blocker, he's piss poor. No argument. He has value as a receiver for sure.
What would trading him for a 6th rounder accomplish? That 6th rounder might not even make the team. We already have 11 picks. By my roster breakdown, there is only room for 6-8 rookies on our 2013 roster, so an extra sixth rounder, aside from being trade bait to move up in the draft, really does nothing for us. We are going to have at least 3-4 of our draft picks that will either be cut or IRed next year.
If we go into 2013 with Pitta, low-cost veteran (Bajema clone), and a guy like Michael Williams, then we face a tough position if Pitta would get hurt. We are paying Flacco probably around $115 million over 6 years. It wouldn't make sense to pay all that money to keep him and then trade away one of his weapons for next to nothing. Keep in mind that cutting/trading Dickson ($1.32 2013 cap #) for a veteran-minimum type free agent (roughly $850) really only saves us $450k. For that amount, why not keep the higher-upside player?
Every offseason we have these conversations (not you specifically, but in general). We talk about how certain players are easily expendable, and by week 11 of the following season, that supposedly expendable player now holds a tangible value and we are darned glad that we kept them.