Reaction to the Jason Taylor Trade

Safety dance

Sunday and Monday stories
So the Redskins swapped a second rounder next year and a sixth rounder in 2010 for defensive end Jason Taylor after defensive ends Phillip Daniels and Alex Buzbee were both lost for the year on day one of camp. The Redskins assume Jason's contract with no changes, he is due around 8 million dollars each of the next two years. Jason has been unhappy with the perennially rebuilding Miami Dolphins and wanted out and Bill Parcells is always happy to oblige players that do not want to be near him.

Jason may play one year, maybe two, before going off to Hollywood, whatever that means. Vinny Cerrato is pretty certain Jason Taylor will play at least two seasons for the Redskins. Predictably, lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery made a bleating noise, something about Bruce Smith. lol, what if Jason Taylor comes here and turns the team and the media against Jim Zorn the way Bruce Smith did to Marty Schottenheimer?

This was a pretty good deal for the Redskins. While it blatantly exposed the lack of attention the team has paid to this position, it does give the Redskins a player that can contribute now. As with my Brett Favre argument, this Redskins team is a veteran team and they are tooled to win now or verrruh soon. Anything the team can do to hold the line no pun intended is the right thing to do. Second rounder though, that's got to hurt.

This also means the end of the Brett Favre courtship, there was never an active indication from the team that the Redskins were interested though Dan Snyder never came out and denied it. The value the team gave a way for a rent a player in Jason Taylor represents the value they would have given away for a rent a player in Brett Favre. Pulling the trigger on Brett now would see seriously declining returns in terms of maintaining future growth through the draft. More on this in another post.

Bill at The Redskin Report has an interesting take on how the Redskins using their top three picks for pass catchers now looks like maybe an unwise gamble considering lack of depth at defensive end and what it cost to get Jason Taylor for one season, maybe two.

Rich Tandler at Real Redskins thinks or rather thought before the trade that a second rounder was too much to give up and 8 million too much to pay for Jason. He also touches on the lack of depth at the position, the team should be able to absorb this hit without having to pull the trigger on a Jason Taylor. Later in the day Rich blockquotes himself, calls the deal more dumb than smart and notes that the Redskins are only two puzzle pieces away from being a dominant team: an experienced head coach and an experienced quarterback lol. The next day Rich rounds up some higher profile opinions.

Greg at Hog Heaven notes that Jason Taylor was defensive MVP in 2006 but that his and the Dolphins' run stopping abilities declined in 2007, don't forget the Dolphins were 1-15 last year. If a defensive end's first signs of age are losing a step against the run then it could be risky business with two pass rushers in there on every down (Andre Carter being the other). Later Greg gives us an idea of what to expect with Jason Taylor on the team, poor run blocking being the one that sort of grabbed me.

Jason La Canfora puts it best:

...[T]o me, this is a move the Skins had to make. You're talking about picking up dudes who can, most likely, barely play in the NFL, if at all, versus getting a future Hall of Famer and [a] premier sack guy in the league over the last 10 years.

I can get behind that. The next morning Jason LaCa put it in different perspective: would the Redskins have given up (35 yr old) Phillip Daniels and (undrafted 2nd year man) Alex Buzbee for a 34 yr old Pro Bowler? The answer is yes. Later in the same morning (I hope this guy is not doing it all on his blackberry) Jason LaCa finally gets to the thing I thought when I first heard about the trade: the Dan Snyder Hollywood connection. After his football career is over Jason Taylor wants to become the next The Rock. Then even later he rips Vinny Cerrato a new one over petty deceit.

Mike Wise also at the WaPo makes fun of the deal.

Michael Farnham (Tony Brown's got a whole stable now) at Hog Heaven writes great idea, Redskins run defense will suffer and that is ok, it was still the right deal.



Tuesday
Rich Tandler at Real Redskins has thought some more about it and likes, the big downside is that this is the only deal the team can make this year which is ok with me.


Thursday
Lee Gibbons at The Redskin Report looks at some comparison deals to the Jason Taylor trade and assesses this will be a net improvement for the defense, though incrementally and not a world changer. In other words we did not get worse.


Seems like I remember another pretty good football player going on Dancing with the Stars and looking a damn fool. Oh yeah.



Jason Taylor and partner Edyta Sliwinska from here. Bonus pic and video here.