Quote
So the question is do I pay Watkins 16 mil per? No, no I do not. Do I pay Cooks, who is a better deep threat, but lacks the other stuff? Nope.
I noticed a certain passionate energy in that post, and mine equals it. But just like you this is not personal. I am debating an issue and that's all. Having said this, this is my counter-argument....if you don't pay him market---and market for 2nd contracts is around 16 M this year---then you threw the pick away. It's obviously true that a young already productive vet has less risk than any 1st round pick. BUT. Only if you keep him.
It doesn't matter who or what people thought would be there at 23. If you don't intend to keep Cooks, then having the pick is always better than throwing a pick away. I say that odds are they would have come up with someone. They certainly could have come up with someone, including possibly one of those long lists of 2nd rounders people say they wish the Rams could get. Or they could have traded down. 1st round picks are never a waste.
But if you trade for him you better keep him.
And paying the market price is as real, as hardcore, as fact-oriented, as nitty gritty as anything said about the player's abilities based on watching tape. Does he block? No. That;s real. Do you pay market for a starting caliber WR up for a 2nd contract? Yes. It's as equally simple, real, and true as does he block. It doesn't matter what we personally feel or if we like it or don't...that's the market, and that's reality.
So here's the situation or the hypothetical you're suggesting. That the Rams trade a 1st round pick for a guy with one year left and then they might not pay him enough to keep him, even though of course they knew full well what the market was for WRs before they traded a 1st for him.
I don't think the Rams will do that.
If they do it's bad team management. That would be as bad as anything Cleveland has done.
To me it more amounts to this. You make him sound like a niche receiver who they will use in certain ways that work in tandem with and complement other receivers they have. Sounds fine to me. We already know he's not Givens or Avery, who actually were 1 trick ponies. So can they use that? Well the guy who everyone agrees is an offensive whiz thinks he can, and I trust that. Though, again, if you want to keep him you have to pay market, or, you don't keep him.
...
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2018 05:27PM by zn.
