Oh Shipp
Aug 18, 2008 Dancing With the 'Tards, Ron Dayne likes pie
With a h/t to TPL, the hometown heroes signed Marcel Shipp. Even if being slightly forgiving that he was with the Cards throughout his career, Shipp’s 3.6 YPC is simply sucky.
Pancakes seems to believe that the signing spells the end for Ahman “Football to the Groin” Green on the team. Due $4.5MM for the year no matter what we do, I don’t think it’ll happen…yet. But unless Green actually takes the damn field at some point, Pancakes *gulp* might be right.
So where does this leave us? Our running game has looked pretty awful in the preseason. The team asked Chris Taylor to bulk up, which he did, and then he didn’t do much rushing the ball and now he is hurt. Darius Walker didn’t get a single rush last week, so it seems Smithiak doesn’t consider him an answer. Chris Brown looked pretty decent, but he’s no more physically reliable than is Green.
So, is the only reliable RB we have on the roster an unproven rookie in Steve Slaton? And is Slaton a 300 carries kinda guy? Makes you wonder what Ron “Three Pies and a Cloud of Meringue” Dayne is up to these days, doesn’t it?*
It’s not time to panic yet, and I don’t think our offensive line has even thrown a single cut-block so far, but I am starting to feel a bit antsy.
What do y’all think?
* My guess? 450.
Edit: Got some awesome feedback from Keith, who deserves my most empahtic leg hugs for his help, and you can see it here. In addition, I had a follow-up question for him:
Handsome, virile, and manly bfd: I can’t find the precise terms of the contract, but I thought the first two years of it were guaranteed? There is some amount of money that is, I believe.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2787723
Does that change the June 1 cut amount?
Response from Keith:
So, media reports are often incorrect or misleading, mostly because it involves agents talking to journalists. ‘nuf said.
The guaranteed money mentioned by Pastabelly is not mentioned in the documentation I have from the NFLPA, so I consider the report erroneous. Technically, Green’s $5 million signing bonus is guaranteed. I imagine the agent told ESPN that the workout and roster bonuses were pretty much guaranteed (for a total of $2.1 million if he played out the contract) to give Lenny the impression that “$6 million-$7 million” is guaranteed.
So there we have it. Thanks, Keith!
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August 18th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I thought Keith was saying that if we cut him while still in camp that he would only count 1.5M (give or take a couple hundred thousand) against the cap for 2008. I may have misunderstood, which seems likely.
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August 18th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
http://www.inthebullseye.com/cap.html
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August 18th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Dear God… KSK’s only good joke about the Texans is about Petey? I guess that’s progress…
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August 18th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I sent Keith an email, so hopefully he can help out. Rotoworld has him at $4.5MM for the year:
http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_contract.aspx?sport=NFL&id=1811
As I understood the contract when it was signed, the first two years were guaranteed.
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@grungedave: cumpigeon (sic) is an idiot.
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August 18th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
The whole running back situation is starting to look more and more like a slow motion car wreck.
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It all started on a 1/4 mile drag strip. One car is a Green 2002 Toyota Supra (twin turbo), the other is a Brown 2004 Ford Mustang Mach 1 (shaker hood)…
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They both floored it as Kubes dropped the flag. Then the Stang got loose and started to fishtail, and the 350Z tore his CV boot and he started to lose control, and now they’ve both jumped the median, and are now barreling towards each other, certain to meet their fiery doom.
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August 18th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
The silver lining here is that RB is the easiest position in the entire NFL to replace… and it’s not like we had LT2 or Purple Jesus on our roster to begin with.
Think of all the “out of nowhere” running backs that have burst onto the scene in the last couple years: Ryan Grant, Earnest Graham, MJD, Brandon Jacobs, Frank Gore (remember, Gore was barely an afterthought as a rookie).
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August 18th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
@grungedave: The problem is that we are talking about picking up the bottom of the dung heap. Grant and Graham were NDFAs but had talent. MJD was a 2nd rounder, Jacobs 4th, and Gore 3rd, so not exactly stretches.
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@SOLIS: If we are talking about Green and Brown, I’d say there are a rusted out 1974 Mustang and a 1973 Pinto, respectively.
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August 18th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
by that rationale, Ron Dayne and Reggie Bush were first round picks… and they suck.
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August 19th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Who is “Handsome, virile, and manly bfd?” Can we get him to blog here?