10 Reasons Against Signing Cedric Benson
Jul 1, 2008 2005 Draft, 2006 Season, 2007 Season, Bad Idea Jeans, Beer, DO NOT WANT, God hates ugly, Non-Texan stuff, RB free-for-all, Teams that aren't the Texans
10. He inspired the following as recently as last October:
When you watch Cedric Benson run the football you’re struck by two contrasting traits. He doesn’t go out of his way to make people miss, preferring to try and run people over, and he doesn’t seem to run the ball very hard. It’s hard enough to pull off the first thing in the NFL under any circumstances but impossible when you don’t run into the line like a runaway train. Too often, Benson appears to go down at first contact and appears to be missing the assertiveness you need to be a successful NFL running back.
9. He was so disliked by his teammates in Chicago that “about ten” Bears defensive players tried to hurt him in practice. I would prefer Mario to continue trying to murder opposing QBs and not have him disembowel a teammate.
8. He is coming off a season-ending broken leg that required a plate in his lower leg, near his ankle. Maybe it is completely healed with no lingering after-effects, but do you really want to take that chance? Do you REALLY want to risk having him make the roster, only to then find out, oops, I guess it wasn’t totally perfect? Because, maybe I am old fashioned, but I think we’ve got enough injury questions in our backfield as it is.
7. He is a summa cum laude (loud?) graduate of the Fred Smoot School of Nautical Recreation.
6. According to beef,
this guy me and some friends met at a party, who went to UT, and played with C-bong at Midland Lee [...] said that everyone on Lee’s team hated his guts because he was such a prick, and all he cared about were his numbers [...] and he was a whiny finger-pointer. Anyway, the dude said that he had several other friends on UT’s team, and when he’d tell them he was from Lee, they’d bring up how much everyone on UT’s team hated his ass too for the same shit. You could also tell it from watching their games. He’d always be standing by himself on the sidelines and no one would ever come up to him for congratulatory or “keep your head up” comments.
Is that nothing but hearsay? You bet. But it’s fully admissible in the Court of Matt Fucking Hates You.
5. His boat parties don’t end well. “Yeah, yeah…suuuuure you weren’t drinking.”
4. About a month after deciding boating wasn’t for him, he took the same strategy to the open road, only with fewer hoes and no bag of Sun Chips. This fantastic story ends with a court-ordered breathalyzer ignition lock. So I’m guessing the judge didn’t buy the excuses.
3. The idea that he can fall forward for 4 yards a pop is tenuous at best, considering he fell forward for 3.4 YPC last year before tearing his mangina breaking his leg. He did manage 4.1 YPC in 2006. You know who else managed 4.1 in 2006? Ron “Meringue” Dayne. And Dayne had 4.0 YPC in 2007. And he did it all without endangering the public, eating Sun Chips with hoes, or getting arrested multiple times.
2. According to the Chicago Sun-Times,
The worst part of it is that Benson isn’t a viable reserve because he doesn’t pass block, play special teams, or help on third downs. He could be low on the depth chart (emphasis added).
I’m guessing that could be a problem as we break in a rookie LT and try to keep Matt Schaub upright all year. Just sayin’.
1. He’s not a good fit for a true zone blocking system. Thomas Jones was the cut-back style runner on the Bears and he was shipped to New York because the Bears thought Benson’s “pounding” (and I use that term as loosely as it can be employed) style was a better fit for them. He doesn’t have the speed to get the outside zone consistently (and he runs upright on outside runs), yet he lacks the vision to properly cut back and go. And I’m not the only one who says this stuff:
If there’s one thing we know post-trade, it’s that the Bears offensive line was suspect/borderline shitty last season too. Their inability to open solid running lanes was masked by the cut-back running style of Thomas Jones. When Jones took the hand-off from Grossman and realized his blockers hadn’t cleared any space, he was able to manufacture extra yardage. Even then, he still danced around the backfield too often and was never able to break off any long runs.
So it should be no surprise that Benson is struggling. He is strictly a straight-ahead, power runner; if the hole isn’t open, he’s not going anywhere. I’ve seen better run blocking from plastic lineman on an electric football table than what the Bears have shown this year.
Julius Peppers and Clinton Portis might have helped
Jul 7, 2007 2002 Draft, 2003 Draft, 2004 Draft, 2005 Draft, 2006 Draft, Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, Demarcus Faggins sucks, Dunta Robinson, Offensive (punch)Line, Posts that list too many players, Secondary issues are primary
This weekend’s apparent themerology is piggy-backing on posts at BRB. Because I am lazy, mainly, and because–let’s face it–it’s not like there’s a lot out there to comment upon.
Anyway… Tim links to the Texans’ draft history and then points out that only these players are still on the roster:
Pitts (2002)
Weary (2002)
Faggins (2002)
Dre (sole remaining 2003 draftee)
Dunta (2004)
Babin (2004)
Earl (2004)
C. Anderson (2004)
Tr. Johnson (2005)
Mathis (2005)
Hodgdon (2005)
C.C. Brown (2005)
Eww.
But, continuing that post one step further, who could we have had? By which I mean, who were the three picks taken immediately after our picks in each round? (I use the next three somewhat arbitrarily, but under the assumption that all of the teams would have had those fours players ranked somewhat similarly. I realize how faulty this assumption is when taken to Babin-esque extremes, but I had to draw the line somewhere. Occasionally, I will note when a very good player was taken more than three picks after ours. Also, by and large, this ignores any trades up or down.)
In 2002:
Round 1. We took David Carr. The next three were Julius Peppers, Joey Harrington, or Mike Williams (T, Texas). Ouch. Seriously… ouch. Best possible pick: Peppers.
Round 2, Pick 1. We took Jabar Gaffney. We could have had DeShaun Foster, Kalimba Edwards, or Josh Reed. Best possible pick: Foster or Reed.
Round 2, Pick 2. We took Chester Pitts. We could have had Clinton Portis, Anthony Weaver (oh… wait), or Langston Walker. Best possible pick: Portis.
Round 3, Pick 1. We took Fred Weary. We could have had Matt Schobel, Andre Goodman, or Saleem Rasheed. Best possible pick: Weary.
Round 3, Pick 2. We took Charles Hill. We could have had Lamar Gordon, Kris Richard, or Marquise Walker. Best possible pick: Walker?
Round 4. We took Jonathon Wells. We could have had Dante Wesley, Kevin Bentley, or Jeff Chandler. Best possible pick: Wells, strangely.
Round 5, Pick 1. We took Jarrod Baxter. We could have had Randy Fasani, John Owens, or Justin Bannan. Best possible pick: Owens, I guess.
Round 5, Pick 2. We took Ramon Walker. We could have had Jonathan Goodwin, Terry Jones, or Aaron Kampman. Best possible pick: Kampman.
Round 6, Pick 1. We took DeMarcus Faggins. We could have had Keith Heinrich, Chris Cash, or Kevin Thomas. Best possible pick: Insanely, Faggins.
Round 6, Pick 2. We took Howard Green. We could have had Jeb Putzier (oh… wait), Reggie Coleman, or John Stamper. Best possible pick: Putzier.
In 2003:
Round 1. We took Andre Johnson. We could have had Dewayne Robertson, Terence Newman, or Johnathan Sullivan. Best possible pick: Johnson.
Round 2. We took Bennie Joppru. We could have had Ken Hamlin, Pisa Tinoisamo, or Taylor Jacobs. Best possible pick: Hamlin.
Round 3, Pick 1. We took Antwan Peek. We could have had Lance Briggs, Jason Witten, or Gerald Hayes. Best possible pick: Briggs or Witten, depending on what you needed.
Round 3, Pick 2. We took Seth Wand. We could have had Mike Seidman, Musa Smith, or Wade Smith. Best possible pick: N/A.
Round 3, Pick 3. We took Dave Ragone. We could have had Andrew Williams, Donald Strickland, or Visanthe Shiancoe. Best possible pick: Shiancoe.
Round 4. Domanick Williams (nee Davis). We could have had Montrae Holland, Bradie James, or George Wrighster. Best possible pick. Williams. (Assante Samuel was taken 19 picks after ours.)
Round 6, Pick 1. We took Drew Henson. We could have had Marques Ogden, Aaron Hunt, or Antonio Garay. Best possible pick: N/A.
Round 6, Pick 2. We took Keith Wright. We could have had Scott Kooistra or Ben Johnson. Best possible pick: N/A.
Round 7, Pick 1. We took Curry Burns. We could have had Malaefou MacKenzie, Justin Bates, or Blue Adams. Best possible pick: N/A.
Round 7, Pick 2. We took Chance Pearce. We could have had Spencer Need, Ahmaad Galloway, or Brandom Drumm. Best possible pick: N/A.
In 2004:
Round 1, Pick 1. We took Dunta Robinson. We could have had Ben Roethlisberger, Jonathan Vilma, or Lee Evans. Best possible pick: Vilma, though Evans could change that with another good season or three. (Tommie Harris was taken right after Evans.)
Round 1, Pick 2. We took Jason Babin. We could have had Chris Gamble, Michael Jenkins, or Kevin Jones. Best possible pick: Gamble.
Round 4. We took Glenn Earl. We could have had Stacy Andrews, Michael Waddell, or Jason David. Best possible pick: David, though Earl is close.
Round 6, Pick 1. We took Vontez Duff. We could have had Triandos Luke, Kelly Butler, or Von Hutchins (oh… wait). Best possible pick: Ironically, Hutchins.
Round 6, Pick 2. We took Jammal Lord. We could have had Kirk Chambers, Bo Lacy, or Marko Cavka. Best possible pick: N/A.
Round 6, Pick 3. We took Charlie Anderson. We could have had Jeff Smoker, John Navarre, or Drew Strojny. Best possible pick: Anderson, I guess, though I will always claim Navarre should have gotten a chance in Arizona.
Round 7, Pick 1. We took Raheem Orr. We could have had Eric Taylor, Darrell McClover, or Jonathan Smith. Best possible pick: N/A.
Round 7, Pick 2. We took Sloan Thomas. We could have had same as above.
Round 7, Pick 3. We took B.J. Symons. We could have had Bobby McCray, Bradlee Van Pelt (oh… wait), or Scott Wells. Best possible pick: Van Pelt.
In 2005:
Round 1. We traded down three spots and took Travis Johnson. Had we not traded, we could have taken Derrick Johnson. Even with the trade, we could have had David Pollack, Erasmus James, or Alex Barron. Best possible pick: D. Johnson.
Round 3. We took Vernand Morency. We could have had Justin Tuck, Eric Green, or Karl Paymah. Best possible pick: Morency. (Drafting with what was originally our pick, the Raiders took Kirk Morrison five spots after Morency.)
Round 4. We took Jerome Mathis. We could have had Marviel Underwood, Craphonso Thorpe, or Chase Lyman. Best possible pick: Mathis.
Round 5. We took Drew Hodgdon. We could have had Adrian McPherson, Adam Kieft, or Robert McCune. Best possible pick: N/A.
Round 6. We took C.C. Brown. We could have had Jovan Haye, Tab Perry, or C.J. Mosley. Best possible pick: Brown.
Round 7. We took Kenneth Pettway. We could have had Shaun Nua, James Kilian, or Matt Cassel. Best possible pick: N/A.
We’ll assume it’s too early to tell “best” picks in 2006, but here are the results.
Round 1. We took Mario Williams. We could have had Reggie Bush, Vince Young, or D’Brickashaw Ferguson.
Round 2. We took DeMeco Ryans. We could have had D’Qwell Jackson, Rocky McIntosh, or Chad Jackson.
Round 3, Pick 1. We took Charles Spencer. We could have had Abdul Hodge, Claude Wroten, or Paul McQuistan.
Round 3, Pick 2. We took Eric Winston. We could have had same as above.
Round 4. We took Owen Daniels. We could have had Max Jean-Gilles, Michael Robinson, or Darnell Bing.
Round 6. We took Wali Lundy. We could have had Mike Hass, Jonathan Orr, or Reed Doughty.
Round 7. We took David Anderson. We could have had Marques Colston (oops), Dave Tollefson, or Vickiel Vaughn.
So, what’s the verdict? I think the most striking thing is that, other than the Andre Johnson pick, our misses are much more noteworthy than our hits. I mean, Travis Johnson over Derrick Johnson? Carr over Peppers? Chester Pitts over Clinton Portis? Those are all the types of moves than set your team back seasons. On top of which, most of our successes are with guys like Brown and Earl (both of whom we have talked about needing to replace).
The two other things that jumped out were, first, the number of players we could have drafted who are now on our roster and, second, the number of players we drafted who were never heard from again. I’m sure the latter happens to some extent with every team, but I don’t know that most people notice the number of Kenneth Pettways and Sloan Thomases every team discards.
