Clark Judge: Rating smartest, boldest, scariest offseason moves
 

Rating smartest, boldest, scariest offseason moves
May 13, 2009
By Clark Judge
CBSSports.com Senior Writer

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/11743195

Five boldest moves

Kansas City hiring Scott Pioli

Some people automatically put this one in the win column. Not me. Not after Charlie Weis fizzled at Notre Dame and Romeo Crennel bombed out in Cleveland. OK, so they were former New England coaches, and Pioli was a decorated GM. They still fall from the same tree. The question I have is this: How much was Pioli responsible for what happened in New England? "I guess we're about to find out," said one NFC general manager.

The good news is that Thomas Dimitroff had New England ties, too, and he circled the bases in his first turn as a GM in Atlanta. The bad news: Pioli's first draft with Kansas City: There are reaches everywhere. He also reversed the team's Get Young Now policy by adding 30-something discards like Bobby Engram, Zach Thomas, Monty Beisel and Mike Vrabel. You can do that when you're at or near the top, like New England. But this is a team that lost 23 of its last 25, for crying out loud.

Five biggest gambles

Kansas City acquiring Matt Cassel

I know what he did with New England. But that was the Patriots, and tell me where you find Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Richard Seymour and Bill Belichick in the 816 area code. Cassel was surrounded by a raft of talent on the field and on the sidelines in New England, and I'm still looking for that support group here. So he produced a couple of 400-yard passing games and won 10 of 15 starts. That was nice. But I want to see him reproduce it here. OK, I know what you're thinking: What do the Chiefs have to lose -- especially when all they surrendered for Cassel and Vrabel was a second-round draft pick? Try this: They're paying Cassel $14.65 million in guaranteed salary. If he turns out to be the next Scott Mitchell I know some bean counters in red suits who will demand explanations.

um, we signed vets to hold us over for a year, we can't fix every problem at once...we aren't building the team around them...is that really hard to figure out?

and who cares what we're paying Cassel for 1 year?

God I hate the offseason.:(

Cassel is not a big problem until we sign him long term. We did pass on a QB in the draft this year but other than that i don't see any real long term downside.

I give anyone that didn't draft Mark Sanchez an F- for the offseason.

I think he is pointing out we are paying a lot for a one year tryout. With no new deal and he does well he may be gone next year, and if he fails we wasted a year at QB. It is a legit question.

That's a good article to generate discussion during the off season. I doubt he actually believes anything he wrote.

His list of "smartest" moves, are IMO, the riskiest.

Haynesworth to Washington - Giving a DT a big contract after a contract year? How many of those other big deal FA signings by the Skins have turned out well? Jason Taylor anyone?

Sanchez - Historically, 1st round college QB's with less than 25 starts fail horribly. Sanchez may buck the trend. He seems like a good kid, but it is still a very risky move.

I'd say the same thing for Detroit with Stafford. Lots of questions about the kid and they grossly overpaid him.

If he does well this year we will sign him to a long term deal midseason or just tag him again and sign him to a long term deal next offseason.

Did Pioli steal Judge's girlfriend in highschool or sleep with his sister? He has to be the only person who think's Pioli was a stretch. What a jerk off. Giving up a second for Cassel was completely worth the risk, a second rounder? Come on. We didnt give him a huge contract, Cassel has to play his a$$ off to get the big contract, not sit back and suck like Mitchell did. Plus Cassel has wanted this chance since his days at USC, I absolutely believe he will be ready. he is an immediate step up from Thigpen and worst case scenerio he sucks, the best QB draft in quite some time takes place in 2010.
Bringing in the 30+ guys who are winners was to change the mindset of the Chiefs. These young players have won 4 games over the past two seasons, they need the veteran leadership to push these kids and show them how to be winners.

Judge is a loser...I really like our moves thus far and we havent wasted money on anyone...

As long as we have room under the cap, who cares how much we're paying him?

Would you rather have him on a 7-year deal that we're locked into whether he sucks or not?

It's a ridiculous question. If he plays well for the first few games, they lock him up. If he doesn't, they let him walk.

I don't know why Pioli would make that trade if he didn't have every expectation that Cassel is going to be worth locking up.

How about just considering the history of big-time free agent DT's? They almost never work out. If he pans out in Washington, he'll be the exception to almost every rule, not just one.

In the NFL the best moves are often the riskiest. Drafting a 1st round QB, getting a coach who failed somewhere else, or had never coached before, promoting someone to a job they've never held.

There are no great moves in the NFL that carry little risk. The moves without risk typically carry very little reward.

I'm sure he has that expectation. But the guy doesn't have a contract, and that's telling, whether people want to acknowledge it or not.