Rapid Reactions Heading into Week Five
By: Matt Harmon
Jaguars Trade LT Eugene Monroe to the Ravens for Multiple Third-Day Picks
Ravens Perspective:
Jaguars Perspective:
Cardinals Trade LT Levi Brown to the Steelers for a Conditional Late Round Pick
Patriots Place DT Vince Wilfork on Injured Reserve
Buccaneers Release QB Josh Freeman
Browns Lose QB Brian Hoyer for the Rest of the Season
Panthers Trade LB Jon Beason to the Giants for a Late-Round Draft Pick
Jaguars Trade LT Eugene Monroe to the Ravens for Multiple Third-Day Picks
Ravens Perspective:
- If you are the Ravens, this move is a no-brainer. Eugene Monroe is a top-ten left tackle in this league and has played at a really high level the last two years, though his running blocking has dipped to start this season. Monroe is a free agent after this season, but he can always be franchised, and he is worthy of that distinction. The Ravens offensive line play has been horrible thus far in the 2013 season, and the tackles have been particularly poor. Bryant McKinnie has long held the reputation of a lazy player and, despite playing really well to take this team to the Super Bowl last year, he now looks completely finished either physically, or mentally with playing football. Getting McKinnie out of the lineup and inserting Monroe in at left tackle should be a huge upgrade, and will hopefully improve the play of everyone else on this line. Not to mention, the Ravens hardly gave up anything to acquire Monroe’s services. They gave Jacksonville at least two picks somewhere from the fourth round or lower. For a team that has had trouble locating a blind-side protector, and has been pretty poor on offense this year, this trade is another homerun by Ozzie Newsome.
Jaguars Perspective:
- On the flip side, I have no idea why anyone could consider this a smart move for Jacksonville. Sure, they are not going anywhere this year, or anytime soon, and can use all the draft picks they can get. However, they barely got anything of consequence for a very good player, and if you are going to have a fire sale of your player you should really be giving away players like Maurice Jones-Drew, or Paul Posluzny though General Manager, David Caldwell, says the team has no interest in trading them. Both of those players cannot be in Jacksonville’s long-term plans but could help a contender. My biggest problem with this trade goes back to last April’s draft. With a ton of holes on the roster, but a solid left tackle, at least, in Eugene Monroe the Jags opted to use the No. 2 overall pick on a player who would play right tackle, Luke Joeckel. Now that they have shipped Monroe off to Baltimore in exchange for peanuts, they'll flip as struggling player in Joeckel to the left side. So, now the Jaguars have a left tackle in place, but a gaping hole on the right side of their offensive line; this trade just feels too much like treading water to me. I understand you are a very bad, and rebuilding team, but I do not understand why a solid player like Monroe could not be a part of that program, and if you decided he was not going to be, the smart thing to do would have been to ship him off before the draft so you could make yourself a better team this year.
Cardinals Trade LT Levi Brown to the Steelers for a Conditional Late Round Pick
- This trade is not nearly as a big of a deal as the other offensive tackle trade this week, and here’s why: Levi Brown isn’t very good. Brown is a heavy-footed, and slow moving left tackle that gets beat like a drum in pass protection. He actually put out some solid work before going on IR last season. This year he has been dreadful and it sounds like the Cardinals were ready to release him if Pittsburgh did not trade for him. I don’t have a problem with the Cardinals dumping Brown, despite the fact they are only 2-2, because they cannot get much worse production from one of their backups. For the Steelers, this is a clear desperation move. Their left tackle, Mike Adams, has been an abject disaster this season, and while Brown might not be much better, it’s nice for Pittsburgh to have an alternative to Adams. Brown may even be able to be to be an upgrade as a run blocker for Pittsburgh, which would greatly help their offense. Just don't go betting on a player who has never played well outside of a contract year.
Patriots Place DT Vince Wilfork on Injured Reserve
- This injury is a massive blow to the undefeated New England Patriots. As the Patriots offense has struggled to jell early in the season, the defense has been there to pick up the slack and get the team off to a fast start. Behind Tom Brady, Wilfork is the player the Patriots could least afford to lose. A mountain of a man listed at a generous 325 pounds has been a borderline Hall of Fame type player and is the golden standard amongst nose tackles in our generation. He obviously is an immovable object in the run game and commands constant double teams, but he also has underrated movement skills that make him a complete handful for teams. Replacing him will be a near impossible task and even worse, their depth at defensive tackle is not a strength. Former Raider Tommy Kelly has played well for the Patriots so far, but he will have to play more snaps now that Wilfork is gone, and that is not a good thing at this stage of his career. I have said that the Patriots are set up well for the rest of the season because they would only get better on offense, but with Wilfork gone, we should expect at least a semi-significant drop off on defense. Make no mistake; this is an injury that affects the defense at every level.
Buccaneers Release QB Josh Freeman
- You rarely see a former starting quarterback released in the middle of the season; then again, nothing about the Freeman situation was normal. I am planning on writing a NFL Ramblings column on why Freeman failed, so I will be brief in my analysis here. It was clear from the beginning that Freeman and head coach Greg Schiano were a poor match. Their personalities crashed and Schiano never made an attempt to make it work, and Freeman regressed each year since 2010. Freeman was benched last week in favor of rookie, Mike Glennon, and if that was not enough, there have been a number of reports attacking Freeman’s character that may or may not have come from the Bucs organization. Those reports and the Bucs ridiculous strategy to call all 32 teams to pawn off Freeman resulted in a dearth of any sort of trade market. This divorce needed to happen, because Freeman’s presence was clearly only going to cause more problems, but it never should have gotten to this. As I said, I will go into this in more detail in my NFL Ramblings column, but for now, I am not sure where I see Freeman landing next.
Browns Lose QB Brian Hoyer for the Rest of the Season
- Man, this is probably the worst I have felt about an injury situation in a long time. Hoyer is a Cleveland kid, born and bred, and had to be so excited to go play in front of his hometown. Unfortunately, fate knocked him out for the season on one of the first few drives of last night’s game. Hoyer was playing so well for the Browns some were even saying that they might not have to force a quarterback in April’s draft. Well, this injury erases any possibility of that scenario occurring. The Browns will have to turn back to Brandon Weeden, despite the fact it is now public knowledge they do not believe in him. Weeden holds the ball too long, and still struggles a bit mentally with the finer aspects of the game. Even though they still managed a win last night, all the good feelings around the Browns and Brian Hoyer are gone now.
Panthers Trade LB Jon Beason to the Giants for a Late-Round Draft Pick
- On the surface this looks like the Giants fleeced the Panthers for a former Pro Bowl player, but that is not the case and this trade really is not a big deal. Beason was once one of my favorite players in the league and considered just a notch below the great Patrick Willis when it came to middle linebackers. However, a series of lower body injuries have sent his career spiraling ever since the 2011 season in an eerily similar fashion to what occurred with another great Carolina lineback, Dan Morgan, in the early 2000’s. Beason lost his starting middle linebacker job to the even more impressive Luke Keuchly and has never reestablished himself as a great player. This offseason he had a micro-fracture surgery and looked downright bad before losing his starting outside linebacker job to the incredibly mediocre Chase Blackburn. For the Giants, it is worth the risk to see if Beason can become even a decent player again in a new environment, and in Carolina, he was the type of fiery leader this Giant’s defense desperately needs right now. For the Panthers, they really do not lose much in this trade, as Keuchly has already replace Beason as a player and leader on this team. I am really pulling for Jon, as by all accounts he is a great guy, but I have my doubts this trade proves to be anything of consequence.
