Edge, Hood, LaBoy cut

[DoTheDew]

I think maybe there is more to this than meets the eye. I think Hood was disgruntled by essentially being demoted to nickel back where he had spent his entire time in Philly trying to escape, and Whiz and Co. decided it would be more shrewd to cut him rather than have another disgruntled player.
I have nothing to base it on, just a hunch.

 

[Stout]

Ding, Ding , Ding....A winner!

Don't sound too happy about yourself there, buddy, because if you're right, then this team has seriously regressed. If the team doesn't have the cash on hand to keep talent on this team while still under the cap, and still conduct other business, then this franchise hasn't made nearly the strides we think they have.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

Let me start by saying I am not a fan of these moves. For the first time in awhile I was excited about our depth in the secondary and I have always liked what Hood brought to the table. Especially as a #3.

Saying that IMO this came down to one thing and it isn't cap space (as Joe already pointed out there is little to no savings with Laboy and Hood)

It came down to roster spots.

I think the staff is still somewhat unhappy that they had to let go of Harrington last year and watched him get scooped up by the bengals while paying an undisciplined oft injured Laboy tons of money. As Joe pointed out young contributing talent is worth its weight in gold and its obvious that Wiz is just not playing for next year. He's building a program.

Now these two vets can find homes somewhat early in the offseason and the Cardinals can keep young project guys like Toler and Davis without fear of them getting snapped up. And thsoe are moves that will pay off more in 2-3 years then next year.

And like clif pointed out the poster who derided someone else for Rolle playing spot nickel duty as a bad idea is offbase. Rolle knows the system and as a #3 is as good as Hood IMO. He is not a starter by any stretch but his versatilty coupled with Johnson's abilty to take his spot on the field is ultimately what led to Hood getting cut.

Brown showed that, while not as consistent as Hood, is more of a play maker (he might have had more INTs the last 7 games or so then Hood had his entire Cardinal career) and they figured they could get by with a combination of Rolle, Toler, and Brown. I don't fault them for that.

As for Laboy I don't think they had any confidence in him staying healthy and once Haggans and Berry were resigned and Davis and Brown were drafted they didn't want him just occupying space at the chance he would stay healthy. They might have cut him after TC if one of those 2 rookies was ready to contribute but they did good by him IMO.

I am going to hope these moves coincide with Wilson and Q getting extended and Foote coming in but I am not holding my breath.

Like it or not we are going to have to rely on these rookies alot more then initially expected. Lets hope Lott and not luck was the factor in games lost to injury and that continues this season as well.

 

[Stout]

Jude LaCava just reported this was a move to clear cap space in order to extend Wilson and possibly Boldin

Unless Joe is dead wrong, cutting Hood and Laboy actually COST us money against the cap. And Joe just isn't usually wrong. So this is still a head-scratcher.

 

[HookemCards]

So then we are back to my original contention.....we are no worse off than last year when we play the nickel. Now to your point, we may not be any better than we were in the nickel last year, but we are no worse. I was not debating who is better than who, just that Hood's value dropped the second we signed McFadden and bottomed out when we drafted a safety who can cover.

2 years ago Hood played very, very well. Hood has even excelled in that role before in Philly. However, the last half of last year was not his best. But perhaps the staff saw a bad trend in his play and didn't see the value in his contract over his potential replacements.

In otherwords, instead of having a better pass defense this year, we will have the same. Great!!!! Personally I'd like to see something a bit better than 22nd in passing yrds allowed, and dead last by a large margin in TD passes allowed. Especially since we didn't do anything to increase our pathetic pass rush.

 

[CardLogic]

I'm not a huge Hood fan (I don't see what many of you do in him), but he was a solid starter.

I think what many of us saw in Hood, was that he was a solid starter...

 

[Duckjake]

Its amazing that Hood went from being rated as one of the top CBs in the NFL by Football Outsiders in 2007 to released only one season later.

But Hood can't tackle. I even had a thread in '07 railing on Hood after a game in which it appeared he went out of his way to avoid contact with the ball carrier.

Poor tackling by the secondary was the #1 weakness of the defense the last two seasons. Whisenhunt is no dummy. So I think that if you can't tackle you aren't going to play DB for Arizona as long as Whisenhunt is HC.

 

[splitsecond]

Hood did not give up a lot of big plays. You saw him do it two three times last year when he had the receiver blanketed and no all of a sudden its a lot of big plays. You have to be thinking about Green. Hood was ranked in the top 10 in success rate among CB's the last two years according to the football prospectus writers.

The only thing Brown has over Hood is salary, but there is not a debate in the world that can convince anyone that Brown is better then Hood.

No I remember Green. I also remember being extremely frustrated with Hood several times over the last two years, and him blowing coverages/tackles at the end of last year. Brown made some pretty great plays last year. I will admit my memory is not complete, and I did not keep track of every error both made, but I know overall I have not been pleased with hood while he has been here, and he never really lived up to his expectations/salary.

 

[Stout]

Like it or not we are going to have to rely on these rookies alot more then initially expected. Lets hope Lott and not luck was the factor in games lost to injury and that continues this season as well.

That's the really scary part. Our forward-thinking philosophy seemed to erase the need to rely on later-round draft picks, and BAM! All of a sudden they're a crutch we need to lean on once again. Ugh. Laboy gone? No big deal. Edge? Duh, a given. Hood? Purely idiotic. It cost us cap space, and unless the Bidwills are being cheap and trying to save actual cash, or unless the team is legitimately short on cash (which should not be possible), then there is NO rhyme or reason to this cut.

 

[HookemCards]

That's the really scary part. Our forward-thinking philosophy seemed to erase the need to rely on later-round draft picks, and BAM! All of a sudden they're a crutch we need to lean on once again. Ugh. Laboy gone? No big deal. Edge? Duh, a given. Hood? Purely idiotic. It cost us cap space, and unless the Bidwills are being cheap and trying to save actual cash, or unless the team is legitimately short on cash (which should not be possible), then there is NO rhyme or reason to this cut.

Hood isn't costing us cap space, he's just making it so the Laboy cutting doesn't cut into the Edge savings.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

That's the really scary part. Our forward-thinking philosophy seemed to erase the need to rely on later-round draft picks, and BAM! All of a sudden they're a crutch we need to lean on once again. Ugh. Laboy gone? No big deal. Edge? Duh, a given. Hood? Purely idiotic. It cost us cap space, and unless the Bidwills are being cheap and trying to save actual cash, or unless the team is legitimately short on cash (which should not be possible), then there is NO rhyme or reason to this cut.

Actually the more I think about it the more I am okay with the three headed monster of Rolle, Toler, and Brown rather then Hood at 3 million. Plus as another poster said I can't imagine Hood is happy he is going to the #3 slot when he specifically signed to be a starter. We all assumed he was okay with that but.....

I am really hoping that the FO is looking to do something with this money however.

 

[Trey]

Unless Joe is dead wrong, cutting Hood and Laboy actually COST us money against the cap. And Joe just isn't usually wrong. So this is still a head-scratcher.

I think Joe had it right. The moves cost us cap space, but they still put $10 mil in the Bidwill's pockets. Money that can be used for signing bonuses...

 

[CardLogic]

That's the really scary part. Our forward-thinking philosophy seemed to erase the need to rely on later-round draft picks, and BAM! All of a sudden they're a crutch we need to lean on once again. Ugh. Laboy gone? No big deal. Edge? Duh, a given. Hood? Purely idiotic. It cost us cap space, and unless the Bidwills are being cheap and trying to save actual cash, or unless the team is legitimately short on cash (which should not be possible), then there is NO rhyme or reason to this cut.

A couple of very good reasons have been suggested in this thread...

 

[Arizona's Finest]

The moves cost us cap space, but they still put $10 mil in the Bidwill's pockets. ...

FTFY

 

[Trey]

FTFY

Yeah, I meant to put a *crossesfingers* at the end of that post.

 

[Skkorpion]

It obviously made "sense" to management or it wouldn't have been done.

(giggle) Congratulations. I was wondering how long it would take before somebody stated the obvious truth.

These are Whisenhunt's decisions. The man who took us to the Super bowl and has clearly been allowed input and major say in everything. The "cheap Bidwills" didn't chose these players to cut. Neither did Rod Graves.

Whisenhunt cut them. If cutting them are mistakes, as one or two might be, although I doubt it, the coach got to do it his way. That's how things should be but never were here before.

Hell, Boldin is still livid that Whisenhunt dared give input Boldin's renegotiations, overstepping what Boldin thought should be a coach's responsibilities.

What happened, as I see it, is we misread our team. These moves very much explain our draft and our FA signing.

(a) Whisenhunt disliked our secondary's coverage problems more than we knew and brought in three talented new guys in a short spring.
(b) Either LaBoy is still injured or is expected to under perform his salary again and/or simply does not fit into our expected increased use of a 3-4 defense. that simple.

Until proven wrong, I credit Whisenhunt with knowing his needs better than we do. He has the added advantage of knowing his plan for this year, while we can only guess. Clearly, in the cases of LaBoy and Hood, we guessed wrong.

 

[splitsecond]

(giggle) Congratulations. I was wondering how long it would take before somebody stated the obvious truth.

These are Whisenhunt's decisions. The man who took us to the Super bowl and has clearly been allowed input and major say in everything. The "cheap Bidwills" didn't chose these players to cut. Neither did Rod Graves.

Whisenhunt cut them. If cutting them are mistakes, as one or two might be, although I doubt it, the coach got to do it his way. That's how things should be but never were here before.

Hell, Boldin is still livid that Whisenhunt dared give input Boldin's renegotiations, overstepping what Boldin thought should be a coach's responsibilities.

What happened, as I see it, is we misread our team. These moves very much explain our draft and our FA signing.

(a) Whisenhunt disliked our secondary's coverage problems more than we knew and brought in three talented new guys in a short spring.
(b) Either LaBoy is still injured or is expected to under perform his salary again and/or simply does not fit into our expected increased use of a 3-4 defense. that simple.

Until proven wrong, I credit Whisenhunt with knowing his needs better than we do. He has the added advantage of knowing his plan for this year, while we can only guess. Clearly, in the cases of LaBoy and Hood, we guessed wrong.

skorp, as usual, is level headed and logical amongst the panic.

/thread?

 

[Crazy Canuck]

A couple of very good reasons have been suggested in this thread...

Its the usual Stout pattern. First he expresses bemusement and promises to stay cool, then he comes back with a host of accusatory questions... and finally, an all out rant based on answering his own questions.

Step aside, stay quiet, watch and enjoy...

 

[SuperSpck]

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb...n-3rd-round-safety-rashad-johnson-133690.html

So listening to Bill Davis talk about Rashad Johnson, he mentioned having Johnson in at nickle, and allowing Rolle to stay back at safety.

At the time, the comment confused me (I made a comment about it on the thread), but clearly now this was a slip and the decision to cut Hood had been made AND he's already been placed ahead of Brown in the coaches' mind on the depth chart.

Take a listen, if you haven't already.

Oh also, it's the timing of the moves that surprise me more than the moves themselves. I wouldn't have blinked if these were training camp cuts... but these made me blink.

 

[CardLogic]

Its the usual Stout pattern. First he expresses bemusement and promises to stay cool, then he comes back with a host of accusatory questions... and finally, an all out rant based on answering his own questions.

Step aside, stay quiet, watch and enjoy...

You forgot the last step...

Stout apologizing to the board for losing it!

 

[dogpoo32]

Woah... Didn't see that one coming.

 

[az jam]

skorp, as usual, is level headed and logical amongst the panic.

/thread?

Goodness a voice of reason stating that Whisenhunt made the decisions based on performance. Heaven forbid!!!

 

[Skkorpion]

I hate the cutting of Hood. But I am going to have to give them the benefit of the doubt. I just don't believe this is a "same old Cardinals" money pinching move. There's got to be more to it.

Thank you. To believe otherwise is to believe Whisenhunt is a management puppet.

Do any of you blaming the cut of Hood on money have the guts to make the obvious corollary argument that Whisenhunt would allow himself to be abused this way? That he is Rod Graves's and Mike Bidwill's puppet?

 

[splitsecond]

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb...n-3rd-round-safety-rashad-johnson-133690.html

So listening to Bill Davis talk about Rashad Johnson, he mentioned having Johnson in at nickle, and allowing Rolle to stay back at safety.

At the time, the comment confused me (I made a comment about it on the thread), but clearly now this was a slip and the decision to cut Hood had been made AND he's already been placed ahead of Brown in the coaches' mind on the depth chart.

Take a listen, if you haven't already.

Oh also, it's the timing of the moves that surprise me more than the moves themselves. I wouldn't have blinked if these were training camp cuts... but these made me blink.

Nick Saban absolutely gushed about Johnson when asked, so I have to say he may be a lot better than we all may realize at this point.

 

[Skkorpion]

I believe this might be a defensive philosophy shift....

Clancy wanted CB's 10 yards deep almost every time the ball is snapped. Maybe Davis and Wiz understand that Hood is not a very good pressure corner. We all know that physicality is not his game.

So what we do is draft guys with massive speed and skills, sign bigger, more physical corners, and get rid of the guys who are more artsy-fartsy.

And I really do believe Johnson might beat out Rolle for the 2nd Safety spot full time. If not, Rolle moves up and plays some Nickel CB and Johnson comes in to play center field.

Another good and thoughtful post on this subject.