"Henry trade on hold until draft" -AZCentral

[Mrh182]

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/cardinals/articles/0413cardstrade-ON-CR.html

Henry trade on hold until draft
Kent Somers
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 13, 2005 03:42 PM
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]The proposed trade of Cardinals offensive tackle L.J. Shelton to Buffalo for running back Travis Henry remains dormant, and the status isn’t likely to change until the first day of the NFL draft April 23.

“It has a heartbeat,” Cardinals coach Dennis Green said of the trade.

Buffalo also would like to swap places in the second round, taking the Cardinals’ pick, the 44th overall, with the Cardinals sliding to the 55th selection.[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]The Cardinals, however, are balking at that – at least for now. With the eighth overall pick, the Cardinals should have a chance to take one of the top three running backs in the draft: Cedric Benson of Texas and Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams of Auburn.

If they take one of them, the trade will be off.

“If the draft goes a certain way, and we take a player and that player happens to be a running back, that phone will never ring,” Green said. “If the draft goes on and we don’t take a running back, they (the Bills) will probably still be trying to move up. They are probably trying to move up with other people also.”

Holding off until draft day gives the Cardinals some additional leverage. It’s possible that other teams might want to trade up to take one of those three running backs. The Cardinals don’t want to eliminate the possibility of trading down by making the deal for Henry now.

Green didn’t rule out the possibility of swapping picks second-round picks with Buffalo, saying it depended how the draft developed and what players the Cardinals would be available with the 55th pick.

“We keep our options open,” he said.

Henry is in the last year of his contract and is scheduled to make $1.25 million . The Cardinals aren’t interested in negotiating a long-term deal with him before agreeing to a trade, because Green would rather have Henry establish his worth in the last year of his contract.

Henry’s contract status, however, adds risk to a possible trade, Green said.[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]“Even if we did a trade for Travis Henry tomorrow, it would take us out of the market for any of those three young backs and the risk is Travis is on a one-year deal,” Green said. “There is risk involved with us, and I’m not saying we wouldn’t take those risks, but they are there and we have to recognize that.”

Shelton, who signed a contract extension in 2003, has four years remaining on his contract at $3 million a year. [/font][/font]

 

[CardShark]

We wait

 

[joeshmo]

Holding off until draft day gives the Cardinals some additional leverage. It’s possible that other teams might want to trade up to take one of those three running backs. The Cardinals don’t want to eliminate the possibility of trading down by making the deal for Henry now.

And a good strategy it is.

 

[CardShark]

But I want something NOW!

 

[slanidrac16]

..............And if we take a cb with the 8th pick we will wait some more. If Arrington, Fason, or Morency are still there the Bills may never get that call.

 

[joeshmo]

But I want something NOW!

Dont we all. Then we can get rid of all of the Henry trade threads. They all say the same thing almost.

But it will make draft day one of the most fun and anticipated in a long time. We have no idea what the heck is going to happen. Last year we all knew it was going to be Fitz and taht he may take a chance on problem childs such as Dockett. This year we have no idea what is going on in G and G's heads.

Its like a kid waiting a week for Christmas wondering what mom and dad got you for christmas but dont know becuase they hid the gifts to well.

 

[Redsz]

I always found my presents before Christmas...

 

[pete]

No big surprise here. The Cards need to see who is available at #8 before trading anything.

 

[AzCards21]

They all seem to concentrate on what this trade means to us as far as the draft at #8. What would dealing Henry and aquiring Shelton do for the bills in round one?

I think it's smart to just let the draft come to us. Who knows how the first seven will fall and what we may be able to leverage at that point. Trading now limits our options.

 

[TJ]

i hope the henry deal occurs...we need to draft 2 good CBs in the draft. One at #8 and another in round 3

 

[Brevity]

“It has a heartbeat,” Cardinals coach Dennis Green said of the trade.

Way too close to that "One heartbeat" schtick by the last dude.

 

[wilycoyote24]

i hope the henry deal occurs...we need to draft 2 good CBs in the draft. One at #8 and another in round 3

I was just wondering how everyone here interprets Dennis Green saying he will take the "best player available" in the draft. Is he (a) lying, (b) going to give special consideration to a CB or a RB if there is a current need for one on the roster, or (c) just as likely, not knowing who he thinks is the best player, to select Derek Johnson or Alex Smith, if available, instead of Jones, Rolle or Benson?

People continuously say we will take a CB or RB, but is that just based on our current needs?

 

[stretchthefield]

People continuously say we will take a CB or RB, but is that just based on our current needs?

Yes, IMO those are our top 2 needs.

 

[BigDavis75]

I think it is a great idea we are waiting until draft day, when is the trade deadline (if there is one) before the bginning of the season.

 

[Stout]

..............And if we take a cb with the 8th pick we will wait some more. If Arrington, Fason, or Morency are still there the Bills may never get that call.

I love it. If we go CB round one, and a good back is on the board at our pick in round two, we can easily call Buffalo. Deal now, and take LJ for Henry, straight up, or get nothing. If they deal, then we're free to take BPA, which may be another CB, a S, a G, or anything. Waiting is a good idea

 

[wilycoyote24]

Yes, IMO those are our top 2 needs.

Yes, I agree, but what I was getting at is that if we take a CB or RB and that player isn't the best available isn't that contradictory to Green's philosophy?

 

[TigToad]

CB and RB

In the recent newsletter, it had Denny quoted as saying something like We will take the BPA, fortunately 6 of the best players are RB and CB.

 

[BigRedFan]

So if Tampa takes Mike Williams then Cadillac Williams most likely falls to us, I assume we grab him. Then what do we do with Shelton. Everything rests on Tampa

 

[Mrh182]

A couple of tidbits...


1) What if by "BPA" Green simply means the BPA in HIS opinion....who cares if Smith or Rodgers are considered the best in the draft, Green could rate Rolle as his BPA...so ya, thats that...

2) After reading some of the things coming out of Buffalo about Henry being a fumbler...knocked around...etc...I'm somewhat now hoping we draft a RB and trade shelton for a 3rd rd pick or something

 

[wilycoyote24]

So if Tampa takes Mike Williams then Cadillac Williams most likely falls to us, I assume we grab him. Then what do we do with Shelton. Everything rests on Tampa

I'm not so sure as it seems that perhaps Benson is an equally attractive prospect to Green.

 

[BACH]

A couple of tidbits...


1) What if by "BPA" Green simply means the BPA in HIS opinion....who cares if Smith or Rodgers are considered the best in the draft, Green could rate Rolle as his BPA...so ya, thats that...

2) After reading some of the things coming out of Buffalo about Henry being a fumbler...knocked around...etc...I'm somewhat now hoping we draft a RB and trade shelton for a 3rd rd pick or something

1) As long as we draft as high as we do Denny could easily do this. Every team put the players into groups and the BAP approach isn't to literally take THE best available. The BAP approach is to allways take a player from the highest ranking group.
This year there are about 12 players in the top group. We have two major need at RB and CB and the BAP approach would allow us the draft a CB or RB even if Rodger or Edwards are on the board (They're not, but it's the principle).
If all 3 CBs and all 3 RBs are gone at #8, however, the BAP prevents you from drafting the #4 CB (Fabian Washington), because he's from a lower ranking group of players. Then the pick would be DJ, Rodger et al.

3) There are some possibilities for trading Shelton besides Henry. Alex Barron is sliding and no longer an option for the Texans at #13, but not sliding enough to be there in the 2nd. Brown won't the in the 2nd either, so both quality OT will be gone in the late 1st round. The draft is very weak on Ots capable of playing LT, so the Texans and Bucs could very well offer their high 3rd rounder for Shelton (Both teams have two 3rd rounders), since he would be awesome value for a 3rd rounder given the weak draft class. We could reinvest that 3rd rounder in our OL by drafting on a quality RG there. Why not keep LJ then? Because LJ excels at LT and only at LT. He a good starter at LT, but only solid at RT and G.

But IMO the best value for Shelton is trading for Surtain, but I'm not sure G&G like his high contract demand.

 

[JeffGollin]

I hope this post isn't dated (Local internet crashed while I was in the midst of posting it last night):

Dennis was pretty definitive in what he said.

I interpret it as predraft negotiations posturing backed by a dose of facts-of- life reality.

What he's effectively doing is taking control of the negotiations out of the hands of Donahue by saying - "We're going to do what we want to do in the draft. And depending on that, we'll let you know."

We don't know how Dennis and Rod have set up their board (i.e. where the 3 RB's, Rolle and others rank) but what sounds logical to me is that the Cards rank Rolle ahead of at least 2 of the 3 RB's. (I'm using Rolle as an example. Maybe they rate PacMan or even Rogers equally as high. Or not).

Assuming (a) we don't make any other trades (b) Rolle gets past Tennessee and (c) falls to us at #8, I think we'll take him and open up the phone lines to Buffalo.

But we don't make a decision on the trade (including #44 for #55) til we're on the clock at #44. (By then, Dennis and Rod will have whittled things down to a "mini board" of 11 players and can determine whether we're guaranteed a player of value at #55). If they feel good about it, #55 for #44 is part of the deal. If not, it goes back to being a game of chicken.

But if Rolle is off the board and a RB we like is there at #8, we'll draft the RB and "refuse to accept the charges" from Donahue. Deal is dead.

There is also the remote possibility that the draft could fall in such a way that (a) Dallas would be desperate to move up to grab an OLB and (b) we knew we'd be guaranteed either a great CB or RB at #11.

(Example" The draft falls: Rodgers, Brown, Smith, Edwards, M Williams, D Johnson, Merriman). This would leave Rolle, PM Jones, C Williams and Benson available at #8, 9, 10, 11 and we'd get one of them. If Parcells was desperate to trade up above Detroit and Minnesota in order to get Ware, we'd be fools not to accept their #11 and #20).

This scenario could enable us to (a) grab Rolle or PacMan at #11 and then do the #55 for #44 swap for Henry, because we'd know we'd now have #20 to play with.

As Dennis said: "It doesn't hurt to keep your options open."

Bottom line - Donahue could always regain control of the negotiations by forgetting #55 for #44 and just doing the deal now before the draft.

I think this is how Dennis and Rod are thinking. (No subtrefuge; just common sense realism).

 

[az jam]

Good post Jeff; my thoughts are very similar. Of course if Rolle is there at #7 when the Vikings pick, the Redskins could trade with them to get him if they are afraid that we will take him. Having Rolle along with Sean Taylor would be awesome. (They both payed together for Miami) Cards best strategy is to do nothing until they are on the clock. The first round in the draft is going to be one of the most exciting that we have had in quite some time.

 

[JasonKGME]

I was just wondering how everyone here interprets Dennis Green saying he will take the "best player available" in the draft. Is he (a) lying, (b) going to give special consideration to a CB or a RB if there is a current need for one on the roster, or (c) just as likely, not knowing who he thinks is the best player, to select Derek Johnson or Alex Smith, if available, instead of Jones, Rolle or Benson?

People continuously say we will take a CB or RB, but is that just based on our current needs?

The thing you have to look at is DG board of BPA, lets say his top 8 board goes like this (which should be somewhat close although not necissarily exact):

Braylon Edwards
Ronnie Brown
Antrell Rolle
Dennis Johnson
Mike Williams
Cadillac Williams
Pac-Man Jones
Cedric Benson


now second look at his BPA score, I'm sure he probably assigns a point value to each of the picks, lets assume its on a 100 point scale, then maybe his board looks like this:

92 Braylon Edwards
91 Ronnie Brown
90 Antrell Rolle
90 Dennis Johnson
89 Mike Williams
89 Cadillac Williams
88 Pac-Man Jones
88 Cedric Benson

So if the above is true, and both Mike Williams and Cadillac Williams are on the board when we pick at #8 he can easily go with BPA and fill the need with RB and still stay true to his BPA theory.

Now on the other hand if his board is this way and Braylon Edwards and Cedric Benson are the 2 players still on the board, an he was going to stay true to BPA then he would have to take Edwards, (not going to be a problem however since Edwards definitly will be gone by our pick at 8 )

 

[EndZone]

i hope the henry deal occurs...we need to draft 2 good CBs in the draft. One at #8 and another in round 3

Or we could take a RB in round 1 and CB's in 2 & 3.