kerouac9
Klowned by Keim
I know that Cardinal fans have little enough to cheer about, but I think we're all getting a little bit carried away in our celebrations about the Emmitt Smith signing.
The thing that I think is the most ridiculous is that some people are not only thinking, but posting (with numerous unnecessary exclamation points) that Emmitt would/should help "recruit" other veteran castoffs (lets call a spade a spade here; no one else wanted the guy), most notably Junior Seau or, for whatever reason, Raghib Ismael. Emmitt Smith is not convincing anyone to sign with the Arizona Cardinals. I defy anyone to name a single instance where a veteran castoff signing convinced any player of merit to sign somewhere else. Remember a few weeks ago, right after Barry Gardner signed with the Chiefs, everyone said that he was recruiting Hugh Douglas hard to go play in KC? Did that happen? No. And they were teammates. Emmitt may know Rocket, but the guy's washed up, won't go over the middle, and will be playing wicked scared. Junior? All that fool wants to do is win a ring. There's no way he's coming here, and I wouldn't want him here if he did. He'd demand a starting spot, and I think it's a step back to put a slow, hard-hitting OLB in there, especially in our division, when we already have a bunch of quick guys. He'd fit in with the Fins, maybe the Pats, but in the NFC West? No way.
Emmitt's a quality back. That's true. It can't be denied. That being said, he's the exact same kind of back that I've been characterizing Marcel to be: He's not (I repeat, not) a game-breaker. There are five, if not ten, backs in the NFL that I'd rather have right now, and there are at least another five to ten in NFL history that I'd rather have than Emmitt for one game, and maybe a season. Emmitt improves our RB depth, because he pushes a starting-quality back in Marcel down the depth chart, but he doesn't make us respectable. He's not turning us from a 4-11 team into a 9-7 team. I'd hesitate to say that he turns us into an 8-8 team (I'm figuring that, assuming that we help the pass rush in the draft/development of players, and the WRs are as decent as Graves, Mac, and Sully obviously figure they are, that right noe we're a 6-10, 7-9 team).
Emmitt might put a Cards emblem on the NFL frontpage of ESPN.com or whatever, but he probably won't put us on Monday Night Football, or inspire anyone in, say, Alabama to go out and buy a Cards jersey. To me, this is reminiscent of the Cards signing Boomer Easiaison (that's misspelled, I'm sorry) all those years ago, when he was on the downside of his carreer.
This was a good PR move for Graves and the Bidwells. If it helps put some butts in the seats, even better. Does this make the Cards a dramatically better team, or a franchise on par with New England, San Fran, Tampa, Dallas, or Green Bay? Hell, no.
Good work, Cardinals management. Now, go make this a better team, please.
The thing that I think is the most ridiculous is that some people are not only thinking, but posting (with numerous unnecessary exclamation points) that Emmitt would/should help "recruit" other veteran castoffs (lets call a spade a spade here; no one else wanted the guy), most notably Junior Seau or, for whatever reason, Raghib Ismael. Emmitt Smith is not convincing anyone to sign with the Arizona Cardinals. I defy anyone to name a single instance where a veteran castoff signing convinced any player of merit to sign somewhere else. Remember a few weeks ago, right after Barry Gardner signed with the Chiefs, everyone said that he was recruiting Hugh Douglas hard to go play in KC? Did that happen? No. And they were teammates. Emmitt may know Rocket, but the guy's washed up, won't go over the middle, and will be playing wicked scared. Junior? All that fool wants to do is win a ring. There's no way he's coming here, and I wouldn't want him here if he did. He'd demand a starting spot, and I think it's a step back to put a slow, hard-hitting OLB in there, especially in our division, when we already have a bunch of quick guys. He'd fit in with the Fins, maybe the Pats, but in the NFC West? No way.
Emmitt's a quality back. That's true. It can't be denied. That being said, he's the exact same kind of back that I've been characterizing Marcel to be: He's not (I repeat, not) a game-breaker. There are five, if not ten, backs in the NFL that I'd rather have right now, and there are at least another five to ten in NFL history that I'd rather have than Emmitt for one game, and maybe a season. Emmitt improves our RB depth, because he pushes a starting-quality back in Marcel down the depth chart, but he doesn't make us respectable. He's not turning us from a 4-11 team into a 9-7 team. I'd hesitate to say that he turns us into an 8-8 team (I'm figuring that, assuming that we help the pass rush in the draft/development of players, and the WRs are as decent as Graves, Mac, and Sully obviously figure they are, that right noe we're a 6-10, 7-9 team).
Emmitt might put a Cards emblem on the NFL frontpage of ESPN.com or whatever, but he probably won't put us on Monday Night Football, or inspire anyone in, say, Alabama to go out and buy a Cards jersey. To me, this is reminiscent of the Cards signing Boomer Easiaison (that's misspelled, I'm sorry) all those years ago, when he was on the downside of his carreer.
This was a good PR move for Graves and the Bidwells. If it helps put some butts in the seats, even better. Does this make the Cards a dramatically better team, or a franchise on par with New England, San Fran, Tampa, Dallas, or Green Bay? Hell, no.
Good work, Cardinals management. Now, go make this a better team, please.
