I hail back to the Bud Grant teams of the 70's. I've seen 3 of our 4 Super Bowl teams. Missed Super Bowl IV because I was too young. I still appreciate Fran, Chuck, Carl and Alan, the Purple People Eaters, and many others. I've met Nate Wright, who lives here in Tucson, where my shack is. Great guy. He says "Pearson pushed off." About dang time Mick gets in that place down in Canton.
I'm opinionated, and old. Maybe too old for a forum. I don't know. But I love this stupid game. Football today isn't the same as those days. It's better in some ways, worse in others.
When the allegations of child abuse surfaced against Adrian Peterson like many, I was sick. I tend to agree with what Fran Tarkenton said when this all hit the light of day.
http://mmqb.si.com/2014/12/05/nfl-fran- ... n-iii-rg3/
"I followed the Clippers thing. That owner [Donald Sterling] didn’t get indicted for any crime, but the racial comments he made were totally inappropriate, and we took a stand. The whole world and the NBA, we have zero tolerance to racism. And I think that’s right. I agree with that. But I also think we ought to have zero tolerance to child abuse and domestic violence. I don’t think [Peterson] should play again in the NFL. I don’t think Ray Rice should play again. Either we have zero tolerance, or we don’t. And what is more egregious than domestic violence and child abuse? I don’t know of anything, unless you kill somebody."
To some that may sound harsh. Fran is old school, and I just happen to agree with him. But it isn't this comment so much that I agree with. It is the one directly above it in that linked article.
"Next year he’ll be 30, and I think the Vikings are building for the future. Running backs as we know, as certain as anything, after age 30 they’re not the same people. I think [the Vikings] are doing the right thing, building their defense. When you think about their offense playing pretty pedestrian all year, the defense has played great. I think they’ve got the foundation of defense, and that’s very important. I’d like to see them move on from Adrian Peterson, because they need to be trying to look at their franchise beyond next year. Build it solidly from the ground up, and put the pieces in place, and start with new running backs and new wide receivers, and get a solid offensive line going, and then do the best you can with quarterbacks. And again, Teddy Bridgewater doesn’t have to be a franchise quarterback. He has to be a good workman-like quarterback to help this team win."
Build for the future. That's what I want to see this team do. I work with a pair of Vikings fans who actually hail from Minnesota, (I don't) but who moved down here to Arizona, and like me are in a construction business. Tommy disagrees with me, Gary agrees with me. I am wondering how the rest of you feel. Please allow me to make the same argument I made with them.
Right now this team is sitting at around $9.6 million under the 2015 Salary Cap. Peterson is 30, and I agree with Fran the man, after 30 RBs drop off. I think I read somewhere that after 30 only 2 RBs in NFL History have gained 5000 yards. If I am not mistaken that was Marcus Allen and Emmitt Smith. No disrespect is meant to Peterson's talent, but the man costs this team $15.4 million in salary. If we get rid of him right now this team will be just over $22 million under the Cap.
Now let me get into this build for the future thing. If we spend only about $3 million of that remaining cap room this year to sign players off the street when injuries occur, we can roll the rest into 2016. With Peterson off the books in 2016, we would currently be looking at just under $31.4 million under the Cap for 2016. However, if we roll that $19 million I am talking about into 2016 we would be $50 million under the cap.
In this day of Free Agency, that is how you can build a team to whip the dadgum Packers rear ends down the road and put the Lions back into obscurity where they belong. The Bears are a train wreck, but I want to stay ahead of that train wreck. Like I said, Gary agrees with me, Tommy doesn't. I would rather have the cap room than a 30 year old RB, even if he hadn't taken a switch to his kid.
I heard all the rumors that the Cardinals were interested in him. By the way, having to watch their games flat out sucks. Sorry for the segue, but I had to say it. We all heard how the Cowboys were. We even heard that old Jerry was willing to offer a 1st round pick for the right player. Go steal the dadgum pick from those guys. You give me that cap room and two 1st round picks, and our other picks and I think we can build a team around this young QB to make a sustained run.
For the life of me I can't understand why Wilf, Speilman, and Zimmer (I already like this guy a lot by the way) aren't looking at the bigger picture. Tommy has tried to explain it to me. One thing he says is that with the new stadium coming we need Peterson so they can sell PSL's and all the other funding to finance the team.
I think winning does a better job of selling those things.
Tommy says we need Peterson to win, and that if we had had him last year we might have made the playoffs. I just disagree. Last year we played a soft schedule and only managed to beat some of the worst teams in the entire NFL. The only playoff team we beat was the Panthers and they weren't even a .500 team. Yeah, I agree Peterson could have made a difference in some games. Not enough difference. Just my opinion.
Now I'm looking at this year's schedule and honest to Pete, I can't figure out what Wilf is smoking to think this is a playoff team. I hate to give the Packers credit, but they're damned good. The Lions swept us despite being a decades long laughing stock and I think they did a passable job this off season even if getting rid of that dirty DT probably hurt them a little. I don't think it will be easy to beat them even with Peterson. Denver on the road is not going to be easy. Seattle isn't going to be easy even if their HC is too stupid to run the best short yardage RB in the NFL when the Super Bowl is on the line. Sorry for another segue, but have two Super Bowl winning Head Coaches ever tried harder to lose a Super Bowl than those two? Why wasn't Belicheat calling timeout after that deep catch? For a smart guy that was idiotic. You've got Tom Brady, give him time on the clock to do something.
Again, sorry for the segue. My mind wanders. We're coming down here to Arizona (great stadium by the way if any of you are making the road trip) and they are pretty good with this Arians guy at the helm. San Diego, Kansas City, and San Francisco all are decent teams. I don't mean to sound fatalist, but we might go into our bye week under .500. If we do that and don't capitalize on clearing all that cap room, or we lose Peterson to another knee injury and pay all that sunk cost salary for a 3rd time I am going to be sick.
I'd rather just get him off the books now and build for the future. I don't care if we ship him to the Cowboys after they robbed us on the Herschel Walker deal. Mike Lynn's long gone. I'll take back one of their draft picks, build upon it and feel a little better. I'll take the kid out of Ohio State and be fine with moving on from our greatest RB ever. That greatest RB ever isn't going to carry us to a Super Bowl with this team at 30 years old, fresh legs be damned. Just my opinion. I'm not saying tank the year either. I'd love to shock some teams.
Here's my final kicker. I just can't see us keeping him in 2016 anyway. He's going to cost $15 million and he'll be 31. The wrong side of 30 just doesn't work for me at RB. No one is going to give us a thing for him next year, especially if he doesn't light it up this year. I'd rather cash in now.
So, do you agree with Tommy? Or me and Gary? Sorry for the long post as my first one.
One last thing. I'd love to go get Evan Mathis after that idiot in Philadelphia cut him loose. What is he thinking over there? I'll take Zimmer any day over that dufus. Gonna hit the pool. I'll be interested in your thoughts.
