Monday, March 30, 2009

Turning Down Cutler, but not Tahi

Cutler Rumors
If it's true that the Vikings killed a trade that would have brought them Jay Cutler and the Broncos Matt Cassell, because "some elements in the Minnesota coaching staff weren’t entirely sold on Cutler", then I think we've seen the dumbest personnel decision made by the Vikings' since the Herschel Walker trade. And Brad Childress should get fired for it unless combination of Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels lead the Vikings to the Super Bowl. Childress may not have been the member of the staff that wasn't sold on Cutler, but the buck stops with him when it comes to the staff weighing in on personnel decisions, so it shouldn't have mattered if Darrell Bevell or Kevin Rogers had a problem with Cutler. And if it was him that killed the deal, well, then I really hope he gets fired, because he has no idea what a quarterback good enough to win the Super Bowl looks like.

Vikings Re-sign Tahi
Apparently they thought it was necessary after Leonard Weaver signed with the Eagles. Weaver would have been a big upgrade on the awful Tahi. Tahi, well, he's not an upgrade, he's a horrible option as receiver and his blocking wasn't all that great from what I could tell. He's not good, but at least it was only a one year deal, which means the Purple can try and upgrade again last year. Really, it wouldn't be a problem if Adrian Peterson got to play more in passing situations, because then the quarterbacks could use him as an outlet, instead of Tahi, who doesn't quite have Peterson's speed, quickness or game changing ability. But we'll leave that one for another day (though I think you can probably tie it back into my point about how Childress should definitely be fired if the Vikings' don't go to the Super Bowl this year).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know how you can criticize Childress on the Cutler deal when you don't know what the Vikings were expected to give up. I hear Denver now wants our first, Rosenfels and most importantly Greenway. Cutler will go to the Jets leaving favre to come to the Vikes. Fullback is puzzling but they may get something in the draft.

Anonymous said...

Moreover, I heard McDaniels wanted to trade Cutler because of his drinking (with diabetes) and lack of football smarts (he nver has led a team to the playoffs).

TBird41 said...

If the rumor is true, that means the Vikings didn't trade for Cutler because of problems with Cutler, not because of what they had to give up. Now, I didn't know about the rumors of his drinking issues, so if they weren't comfortable taking the risk because of that rather than skill, that might be excusable. But if its solely because they aren't sold on his ability, or on his lack of football smarts (no playoffs), then they should get fired. Gus Frerotte isn't a good quarterback because his team went 8-3 and Cutler isn't a bad quarterback because he hasn't been to the playoffs when his defense has been among the worst in the league every year.

Anonymous said...

Every decision is based on what you have to give up = benefit-risk. Any problems with Cutler are magnified when you have to give up much and minimized if Cutler were free. Moreover, I think evaluating whether Frerotte and Cutler are good QBs is more subjective and complicated than you seem to believe, even though my personal opinion is Cutler is better than Frerotte, including in the Viking offense. I believe Cutler is an upgrade but I don't know that he is if you subtract Greenway and the first draft pick (say OT Eben Britton). I would prefer someone cheaper like Favre.