You don't think Swan should be in the HOF based on numbers and you have a good argument based on numbers. Swan was a much better WR than Harrison who has great HOF numbers.
One of the reasons Bradway was such a dope was he tried very hard to sign productive players for huge amounts of money at the end of their walk years like Coles, Thomas, Jordan, Ferguson, guys he probably could have signed for decent money a year or two earlier. He vastly over paid for Chad when he had an opportunity to see if Chad could reproduce he's 2002 season by either playing hardball with him or franchising him. As you pointed out he throw a stupid offer to Ferg after it was clear he lost all he's leverage and he even made a stupid offer for Lamont who he could have had a high draft pick for the year before. The guy has brought in some good talent over the years but he has squandered an awful lot of it by overpaying players when he had leverage and waiting until he didn't have leverage for guys who should have been tied up for reasonable numbers.
Swann was not close to Harrison. Sure he had better postseason 3s but playing w/ absolutely no pressure on that team helps and he had a QB who learned to step up in big games(though w/ that D he wasn't playing w/ much pressure either). it's a complete joke Swann is in the Hall.
In the first sentence yuo comlain he tried to sign players at the end of their walk years then you complain he signed Chad hen he signed Chad at the end of preseason of his walk year and had was NOT overpiad, just b/c he got hurt doens't mean the contract he signed was bad. Yoy guys would have screamed if he didn't get hurt in '04 and cotinued having a grat year and hs price tag went up. We kept Lamont b/c we had a team that could make a run and he was important to it. ferg wasn't needed at the time he left, he was getting old and sure he had a great contrat year but before that he was mstly unproducive for about 4-5 years. W/ Coles none had tried to sign RFAs before, Wash gave him a ridiculous offer and he was gone yet we were closer toa SB in 2004 than we ere in '01 or '02 w/ Coles. Players are replaceable andTb did a good job / that and w/ not overpaying for the mst part. He overpaid Chrebet(which is really what cost us Coles) and a few otherguys but or the most part ddn't overpay.
My complaint about Chad was he was grossly over paid. The point of signing a guy before the walk year is you have leverage to make a decent deal. When Chad threatened to cut off negiotations they acted like scared school girls with no leverage when they had him for another year plus they could franchise him. You missed my complaint entirely, the point of signing guys before the walk year is to get a deal that doesn't break the bank and allows you to keep talent. If your going to pay guys as if the were unrestricted FA's prior to their walk years you might as well get another year out of them at their original contracts and than either pay full bore or franchise them and play hardball.
We didn't break the bank w/ Chad, he sgned a fair deal in line w/ other franchise QBs. Chad wassigned as a franchie QB and that's what he has been when healthy, if Chad doesn't injure his shoulder we are talking about that deal as a bargain. If we didn' sign Chad and he doesn't get hurt then Chad signd for a MUCH, MUCH higher #- we got a discount at the time.
He signed a deal as if he was a top 3 NFL QB when he was coming off at best a crappy year. He hadn't proved he was a top 10 QB at that point, he threatened to cut off negiotations and Bradway caved like the second rate GM he was. Bradway was canned in part because of the deal he signed Chad to.
I don't remember exactly where his deal ranked but I doubt it was top 3 and he had a good 2003 coming off the injury after leading the NFL in passing and leading us out form 1-4, 2-5 to a division title in 2002. had didn't have to prove anything else and ince the deal when's been healthy he's been very good. In 2004 he had rating over 100 before the injury and we were 6-1 and last year he didn'tost the greatest stats but we had 2 rookie OL, a new scheme and a poor running game and he led us to 10 wins again. A healthy Chad means we have a great chance to win gams, w/o Chad since '02 it means we had a great cance to lose games.
Junc you can keep saying he was good in 03 when I say he was at best mediocre that's a stretch, he was a second rate QB in 03 coming off an injury to he's none throwing hand.
Bradway did not sign a single timely contract in his 5 years with the team. He must have learned to negotiate in a playpen with another kid and two nerf bats because not only did he lose every impactful free agent the team had during his reign, most of them walked out angry.
The guy was great his first 5 games back throwing 12 TDs in5 games but he fell off the last few weeks when defenses realized he had 1 weapon to throw to and they took him away. He still improved us when he came back and we were in just about every game despite the 6-10 record.
if you guys are talking aobut 03, after Pennington returned he only lost 1 game where the defense held the opponent under 20, and that was to Buffalo. We had Zero rushing defense yet managed to be in every game, and win when the defense cooperated.
Look at it this way. This year Peyton Manning (to use a Parcells phraseology) Drove a Cadillac to the Superbowl. Every year he had a Chevy, he went home early. Chad has taken a Beat up old Chevy to the playoffs, on several occasions. If you are a stats guy or a FFL guy, you have to love Manning, BUT, I would bet that in a Chevy, Pennington will get you therefaster than Manning.
The only problem with that analysis is that Peyton was in a Chevy this year. The Colts defense was as bad as it's been since the 2001 team that went 6-10 on the way to getting Mora fired. I am as shocked as the next guy that the Colts actually won a superbowl while allowing 425 pts along the way (by far the worst defensive showing ever for a super bowl winner) but they did. Now last year Peyton had a Cadillac and he went home anyway.
THe Defense played like Baltimore down the stretch. But Tom Moore-Marvin Harrison-Reggie Wayne-Dallas Clark-J Addai = Cadillac. Pennington has never had that kind of Talent around him, now he needs one guy to stretch the field.
Actually the Colt's offense circa 2003 and 2004 was much better than what they had last year. Addai is fine but James was better and everybody else on that list except Wayne is getting to the downside of their career now. It pains me to say it, because I've argued for awhile that Peyton Manning was over-rated, but it was Peyton Manning who got the Colts to that Super Bowl and got them their ring. If the defensive follies the first 9 weeks had happened to Chad he'd have gone 5-4 or maybe 6-3 at best and then the late season swoon would have wound the Colts up at 10-6 and a wild card. Now why does that sound like the Jets recent history?
He did have a guy who could stretch the field, he couldn't get the ball to him down the field and we unloaded him for a very good possession WR. He is now a pro bowl WR with the Skins.
In the REGULAR SEASON but the Colts D was excellent in postseason while manning was not, as usual. Manning had the great 2nd half vs. NE and that was about it. It was FG fest for Indy the first 2 games and the D did a great job to win those games. The D has never really been the problem in Indy, it's been Manning. The D had never played great like it did this postseason BUT they played well enough to in outside of the '02 Jet game(where the O didn't play well either). Our defense for a good portion of last year and it was Chad who kept us in it. Indy was 17th in D last year and 15th in 2005, in PA they were 23rd last year and 2nd in 2005. Our D last year was 18th in yards and 6th in points so our D was simiar to the Indy D of the last 2 years. Chad carried us for a good portion of this past season. Former Pro Bowler and Coles was aso a PBer in Washington and Moss was an alternate for us in '03 and Coles made it last year for us but couldn't play.
