Being a champion has its rewards — and some major pitfalls.
The Baltimore Ravens couldn't stop everybody. Ozzie Newsome knew that all along. That's life in the NFL. The crafty general coach tried his best to plan for it.
Yet when the news came down Tuesday that inside(a) line backer Dannell Ellerbe had struck a five-year, $35 million eff with the Miami Dolphins, it was, as Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson might say, like a punch in the stomach.
Ellerbe is the one who got away, even with opposite operative departures projected. The Ravens really wanted to keep Ellerbe to solidify the middle of a defense that lost its emotional coach-on-the-field, Ray Lewis, to retirement and thus far might not retain wily free prophylactic Ed Reed.
ELLERBE HEADS SOUTH: Dolphins land LB with five-year, $35M deal
KRUGER'S SACK OF capital: Browns give pass rusher $40.5M
You can't blame Ellerbe for taking the money and sprinting, oddly in this not-so-guaranteed environment of the NFL. When he sign(a) with the Ravens in 2009 as an undrafted free agent from Georgia, he got a $2,000 signing bonus.
Who knows whether Ellerbe will be in the NFL long enough to get some other contract, and if so, whether he'll be able to dictate the terms.
These are the type of guys you hate to lose if you run an NFL franchise. You've coached 'em up, developed them. And when they blossom into stars, some other team — often a rebuilding franchise that is in that predicament beca do it can't pick and develop them as well — gets the benefit. If it workings out.
Nonetheless, that's the NFL system. The player blossomed and earned the right to cash in art object he's hot. Ellerbe was gone about an hour after outside linebacker Paul Kruger — who started seven games in four years — signed a five-year, $40.5 million deal with the Cleveland Browns.
This news came after the Ravens traded skilled Anquan Boldin to the San Francisco 49ers when he refused to cut his $6 million salary.
Trading Boldin, a sleep with player who is also one of the NFL's best blocking receivers, was doubtlessly a tough decision driven by the tough picture of building for the long haul. In a literary argument released by the team, Newsome called the move unpleasant.
That's a word people use when they really don't want to do something. It fits when considering the intangibles that "Q," as they call him, brought to a locker room that has already lost tremendous leadership in Lewis and retired center Matt Birk.
Now what? One of the remaining linebackers, Jameel McClain, put it this way to USA TODAY Sports: "They let Q go, so nix surprises me anymore."
Materials taken from USA Today
0 comments:
Post a Comment