JW turned it down.
JW had a career year behind this OL.
Not sure why you reference last year for JW health vs DM’s health this year and not JW’s health this season. He has been out multiple games and has struggled while in NO to find the success he had in Detroit.
I wasn’t saying they did, I just made the comment they had a set dollar amount for him and wouldn’t go above that.
It also isn’t wrong to say that David M provides more in the running game than JW does or did specifically with yards after contact.
And, I’d have been ignorantly happy. Swaggy was one of my favorite Lions. He was the embodiment of “Grit”.
While I am disappointed that he’s gone, I’m definitely not disappointed that Monty is here. He’s all that and a bag of grit.
Maybe to some, but I have been calling him an average player behind an elite line since we signed him. Honestly a lot of people were on board, the primary argument for keeping him was always more about how important he was to the locker room. And I agreed with that part, he was a great locker room guy.
But I also argued that if our locker room fell apart because of the loss of one guy, then we weren’t building what I thought we were building here.
Swaggy was tuff and tenacious, with a side of joy. Definitely a culture piece, but, he did a good job on the field.
He’s a Dawg! You’ll never see me talk negatively about him.
I think some will find this foolhardy but given the way this offense has developed I believe a RB3 is a pretty important draft need. Round 5 or so. Preferably one who can both thump and catch the ball. Peny Boone and Devin Neal (if he declares) are two of my favorites.
Corum would be absolutely perfect but I don’t see us spending that much Draft capital on a depth piece.
Craig Reynolds has a 4.4 yard average this season, and 4.3 for his career .
Jahvid Best had 3.6.
Reggie Bush had 4.2 as a Lion. 4.4 career.
We’re getting kinda spoiled around here.
Dylan Laube, UNH. 5’10, 210, had 1245 yards rushing last year (only 715 this year but game script kept him from getting as many carries, still averaged 4.7 per). Will be at Senior Bowl.
But the most ridiculous stat line: against their only FBS opponent Central Michigan, had 12 catches for 295 yards! Another game he went 13 for 128. He’s absolutely one of the best pass-catching backs in the class.
I don’t know how much of a thumper he is but definitely a guy I’ll have my eye on at the Senior Bowl.
Brad valued J Williams more than you and many other seem to have
My only point is Brad valued him and tried to re -sign him
So that part of the story should be included as Brad obviously thought Jamal would continue to be productive and healthy
Now separately one can make a point about how happy they are in worked out to land David
They can suggest he’d do much better than Jamal but truth is we don’t know if Jamal would be living up to Brad’s expectations when he offered him the contract to stay.
Maybe Williams does even better as not many predicted he’d break Barry’s records when they signed him
I think the receiving component is what is most important and why I highlighted the two that I did.
With Boone he doesn’t get a ton of reps but the stuff he does and his prior 7on7 receiving exploits are awesome. I almost wonder if he could take the Cabinda spot. Don’t know how his blocking is but the power is there.
Jamal was a great fit with us and a great locker room guy, it makes sense that Brad and especially Dan wanted him back. Even if we had to overpay a little. He’d already proven himself in our offense, whether he was an average player behind a great line or not.
But we don’t really know what Brad offered him. One beat writer said our offer was nowhere near what the Saints offered him, another said we offered him something ‘close’ to the contract we gave Monty.
And we don’t know how the contract was structured. Maybe Swaggy was so offended by our offer because it was a 3-year deal in name only. We’re talking about a 28 year old guy at a position where guys fall off a cliff around that age. Brad has proved very shrewd and somewhat heartless in negotiations with some of our other FAs, I have a hard time believing he’d give $6M per to a RB who would be 31 by the end of the contract.
There’s just too much we can’t know from our perspective. We’re pretty much limited to what we see on the field, though in our case we got a great look at Jamaal behind the scenes thanks to Hard Knocks. But on the field, the different between Jamaal and Monty was pretty clear, imo.
Actually, I was always pointing out that he led the team both seasons he was here with first downs. When you don’t have that guy on your team, he becomes really important. When the D knows who is getting the ball and they still can’t stop him from getting to the sticks, that guy is worth plenty. He was very good at what he did and we were lucky to have him.
He filled a niche well. I think the biggest drawback with him was that he really didn’t quite do enough as a receiver and therefor our personnel groupings were a bit of a tell.