Quote:
Originally Posted by SmootSmack
Here's J. Clayton's take:
The Pete Kendall trade was a fast one, put together by the Redskins and the Jets in less than 24 hours. The Jets will receive a fifth-round pick in 2008 if Kendall plays 80 percent of the snaps this year; the pick would be a fourth-rounder in '09 if he plays more. Over the past three years, Kendall has played at least 90 percent of the snaps in each of those seasons. Acquiring Kendall resolves several things along the offensive line. First, it stops the conversion of Todd Wade from tackle to guard. Wade will now be the backup tackle. Second, it gives the Redskins some beef on the interior of their offensive line. The Redskins' schedule dictates that the team can't be too small in its interior blocking.
Kendall gets his money: The loser in the Kendall trade was the Miami Dolphins. They had been hoping Kendall, who didn't want to stay in New York because the Jets wouldn't give him a $1 million raise, would be cut. That wasn't going to happen. Had there been no trade offer, the Jets would have kept Kendall even if he were unhappy. Once the Redskins got involved, things started moving pretty quickly. The trade gives the Jets eight draft choices in 2008. Kendall was also a winner in the trade. Though his preference would have been to stay in New York if he got paid, Kendall proved his point. He wanted to get a raise from $1.7 million to $2.7 million, and teams were willing to accommodate him. Aside from the Redskins and Dolphins, the Chiefs also had interest. Kendall will now make $2.7 million this season and $2.3 million in 2008.
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I mean, at least the Skins were not bidding against themselves this time (a la the Mark Brunell trade a few years back). Kendall was not going to be released, at least two other teams had interest, he was the best thing available, and he upgrades the line at a need position. JLC et al. can gripe that they should not have let the situation at LG deteriorate to this point, but it did and the FO worked to fix it. Sure, we'd all like to have a full compliment of draft picks, but I'd rather give up a 4th or 5th round pick if that means keeping Jason Campbell upright during the season. The comparison to the McNair and Green trades does not hold anyway as those guys were going to get cut regardless. If the Skins wanted this deal to go down they need to offer up what they did. It's not like the gave up a first day pick and not having a 4th round pick in 2009 isn't so bad as long as they can manage to hang on to their other six choices. Good move, and the only one they could really make.