[BigHairedAristocrat]

Originally Posted by mooby

I respect how willing you are to stick to your belief that it's all about the money for Trent and the cancer/beef with Bruce and Larry Hess was just a distraction. Let's see how it plays out though.

We will see. My position comes from Trents own statements regarding his motives and the multiple lies he's been caught in. If Trent comes back, apologizes for his toxic behavior, approves the independent investigation into his alleged medical malpractice, and plays out his current contract without demanding guaranteed money, then I will gladly admit I was wrong. But even in that scenario, the smarter thing for this team to do would be to trade him for compensation.

I believe the staff changes and the new regime has made a reconciliation possible. And I'm not concerned with how you view Trent as a teammate unless you're in the locker room. If the other players would be happy to have Trent back (which I'm 1000% sure they would given his previous status as a team leader) that's good enough for me.

I agree that reconciliation is possible - if the skins give Trent guaranteed money and an extension, which i think would be incredibly stupid based entirely on his age, injury, and suspension history. We are not a team that is already elite and just needs a stud LT to make the superbowl. We are not a team that will benefit from barely making the playoffs in 2020 and then losing Trent in the offseason. We need players who can help us build SUSTAINED SUCCESS and Trent is not part of that equation.

And as valuable as Alex Smith is, Haskins will have Rivera, Scott Turner, and whoever our qb coach is to learn from. He will either sink or swim, depending on how bad he wants it.

I agree with this. However, all the evidence so far indicates Haskins is most likely to be a bust. Haskins has done nothing without Smiths help to demonstrate he has he maturity and drive to be a pro. I don't think he has that inner drive to be a leader and franchise QB yet. He can get there, but I genuinely believe Smith is crucial to helping him build that mindset. Its too early to take the training wheels off. (It shouldn't be, but this is one of the many reasons why Haskins was a reach where we took him last year).

I'm pretty sure any team taking Smith knows it would be a salary dump, but I wouldn't expect to give up anything more than a 3rd day draft pick, which I'm fine with. We could always use the cap relief.

I'm fine with a 3rd day pick, too. But if our primary goal is cap relief, trading TW makes even more sense as he could provide 67% of the relief and net us a substantially better pick.