"The Trade!"

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by #56fanatic

If we had to do it all over again, do we trade Champ and a 2nd pick for Portis, or do we keep Champ, have Betts as the #1 guy, or pick up a free agent or use the 2nd round pick for a RB. Looking at the stats, there isn't much of a difference, Portis avg is 4.6 and Betts is 4.1. Betts is comparable to Steven Davis and when he was given a shot we all know what he did. I like Portis, dont get me wrong. I sometimes catch myself wondering what kind of team would we be had Champ stayed here. God knows we could have used him the last few weeks in pass coverage!

The piece of this puzzle that often gets forgotten is the salary cap ramifications of keeping Bailey. You'll recall, the guy was going to count like 8-10 million against our cap because he was labeled with the franchise tag. That was a cap hit that would put the team in dire straits that year. So the options were to trade Bailey away or sign him to a long-term deal. Thing is, the long-term deal Bailey wanted amounted to like $8 million a year. Now, that first year the cap hit probably would have only been $5 or $6 million or so. But it would have grown astronomically. I believe the Redskins were offering like $55 million over 8 years, and he ended up getting like $65 million or something from the Broncos.

You can't just analyze the trade in a vacuum because there are other circumstances surrounding it. Because we got rid of Bailey and signed Portis to a much more cap-friendly contract, we were able to sign Shawn Springs for 5 years, 30 million.

If you're just looking at the Bailey and a 2nd rounder for Portis piece in a vacuum, then I do think we would have been better off keeping Champ. But the trade didn't exist in a vacuum, Bailey's contract demands would have had long-term ramifications to the team. We wouldn't have Shawn Springs, and we never would have been able to afford the cap hit by trading L Coles, which as we all know brought us Santana Moss. That one worked out pretty well.

Deals like the Bailey/Portis trade have major ripple effects for years. The moves we were able to make this year and the moves we'll make next year are affected. In the end, the team is much better off in the long-haul having made the trade.