I think in the interest of debate I'll give a little bit of a glimpse into our mindset for the deal. Maybe people will see fit to comment more. Thanks, guys -- FreeBaGel, northern exposure, wlwiles, and Helaire-ious for your comments. Always nice to read people assessing the deal.
Hewitt, by the way, is just there to make the pieces even for roster legality. He's a surefire cut when somebody useful comes along.
Gally and I are apparently down on all the guys in the deal.
My own assessment is as follows: Godwin is not long for Tampa because of contracts and numbers, earns his points in motion and away from press, needs plays designed for him, rounds his routes from what I see, and isn't Brady's first look. He's also an excellent receiver and one of my favorite all-around players. Problem is, you don't get fantasy points for getting the trenches and being a team and good guy.
Ruggs, in my estimation, doesn't adjust on the fly yet to what Carr wants to do, is slight and can get bumped off of the ball at a moment's notice, and is generally Carr's third or fourth look unless there is a designed deep ball for him. He also just seems frail out there comparatively, and has gone down at least two or three times that I've seen over the past year from average hits. Ruggs is also a guy I pull for, and hope to see excel because I drafted him at 1.06 last year in our rookie draft, over guys like Jefferson and Jeudy.
The problem with Brown that I see is that he's now got Jones to compete for volume, Henry is the 1a and 1b of that offense, and he comes down with injuries to his knees and now his hamstrings, things that are likely accompanying the off-season knee procedure. He's ranked really highly, but I'm not sure he should be that high.
So it's really what the teams need. I need a guy that can be the man in a year, something I don't think Godwin or Ruggs can be. Gally needed depth at WR and probably thinks higher of those two than I do. I think Brown has a shot at being the man in an offense.
So it's not like we tore apart keyboards and spit vituperations and hard sells to get this deal done. It was totally cordial, and rather easy considering it was such a big deal in terms of the quality and number of players involved. It began with a general conversation, turned to specifics, and then was pretty easy in negotiation in the end. I feel like I gave up a lot, but so did Gally, really.
I'm on the Brown side, by the way. I didn't like the deal as much considering how Ruggs has played the past two weeks, but I think that we gave up and got fair value for our respective teams. I needed to have a shot at excellence at the positions. I think Gally needed starting depth at WR (We start 1-5 RB, 2-5 WR, 1-5 TE, but it has to be eight of those). And that's my side of the story. I'll let Gally tell his.