Hasselbeck":2z39g6r7 said:
timmat":2z39g6r7 said:
With Lockette now out for the season, WR trade talks better not include Chris Matthews any more. He's a big body, and good on special teams coverage. Our kick coverage is good, so if we took both Lockette and Matthews out of that mix, that would be a mistake.
Don't forget Lane is a great gunner and Kasen Williams/Kevin Smith could be just as serviceable on ST.
Think it would be foolish to pass on Alex Mack because of some punt coverage. The bigger issue IMO with acquiring a Mack is the draft compensation and shuffling of salary. Because the Browns aren't about to trade a Pro Bowl center for Jermaine Kearse.
Cleveland wouldn't trade Mack for one of our receivers... period. Not even if we added picks. They would trade Mack for Bennett. They are soft up front on defense and Bennett would be an impact player almost immediately for them. While I love Bennett's production, I don't think our play would drop off much with Marsh and Clark stepping in for Bennett. They're both playing great and I think one of them replacing Bennett is inevitable anyways. Then consider that Bennett is, most likely, going to hold out next year when he's due to receive 4 million. He wanted to renegotiate this year and he's making 6 million. I'm almost counting on him holding out next year if he doesn't get a new contract. We could just avoid that whole mess by trading him now.
Then I like us trading P-Rich and a draft pick for Joe Thomas. With Lockett coming in this year, I don't think we really need P-Rich. He doesn't give us any dynamic in the receiving corp that Lockett and Baldwin don't already give us. If we landed Alex Mack and Joe Thomas on our offensive line, we'd be looking real good on both sides of the ball. Our defense wouldn't drop off much with Clark and Marsh filling in for Bennett, and our offense would roll over defenses with those guys stepping in on our line and providing some stability. Trading Bennett, P-Rich and a pick to Cleveland for Mack and Thomas wouldn't be popular, but it would be the right move in my opinion.