My final Stephen Davis should have been kept thread

[rskinsfan10]

It's no secret that I'm the biggest Davis supporter here (oh yeah, along with Big Country). I've sat back and listened all throughout this past season as posters here proclaimed that we had to let Davis go because if we hadn't we wouldn't have been able to sign Coles, Thomas, Hall and Morton. Well, events of the past few weeks have deeply wounded that theory and supported my assertion that we could have kept Davis, and made the same splash in FA. I'll begin by saying that we didn't need to sign Morton. To this day, I believe that the Morton offer sheet was done in an attempt to make the Jets further reluctant to match the Coles offer. In essence, it worked, until the Jets decided not to match the deal word for word and the arbitrator got involved. Regardless of what they said publicly, the FO was not happy with being awarded Morton. With my scenario, Morton would have never been offered a contract.

The thing that really supports my theory is the Arrington deal. Do you see how much cap space was saved with his redone deal? And please, pay attention to the term "cap space". One thing that really upsets me is to hear folks say that Davis wasn't worth his $11mil salary that he was due this year. The truth is, he wasn't due $11mil. His salary for the year was considerably less then such. Just as Arrington wasn't due $10+mil this year. Now, if you want to say that he wasn't worth that amount of a cap hit, then fine. I would tend to agree with you. My point however, is look at the amount of space cleared by re-doing Arrington's deal. I'm pretty certain that Davis would not have commanded even half of that. It could have been done folks, and we would be a much better team if it had been. And before you say that Spurrier wouldn't have used him correctly, I will say that I agree with that. I will also point out that Spurrier is no longer here however, and here we are contemplating whether or not to use our #1 pick for a power back.

[hail2skins]

Well, I'm a Davis supporter as well and the comment I didn't like hearing was he wouldn't want to restructure. He would have restructured his contract if Spurrier hadn't come in and not use him. He wasn't fit for Spurrier's offense is another comment that rubbed me the wrong way. Spurrier inherited a team that didn't fit his style so what would most real coaches do? Play to the teams strengths which at that time was the running of Davis. But no, he bought in all those ex-gators trying to implement his system in one season as opposed to building a team that could implement his offense. Also, Davis can't catch balls out of the backfield, well let me point you to the Carolina game; remember that game. He also used to catch balls out of the backfield in Turner's era. Anyway, he's no longer with us and I accept that. He's in the playoffs because a team saw what he could do and used him. 7 100 yard games and over 1300 yards on the season. I see why his team is in the playoffs and we're not.

[Odyn]

Spurrier needed a Marshall Faulk clone for his offense. Period. It turned out if you look at what we signed Canidate and Morton for that it was not a cap issue. In hindsight, Snyder and Cerrato know they made a mistake. The entire sports media has joked about what a horrendous move it was. This is one of the reasons you can't give total control to one individual when it comes to personnel. I believe Snyder did not want to let Stephen go!

[Emmanouel8]

I've agreed about this since the moment he left and now that Spurrier turned out to be the biggest p-ssy in the history of sports it makes the move all the more worse. I just wanted to puke last night watching Davis run for the panthers in the playoffs.

[NCskinsfanatic]

I still use SD on Madden LOL.I miss him and has anyone noticed he aint coughing it up now that he.s in carolina.

[Emmanouel8]

Originally posted by Odyn
Spurrier needed a Marshall Faulk clone for his offense. Period.

Spurrier didn't know what he needed. The guy just couldn't figure out how to play to player strengths. I don't know why the fuss over even a Marshall Faulk type back w/ all the in-between tackle runs he called, might as well have kept Davis, I mean who's better at it?! Spurrier was clueless.

[Monk81]

yeah it sucked watching davis run all over the cowoys last night and seeing him doing it in another uniform.

I think we will fix our problem at RB in the draft with jones or Jackson but either way I would rather have davis still in B&*** ****.

I also wish we would have given marty more than one year I believe we would have been in the playoffs by now if he was still our coach

[Emmanouel8]

You know I think we've officially dismantled that '99 team completely. I thought you were supposed to build around success.

[BigCountry]

How come the letter gee is always censored?

[JoeDaSchmoe]

Would have been the perfect plan, Kenny, had Davis wanted to restructure.

[LuvSkins17]

I still miss ole Davis. I remember him on the sideline when he was hurt and he was killin' those sunflower seeds.

[Odyn]

And the beating he administered to Westbrook!

[HollywoodKolt]

Originally posted by BigCountry
How come the letter gee is always censored?

I was wondering the same thing BC.

[Spence]

Kenny, the only problem I have with your post is that you didn't mention me as one of Davis' top supporters. That whole restructuring canard has been driving me nuts and I cited the Lavar example several times. That's the final nail in the contract argument, as far as I'm concerned.

Stephen Davis is not in Washington for one reason only: Steve Spurrier thought he could do better with Trung Canidate. Like most of Spurrier's decisions in the NFL, this was mistaken.

[hail2skins]

Originally posted by BigCountry
How come the letter gee is always censored?

Sorry about that, should be okay now. Let's see, Ggggggg

[rskinsfan10]

I apologize Tom. Yes, you have been a faithful supporter of The Cause!!:D

[rskinsfan10]

Originally posted by JoeDaSchmoe
Would have been the perfect plan, Kenny, had Davis wanted to restructure.

Davis restructured once to start the season. He helped clear money to get the Jansen deal done. I really don't know where this sentiment is coming from that didn't want to restructure. All I remember reading and hearing was how much anticipation there was from the team to wipe his cap numbers from the books. I never heard the team after the season was over approach Davis in an attempt to get a new deal done.

It's not the players responsibilty to go to the FO/coach and say "let's hammer something out". Spurrier didn't want him here, and he convinced Snyder that we were better off without him.

[JoeDaSchmoe]

He publically said that he didn't want to restructure. Yes, he did earlier, but that was before Spurrier got here.

[rskinsfan10]

I never heard Davis say that he didn't want to restructure, and the restructure that did occur was before the start of 2002 season, which was after Spurrier got here.

[Keino]

I remember him specifically saying that he would NOT restructure again...his comments were something to the effect of wanting to finally get his just do monetarily.....

[Spence]

Davis didn't want to restructure if he was going to be misused again. That's not Davis' fault, that is Spurrier's fault. Jon Fox demonstrated how to use an elite power tailback in the NFL. Spurrier had/has no idea how to do something so important. Why would Davis restructure just to be misused for another season? It's absurd.

This is all on Spurrier. One hundred percent. Decisions like that one are why he is no longer coach of the Redskins.

[rskinsfan10]

Originally posted by Keino
I remember him specifically saying that he would NOT restructure again...his comments were something to the effect of wanting to finally get his just do monetarily.....

That comment wouldn't make sense. He got his just do moneterily when he signed the deal that got his cap number so high in the first place. His cap number was around $11mil, which means that he received a healthy signing bonus (I believe around $8-9mil). That is the only way that his cap number could have been so high after 3yrs of signing the deal.

As Spence alluded to, Davis did get to the point where nearing the end of the season that it was obvious that the team/Spurrier wanted him gone, and he became content with leaving, knowing that it was inevitable. With Mark Maske being leaked info from the FO that Davis was surely gone and that the team didn't want to restructure, I believe that he was at peace with his impending departure. I recall Darrell Green commending him for taking the high road and keeping his head high, because he wasn't being treated fairly.

[LuvSkins17]

Originally posted by Odyn
And the beating he administered to Westbrook!

Sorry Odyn but it was the other way around my friend.:twak:

[Ford]

There was a large band of us that supported keeping davis back in the day, but it's the least of my concern to dwell on that decision. Let us look ahead, and not backwards to Sage, Kenny .. whoops ;) Looks like you were right there, too.

[Keino]

Originally posted by Spence
Davis didn't want to restructure if he was going to be misused again. That's not Davis' fault, that is Spurrier's fault. Jon Fox demonstrated how to use an elite power tailback in the NFL. Spurrier had/has no idea how to do something so important. Why would Davis restructure just to be misused for another season? It's absurd.

This is all on Spurrier. One hundred percent. Decisions like that one are why he is no longer coach of the Redskins.


Oh I agree completely. I was just pointing out that the words "I will not restructure" came out of his mouth is all. Yes he was horribly mis-used by Spurrier and any 30 year old RB with a shred of concern over the legacy his career would have moved on as well.

[rskinsfan10]

Originally posted by Ford
There was a large band of us that supported keeping davis back in the day, but it's the least of my concern to dwell on that decision. Let us look ahead, and not backwards to Sage, Kenny .. whoops ;) Looks like you were right there, too.

Ah, let's see.

"My final Sage Rosenfels should have been kept thread!!" :D

[Green-Is-Good]

:D

[hail2skins]

Originally posted by rskinsfan10
Ah, let's see.

"My final Sage Rosenfels should have been kept thread!!" :D

We could have a lot of those.

[Minnesota Mike]

As I have said in previous Stephen Davis threads -

If Stephen Davis doesn't fit into your system, you have to question your system.

[Smiley]

If you wanted to fault someone about SD leaving, blame Steve Spurrier. Also blame Stephen Davis himself. Spurrier cast Stephen aside and showed no respect, thus Stephen quit playing. Look at last years game tapes and compare them to how Stephen is running this year. Based on Stephen's play last, he wasn't worth the $10M cap hit. Is he worth it this year based on his play, yes. We got nothing for him either. I think Bailey is in the same boat, but at least we'll get something for him.