Pat Yasinskas is Confused

by Roc on Dec 29, 2008 7:41 PM EST Comment 3 comments

A recent article by Pat on ESPN:

"Tip to Gruden and general manager Bruce Allen: You messed up in one huge way this season. If you were going to enter the Brett Favre sweepstakes (and we know you did), you HAD to get him. You didn't and it ruined Garcia and, ultimately, your season. Decide early on if Donovan McNabb or Matt Cassel is your flavor of the month. Then go out and make certain you get him."

This is just another example of ESPN milking the ratings machine that is Brett Favre.

-Favre, coming into this season, was a great quarterback that would put fans in the seats. The front office noticed this and went after him. Sure, Garcia had a great season last year, and it is unfair that he did not get the praise he deserved, but the NFL is a business. In my job my boss should always be on the lookout for better and more efficient workers that could replace me, and it is my job to prove to them that I can be successful. If Garcia was "ruined" because he felt unloved, it is his fault for not being mentally tough enough by not getting over it.

-Garcia is mentally tough. He rose all the way up from the Canadian Football League. He managed to become a pro bowler after having two horrendous seasons in the wastelands that are Detroit and Cleveland. And most impressively of all, he had to deal with and eventually won a playoff game with TO.

-Unbelievably, Pat blames the Favre dilemma as the reason this season ended in a historically bad fashion. There are many, many reasons why we lost four straight games: coaching, run defense, forgetting how to tackle just to name a few. But Allen and Gruden trying to sign a hall-of-fame qb is obviously not the reason we are counting down the days until the Rays start playing a little earlier than expected.

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"But Allen and Gruden trying to sign a hall-of-fame qb is obviously not the reason we are counting down the days until the Rays start playing a little earlier than expected"

ha! No argument there…

As for the Favre situation, It’s obviously not the sole reason, but it did have a hand in the season. Garcia came out for whatever reason, unfocused in Week 1 against the Saints and Gruden benched him for it. Forget the fictitious ankle injury he endured, if it happened it didnt happen because of game action.

Not only that, once Garcia did get back in the game, he became a game manager. He quit throwing the ball down field. He settled for 5-8 passes ala Brian Griese. He was clearly not the same Quarterback this season.

Like you said, Garcia’s mentally tough, but there is no doubt the off-seasons shenanigans had an ill effect on his season. For no other reason than he was constantly second guessing himself and looking over his shoulder. All because Gruden and Allen didnt believe in him 100%.

And like Pat said, if the Bucs are going to shop with players already under contract, they better be ready to deliver, because the players they shun will have ill effects.

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by JScott on Dec 29, 2008 8:17 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

"because the players they shun will have ill effects"

sure i would love for the bucs to land every player they eye so that no one will get their feelings hurt, but we all know that could never happen. Thats like not going after Peppers and Haynesworth this offseason because it might effect the psychological state of our current d-line (yea, not completely the same because no one on the d-line is coming off a pro bowl season).

In my opinion they did the right thing in backing off Favre because giving up the draft picks werent worth it, Favres average season this year proves it. They evaluated an available talent, made the decision that it would be a bad move, and ended up probably making the right decision. Still dont you think, at the time, trying to land Favre was the right move? He was coming off a career year and just led a 13-3 team to the doorsteps of a superbowl.

However, i agree with your assumption that Garcia became a game manager and constantly looked over his shoulder because he was afraid of being benched. Still, that had more to do with Grudens panic move after game one than favre.

by Roc on Dec 29, 2008 8:35 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

(yea, not completely the same because no one on the d-line is coming off a pro bowl season).

Exactly, that was the slap in the face of all slaps in the face…

We’ll never see eye to eye on this, but i think the Bucs did the wrong thing in backing off Favre. Giving up a 3rd round pick for Favre was nothing compared to the potential reward. Checkout the Bucs last five years of third round picks:

’08 – Jeremy Zuttah, ’07 – Quincy Black, ’06 – Maurice Stovall, ’05 – Alex Smith/Chris Colmer, ’04 – Marquis Cooper

None of those guys are or ever will be worth the opportunity of not bringing in Brett Favre. And in a average season for Favre, he still beat the doors off a typical Jeff Garcia season:

Garcia – 2712 yards 12 touchdowns 6 interceptions 90.2 QB rating
Favre – 3472 yards 22 touchdowns 22 interceptions 81.0 QB rating

Keep in mind that Favre was in his first season in Mangini’s system, where as Garcia was in year two…

The Bucs tipped their hand way too much in the off-season in their pursuits of Brett Favre and it back fired…

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by JScott on Dec 29, 2008 9:44 PM EST reply actions 0 recs