Craig Stevens

This is the NFL. Everyone gets owned at some point.

 

Everyone has their role, and stevens is to be a blocker. We have plenty of needs that will tie up plenty of money, so why create another one by letting a guy like stevens go who is solid, young, will come cheap, and knows the system.

 

ALLLLL assumptions.

How many times was he sent out as a receiver? He's used only on 1st and 2nd downs. Those are typically running downs when we're winning. Only when we trail do we get pass happy. And in passing situations you're going to have the guy with more speed and better range, that's Cook.


You have no idea what Stevens can really do, do you......?

 

Craig Stevens receptions:
2008: 1
2009: 0
2010: 11
2011: 9


Craig Stevens Cal receptions:
2004: 4
2005: 13
2006: 17
2007: 17



I'm going to go all RollTide on you guys. There is no similarity between Witten and Stevens other than they are both white.

Please everyone, do not act like Stevens is some awesome receiving TE that just hasn't gotten a chance or has been held back. He isn't.

He's a pretty good (replaceable) blocking TE and that's it.

 

Sure he is replaceable, but you aren't going to find a FA that will come any cheaper than Stevens.

A rookie will come cheaper, but unless you use a high draft pick you can't guarantee he will be any better and we have too many needs to use a high draft pick on a TE.

Here is a list of FA TEs
J. Finley
M. Lewis
G.Olsen
Shockey
V. Shiacoe
J. Ballard
J. Dresson
D. Fells
J. Carlson

Stevens fits in with the guys in the mid to bottom of this list...he will be a cheap sign and allow us to use our draft picks to try and pick up an impact player later in the draft like Klug/Finny.

 

Say no to Olsen, he stinks now.

 

Pretty sure you can find a ton of cheap guys in the draft that suck as receivers, but will come in and block their arses off to get an NFL paycheck.

And I bet some of them can actually be a threat to make plays more than 4 times a year.

 

JC had it perfectly right in his analysis. There are virtually no cons to bringing Stevens back. People who say otherwise simply don't understand the game of football.

The point I made about him being the type of guys teams are built on is there is this thing called a salary CAP. So even if you wanted to you can't have all your players making 10 mil per year. So the majority of the team is going to have to built with guys who are solid at their job and who make 3 mil or less.

Secondly, trying to prove Steven's worth based on stats alone is ridiculous. Early in his career Stevens didn't get much playing time and even with more passes being thrown this year those passes were well distributed. But when the ball went Stevens way he showed he was up to the task. And he is possibly one of the better run blocking TEs in the league.

So you have a guy who has nice size and strength and one of the better blockers for a TE in the league and he just happens to also have soft hands and runs a 4.6 40. People that say the guy is slow are simply clueless.

I also think his best years are ahead of him. No way we can plug in a dud off the street and get close to what Steven's value is. Also, why do we want to lose Steven's if we have to use a middle round pick or better to replace him? He is the best all around TE we have. Cook is a big WR and not an inline TE. If you can re-sign Stevens for a reasonable deal it just keeps the team from having anotehr hole to fill in FA or the draft.

 

I guess we could use another draft pick on a guy to do what we already have Stevens for.... or we can keep the guy we already have who we know is pretty good at what he does.

I still don't see why people have their panties in a bunch about this. Is it because the team said they wanted to re-sign him?

 

I can just as easily say teams are ruined by signing average players while they could just replace them for a cheaper rookie.

Best years are ahead of him? Yeah! He might get a total of 20 catches in a season before it's all said and done! But don't hold your breath... he couldn't do it in college, either.

Had we not spent a 3rd round pick on the guy I wouldn't be so harsh. But guys like this you can get undrafted. Sorry, just the truth.