He is still young and averages 5.1 yards per carry in over 200 touches and they barley use him. a second round pick is a little high but wouldnt be the worst deal. a third would make sense but since they tendered him with a second i guess we have no choice if we want him.He is exactly what we need in a running back
It doesn't matter that he is a UDFA... For the Saints that's a great find and pick up. But how do you slap a 2nd round tender on the guy you got for nothing? Guys like Randy Moss got traded to the Raiders they got a player and like a 7th rounder and when he went to the Patriots it was a 4th rounder. Brandon Marshall got traded for 2 3rd rounders in consecutive years. And holmes got traded for a 5th rounder. So they are definitely over valuing this guy who really hasnt proven a thing yet and hasnt gone over 1000 yards . He may have potential yes but not 2nd round potential when teams were offering us a 2nd rounder for Revis .
Problem is the only available RFA tenders are 1st round, 2nd round or original round. They had to put him at 2nd or they'd not be entitled to any compensation.
I would not give a second rounder to a guy who hasn't been able to take over at least the #2 spot on a team. I'd give a 4th at most and that's pushing it by a lot.
The Jets aren't even trying to steal a promising young starter away from his team here. They're trying to get a guy who hasn't been able to crack the lineup for more than cameo appearances thus far. I don't get what the value is in a team's 3rd or 4th string back that would make any team pay as though he was actually worth something. If he was actually worth something the Saints would have put him on the field instead of drafting Mark Ingram a couple of years ago. Teams don't spend high draft picks on running backs if they have good ones on the roster already.
It's not necessarily he wasn't good enough, he was just a victim of circumstance. They drafted Ingram in the first, Sproles is a favorite of Brees and Thomas was a veteran on the team. The proof is in the pudding. Look at his average or just some game tape of him. He is a beast, and the Saints felt the same as they tendered him with a 2.
They had Ivory on the team before they drafted Ingram or signed Sproles to a deal that averages $3.5M a year. If you have a good back on the team you don't make moves like the ones above. The Saints have been a pretty good evaluator of talent over the last 5 years. They saw enough of Ivory to conclude that he wasn't an answer for them and so they got several guys to slot above him on the depth chart and now he's hanging out there as an RFA.
If they felt he was a beast they would probably have worked out a long term deal with him and then tried to trade either Ingram or Thomas.
This is one of the moments when the Jets are doing their "Island" thing again. As in Fantasy Island. It could work out but it's more likely that Tatu is going to be waving to the plane when all is said and done.
That's more defensible. It's still maybe a bad move though if it prevents the Jets from looking at some of the good backs in the early to mid-rounds. Running back is one of those positions where you can find talent in a lot of different places. If the Jets have decided that Chris Ivory is cheap talent then so be it. I hope they're looking at why that talent didn't get used much in New Orleans though. The Saints aren't the kind of team to let real offensive talent languish. If they held Ivory back the odds are pretty good they did so for a reason.
In watching Ivory I do question his ability to make defenders miss. He seems more like a bruising straight ahead back with some explosion. North/South runner all the way. I'd rather take Bernard or Taylor over Ivory.
Sproles is more of a receiver than a RB and Ingram was considered the best back in the draft. The bottom line is he has averaged over 5 ypc on 250+ carries over the last 3 years. What do you contribute that to? Him not being good?
Like we slapped a 2nd round tender on Howard? The Saints tendered him at that level. There's nothing wrong with that. The discussion is not about a 2nd rounder, its about a 4th or 5th rounder. And just because he was an UDFA doesnt mean he's not worth anything. Would you trade a draft pick for Arian Foster? I would think so, yet he was an UDFA. The NFL doesnt care if you were a 1st round pick of an UDFA, because whoever performs the best will likely be the one playing.
In a limited sample you often get extreme results. What do I attribute his 5+ yards per carry in limited carries too? Well, he's a backup back on the field with Drew Brees. I'm guessing 99% of the opposing defenses concentration and effort is on stopping Brees on each down and maybe 1% devoted too "oh, yeah we gotta watch the scrub UDFA back also."
If he had 50 carries I could agree with you, but 250? Sorry, ivory is for real. But no use arguing with you since you're searching for any and all ways to discredit him. He must've personally wronged you in the past.
Just wondering, but have you ever seen him play? Because you are acting like he's a scrub who has no talent. From a talent perspective, he would be a top 3 RB in this class. His talent does not resemble that of an average UDFA. If he didnt have the injury concerns in college, Im sure he would have been drafted, and maybe higher than a late round pick. [YOUTUBE]VegZv616Yxw[/YOUTUBE] He's certainly more talented than any runningback we've had in a while..