With Plax in the mix, I don't think we'll miss Braylon. But Brad Smith we will miss. He was a huge piece of the puzzle in so many ways.
YES! When I first saw that I was thinking the same thing. I noticed that Rex didn't even look in Braylon's direction or really acknowledge him as Braylon was barking in his ear about what play to run.
i think plax will be great for us.... but dang, looking at the last 2 years with braylon, he made enormous plays.... not just big plays, but insanely big plays. I cant remeber a 2 year stretch where a guy had so many 50+ yard TD's, all coming in huge spots. the 67 yarder vs miami broke that game open the 70 yarder against detroit right before the half the 44 yard catch vs houston the 80 yarder vs the colts in the 09 AFC championship game it just seemed, especially 2 years ago, that whenever we struggled and couldnt move the ball, he was there to score a crazy long touchdown. and i think if we miss anything this year, its those long bombs stretching the field. same with brad smith, there were some huge games where he was our only offense
I feel the same way, which is why I really didn't want to see the front office let Braylon go to another team. Could we have resigned him? I don’t know. Looking at the numbers from what Plaxico ($3 million) and Edwards received ($3.5 million with the 49ers), it seems like we could have, but that’s not the whole picture. It reminds me of 2009 when we let Thomas Jones go, who I was a huge fan of, and signed Ladanian Tomlinson for around $5 million at the time if I remember correctly. Thomas Jones went on to sign for less money with the KC Chiefs. People were wondering why we would let Jones go and sign LdT for more money, but that wasn’t the whole picture. Getting back on track…. The fact is with Edwards, he wouldn’t have accepted a $3.5 million 1-yr contract with the Jets. He took that deal with the 49ers because that was the only option he had left. Edwards probably wouldn’t have accepted less than $5-6 million/yr with the Jets. So basically the choice was Edwards for that amount, or Plaxico for half the price. Of course there were probably other options as well. One of the reasons I loved watching Braylon Edwards so much is because of the deep catches he would make. It was exciting, it was explosive. After spending years watching noodle-arm Pennington, and having guys like Coles and Cotchery as our best receivers, I got used not seeing explosive, deep passes. So when Braylon would run a go route and catch a deep ball for a huge chunk of yards, it was exciting as hell. We had a deep threat. That’s why I really didn’t want to see him walk. However, I think Plaxico is going to fill that role very nicely as well. Plax is a big, tall, receiver just like Braylon was, and I think he’s going to be better in the red-zone too.
I disagree about Brad. The WC had lost effectiveness and he was non existant as a WR. In the return game no matter who we put back to return kicks they have had success under Westhoff plus the new rules will make him less of a factor anyway. I think by midseason Plax will be up to speed and we won't miss Braylon too much.
i'm optimistic about plax, so i'd like to agree. i just hope he doesn't lose his legs. optimistic though. agree totally with smith. our special teams have never been terrible under westhoff. with that, kerley doesn't look too bad.
I think in the big picture, this was a good time for us to let Brad Smith walk away. As others have already pointed out, B.Smith was completely invisible as a WR. He really didn’t play WR for us – he was a special teams guy and our wildcat QB. I think as a whole we’re going to see less wildcat in the NFL going forward. The wildcat became wildly popular after the Dolphins had success with it. This is a copycat league. Now that teams have had enough time to study film and prepare against the wildcat, we’re not going to see it as much. Instead, we’re probably going to see teams running more 2 TE sets like what New England is running. Again, copycat league. Brad Smith wasn’t going to be getting much play time this year if he had stayed with us. And if he did, it probably wasn’t going to be as successful as it was last year. Regarding kick-off returns… remember, before B.Smith we had Leon Washington… we will always have a solid return game because of Westhoff, and we have several options for players who are capable of being good return guys.
I don't see how losing Smith is THAT big of a deal, he had one monster game against the bengals, and a big kickoff return against the steelers. With the new kickoff rules, who knows how effective he will be anyways; and the wildcat's effectiveness has been severely overrated, it disappeared in the playoffs.
from the standpoint of returns, its not a stretch to think it is a big deal. he was huge in returns. fortunately westy, being awesome, makes up for that.
