Muhammad

Moose II hasn't had as many key drops as Moose v. I

That's been a nice surprise to me. Let's don't forget when debating whether we should have gotten into a bidding war with Chicago, Moose had his share of off-the-field problems combined with on-the-field problems. Some of that in retrospect can be attributed to the Seifert era, but it wasn't like he was a perennial All-Pro while he was here.

He was an occasional great receiver with some questionable moments of commitment and a case of drops that kept him from being upper-echelon. We were also getting Smitty back and Chicago paid a ton to Moose.

Couldn't be happier to have him back, and I would have loved to have kept him, I just understand why we didn't. And I don't necessarily think it was the wrong decision knowing what we knew at the time. Of course, everyone except for Key was miserable as our #2, so knowing now that we couldn't replace him makes us wonder why we ever let him go.

 

Moose wanted to get paid. The biggest problem with not paying him was we thought Carter and Colbert could pick enough of his slack to keep things going.

 

From my angle on the field, I didn't see Rosario pop the dudes hat--I just saw a guy running without one after DW. When I reviewed my game tape, I was keyed on the ball carrier, but figured it was Rosario that lopped off the head.

Moose has been very good in his return, but it may be because we (the coolective fans we) didn't set a high bar considering his age, and what his role would be (based on what many of us thought). I think we all thought he'd be a great run blocker, and catch the key 3rd and X yardage plays, but he's been so much better in both areas, as well as the TD category.

 

A bidding war? The Panthers cut him.

 

Cause we didn't want to pay him.

 

Yeah, but you can't get into a bidding war with the Bears when he isn't a FA. They couldn't come to terms on a new contract, the Bears weren't involved yet.

But whatever, my original point wasn't that I thought it was a poor decision (I thought it might be the right thing at the time) but that the coach and GM think they did.

 

Moose really didn't have a lot of drops in 03-04, and I just didn't have any info on 02. He was getting a lot of targets not caught, and had a lot in the first two games without Smith, but nothing that would constitute a high amount of drops (I only had numbers on higher offenders, he ranked high on % not caught but not on drops). Smith had more drops in 03 and Colbert more in 04 (and 05 more than Smith despite vastly fewer targets).

But yeah, it's something he's done well with this time.



as for his burst, his catches went down last year and people assumed it was him not getting open (of course, part of his game has been getting the ball open or not, from rookie on), but his YPC went up to 15+, so I knew he was either getting good burst or somehow getting a ton of longball opportunity, and I didn't see him getting the deep balls with Berrian there and Hester on O. The lack of balls going his way, I assumed, was because of the additional TE target (and they do target both Olsen and Clark a good bit), Berrian getting more balls, and throwing to Hester. Regardless of the outcome, fewer balls to go around.

He was the one blocking DJ. The part I can't figure out is it doesn't look like it was that hard a hit - dn't see the head knock back, it's just like Rosario got under the facemask and then the helmet was gone. Props for DJ going downfield and trying for the tackle anyway.

 

yep.

It's hard to say. I know they tried on a bigtime contract and according to them, they put up a close offer. They had money to spend, because they went out and got Wahle and Lucas (the fallacy of the idea was that it was Moose, or Wahle and Lucas - essentially, Moose and either newcomer were making the same, so we signed one guy regardless of Moose).

But, always interesting to go back and learn the way that the decision makers felt about a situation in the past. It would be fun to have more detail about other moves, but most times that comes out after a regime has passed, if at all.

 

I did a little looking, and this is his best start since '99, pretty much.

2008 through 5 games:

25 - 358, 2TD

2001 through 5 games:

27 - 310, 1 TD

1999 through 5 games:

30 - 531, 2 TD

Crazy.

 

I always had a feeling he would contribute just about how he has so far. People looked at me funny when I picked him up late in my draft but I had a feeling he would be solid +