T.O. is an idiot. That is clear. As you all know by now, Dallas, in what I’d regard as a surprising move, has released him. I consider it surprising mostly because they take a $9 million cap hit this year for releasing him. That is a team that really doesn’t want him around. (By the way, if I were Jerry Jones, and thank God I’m not, I would have fired Wade Phillips last year. I think he’s a major problem there. He is not a good coach – he doesn’t react well during games. I think Jones is cheating a quality group of players out of post-season chances by keeping Phillips as head coach.)
Well, profootballtalk is attempting to track all the teams that have already, somehow, indicated they want nothing to do with Owens. So far, they’re at 13. Of course, the Pack isn’t on the list (but that could just be because nobody from the Packers talks about anything, ever).
So, should the Pack consider picking up T.O? My answer is no – he is an idiot and I don’t think he’s quite as good as he was before (though I do think he will contribute for someone this year). And, we’ve waded through plenty of drama recently so taking a chance on more is not worth it.
But there are 2 points I want to make for no reason in particular: 1) last year, Owens had a problem with Romo locking onto Witten all the time. I think Owens actually had a decent point. I don’t like how he went about making the point acting like an 8 year-old, but he had a point. Their offense was fairly unpredictable early in 2008 and they effectively used multiple weapons. Toward the end of the year, their offense was weak and predictable.
2) If TO joined the Packers, it would instantly create match-up problems for opposing defenses. Like I wrote early last year when lobbying for the Pack to trade for Anquan Boldin, imagine a WR group with TO, Jennings, DD as the #3 WR, and James Jones and Jordy Nelson bringing up the rear. While I would consider the chances of the Packers even mentioning the name T.O. right about now almost zero, the guiding philosophy behind McCarthy’s offensive scheme is creating mismatches (like many coaches). Owens’ presence would create mismatches.
Brief, nightmarish thought for secondary coaches: TO to Arizona. Imagine dealing with Boldin, Fitzgerald, Owens and Breaston with Warner throwing it to them.
packergeeks 
March 5, 2009 at 11:17 pm |
I agree that we will never know if the Packers are on that list of teams or not since it seems like the offices are taking an early spring break. As I heard on the radio today, the timing of the Cowboys releasing him is interesting since much of the big money was spent in the first days/week of the FA period. Were they sending a message to him by holding onto him until a little bit in or were they trying to sort out what to do? I think it will be interesting to see how the Romo/Whitten combo works without TO there to demand some tighter coverage.
Even with dollars available to sign him, I say no way. The downside with him (He’s a locker room cancer, I think he has serious psychological issues – see the pill incident, and the narcissism – to quote him directly: “He loves me some me”) outweighs any potential match-up problems this would present for opposing defenses. If you look at his last 3 career stops: SF, PHL, and DAL, they all had one thing in common: they all ended in some type of train-wreck fashion.
March 7, 2009 at 11:15 am |
T.O. would want more money than Tightwad Ted would want to spend. And this time I agree with Ted. T.O. would cost more than the money they’d give him to play.
March 9, 2009 at 7:07 pm |
I LOVE THE POST
TO to AZ was a scenario I thought of early after his release, but only under the assumption that Boldin would be gone… A true nightmare if that’s a WR corps.
TO to GB? never thought of it, disgusting to actually, and I was on Favre’s side big time in 2006 to get Moss in green and gold. Even despite the Fake Mooning in that damn playoff game. TO is too old, too rotten, and just no way.
One place I thought would be dangerous if he went there is ATL. I don’t know if Matt Ryan is the real deal, or if he can even handle TO’s craploads of crap, BUT with their running game and Roddy White opposite TO they’d scare me.
I think our WR corps as currently constituted is quite special. Our young O-Line should gel nicely early in the season, and Wynn and Grant (B-Jax on 3rd down!) promise solid ground power. Now, think of our 4000yd, 28TD QB. We saw his ability to dismantle opposing secondaries last year. He’ll be better, the team will be better.
The real need is Defense, and TT needs to pony up some of that cap-space cash and get a proven defensive FA. I like the safety, Smith that we just signed, but teams that win do it with defensive dominance in the trenches