NFL Cuts: Price Worth the Cost for Someone

I wasn't particularly surprised when I heard that Atlanta cut wide receiver Peerless Price. After all, they don't have anyone that can throw to him, they don't really need him, they can spend their money better on another blocking tight end.

But someone is going to end up with the steal of the preseason. Well, as long as that "someone" has a quarterback. I'll agree, Price is not a number one receiver, but he's still as good as just about any number two in the league. His 51st ranking among receivers last year is deceiving if you don't consider the situation he was in.

Look at his yards-per-catch since Buffalo drafted him: 12.7, 14.7, 16.3, 13.3, 13.1 and 12.8. The 16.3 was not during his "breakout" year, which was the following season (2002) when he caught 94 passes for 1,252 yards. Of course, that was the one year he had Drew Bledsoe throwing to him. The following season, his first with Atlanta, his YPC dropped a whole two-tenths of a yard, and then another three-tenths in 2004.

His yards-after-catch are 3.4, 2.9, 4.0, 4.9, 2.8 and 2.3. Again, that 4.9 is from 2002 when he had Bledsoe as quarterback. Price's YPC and YAC tell me that he's actually been catching balls slightly deeper, but probably in tighter coverage than the previous two years.

Price had 3 fumbles in 2000, 1 in 2001 and 2 in 2003. He had none, zero, ziltch, the last two years in Atlanta.

I was unable to find year-by-year drop stats for receivers, so it hard to say whether he's been consistent, or where he ranks league-wide.

So is the dropoff because he's not that good, or at least not as good as he used to be? Or is it because his most recent team's offensive philosophy is skewed from traditional and he had a running back for a quarterback? You can't blame the guy for his total yards if the quarterback doesn't throw him the ball. And you can't expect a receiver to be stay open while his quarterback holds the ball for 10 seconds per play while he runs around in the backfield.

I'm not entirely a stats guy, as other arguments will bear out. But I've seen Price play, and the last two seasons, I saw frustration. Find this man the right situation, and every fantasy football nut in the country will be picking him up around week 7.

Other Cuts

Chicago, Chad Hutchinson: Here's another misguided team headed in the wrong direction. Maybe Hutchinson isn't the Bears' solution, but I don't think he was entirely the problem. Really, where do you even begin? Defensive genius Lovie Smith needs to take a step back and reanalyze his situation there. There are bigger reasons why their 231 points was the lowest in the league last year.

Denver, Maurice Clarett: The Broncos took a shot. It didn't work. Move on. The Clarett Experiment never had the potential Willis MaGahee had in Buffalo. All that smoke and mirrors suing the league and pumping up his own hype just proved what everyone knew already. He's not an NFL back.

Cincinnati, Peter Warrick: Warrick was bad news in Florida, he was bad news when Cincinnati drafted him, he's bad news now. He makes demands without retribution. You give him what he wants and he still complains. When it looked like he was starting to come around in 2003, he wrecked his knee, and he went back to the kind of guy that blames everyone else for his misfortunes. Good luck to him.