For that is the Question. Before anyone asks me, I figured I’d post my thoughts on the controversial wide receiver. Like the rest of the world, I heard yesterday morning that the Cowboys had released Terrell Owens. In a weird way, I was shocked, but not surprised. I was not surprised that the Cowboys released him, but I was shocked by the timing of it. When the Cowboys did not cut him in February before free agency began, I figured that they had decided to keep him. Waiting until a week of free agency had passed seemed belated and indecisive. Sure enough, we learned yesterday that the entire organization wanted Jerry Jones to cut him earlier, but apparently it took repeated badgering until Jones finally relented.
So the question for the Eagles (and all other NFL teams) is whether they should sign Owens. For those of you who are my “friend” on Facebook, you already know that my status for today reads “Karl wonders what team is dumb enough to take a chance on TO,” which pretty much sums up my feelings on him. The simple fact of the matter is that he is too much of a headache to sign. He has now played with three different teams and he has managed to alienate the starting quarterback on each of those teams. Think about that for a minute: of all people on a team, the one person a wide receiver should want to stay on good terms with is the quarterback. Instead, Owens consistently would “throw his quarterback under the bus” when he didn’t feel he was getting the ball a sufficient amount of the time.
In all three cases (Jeff Garcia with the 49ers, Donovan McNabb with the Eagles and Tony Romo with Cowboys), the quarterback was a Pro-Bowl level quarterback. It’s not like Owens was playing with sub-par quarterbacks. It makes me wonder what would have happened had Owens been allowed to play longer at the 49ers with Hall of Famer Steve Young. Would he have criticized him too? Probably.
Before you think I’m just a TO-hater, I actually really liked him when he played for the 49ers. I loved it when he did the dance on the star in Dallas and I had no real issue with the Sharpie incident in Seattle. When he came to the Eagles, I was ecstatic. All his on-field antics have never bothered me. Unlike the NFL (No Fun League), I think they add something to the game and should be allowed (within reason). When he criticized Jeff Garcia, I figured it was just his competitive nature as the 49ers were on a downward spiral at the time. However, he showed with McNabb and Romo that he was willing to be critical even when the team was doing well. That’s when I realized just how selfish he was.
However, it is more than the off-field issues which cause me to dismiss him as an option. Fact is he’s just not the same player anymore. In 2008, he had his lowest yards per game average since 1999 which was when he was still playing second fiddle to Jerry Rice in San Francisco. His ten touchdowns was also the fewest in a season since 2003 when he began his feud with Jeff Garcia. (On the TD stat, I’m discounting the 2005 season when he only played 7 games for the Eagles because they benched him for the second half of the season.) Additionally, he has been in the top three for dropped passes the last few seasons. When you consider all the statistics, Owens clearly is not the same player he once was. This was probably one of the reasons that the Cowboys went out and got Roy Williams from the Lions in the middle of last season. They knew they needed an upgrade at wide receiver.
Teams were willing to put up with all of Owens’ faults as long as he was producing. Now he is not producing at the same level, and with his 35 years of age, his production will only continue to diminish. It will be interesting to see if there are any teams willing to take the risk. Let’s hope the Eagles do not (and I don’t think they would in a million years anyway). Should we page Al Davis and the Raiders? They may be the only team crazy enough to try.
So the question for the Eagles (and all other NFL teams) is whether they should sign Owens. For those of you who are my “friend” on Facebook, you already know that my status for today reads “Karl wonders what team is dumb enough to take a chance on TO,” which pretty much sums up my feelings on him. The simple fact of the matter is that he is too much of a headache to sign. He has now played with three different teams and he has managed to alienate the starting quarterback on each of those teams. Think about that for a minute: of all people on a team, the one person a wide receiver should want to stay on good terms with is the quarterback. Instead, Owens consistently would “throw his quarterback under the bus” when he didn’t feel he was getting the ball a sufficient amount of the time.
In all three cases (Jeff Garcia with the 49ers, Donovan McNabb with the Eagles and Tony Romo with Cowboys), the quarterback was a Pro-Bowl level quarterback. It’s not like Owens was playing with sub-par quarterbacks. It makes me wonder what would have happened had Owens been allowed to play longer at the 49ers with Hall of Famer Steve Young. Would he have criticized him too? Probably.
Before you think I’m just a TO-hater, I actually really liked him when he played for the 49ers. I loved it when he did the dance on the star in Dallas and I had no real issue with the Sharpie incident in Seattle. When he came to the Eagles, I was ecstatic. All his on-field antics have never bothered me. Unlike the NFL (No Fun League), I think they add something to the game and should be allowed (within reason). When he criticized Jeff Garcia, I figured it was just his competitive nature as the 49ers were on a downward spiral at the time. However, he showed with McNabb and Romo that he was willing to be critical even when the team was doing well. That’s when I realized just how selfish he was.
However, it is more than the off-field issues which cause me to dismiss him as an option. Fact is he’s just not the same player anymore. In 2008, he had his lowest yards per game average since 1999 which was when he was still playing second fiddle to Jerry Rice in San Francisco. His ten touchdowns was also the fewest in a season since 2003 when he began his feud with Jeff Garcia. (On the TD stat, I’m discounting the 2005 season when he only played 7 games for the Eagles because they benched him for the second half of the season.) Additionally, he has been in the top three for dropped passes the last few seasons. When you consider all the statistics, Owens clearly is not the same player he once was. This was probably one of the reasons that the Cowboys went out and got Roy Williams from the Lions in the middle of last season. They knew they needed an upgrade at wide receiver.
Teams were willing to put up with all of Owens’ faults as long as he was producing. Now he is not producing at the same level, and with his 35 years of age, his production will only continue to diminish. It will be interesting to see if there are any teams willing to take the risk. Let’s hope the Eagles do not (and I don’t think they would in a million years anyway). Should we page Al Davis and the Raiders? They may be the only team crazy enough to try.
The Eagles should pay to have him play for the Giants!
ReplyDelete