Bobo said:
1.) Um, the fact that the Colts were waiting right behind the Bengals to grab him proves that Ragone was more than a toss away. Reggie McNeal, as I recall, is a WR now and both Johnson and Wright have not been all that successful. To think that Ragone won't be given a great chance of backing up Palmer is unrealistic. Besides, if the Bengals were really happy with what they had, they wouldn't have picked up Ragone. And if the Bengals didn't grab him, the Colts would have. To say that Ragone "isn't that good" is kind of silly, seeing that he had great success in NFL Europe and got very little experience when he was with the team. Ragone is a lot better than you are willing to give him credit for. Besides, Sage Rosenfels certainly is no Pro Bowler. It isn't wise to simply toss a good prospect aside simply because he supposedly doesn't fit your system. Under that reasoning, you could cut anybody. Heaven forbid if the Texans had Matt Linart on their squad! After all, he's a drop back passer as well. Guess he wouldn't make the cut, either.
2.) How many times does Martz have to mention the fact that Bradford is the #2 guy? In fact, I think he has mentioned it on more than one occasion. The fact is, he is the WR#2 at this moment, ahead of two first-round draft picks. I wouldn't say this "doesn't mean a thing." What it DOES mean is that he is the WR#2 guy right now and has to be beaten out for that position. 3.) It seems to me that you are kind of straining as you try to defend some of Kubiak's questionable personnel decisions. Most folks would admit that getting rid of a guy who starred in NFL Europe and showed some promise should be kept over a guy who hasn't done anything on the football field at all during his career and is just one injury away from taking over. And it really is a tough sell to say that a guy who your team cut and is now a WR#2 guy over two first-rounders "doesn't mean a thing." That seems to me to be the definition of "denial."
1) And what exactly has Ragone proven other than against NFLE competition that would get beat by any decent D1 school? You don't need a pro bowler as your backup QB, that would be stupid to waste a guy of that caliber on the bench, not to mention the money that goes along with it. You establish a system, then find people to fit that system, hence we would not have drafted Matt Leinart since he doesn't really fit out system. You don't just keep mediocre-at-best players around that don't fit your system when you can find other guys that are just as good talent-wise that fit your system better. Yes you can cut anybody, that is the prerogative of the GM and coaching staff. If they don't fit what you are trying to do then you try to trade them if you can get anything in return, and if no one is willing to give you any trade then you cut him.
2) Martz has only mentioned Cory Bradford once. How does anyone know that Martz is even serious about this and not blowing smoke to other teams or trying to motivate his underachieving rookies. There is no way Bradford has as much talent as Mike Williams or Charles Rogers, but they are both very young receivers that have not lived up to expectations so far, so of course you're not going to instantly give them a starting job, you want them to go out and earn it.
3) I don't have to defend Kubiak's personnel decisions. Running the #1 offense over the last 11 years and winning 3 Super Bowls is enough of a track record for me to trust him and his decisions.
I have complete faith in his system, and if we have players left over from a 2-14 season that he doesn't think fit his system then I am perfectly fine with him getting rid of them. If for some reason he didn't think Andre Johnson fit his system then I'd be fine with him letting Andre go, although he could at least get a nice trade package for Andre, unlike Ragone, Wells, Walker, and any of the other refuse he has cut loose thusfar. I'm amazed that you are so infatuated with Ragone just because he had good success in NFL Europe. Any decent school from a BCS conference would be able to beat any NFL Europe team, so succeeding over there means very little, and Sage Rosenfels has accomplished more during his actual NFL career than Ragone has.
Bottom line, if Gary Kubiak can watch a bunch of tape on Dave Ragone and personally observe him in practice for two weeks and decides he isn't a guy for his system then I am all for releasing him. That is much more exposure to Ragone than you and 99% of the other people in this world have seen of him, so I'd say Kubiak is in much better of a position to judge Ragone than any of us, not to mention his coaching experience gives him a definite advantage over us too.
Using Cory Bradford is not much of an argument either, it speaks more of the stupidity of draft decision of the Lions than it does for us releasing him. You yourself said you were not happy with Bradford, and I don't know of a single person on this message board that can honestly say they wished he was still here for next season, so we are suddenly supposed to feel bad that he is named the #2 WR on a different team?? We'll see once the season rolls around, if Bradford is still their #2 WR and actually puts up a decent season and outperforms Moulds and Walters then I guess we can maybe feel some kind of remorse for Kubiak's decision, but until then let's not criticize Kubiak for something so silly.
Bradford did nothing to draw attention away from Andre last year, even commentators during the game said defenses didn't need to bother guarding Bradford because he guarded himself by dropping so many passes. Now we have a Pro Bowler as our #2 WR that will definitely draw some attention away from Andre, or else put up 90 catches for 1400 yards if teams refuse to respect him. I'm not at all questioning that decision. I would not have minded seeing Gaffney stick around but I guess he didn't particularly want to stay and they didn't want to pay much money for him to stay, and I believe we have a significant upgrade over him right now so I'm not particularly hurt by his departure either.