Throwdowns > Closed

Marlins Fan said 06/14, 01:17 AM
I don't know if you guys saw this story but the Giants recently waived Jake Ballard to make room to sign another FA. The Giants didn't waive Ballard because they didn't want him; au contraire... they expected him to clear waivers and then they could put the injured tight end on the PUP/reserve list. Ballard's out for the year anyway due to a torn ACL and microfracture surgery on his knee, so the Gianst figured they could kill two birds with one stone by waiving Ballard.

Except the Patriots swooped in and snagged Ballard off the waiver wire.

Nice going, Jerry Reese. Way to give away your starting tight end; a guy who's been developing into a critical cog in the Giants offense.

(BTW... WTF is the deal with all the tight ends in NE? Gronk, Hernandez, Ballard... how many of these guys can they play at the same time? BB is pushing the envelope once again... what's next, a trade for Brees so the Pats can run simultaneous dual QBs?)

Anyway, the point is this - Reese made a major gamble putting a promising young stud like Ballard on the waiver wire and it backfired. He should've never gambled like that.

Reese should've known not to put Ballard on the waiver wire.

Marlins Fan said 06/14, 10:02 PM
I don't think you read my argument, my man. I did say that Ballard was out for the year, and I never said Ballard is a major gamble. I said Reese took a major gamble by putting a promising young stuf like Ballard on the waiver wire, and I stand by that statement.

Anyhoo, hardly any of the guys you listed play for the Giants anymore... don't you think that losing all those weapons would make Ballard even that more of a valuable commodity?

Heck, this is the League where guys like a pair of fourth round draft picks is enough to snag an all-time great like Randy Moss. NOBODY wants to give away players for free, particularly when those guys are starters and major contributors, and even more particularly when we're talking about a tight end (the NFL's newest big-deal position) on a pass heavy team like the Giants that is a certain Super Bowl contender when Eli plays well.

Well, having a TE like Ballard certainly makes it easier for Eli to play well, which as I already explained is perhaps NY's biggest step towards another championship.

This IS a big deal. The draft is a gamble. giving away starters is avoidable, (Un)necessary, and stupid.

Reese screwed up big time.

Marlins Fan said 06/15, 10:12 PM
Clearly you undervalue Ballard.

Tom Coughlin, the Giants head coach, was pissed about losing Ballard:

"Discourage is a minor description. Very disappointing", said Coughlin, when asked about losing his TE to the Patriots.

Coughlin knows enough about his teams' personnel to know that this was a completely avoidable loss, which brings me to my next point.

All those offensive players you listed earlier (Manningham, Toomer, Barber, etc) left because of understandable and unavoidable reasons. Leaving as a free agent is one thing; being too stupid to prevent your own players from being claimed by rival teams is just foolish. And avoidable.

There's that word again, avoidable. That's the key here. Ballard didn't leave as a FA because the Giants decided not to pay him a new contract. Ballard was ALREADY under contract and management was foolish enough to gamble with him on the waiver wire, and obviously it paid off.

Losing Ballard should NEVER have happened. All they had to do was NOT place him on the waiver wire, and with the expanded rosters this year there just isn't an excude for this debacle.

Reese gambled and shouldn't have. Shame on Reese.