MOSS AND DAUNTE, TOGETHER AGAIN?
Posted by Mike Florio on March 2, 2008, 12:59 p.m.
It’s now becoming increasingly obvious to us that, as it relates to free agency, receiver Randy Moss had no plan.
Why else would he be reaching out to quarterback Daunte Culpepper, a washed-up shell of what he once was, in the hopes of peddling themselves to a new team?
According to John Clayton of ESPN.com, Moss reached out to Culpepper on Saturday night about the possibility of “finishing what they started” in Minnesota on a new team.
Clayton cautions not to interpret such a move as a “package deal.” But what the hell is it then?
If Moss is doing this only to persuade other teams that he’s truly willing to leave New England, then it’s sort of brilliant. We’re convinced that teams are leery of making Moss the kind of offer that might get his attention due to fears that he’d then turn around and use that proposal to leverage the Pats into putting more money on the table.
If, in contrast, Moss is doing it because he genuinely wants to go to a new team that would sign Culpepper and install him as the starting quarterback, it’s one of the stoopidest things we’ve ever heard.
Even if there’s a team that would be intrigued by adding Moss and using Culpepper as a backup, there’s too much of a risk that Randy would start lobbying for Culpepper to be the starter. So their options would be limited to a team that would be in a position to bench their current No. 1 quarterback and hand the job to a guy who hasn’t been the same since he knee was exploded in Charlotte more than two years ago.
A quick look at the list of the 32 teams reveals barely of teams that even could be interested in such a move. As we see it, the possibilities are Baltimore, Denver (hey, we don’t put anything past Coach Kevlar when it comes to free agency), Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Tampa, and St. Louis, where the head coach was the offensive coordinator the last time Moss and Culpepper were on the same team.
It’s amazing to us that a guy who put up 23 touchdown receptions in 2007 has to resort to such a desperate and misguided strategy in order to get the payday that, more than two days into free agency, simply isn’t there.
