Ah, I can never resist a good old Mallett thread. Here we go...
Why would anyone give up a 2nd rounder that they can choose a QB with and pay them peanuts under a cheap, rookie deal, when they'd not only have to part with a 2nd round draft pick, but ALSO give Ryan Mallett a brand new deal?
No one is going to part with a 2nd round pick without making sure that their new franchise QB is signed beyond this last year of his deal. That leads us to the more important conversation of trying to assess Mallett's value on a brand new deal as a starter.
I have to think it'd be a moderate-money, short-term contract. The team wouldn't want to commit too much money to him before ever seeing him in game action (even though I think that's a vastly overrated aspect given O'Brien coaching him for a year), and Mallett wouldn't want to commit to a $40M/5yr deal if he thinks he'd be worth $12M after starting for a year. Or another option would be something like an option bonus that acts like a franchise tag. Give him a raise to $5M or something like that as a starter, but have a $16M roster bonus due early in the 2015 offseason. If he performs well, then they pay him the bonus and use that extra time to hammer out a long term deal (like what the Chiefs did when Cassel was under the tag). If he sucks, then they pass on the bonus, making him a free agent and accepting the pick they traded for him as a sunk cost (which teams don't do nearly often enough with young QBs that look awful). Something like $10M/2yrs might also work, with both sides knowing that Mallett would just hold out if he vastly outplays a $5M contract. Either way, I think Mallett has to get paid as a starting QB ($5M minimum) if he's expected to start, without the Texans paying too much money or Mallett committing for too many years.
Mallett for anything would be shocking to me. People actually think he has potential?
Yes, in fact one person in particular believes he has potential. According to Adam Schefter, who is hardly known for spreading around BS, Brian Daboll could tell sometime between when he joined the team about two years ago and when Schefter reported it 23 months ago that "Mallett could have won the starting job with the Chiefs -- and with other NFL franchises." That was toward the end of O'Brien's coaching with the Patriots. If Daboll saw it then, there has to be at least a reasonable chance that O'Brien saw Mallett as a potential NFL starter back then too, and that was two years ago.
Not saying Mallet is the answer but Brady only has 2 or 3 seasons left max. At some point BB has to starting preparing for that and grab a QB.
This completely contradicts everything Brady has ever said about how long he plans to play, as well as his contract. Brady says he wants to play until he's at least 40; his contract extends through his age 40 season. That's 4 more seasons. There has literally been no indication ever that Brady is only playing two or three more seasons.
How about Mallett and our first for Clowney and get a decent pass rush.
I'm sure one big reason O'Brien would hypothetically be willing to pass on a QB early in the draft in favor of Mallett is that the Texans also had a pretty awful pass rush. Brooks Reed was pretty bad last year with only 3 sacks, and Whitney Mercilus' 7 sacks are awfully misleading since 3.5 came against backup tackles (2.5 against Seattle when they were starting the worst OL in the NFL thanks to injuries, 1 against Jacksonville after they traded away their original starting LT and lost their new starting LT and #2 overall pick to an injury) and another half was when he came in untouched on a blitz into the infamous "Brady duck." That pass rush was essentially JJ Watt and nobody else. If Clowney is going to work out in the NFL, then the Texans badly need him.
Anyway, I could go on for days about a possible Mallett trade, but I have to go back to work, so you guys are spared for now.
