But the whole Jason Taylor thing just can't be hung completely on him. Losing that 2nd rounder for one year and 3.5 sacks is sickening, and the practice of giving up picks for these older vets has been franchise-crippling. The circumstances of this deal are noteworthy though, as we lost two defensive ends (Daniels and Buzbee) on the first day of training camp. The idea that our defense would have a chance to be something special caused a decision to be made in haste (perhaps a different connotation than 'hasty decision'...perhaps not). Our defense was, in fact, special. It just turned out that Jason Taylor's presence may very well have been unnecessary.
We all remember Vinny telling us that Jason was up for at least the remainder of his contract. I am going to go out on the limb that he was told that either by Taylor himself or by Taylor's agent. You could argue that Snyder and Cerrato were essentially retrading the deal when they asked him to commit to offseason workouts. But without breaking down each and every kind of workout, and the amount of workouts in question, the simple fact is that they were not asking anything unreasonable from a player that would have been due $8.5 million. Especially one with all the incentive in the world to be in the best shape possible to enjoy a year on the same line as Haynesworth. Everyone seemed to really think he was going to be one of if not the biggest beneficiary of the beefed up line.
Jason Taylor is hiding behind Vinny Cerrato's bad reputation--it should be him wearing the egg on his face for the debacle that recently culminated in his departure. Vinny and Danny are not blameless. But in this case, I think we got done dirty by a player that was looking for a way out of town. I blame Jason Taylor. What about you?