“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
It’s an idiom that is supposed to convey the idea that what seems worthless to one person could turn out to be worth something to another human being. This is a concept that I’ve personally used hundreds of times to furnish various apartments at different locations in the United States.
The Philadelphia Eagles applied this idiom once this year, when they traded quarterback Nick Foles to the St. Louis Rams for their current signal caller, Sam Bradford. Debate back and forth as to why they made that deal. “Chip really believes in Sam Bradford. Chip wanted to use Bradford as an asset to trade up in the draft to get his golden boy, Marcus Mariota.”
Whatever the reason was is irrelevant, now. Bradford is our quarterback, and the Eagles are stuck with him for the rest of the season unless news breaks that can change that.
#49ers players were split on Colin Kaepernick & the brass stayed with him as long as it could. Benched now (@Kyle_McLorgBASG 1st reported)
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 3, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsOh, no. Isn’t the trade deadline today? It’s no secret that Bradford has upset the Eagles fan base with his play to the point where he probably couldn’t walk the streets without getting yelled at. There aren’t any journalists (or clever humans posing as journalists) that are going to take this news and try to get people stirred into a frenzy to acquire the benched 49ers quarterback.
I think this (hypothetical) trade makes sense for both teams & players — Mark Sanchez for Colin Kaepernick. #eagles https://t.co/wzcGyGQjAN — Eliot Shorr-Parks (@EliotShorrParks) November 3, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
(Facepalm.)
You have to be kidding me. See, America. This is why Eagles fans can’t have nice things! It’s also exhibit number whatever number I’m on at this point as to why Mr. Eliot should never be an NFL general manager under any circumstances. (Although parts of said scenario could be funny.) I digress from the main point.
The San Francisco 49ers are going with Blaine Gabbert at quarterback this Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, and it’s quite the fall from prominence for Kaepernick — the losing quarterback in Super Bowl 47. Granted, a lot has changed in San Francisco since that night. Jim Harbaugh is in Michigan. Most of the guys that helped build that defense are either old, retired, or just not on the team anymore. (Aldon Smith is in Oakland. Ray McDonald is a free agent — who should honestly be in prison, but that’s beside the point.)
Kaepernick has become the last man standing for a team that was supposed to be back after years of not really splashing the NFL waters. He doesn’t have a whole lot of bullets left in the gun, either. Frank Gore, his noble steed, is in Indianapolis. Torrey Smith has been below average this year, and one of Kaepernick’s favorite all-time targets, Anquan Boldin, has virtually disappeared.
Oh, and a guy named Jim Tomsula is the head coach. If you’ve ever watched a 49ers game and saw Tomsula, you’d swear he was an extra on “The Sopranos”. I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
The Philadelphia Eagles were one of the first teams to be linked in a potential Kaepernick trade because he would be just the kind of quarterback that could create the fully armed and operational Chip Kelly offense. The deal would make sense if I didn’t believe that Kaepernick is shot from a mental stand point. Physically, he appears to be in great health. He hasn’t been linked to any injuries, and he hasn’t taken any unnecessary hits.
In that regard, he’s already better than Bradford. Here’s the thing. Football is also a mental sport, and if I’m a member of the Philadelphia Eagles front office, I have great concerns about Kaepernick’s mental state after such a dramatic fall. How does he go from replacing Alex Smith to being one pass away from a Super Bowl victory to whatever he is now so quickly? Was Harbaugh that important to the 49ers that when he left, this team just imploded?
Statistically, Bradford and Kaepernick are equally disappointing:
Bradford: 62.0% completion, 1,766 yards, 9 TDs, 10 INTs
Kaepernick: 59.3% completion, 1,615 yards, 6 TDs, 5 INTs — with 256 rushing yards and a TD
Kaepernick’s drop-off has been the more surprising element, though, and I get the reasoning as to why, as an Eagles fan, you’d want to bring in a quarterback like him to jump start this offense. It’s also not a bad idea to do this so that we might finally see the full capabilities of a Chip Kelly offense — with option reads and everything. This wouldn’t be a bad idea if Kaepernick wasn’t damaged goods.
The Eagles shouldn’t trade for Kaepernick because he’s coming off multiple major knee surgeries or because he’s just not good. He’s one team’s trash at moment, but he may not be this team’s hidden treasure because of the mental state that Kaepernick has to be in at this point.
Football is just as mental as it is physical, and as we learned from “The Matrix”, the body cannot live without the mind.
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