If he had taken action a week ago, Titans’ GM Mike Reinfeldt could have gotten a strong safety who was better, younger and less expensive than Chris Hope. Instead he waited while the best safeties went off the market, then settled on Jordan Babineaux.
Don’t you wish Reinfeldt had been more active a week ago in getting safety help for the Titans? There were three unrestricted free agents who were on my wishlist of strong safeties to be targeted. All three are better than Chris Hope. Two of them are younger and were less expensive as well.
The Rams signed Quintin Mikell, who’s the same age as Hope, last week. The two who are better, younger and less expensive than Hope – Dawan Landry and Danieal Manning – signed with the Jags and Texans. Not only did Reinfeldt fail to upgrade the Titans’ roster, he also failed to prevent two division rivals from upgrading theirs. That really rubs salt in the wound. The opposition improved, the Titans did not.
Landry and Manning both signed multi-year contracts which are for less money per year on average than Hope’s $6.5 million salary and roster bonus for 2011.
Dawan Landry, Jaguars – 5 years, $27.5 million, average $5.5M per year
Danieal Manning, Texans – 4 years, $20 million, average $5M per year
Way to go, Mike.
How good or bad a player is Reinfeldt‘s newest prize free agent acquisition?
Remember how poor the Jaguars and Texans safeties have been over the past 5 years or so? Babineaux wasn’t as good as them.
A guy who was behind Deon Grant and Brian Russell on the Seahawks’ depth chart doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Grant was a former Jaguar and Russell was both a Jag and a Texan (he didn’t last long with either of them.) In 2007 and 2008, while Babs sat on the bench, Grant was the starting SS for Seattle and Russell was the starting FS.
I don’t view Babineaux as a replacement for Hope, rather I see him as a versatile jack of all DB trades, master of none.
He played a variety of positions in the Seahawks’ secondary. After Russell left Seattle, Babineaux started 16 games in 2009 at FS. In 2006, he started 8 games at SS. Babineaux started the final four games of the 2005 season at cornerback and also had one start at corner in 2008. Babineaux might turn out to be better than Nick Schommer or Myron Rolle as a reserve SS. I have no idea if he’d be any better than Vinnie Fuller but might be better than Robert Johnson as a backup FS.
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