Should We Trade Champ?

you are not going to get multiple #1’s for Bailey. Why does everyone here want to trade him? This is getting so old

If you want our defense to set records for points allowed and yardage allowed, go ahead and trade him.

There is no way we would get market value for him. He IS worth more than just a first round pick in my opinion, but noone will give it to us because he is in his 30s.

You would not get fair compensation and he is the best player on defense.

The ended up getting rid of all their top talent for the sake of rebuilding. Now they are rebuilding for the sake of rebuilding. They tried to unload their two best players before the deadline. LJ is crap, but Tony G is still an elite TE.

I toyed with the idea and after some reflection I think our front office would be better off trimming the fat around the team to make room for what should be the monster contracts for Cutler, BMarsh, and others…

We should keep Champ for at least 4 more years. He is by far our best player and even when he loses a step, he will still be better than any DB we have to replace him. He is expensive. REALLY EXPENSIVE…but he shuts down an entire side of the field. Not only that, he is a premier tackler and has the veteran leadership necessary to build a young team into a contender.

The fat, I think, can be trimmed from players like Dre Bly, Dewayne Robertson, Tom Nalen(bummer), and a few other key mega contracts. That should clear up cap space to keep Champ and resign our young rising stars. I wish MattR would weigh in and give us a good way to keep Champ while opening up the cap room to bring in more talent elsewhere. I know it can be done and I gotta believe Shanny will do everything possible to keep Champ on the team.

Unless something crazy happens and a team goes all 1989(or 2007) Vikings on us with like a crap load of draft picks, Champ stays on this football team!

Another aspect here is, this is real life. You can’t just take a Lowry and turn him into a Madden 99 rating All-Pro in two seasons and dump a 31 year old mega stud like Champ just to save cap room and win Super Bowls. In real life, Champ Bailey kind of CB come around once in a generation. Name one other player this decade that averages about 20-30 passes a SEASON thrown his way…I can think of only D. Sanders back in the 90’s.

and NO.

Why would anybody want to trade Champ? Cassel threw 3 TDs and not one of them came when Champ was on the field. Moss couldn’t do anything with Champ on him, however seemed to be on a roll when Bly had to cover him. He completly shuts down half the field. I mean he only had 11 (think that’s correct) passes thrown his way going into the NE game and ZERO went his was for two straight weeks. Now if we can just get a CB with half Bailey’s talent lined up on the other side.

Champ is more valuable to us than to any other team. The reason for that is that we NEED him as we transition from old to young. You can’t just do what the dip sh…err, Herm the Germ, in KC did and try to just bring in all 22-25 year olds and expect to win more than 2-3 games a season. You have to have that core group of veterans on your team that can help develop the younger players into stars. Champ has to be one of those guys…other guys on that list: DJ, E.E., Daniel Graham, Stoke, and precious few others. See how thin we already are in the wiley ole vet section? If you notice anyone missing like Nate, Dre, Nalen, ect…it’s because I don’t expect to see them on this team in the next year or two…

If we can get him resigned at the end of his contract next year (if he still wants to be here) we need to find a way to get it done. Cutting away the fat (as Zappa put it) like Bly and Robertson (maybe even Webster) we should have enough to keep him.

Leadership
Even if he’s not the vocal leader that Al Wilson was, I still think that his play provides the kind of leadership by example that may help our young DBs (JMFW, Barrett) get that much better at his game. Our young DBs need to have someone to mentor them and who better to help them than the best in the league?

Finally, we can’t just ship off our best defensive player hoping that we can get enough picks for him and hope we’ll find a gem in the rough. Besides, if he were gone, you saw what happened against NE. Losing like that for the rest of this year could just bring this defense down so far that it will take years to recover (we’ll get a chance to see what happens over the next 4-6 weeks as he recovers from his groin injury – which would lower his value in the trade market as well).

I would rather have him stick around for as long as we can keep him to help bring along the next generation of Bronco DBs.

And some more no. Champ is still the best DB in the league, and he will still be good in three years, which is the deadline most of us seem to have set for our Super Bowl run. If we traded him, we’d be looking at unproven talent with half the awareness and leadership in Champ’s big toe. So, no. And if I didn’t get my point across clearly enough, here’s a Jpeg to express my thoughts.

Or, if you need reverse psychology,

Same question in another way is, would any of you undo the Clinton Portis deal?

I would vote “Undecided” for now.

Champ is the best. Perhaps the best that ever was. But we aren’t utilizing him correctly either. Has anyone noticed how both Bailey and Bly (#1 and #2 in INTs for the NFL over a period of years) dropped to almost nothing in INTs when we dropped a SAF into the box? Everyone is quick to blame Bly, but his production dropped when he joined our team, which is when we “lost” our second safety in coverage. Bailey dropped at the same time.

Either we fix the pass rush and drop back the strong safety, or we consider the freed up cap space and the sheer number of quality players we could gain for Champ. If he retires from this team, we’ll get no value in his place.

I’m not on either side of this discusssion. But I can’t fully discount the reasoning Nick makes. (Add in that I expect Boss Bailey will get cut before next season, and the discussion is even more worth having). By the way, Bailey is nearly the highest paid defensive player in the League. How much do people expect he will need to earn in the next contract? Can we afford that?

Right now, I lean towards keeping Champ. But it isn’t cut and dried either. At Champ’s age, he will not be the superstar he once was when Jay starts his dynasty run.

I almost threw up reading the headline. Only being bias due he is my Fav Bronco. But he is too insane to get rid of, besides I can’t imagine even getting someone near as good as him. Even with 2 first rd. picks. Just my 2 cents..

Would you trade Champ for Nambi Oshimadio (sp?) the CB in Oakland. Oakland will not be able to resign him and Al may be stupid enough to trade him if he thinks he is getting the next coming of Michael Haynes.

Last year, I was for canning the older guys, but now, the old, talented vets are not here. We have middle aged guys stinkin up the joint or young guys doing the same. No old, once stud vets left. Nalen is likely done and Bailey is 31.

Can we stop with the defnsive ideas? This thing just needs to work it out. Asospellcheck isn’t the answer. The answer is a d line with a. a godly nt or b. 2 kick ass ends or c. beast dt with a kick ass end. Curently, we do not have any part of anyone of those options.

We do not have a solid lb core. DJ has been put into regression mode. He should stay where he’s at now. We have no middle linebacker. Boss Bailey was a bad signing from the start and I believe some pointed it out. How we can shell this type of money to him, Graham, and Robertson is beside me.

If you just don’t stop and let this thing work it out, we’re going to lose a key young guy or wash away Jay’s talent or he’ll get injured.

Right now, we should not add players in the offseason. You need to have a wash-over period. Set a coaching staff and go with it for the next 4 years and once all these bad contracts are gone and the draft picks have had a chance to prove themselves, then start adding guys through free agency.

The biggest lie around here is that by making 1 or 2 moves or a single unproven guy like Torain is going to catapult this team to a Super Bowl. It is not so.

Hold down the fort. I was hot monday night, but now I believe what I’ve said.

I started thinking of trading Champ during the offseason. I really think we’ll slap the franchise tag on him, pay him around $9.465 – 11 million (projected amt for CBs) and, if any team really wants him, they’d have to forfit two first round picks. That’s the only way you get the two picks. That being said, Champ has the Darrell Green factor, i.e., could play well for another six years. What’s great about Champ is that he KNOWS the game. He has football smarts, which will allow him to remain productive into the twilight of his career. Will he be the best when he’s 36? Probably not, but will he be better than 60% of DBs in the league, hell yeah!

I’d do something like this: Champ and a 2nd for Mario Williams. Houston would never go for it though, and that’s the problem. It takes 2 to tango. I’m not fully against trading him, (might be willing to part for a 1st & 3rd for instance), but who is going to give that up for a 31 year old? Someone make a call to Dan Snyder! Heh. I don’t know if they would give up anything for him, but hand the Lombardi to the Titans with their D + Champ.

I’d rather keep him though. Getting rid of talent isn’t a guarantee of bringing in talent through the draft. We should keep him, and draft all D this year (DT, DE, LB, S). Champ’s window is still open and should be open for a few more years, he can probably play at a high level for at least another 5 years. He can retire after we win back to back Superbowls.