Just a low draft pick??

but this is ridiculous.

What absolute crap….a 7th from Atlanta….we got fleeced.
This is a REALLY bad deal for Denver. Shanny has been good, but I need to ask:
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

that there is a need for that roster spot. I’ve seen evictions that seem a lot like this trade. Does Shanny and co think that Foxy was sitting in Marshall’s seat?

and had a pawn shop offer me $1700 for it 3 years later. I was selling from a position of no leverage, and that’s where the Broncos are with Foxworth. He clearly wasn’t in their plans for this season, other teams know that, and the did okay to just get something for him.

While, strategically, I would have rather gotten more for him by trading him in May or so, given that the decision was made to part ways with him after the preseason, this is the best it seems they could do.

I didn’t sell the ring for $1700, and waited and got more for it later by selling it privately, but the ring wasn’t taking up a roster spot for me. The Broncos couldn’t wait, and let’s face it, Foxy’s film from last season and the preseason is the real reason for such a small haul. As they say, film doesn’t lie.

he coaching staff sat down and said.

“Next year we are either going to lose Karl Paymah or Dominique Foxworth to free agency. Who is it going to be?”

Based on Foxy’s poor performance recently the coaches chose Paymah as the corner to keep and then decided that rather then losing Foxy for nothing they would trade him for whatever they could get.

he is considered a total bust by us since we took a “throw away” pick for him.

I was excited last evening when I heard the news the Broncos were going to deal Foxworth. I was hoping they could line up a need player (e.g. Shaun Cody was discussed on MHR) or between a 4th or 5th rounder based on other teams’ needs.

I’m a bit disappointed but am happy the Broncos got something in return. Foxworth was going to walk at the end of the season anyway to test free agency. Hey, the Broncos made a low tender offer (7th round) for him during restricted free agency and nobody bit on it then. So it’s not as though we passed up on an opportunity for something better by not trading him sooner. The fact this could turn into a 6th rounder (I think it will) means the Broncos got as much as they were going to get from the deal.

One concern I do have coming out of this is the depth at cornerback right now though. The Broncos must feel like there is enough CB talent playing at that level and around after NFL cuts to make this decision.

even though I’ve been one of Foxy’s staunchest supporters. Your stats gave me a clue. During his rookie year he had 16 passes defensed and two interceptions. I didn’t know the numbers but I remembered him making lots of plays and I guess that stuck in my mind even as he was regressing. I began to feel uneasy when he kept getting beat on intermediate routes, and especially when he was beat on that long pass play by Austin What’shisname. Despite plausible excuses, that maybe he was supposed to lay back, which I wanted to believe, the idea began to creep in that he plays too passively, and that, yes, as you suggest, he doesn’t play the ball in the air well enough. Too often guys make catches while tightly covered. If that happens once in awhile you give the receiver credit. Bailey gets beat everyonce in awhile, too. But when it happens regularly it means he can stay with a guy but not get the ball or even prevent the reception. So I’ve reluctantly concluded you’re right, that Foxy isn’t the longterm answer I hoped and wanted him to be. Jack Williams, however, very possibly is, and his suprising emergence is what make the trade possible. I hope he doesn’t regress like Foxy did.

Thanks Guru for making the difinitive case that I have been harping for years. I posted his declining stats a few months ago and recently posted that Foxy is the weakest link in the Denver secondary.

I have heard many here on MHR that disagreed. There seems to have been a perception that Foxy was a better player than he was. Reality is finally setting in.

I pay particular attention to #22 and continuously see him getting beat in coverage. During the Cowboys preseason game, the Cowboys went to his man successfully eight times during that game including a catch for six. It was embarrasing to speak the truth. Then this past Friday, Foxy had coverage and completely lost his man behind him to give up a touchdown. Foxy was right behind him after he realized he was beaten and ended up doing a faceplant in the turf. As I saw him lying facedown and motionless, I thought “what are the coaches thinking?”. We can’t go into the season with this type of coverage in the secondary. To be fair, Foxy did break up one pass against the Cards, but was beaten on all the others.

Teams watch game film every week and whenever #22 is playing corner, that’s where they alway go. It started with Rothlesberger making three drives for touchdowns during the 05 Championship game, mostly at Foxy’s expense. I blame the coaching staff on that one for not adjusting, but the conclusion is that every team since has had a target on #22.

I was elated when I saw the news yesterday that they are shopping him around. Unfortunately, they should have done it before preseason when there was less evidence of his coverage ability. I also have agreed that he’s a good Nickel Back and can make plays after the catch. Off the field he’s a model player and we all know that. I wish him the best, but as far as the Broncos are concerned, they made a good football decision.

As far as the trade value, it would have been nice to get a 5th, but anything is better than nothing, and this team is better off without foxy on the field. I believe they need another experienced corner now, but more moves could happen…we’ll see.

I know Bmarsh takes the spot come week 2, but who gets the pleasure of smashing the faders next monday?

And this is my reaction after reading this and taking an hour break before coming back. I still need more time to calm down and form coherent thoughts, but right now all I see when I close my eyes is Jack Williams getting toasted by Anthony Gonzlez or Wes Welker repeatedly in the Wild Card game this year.

I think it’s very important that everyone try to put themselves in someone else’s shoes…would you as a Broncos fan like to see the Broncos trade a 5th round pick for someone of Foxworth’s caliber? I seriously doubt it – in fact, I think many of us would be quite upset by such a transaction. Keep in mind, we just acquired a guy from the Titans who started 11? games for them last year. For FREE.

They were lucky to get a pick for him, and especially lucky for the chance for it to be upgraded to a 6th rounder. Not just in football, but in all sports draft choices are becoming more and more valuable. Baseball teams no longer want to dump pending free agents because they so highly value the compensation picks. However, in Foxworth’s case there would have been no compensation had he left via free agency. Obviously, he was not going to be re-signed and given a signing bonus. So he would have ridden the bench this year and then sailed off for nothing.

Foxworth was not going to sniff a starting job on a Broncos defense that was slightly better than putrid last year. Granted, he of course would never start over Champ or Bly but that’s not really the point. The point is that he wasn’t going to surpass Paymah or Jack Williams either. So for a 5th-string cornerback about to hit free agency, I’d have to say any draft choice at all in return is a coup. Keep in mind…many folks here like our first 7th round pick this year (Larsen) and our second (Hillis) is now our starting FB. If you can find a rookie starter in the 7th round, how can you turn your nose up at the pick? Just because it’s the last round doesn’t mean it’s not a valuable commodity. The draft was 12 rounds not that long ago, and we as Broncos fans should know quite well that late picks and undrafted players can be big finds. I probably don’t need to do this, but here goes…Terrell Davis, Shannon Sharpe, Karl Mecklenburg, Tyrone Braxton, Rod Smith, Mike Anderson, Matt Lepsis, Tom Nalen…there are more names I’m overlooking, but I think you’ll get my point.

…Don’t we get a 7th rounder, then if they sign him, we get an extra 6th rounder too. That’s how the article sounded. If that’s the case, I say this was a good deal.

the team is saying undisclosed pick, so as more comes out we’ll know for sure. I’ll see if I can find out……

Some things that don’t seem to be addressed here, is Foxworth a ballhawk? answer is no, but many corners in the league aren’t ballhawks, as my old coach told me, if you could catch you would play on offense. The thing about Foxworth is he played smart, he didn’t give up big plays and he played within the system. I look at the preseason with a grain of salt, did Foxworth get beat, sure, even Champ Bailey got beat in the preseason game, but Denver for up until the 4th quarter of the Phonix game was playing vanilla defense, no blitz, all zone coverage for the most part, and guys were catching stuff underneath. It is hard to fault Foxworth for not being a ballhawk, he will never be a No.1 corner in this league, but as much as everyone loves to point out the swagger that D. Williams played with, I can also remember him getting brutilized by the Colts and Reggie Wayne, the problem with a small corner like D. Williams or J. Williams is that matched one on one with a bigger reciever, they will lose 90% of the time if the QB knows what they are doing. And when we all bemone character (or lack therof) on the Broncos roster, I think that is where you are really going to miss someone like Foxworth. I wish him well in Atlanta.

This is just like Ted Bartlett’s ring. MileHighFros brought up a very good point.

Hey, the Broncos made a low tender offer (7th round) for him during restricted free agency and nobody bit on it then. So it’s not as though we passed up on an opportunity for something better by not trading him sooner.

We were probably lucky to get a seventh and if we get a sixth also, well it’s just a bonus. I voted yes.

then it’s a good trade. Look at what happened to him. The coach didn’t think he was good enough to start after Darrent Williams was murdered so we brought in Bly ahead of him. We moved him to safety, but keep Paymah at CB. Then we draft Jack Williams this year and see enough out of him to give him a spot on the team. We got good value for a player that was unlikely to resign with us and not likely to see significant playing time anyways.

1) Trade Foxy
2) Cut Foxy
3) Keep Foxy

If they keep him, he is the #5 CB and plays on 3rd and long only if one of the other guys gets injured.

Look, how many times do you need to hear “it’s not personal, it’s business” when reading or hearing about roster moves?

I feel like most fans I know have been getting annoyed at how Foxy always plays with his back to the ball when he is physically overmatched by a WR, which is 90% of the time.

He doesn’t “make plays”. He is somebody that an opposing QB would pick on with success. If all hell broke loose and Champ and Bly and Paymah /Williams got hurt and Foxy had to start, the Broncos wouldn’t be going to the postseason anyway, so lets not say “what if” about other players getting hurt and opening the door for Foxy.

He is a GREAT guy. Always will be. I’ll always root for him. But the Broncos are trying to build a Championship team, not a team of really nice guys.

In summary, if Denver NEEDED Foxy to play on the field with consistency, we’d be in deep trouble.

We did him a favor and kept him off of KC’s roster. Sounds like a savvy move by the front office. He has a recognizeable name and a great reputation, which are two things the Falcons desperately need.

I thought that we got a 7th and then if he resigns we get an additional 6th. Is that not the way it worked out, it seems like from the headline of this article i was mistaken. I voted disagree because of the understanding i got from the article, but if my initial reaction is correct then i agree with the trade.

i wish foxy the best. he CAN start in this league but a 7th or 6th rounder?!? thats it? I think we couldve gotten more for Bly.

and this is not a fair trade. i would estimate about 2/3 of the comments on this website 1 short month ago were clamoring for foxy to take bly’s spot, because of how well he was playing in his old position. we didn’t get this guy yesterday, and now he is the 5th corner after a few preseason games? if you’re looking at the same preseason games, paymah was horrible. but it’s preseason, playing with backups, no blitzing, trying to stay healthy,… remember? paymah is the liability, you will find that out this season, now. williams makes a few picks in a preseason game, thrown right to him by the way, and he is now better than foxworth? maybe as a returner. you have got to be kidding me, people. has the pendulum swung all the way from left to right in august, 2008? the guy can play corner and safety, and i view him as a #3 db, and a better safety option than rogers, or the new guys, until proven otherwise. i’m not saying foxy is great, i am saying he is good, and much more valuable than a sixth-round draft pick. i’m in the minority here, at least now, but i would have expected a good player in return, not a late-round crap-shoot, that will more than likely turn out to be nobody. present draft aside. atlanta got a steal, in my opinion. moving on

You helped me to think this thing through, regarding the value the Broncos got for Foxy.

The one thing that bothers me, however, is depth. As Champ said, this has weakened the depth of the position. Shanny himself has said that they can’t have enough CBs. And now they have four. That is tenuous, IMO. I am glad they got Lowry a the same time, but he is not a CB.

I just hope the CBs the Broncos have now will stay healthy.

Wanted Foxy over Bly, but seeing that I dont coach the team and only can gather from what I see on the TV, I will not bash Shanny’s choice to trade him. Now I would not say Atlanta got a steal. You are thinking that a horrible Falcon team is gonna keep past this season. Foxy would be a fool to stay unless he is offered more than he is worth. I dont think the Broncos were gonna resign him. That writing was on the wall when they offered him the low tender. So in essence Denver could get a 6th for him, but most likely a 7th. If they lost him in FA they would not have received anything for him until the 2010 draft if anything.

Part of the story on Foxy.

The Broncos also signed guard Dylan Gandy and defensive tackle Josh Shaw on Tuesday and released defensive tackle Alvin McKinley. Gandy had been released by the Broncos on Saturday. Shaw is a sixth-year player who spent last season with Oakland. — Denver Post

Everyone would have liked more for Foxworth but who would you cut, or who would you rather keep instead?

I’d much rather have someone on the team who is going to be part of the Bronco’s future — Foxy wasn’t. And I’d like to see J. Williams get playing time and develop as a player.

I was worried about having enough draft choices in 09 & 10 since the final pieces of the reloading project will be coming then. This is not a team that’s good enough to challenge the best teams in the NFL yet, we still need to fill some holes and upgrade in certain areas. It’s clear that the staff is aware of this, too, and today’s cutting of McKinley is an indication on one area that they’ll be working on, even if it requires bringing in players during the season, as in today’s acquisition of Josh Shaw (another Josh!).

because, as you said, Foxworth hasn’t had a good preseason. From what I’ve seen, he’s been getting beaten by almost everybody. I just don’t see any starting corner potential in him.

One, Guru’s reasoning is solid. We are trading a #5 CB (our team) to someone and getting SOMETHING in return. I also agree with Fro, who points out that nobody bit on the guy when we dangled him earlier.

But I disagree on some minor points with different folks. There is no way you can blame a guy who plays nickleback and safety for being told to play off coverage on Terrell Owens of all people! The mismatch should make anyone look bad! But instead, Foxworth held one of the top receivers in the League to zero yards after the catch every time. To then blame him for one broken coverage leading to a TD in the game is really nit picking (I think). He played the coverage he was told to play (he doesn’t get to pick if he plays “on, "off”, or "tight"), and he did what you are supposed to do on “off coverage”, which is that he didn’t break up or intercept much, but he DID prevent gains after the catch. Guru makes the point that Fox was decent in run coverage, which (in my mind) would tend to make him do well in coverage against large TEs (of course, I don’t like the idea of using a nickle on most modern TE giants). However, Guru’s point on the blown coverage in the Cards game is a point well taken. That was a terrible mental error.

It also retarded Foxworth’s development (as several of us said last year) to waste his time as a hybrid safety during ’07.

Foxworth is NOT a #2 CB for the Broncos. Then again, we have two pro-bowlers ahead of him, so his desires look ridiculous. On the other hand, I really believe that he can play #2 for several teams in this League, and be an improvement for them. But here in Denver, with Paymah in town and a new rookie that looks good, it was a good move to trade Foxworth out and to get something (instead of nothing at the end of the season) for it.

I salute Foxworth for being classy about the trade, the Broncos for getting something out of it, and Atlanta for bringing in a player that should make a difference on what should be a very difficult year. (I have a soft spot for Atlanta after what their jerk of a head coach pulled on them last year).