Thread: TJack or Sage - who to trade?

It seems to be a foregone conclusion that Sage Rosenfels will be the odd-man out when the Vikings get down to three QBs now that Favre has returned.

If we operation under the assumptions that:
1. They want to keep Joe Webb as a long-term project
2. They don't think they can get Webb onto the Practice squad

Then - who do you trade/release?

Tarvaris Jackson -
Why trade him:
* I can't recall if he will be a UFA or RFA after the 2010 season, but that plays into it. If he's a UFA, then he could easily walk and, if Sage is gone, then the Vikings are left with no one but Joe Webb under contract. Ouch.
* He's injury prone. Fair or not, Tarvaris has had several significant game-missing injuries during his career as a Viking.
* He's scattershot, at best. Who knows what a year sitting behind Favre has done for him. But his past track record indicates that his accuracy and decision-making are sketchy.
Why keep him:
* He's young.
* He's got a strong arm and athletic skills to avoid the rush.
* He knows the offense(or should).
* He's Chilly's guy.

Sage Rosenfels -
Why trade him:
* He's a 10-year vet who has failed to earn a starting job at any point in his career.
* His arm is the weaker of the two.
* He's being paid big money to be a 3rd QB. Maybe not that much to be a 2nd QB, but it's still not a small price for a backup.
Why keep him:
* He is a veteran who seems to have a better ability to read defenses than TJack (key word: seems).
* He is a winner - at least at the college level. I have a personal interest in this point, as I am an Iowa State fan.
* His performance in the pre-season game the other night was strong.
* He's under contract through 2011.

Just some thoughts on the top of my head. It seems that everyone (not just on PPO, but across the Viking Universe) thinks Sage is the odd-man out. The contract and potential to be down only to Webb scares me.

What do others think?

=Z=

I don't see us getting much of anything in trade value for either QB. That said I think Sage has more trade value, and Tjack is the Vikings draft project. Trading TJack would be admitting defeat.

I honestly would be surprised to see any team pony up anything of value for a player that they know is going to be released in a couple weeks.

It is a tough call, but I am inclined to say we keep TJack and trade Sage. Originally I thought Sage would excel, or at least be better than TJack in our offense. But it just didn't happen. I was surprised, but in the end TJack has outplayed Sage two training camps in a row.

Why are we looking to trade either of them? I don't see either as a long term solution but this is more than likely the last year where we are going to make a strong push for a SB run for a while and not knowing whether Brett will even have any gas left in the tank is anyone willing to say they are comfortable with Webb as the #2 QB if Brett should go down for some reason and one of the other two is suddenly the starter?

To me the most logical thing to do if you really, really want to try to develop Webb is to move him to a position where you can bury him on the depth chart and work on him without possibly exposing the team to having to rely on him in a worst case scenario.

Look, I know there are many people who saw his physical skills and fell in love with him but come on. TJ was even more refined than he is and we are in the 5th year of a projected 3 year project and he still is a huge ?. With Webb it may take a few years longer to get to the point where Jackson is right now so where is the benefit in giving him that crucial of a spot on the roster? He has less experience with reading defenses, calling plays and understanding formations than Jackson did at this point in his career. I think he is interesting as a player but man, he is going to take some work.

I would keep both. Not sure why people think we need to move them. Maybe Webb is the real deal, maybe not. That is the chance you take with a PROJECT. Are Thigpen and Booty starting? No. You keep the guys that have been here and know the system. I like the fact of knowing if Favre went down, TJ or Sage could step in easily and get us some wins.

I think we keep both and slide Webb on to the practice squad.

IMO, Webb - a late round pick who was drafted as a WR - won't draw a lot of interest from anyone out there unless they're looking for a 3-5 year project player...and only the Vikings seem to go for those.

Jackson was handed the #2 slot, but who knows? If Favre goes down, are we willing to bet the franchise on Jackson? Two years in a row, Chiller has essentially said "No", and bent over backwards to get Favre. If Jackson were even CLOSE to being truly "ready", Chiller wouldn't do that.

That leaves Sage. 10 years and no starting job. Maybe he's better than Jackson, maybe not. But he's damn sure better than Webb, and if Favre goes down and Jackson crumbles, I want someone who can at least give us a fighting chance.

Bottom line, I hope to God that Favre goes injury free all season, but worst case scenario, I think we need to keep both Sage and Tarvaris.

Caine

I would keep Tjack. I think the upside is bigger because he has all the athletic tools.

I think he played well in 2008. I know most will say he was too inconsistant but overall his play was solid, IMHO.(insert stats here).

His win loss record was poor(2-4), but he played really tough competion(5 playoff teams that year plus @ greenbay week 1).(apologist alert)

2009 he had a great preseason and handled a bad situation very well. The little we saw it appeared that he continued to improve.

Even if Tjack is a free agent after this season I don't think he'll be very expensive to re-sign.

Sage seems to have very little upside, IMHO.

I think we are going to keep both ... I can't imagine us putting ourselves in a situation where we end up with Webb starting as an emergency.

I think that Webb will easily make it to the practice squad as well ... making the need to trade not all that great.

I also believe we keep both Sage, and Tarvaris. Hopefully we can sneek Webb through and sign him to our practice squad. Although keeping four QB's on the active roster has been done before. Just don't think we'll go that route and will have to release Webb and resign him.

midgensa wrote:

I think that Webb will easily make it to the practice squad as well ... making the need to trade not all that great.

People thought Thigpen would easily make the practice squad, too.

Not making any statement about Thigpen as a QB, but the situation is very similar.

=Z=