Drew Bennett

I wouldn't have paid any more money to Bennett regardless of Givens' contract.

Plus, we signed Givens because he was a #2 WR in a well-stocked offense who we felt could be a #1 (like Mason did). On the flipside, Bennett is a #2 quality WR we know can't become a good #1. So I'm not so sure that Bennett is deserving of Givens' contract (Givens might not be either, but that's another story).

 

So now we don't have any receivers that are even average? To me that would dictate we resign Bennett if at all possible.

Comparing the Young/McNair situation isn't even close to being the same argument. I expected better from you.

 

I believe alot of Drew bashers(well under appreciators) don't realize what a steal we got by finding him. To be an unrestricted FA and to get him when no-one else could, I think we got a great fan favorite out of him. LP Field just wouldn't be the same not hearing the DREEEEEWWWWWW's on Sunday's. On the other hand thats not going to keep us from looking around for more athletic recievers in the FA and draft. It may come down that he won't get the money he wants from us, but he knows what kind of season he had and that the fans love him here in TN. But truthfully are we going to draft a WR 1st, after seeing how crappy our defense played all year long?

 

I still say draft best available!

 

Brandon Jones changes things. And presumably Givens does as well, though not right away because of his injury.

It's not as if Bennett's numbers are all that great with the exception of that big 3-game stretch in 2004. If not for that, his stats are basically the same every year: under 800 yards and under 5 TDs...

No, they aren't comparable. But you just talked about the advantage of going with a known commodity versus a crapshoot. You were the one simplifying the argument, I just followed you down the path...

 

I have a real hard time convincing myself that Givens, injury or not is better than Bennett. Anyone believing that is drinking the koolaid IMO. Brady threw for over 4100 yards Given's last year with the Pats. Sure Givens had 59 catches for 738 yards but I don't see anything in that performance to dictate he is another Mason especially when you have that good of a QB throwing the ball. That is simply dreaming. I could easily see that argument being made for Branch more than for Givens and I'm not sure Branch was/is a huge upgrade over Bennett (would be nice for Bennett however if he had a quality WR on the other side). Of course when Bennett only gets 737 yards (with a 16 YPC average!) he is just a #2 quality guy (despite the QBs for the Titans throwing for way fewer yards than a guy like Brady throws for). But when Givens blisters the league for a whopping 738 yards with his QB throwing for over 4100 yards that is a sure sign the guy is #1 material?

 

good points, but the Titans have a history of throwing piles of money away on UFA WRs

 

We gave Bennett a chance this season, I'd rather we give Givens a shot before choosing favourites. (Although I'm guilty of doing that as well)

 

We may never see that happen, and you'll note that I never said he was better. But frankly, Bennett has been around for a while now and he just isn't a true #1 WR. Being the best WR on a bad WR corps doesn't really mean that much.

As for Givens, he was never THE receiver in NE. They spread the ball around. They had him, Branch, Troy Brown, Patten, Graham, Watson, Fauria, Kevin Faulk, and various other guys. But in his last 3 years there, he was either 1st or 2nd in receiving yards each year. And despite not being their main man, his stats were still pretty comparable to Bennett's if you ignore Drew's 3 games of insanity...

 

The Titans spread the ball around in 2005 and Bennett matched Given's 738 yards that year. Heck, our TEs alone had 1359 yards recieving and the RBs had 557 yards that year. We had three rookie WRs with almost 300 yards each to go with Calico's 200.

I have no problem thinking Bennett is strickly a #2 but to then try to imagine Givens is magically a big upgrade as a #1 makes no sense. If that was what the Titans were thinking I'm not sure I agree with their thinking.

Either way I do agree that we will part ways with Bennett and go in another direction unless Bennett somehow agrees to stay at a much reduced rate than what he can get on the market.