Before I get "O'd" off the proverbial blog stage please bare with me here. There is no denying Vinny Curry is our best pass rushing D lineman. However, there are reasons why he does not get more playing time, beside being a situational player. I will not use this post to debat them or go into great detail if they are valid or not, but they are there and the coaching staff sees them. How do i know this? Well if they were not there he would be starting. The short version is he can not two gap very well and is really a 4-3 DE playing in a 3-4 defense.
For the purposes of this article we will operate under the above "truths". Given those "truths", his best value to the eagles is to be traded in my opinion, and honestly it might be the best thing for his career as well. We all know he grew up an Eagles fan, and that is awesome, but maybe it was just not meant to be and the time is now to move on while his value is at it highest, and it is. Furthermore there is no guarantee he will resign here after his contract expires or another 4-3 team does not make him an offer we will not match. Therefore if we accept that as the truth, it becomes time to think about where we can get the best return for him now.
In my opinion we have two options, a player-player swap or draft picks. Player for Player swaps would requiring finding another mis-cast player on a team to swap for Vinny. It is beneficial because we can potentially get a player who can help us for THIS season. However I think this would be a mistake, given that miscast player for miscast player trades rarely are fair value. One example is Daryl Tapp for Chris Clemons. We all were sure we got the better end of the deal in that one...but in the end we did not.
Therefore to me the only way to get fair value for Vinny Curry is to trade him for picks. Enter the Fallas Cowboys...I mean Dallas Cowboys. They recently switched to a 4-3 defensive scheme, are decimated with injury, and have a general lack of talent along the dline. If Curry was traded to Dallas he would be a day 1 starter, their best D lineman and maybe best defensive player. He is young, has NFL proven skills and under a rookie contract. This move makes a ton of sense to the Cowboys for not only this year but the future. So what would fair compensation be back to the birds? A 2015 2nd round pick and a 2016 3rd/4th conditional 2016 pick.
The 2015 2nd round pick in all likely hood will be top 7 at worst. That is a great pick to find 3-4 players in next years draft whose value is higher than any miscast player swap we may be able to pull off. Vinny's pass rush will be missed this year but i believe could be replaced with a combination of B graham lining up as a situational rusher and even Marcus Smith. It also allows for players like Joe Kruger/ Hart to get reps just rushing the passer.
Finally, Vinny may not say it but he wants to be a starter in this league now. Playing in Dallas will give him that, along with the ability to play in a system where he can use hi pass rushing skills more naturally. The kid we drafted is a Pro now, he is looking for snaps and cash. Many NFL players had favorite teams growing up, he will not be the first to play for that teams rival.
So there it is, trade Curry to the cowboys for a 2015 2nd and a conditional 3rd/4th 2016 pick.
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