Corey Williams To Cleveland: Is Drew Carey Smiling? » Brats & Beer

February 29, 2008
posted under: Corey Williams, free agency, Ted Thompson

As expected Ted Thompson brokered a deal to trade DT Corey Williams rather than keep him for a year at $6.3 million. What was unexpected was that Cleveland emerged as the high bidder, giving up a second-round pick. The Browns defense struggled last year no doubt, but GM Phil Savage has now sacrificed this year’s draft for two players, Brady Quinn (who cost a first-round pick to Dallas) and now Collins. Desperate times, as they say.

For the Packers, though, this is a great deal. Collins was a good backup but TT couldn’t justify paying him the kind of money he was sure to demand for a long-term deal (six years, $38 million according to the JS Packers Blog), and now Green Bay has two second-round picks to work with in April. Knowing what we know about TT, those will probably turn into four later-round picks, we’ll all roll our eyes in disbelief, and then at least two of those rookies will emerge as starters.

In other free agency news, Greg Bedard at the Journal Sentinel is saying the Packers have tendered both Colin Cole and Vernand Morency, but that Carlyle Holiday was not. Cole is a solid reserve player and with Collins out of the mix Green Bay needed to keep his services, so this is another prudent move on defense by TT. It’s doubtful that Morency will challenge for the starting job, but the Packers backfield needs warm bodies. As for Holiday, he spent most of last season on IR and Green Bay is too fully-stocked with receivers at this point to justify tendering another, even one who could be an emergency backup quarterback.