Quote:
Originally Posted by ukcolt
I am not sure what some of you were watching last year. Braden Smith had a knee injury that he was battling through and was still playing fairly decent football, next to the turnstile that was Dalton Tucker. For what it might be worth he had a 66.2 grade with PFF, which ranked him as the 49th best tackle in the league. He had an 83.3 grade in 2023. We don't know what his personal issues are and I sincerely hope that things are not too catastrophic, he is by far our best option at RT if healthy. He is one of the top 5 RT's in the league assuming he is fully healthy. People also need to realise he is only 28 years old, 29 in March, he is in his absolute prime years as a player. Fingers crossed he, or his family are ok. If he returns to the standards of 2023 he is on a fair market price on this contract at $19.75m
The problem as fans, we are not privy to his ongoing issues so don't know how to plan going forward.......but for the love of god that isn't our job either, we are just fans.
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I'm not a huge fan of PFF grades, but just by watching, Matt Goncalves was not a noticeable dropoff from Braden Smith, so why pay Smith $20 mil when Goncalves can provide similar play for 3rd round rookie money? I'll put it this way: I'd rather have Jevon Holland and Goncalves starting at RT than Braden Smith.