Give Grant the Respect he Deserves!

I mean look at this guy. Do you want to tackle him?

               Earlier I praised Ted Thompson for resigning Donald Driver for the right reasons. I praised his flexibility in drafting for need since the nucleus of a championship team was already intact. I even praised him for cutting one of my favorite players because of serious health concerns. But his obstinate refusal to bring back Ryan Grant has me confused and frankly annoyed.

                Ryan Grant was originally signed by the New York Giants as undrafted rookie free agent out of Notre Dame in 2005. He spent a year on the practice squad in New York before he caught the eye of Ted Thompson, who uncharacteristically traded a sixth round draft pick for him before the 2007 season. Grant was originally brought in to back up the perpetually disappointing Brandon Jackson and DeShawn Wynn. When Grant was forced into action due to injury mid-season, he responded explosively, and was named the starter in an ongoing search for a feature back midseason.

                Over the next 39 games, Grant would start and rush for over 3300 yards, averaging over 4.3 yards a clip. Add in 24 total touchdowns and 73 receptions, and even a casual fan could see that Grant was rounding into quite a nice starting tailback. Then came the seemingly inevitable major injury. Grant tore a ligament in his ankle in week one of the 2010 season, and would miss the remainder of the season.

                Still under contract for the 2011 season, Grant began rehabbing his ankle immediately, and returned to the field in week one. Coaches and players were outspoken about what great shape Grant appeared to be in, and he showed virtually no signs of being slowed by the offseason surgery. He averaged nearly five yards per carry during the first three weeks of the season, but simply wasn’t getting many attempts. The Packers’ offense is of course geared towards the pass, so I thought it might have simply been a function of game planning. As the season went on, however, it became clear that the coaching staff wanted to see the younger/bigger James Starks develop into their number one back.

Though Grant may no longer possess his 4.43 combine speed, he proved he hadn’t lost much by outrunning both Oakland and Detroit’s defenses for long touchdowns. On his touchdown against Detroit, he caught a quick screen pass in the left flat, weaved around some nice blocking, and simply outran and allegedly athletic secondary for 80 yards. Furthermore, Grant was not putting the ball on the ground. He finished the regular season with a total of one fumble. Yes he lost a fumble in the playoff game against the Giants, but the Packers were grasping at straws at that point in the game, and we can hardly put the blame on Ryan Grant for that clunker of a performance.

Now I am well aware of the fact that running backs (with a few notable exceptions) do not produce after the age of 30 anymore. The position is too physically taxing and there are just too many collisions to survive. Grant is not yet 30, but will be by next year. That being said, he is not the typical 29 year old starting tail back in terms of wear and tear. Going in to the 2012 season, the average number of career carries for any starting back age 29 or older is 1349. There is in fact only one player in that group of 11 that has less carries than Grant (who has 924, or a solid two seasons under the average), and that would be the late-blooming Fred Jackson of Buffalo at 817 carries, who just signed a two year, $8.7 million contract extension. Grant could be had for a fraction of that price, and Green Bay can certainly afford to pay him both in terms of cash available and salary cap space.

The Packers appear set to enter the season with the young James Starks, the younger Alex Green (who showed promise but is coming off major knee surgery), and the younger still Brandon Saine. This will easily be the least experienced position group heading into the season, and is no doubt cause for concern. I know the coaching staff is high on all three of these players (as they’ve stated repeatedly), but at some point it seems like all their praise may just be an attempt to cover up a glaring need. Youth is certainly your friend if you’re a running back, but aside from potential, that’s all this group has. Doesn’t proven performance count for something?

Grant has stated over and over again (both by himself and through his agent, Alan Herman) that he would like to return to Green Bay and is ready and willing to talk about a new contract. Grant is an intelligent man that has reportedly drawn interest from multiple teams this offseason (including the Patriots and the Lions), so I’d be shocked if he and his agent were truly out of line with their contract requests. The Packers have reportedly not even so much as called Herman or Grant to inform them they’ve moved on, which is a rather classless move in my opinion. It’s one thing to keep your options open in the event of injury, but I would think an open dialogue would be the least the organization could do for a player that’s been around for five years now.

Again, the NFL is a business first, and I do not envy some of the personnel decisions Ted Thompson has to make. He has wisely parted ways with several veterans in the past, and I’ve applauded him for doing so. This situation, however, feels more like a repeat of the Cullen Jenkins mistake (Thompson’s worst move as Packers GM in my opinion) than it does a repeat of the Al Harris release. I honestly feel that Grant should be resigned for fairly obvious football reasons. He knows the offense well, would know his teammates well, could mentor the younger backs during their formative years, and would be inexpensive. Unless Grant was absolutely horrible in some aspect of the game that isn’t visible on stat sheet or to an interested fan, I truly don’t understand the logic behind letting him go.

Grant seems genuinely hurt by the way the Packers have handled his free agency, and I don’t blame him. If the Packers have made up their minds to move on, let him know! If they’re waiting for an injury to strike before they bring him back, let him know! Now, there could easily have been communication between the parties that I’m unaware of since Grant’s last public statements (especially since I’m privy to precisely zero insider information), but I have been wholly unimpressed with the Packers’ approach to this situation. Let’s show some of our trademark class and treat a veteran player with the respect he deserves.