RGIII undergoing total reconstructive surgery: out 6-8 months

[BigHairedAristocrat]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

Your timing is about a week off.. The salary cap penalty came at the dawn on free agency on Monday afternoon.. The previous week it was clear Manning wasn't coming here and we made the RG3 trade with the Rams. He made it known he wasn't interested in facing his brother twice a year. We never had a legitimate shot at Manning.

Even with the injury, I'm 100% satisfied we made the moves we did. Our short and long term future is much brighter with RG3 than it would have been with Manning.

The penalty was announced at that time, but, contrary to what Shanahan stated initially, the Skins knew it was probably coming months in advance. Subsequent reports made that very clear. Its not like Mara was having secret meetings and negotiations with the NFLPA that the Skins, Cowboys, and other owners didnt know about.

The Skins had a meeting scheduled with Manning even after they made the trade for the #2 pick. You say we never had a legitimate shot of coming here, but youre making a bigger deal of his not wanting to play against his brother than it really was. I beleive SS even stated he was seriously considering us (although we were not necessarily the front runners) at the time.

Personally, i think we were planning two contingencies:
Plan A) trade for RGIII if we think we'll get the cap penalty; or
Plan B) sign manning and draft a QB if we dont.

Even after trading for the #2 overall pick, we still could have turned around and flipped it to the browns if we didnt get the penalty and decided we'd rather do Plan B. Still, i think its obvious that our preference was to go with Plan A. But if the Browns had secured the #2 overall pick and we did not get the penalty, i think we would have made a very strong push for Manning.

Injury aside, RGIIIs a perfect fit here. Luck is a perfect fit for the colts, Mannings a perfect fit in Denver. Everything worked out for the best.