Crumpler released

[gr8slayer]

Falcons released seven players Friday, including four-time Pro Bowl TE Alge Crumpler.
Atlanta saves $1.3 million by cutting Crumpler, but his prorated signing bonuses will be on the books for two more years. LT Wayne Gandy and QB Byron Leftwich are the other big names released. Crumpler, 30, immediately becomes the top tight end on the free agent market. He'll certainly be worthwhile pickup for a team like the Vikings, Bills, Seahawks, or Buccaneers.

[EDS]

I thought he was pretty good. Why did Atlanta release him?

Should the Bills sign him?

[Mr. Miyagi]

You're chitting me!

[The King]

No thank you.

[gr8slayer]

I thought he was pretty good. Why did Atlanta release him?

Should the Bills sign him?
He would be a definite upgrade for us at TE, then again, so would Miyagi :ill:

[hydro]

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/251/story/249055.html

[hydro]

Rod Coleman also!

[The King]

Crumpler is so over rated. He did well with Vick because Vick can't throw down field. While he would be an improvement he isnt worth what you'd have to pay him.

[Mr. Miyagi]

He would be a definite upgrade for us at TE, then again, so would Miyagi :ill:
Hey I have a tight end like the best of them. :up:

[The King]

Rod Coleman also!

Now Coleman I like!

[Jan Reimers]

The guy's butts so big it need its own zip code.

[Mr. Miyagi]

Crumpler is so over rated. He did well with Vick because Vick can't throw down field. While he would be an improvement he isnt worth what you'd have to pay him.
He's a big target and has good hands. As long as he doesn't cost too much, I have no problem with him.

[gr8slayer]

Hey I have a tight end like the best of them. :up:
:lol:

[kernowboy]

He's a 4 times Pro-Bowler 2003-06

[The King]

He's a big target and has good hands. As long as he doesn't cost too much, I have no problem with him.

But he will.

[gr8slayer]

But he will.
He might only because he's the sole big name TE on the market. I'd be willing to bet that he ends up with Seattle.

[User Manuel]

Make it happen....er............whoever is in charge there guy........

I miss Marv.

[gr8slayer]

Make it happen....er............whoever is in charge there guy........

I miss Marv.
Yeah, it sucks not having a clear cut GM.

[Mitchy moo]

I seen Crumpler play a few games, he's not bad.

[Mr. Miyagi]

Sign him! He's the only missing piece to our Super Bowl run!

Other than WR2, DT, OLB, QB2, C, RG, CB2, and DE of course.

[BADTHINGSMAN]

Sign him! He's the only missing piece to our Super Bowl run!

Other than WR2, DT, OLB, QB2, C, RG, CB2, and DE of course.

:rofl:

[gr8slayer]

Sign him! He's the only missing piece to our Super Bowl run!

Other than WR2, DT, OLB, QB2, C, RG, CB2, and DE of course.
Don't forget QB1 :ill:

[hydro]

Don't forget QB1 :ill:

We have the piece we just don't know if he is the right one...

[Mudflap1]

Vick couldn't pass, period. If the Bills are for real about upgrading, they'll go after and sign this guy. He'd be a perfect target for Edwards.

Jon

[Dr. Lecter]

The guy's butts so big it need its own zip code.

Be nice to guys with fat asses or else!

[gr8slayer]

Be nice to guys with fat asses or else!
Jan, this is a touchy subject with Lecter. You must understand....

[raphael120]

I've heard of him! Let's sign him!!!!

[gr8slayer]

I've heard of him! Let's sign him!!!!
:rolleyes: it's already getting old.

[hydro]

:rolleyes: it's already getting old.

I was going to say the same thing! :hi5:

[kernowboy]

My only concern is at 30 is he likely to have seen his best years?

Royal is 29 with big bucks invested, Gaines is 27, Johnson is 26 .... I think unless we cut Royal we'll go with youth through the draft

[gr8slayer]

My only concern is at 30 is he likely to have seen his best years?

Royal is 29 with big bucks invested, Gaines is 27, Johnson is 26 .... I think unless we cut Royal we'll go with youth through the draft
We really didn't invest bucks so big that we couldn't part with Royal.

I have a feeling that Johnson will be camp fodder.

Gaines is the best of the three.

[Dr. Lecter]

And Gaines is a UFA so he might not be back.

[patmoran2006]

You guys are outta your skull if you dont think this guy would help this offense.

He's 10x better than LJ Smith, before Philly tagged him.. Atlanta cut him because they're basically starting from scratch.

This would be the FIRST FA I would target, given Edwards fondness for throwing to the TE.. Even before any WR or LB on the market.

[jimbohastle51]

i pray the bills are smart enough to get crumpler and not a secondier tightend. crumpler would be a perfect go to target for edwards over the middle.

[kernowboy]

Isn't he the son of Carlester Crumpler the old Bills player?

I'd look to do this in FA

1. Alge Crumpler
2. Jeff Faine

both big tickets but we can also go

3. Teddy Lehman, a LB who can start and ST and won't be very expensive

and

4. Take a flyer on Mike Williams WR, looking at a WR in the draft with Crumpler as a receiving safety net

I'd still want to use a 3rd on a TE though as we need three on the books and it makes Royal potentially expendable.

[sdbillsfan2]

Doesn't he come with a big contract and bad knees?

[B-DON]

no way we draft and sign a TE. One or the other is more realistic

[The King]

3. Teddy Lehman, a LB who can start and ST and won't be very expensive





:bf1:

[gr8slayer]

:bf1:
If he could stay healthy :ill:

[Easy E-Lass]

Crumpler actually wouldn't be a bad option to look at. His contract isn't attrocious, and he would be a great checkdown guy for Trent. He has very good hands, and can create seperation well.

Mind you, he was garbage this year.

[Oldbillsfan]

The Crump is a very good player.

[Meathead]

a. tes often hit the wall and fall off fast at 30 so they hve to be careful about him

2. if we sign him and clumpy likes him will we have to call ourselves clumps crumps

ð. dont want nobody named after green sea slime

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Has anyone actually watched Crumpler the last two years?

He's put on a lot of weight in that period and his knee is a real big question mark. He was real slow this year and he can no loger out run the covering LBs like he used to.

At the age of 30, I doubt he's going to get any faster year-to-year. He would be a good 3rd TE on a team, but I doubt he'd be willing to settle for that, especially for the Bills.

With the recent history of decent TEs in late rounds (Washington, Giants, to name a few), I'm thinking more on the line of draft.

[MikeInRoch]

I'm not saying this is always the case, but you have to wonder why they cut him...

[gr8slayer]

I'm not saying this is always the case, but you have to wonder why they cut him...
Yeah, but in this case it's just the Falcons wanting to get past the Vick era and start fresh. You should know all about re-building being a Bills fan.

[clumping platelets]

I would absolutely consider Crumpler but only at a decent price

2 or 3 yrs at $1 million/season

[gr8slayer]

I would absolutely consider Crumpler but only at a decent price

2 or 3 yrs at $1 million/season
Seattle will out bid us if that's what we're going to offer.

[clumping platelets]

Then he'll go to Seattle......Bills can draft John Carlson from Notre Dame :D

I bet :eb: would get his jersey :snicker:

[gr8slayer]

BTW, why is this in the Bills Zone? I started the thread in the NFL Zone :idunno:

[clumping platelets]

:idunno:

[gr8slayer]

:idunno:
Can I just blame you?

[Bert102176]

I would love for us to get Crumpler

[jamze132]

I bet he goes to Miami...

[njsue]

Algie Crumpler is a good TE big play maker. Grab him quick.

[kernowboy]

Reading more about Crumpler over the last 24hrs I am going off the idea.

We have greater needs and someone will want to pay Crumpler a lot of money. He has got very heavy and at 30 that is hard to shift

Royal is under contract, and personally I'd prefer to re-sign Gaines and draft someone like John Carlson who will probably be around in R3

[Michael82]

Sign him, Russ!!!

[gr8slayer]

Sign him, Russ!!!
:ill:

[Philagape]

Crumpler WAS a good player

[gr8slayer]

Crumpler WAS a good player
He is STILL 10x what any of our TE's are.

[Night Train]

These Atlanta cuts all seem to have one thing in common.

They love making big $$ and being hurt.

[gr8slayer]

Gaston Gazette (http://carolinagrowl.com/SteveReed/archive/2008/02/15/does-te-crumpler-fit-carolina-you-bet.aspx)


The Gaston Gazette expects the Panthers to show interest in recently released TE Alge Crumpler. Crumpler is a North Carolina native and a good friend of fellow Tar Heel Julius Peppers. Needing offensive playmakers, the Panthers could seek an upgrade on the more pedestrian Jeff King.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

He is STILL 10x what any of our TE's are.
I beg to differ. The Crumpler from 2003 - 2006? Yes. The Crumpler of 2007? No.

[gr8slayer]

I beg to differ. The Crumpler from 2003 - 2006? Yes. The Crumpler of 2007? No.
Consider the team he was playing for, consider who was throwing him the ball, etc.....

Sometimes it doesn't matter how good you are if the team around you is horrible. Example = Lee Evans

[Confused]

I wouldnt mind crumpler. or leftwich for that matter.

[Mr. Miyagi]

:no: to Leftwich

:down::down:

[gr8slayer]

:no: to Leftwich

:down::down:
I would take him as a backup.

[venis2k1]

Losman > Leftwich

[gr8slayer]

Losman > Leftwich
Not on this message board lol.

[Confused]

We need to get what we can for Juan Pablo. Leftwich is a good backup. I dont think wilson would allow a black QB tho. He's too old for that.

[venis2k1]

Buffalo was the first team in the NFL to feature an all black backfield.

[Confused]

Buffalo was the first team in the NFL to feature an all black backfeild.
i did not know this.
semi racit statement retracted.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Consider the team he was playing for, consider who was throwing him the ball, etc.....

Sometimes it doesn't matter how good you are if the team around you is horrible. Example = Lee Evans

Look. You need to watch some tape before opening your mouth. I don't know how many plays they have in total for Crumpler. But I know at least 4 that I know of he just was not able to beat his guy (making the separation) like he used to because of his physical inability this year. That had nothing to do with the QB or anything else.

[gr8slayer]

Look. You need to watch some tape before opening your mouth. I don't know how many plays they have in total for Crumpler. But I know at least 4 that I know of he just was not able to beat his guy (making the separation) like he used to because of his physical inability this year. That had nothing to do with the QB or anything else.
Slow down there kid. I've watched enough film this year to know that the problem wasn't Crumpler, it was the team. He was also fighting a foot injury (injured last Summer) all year long. He was also in a new system, with a new coach that didn't get the TE involved like the TE was involved the past few years. I don't know if you noticed but he also had to put up with changing QB's what seemed like every week and he lost the QB with whom he had become most comfortable with. He was also forced to stay in and block a lot more this year because of a couple of injuries to starters at LT.

Maybe you should do more research and watch more film :ill:

After being held to four yards in Sunday's loss, Alge Crumpler criticized the offensive game plan and questioned coach Bobby Petrino's "agenda." Crumpler called the Falcons "the worst offense in the NFL" once they cross the 50-yard line and suggested that Petrino is phasing out veterans in favor of younger players. "If [the defense is playing] a cover-two and we've got Michael Jenkins running down the middle of the field, or myself running down the middle of the field, why aren't we getting opportunities to make plays?" Crumpler said. "That's what I've been doing my whole career. But I haven't caught the ball one time since this regime has been here, in practice or anything. So I'm scratching my head. I'm trusting, OK? I'm trusting. But 1-4 makes you think about a lot of things."


Alge Crumpler (knee) returned to practice on Monday. The Falcons at least get this bit of good news on a rough day for the organization. Warrick Dunn also put in his first full workout since having back surgery. Crumpler will be an injury risk during the season.



Comment: Crumpler has good size, functional strength and athletic ability. He is a big, productive receiving target. He can align at multiple spots and create mismatches. He is quick and agile off the ball and into stems. He is savvy in his routes and knows how to set up a defender to create separation at the top of stems. He has the play speed to be effective on all three levels. He has very good hands, makes difficult downfield catches and can extend outside his frame. He runs with power and is surprisingly nimble after the catch. He is tough to bring down in space. He is a big threat in the red zone. He has good initial quickness into blocking patterns and strong, active hands. He can get movement off the ball and understands good body position and power angles. He works hard to finish and has the balance and control to be effective on the second level. Crumpler isn't an elite blocker and lately has had trouble staying healthy.


You should really re-consider the way you approach an argument and drop the hostility, you make yourself look like a moron.

[venis2k1]

I also spend my free time reviewing Atlanta Falcons game tapes...

[gr8slayer]

I also spend my free time reviewing Atlanta Falcons game tapes...
Ah, the luxury of having multiple DVR's huh?

[LifetimeBillsFan]

...I dont think wilson would allow a black QB tho. He's too old for that.

FYI--because I'm into history and think it's a good thing for Bills fans to know a bit about the team's history:

In 1969, the Bills acquired Marlin Briscoe from the Denver Broncos. Briscoe, who had started 8 games for Denver in 1968, is now recogized as the first African-American to start at QB for a NFL team (because Briscoe started for an AFL team prior to the merger, for some time Joe Gilliam, who played as a back-up QB for Pittsburgh, a NFL team after the merger, was touted as the first black QB to start a game for a NFL team, but now that the NFL recognizes AFL records and performances this has changed).

While the Bills did convert Briscoe to a WR, Briscoe also served as the team's 3rd string/"emergency" QB for at least one season (and, if memory serves me correctly, he did take some snaps in that role for the Bills one year). Converting Briscoe to WR might be seen by some as a typical racist move designed to keep a black QB buried on the bench except for two things:

1.) After having a pretty good season for the Bills at WR in 1969, the speedy Briscoe proved that the Bills' decision to move him to WR was a sound football move by finishing in the top two in the NFL in receptions (57) and receiving yards (1036)--(with 8 TD grabs)--and making All-Pro at that position in 1970.

2.) In the eighth round of the 1969 draft, the Bills selected James Harris, currently the VP of player personnel for the Jacksonville Jaguars, out of Grambling State University. Harris, who was not very quick, fast or mobile, was the first black QB selected by ANY NFL team specifically to play QB and not as "an athlete" who might be moved to another position.

Harris is recognized as the first African-American QB to start a season as the starting QB of a NFL team--that team was the Buffalo Bills. Harris played for the Bills in 1969, 1970 and 1971, before being traded to the LA Rams. Harris had a very strong arm, but struggled with his accuracy throughout his career. As a result, he usually ended up splitting time with another QB on the teams that he played for: Dennis Shaw, with the Bills, J.Hadl, R.Jaworski and P.Haden with the Rams. For the Bills, the emergence of Dennis Shaw, who beat out the inconsistent Harris and was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1970, made Harris expendable and led to his being traded to LA, where he made it to the Pro Bowl in 1974, but then was quickly beaten out for the starting job again by Pat Haden, who led the Rams to their first Super Bowl appearance.

Before his departure for LA, however, with Harris at QB, as has been noted, the Bills also became the first NFL team to have four African-American starters in their backfield on offense.

While Harris and Briscoe had short careers with the Bills and Harris quickly lost the starting QB job to a white QB (Shaw), it must be noted that the Bills were the first team in American pro football to draft an African-American QB intending to have him become their starting QB and to give a black QB a fair opportunity to compete for the starting QB job on a NFL team. It should also be noted that Doug Williams, the first African-American QB to be named Super Bowl MVP, upon winning that award, gave credit to James Harris for opening the door for him and for every other black QB in college football to play and start at the QB position in the NFL.

And, remember, this was done in 1969, the year after Martin Luther King was shot and there were "race riots", not only in Newark, NYC, LA, etc., but within the City of Buffalo (I know this because part of the rioting occurred on my street, right in front of the building that I grew up in!). Racial tensions were high. And, there would be teams in the NFL that would continue to "pass" on talented African-American QBs, like Warren Moon, for more than a decade because their owners, GMs and/or coaches did not think that African-Americans were smart, "saavy" or poised enough to play, let alone start at, QB in the NFL.

Say whatever you want about Ralph Wilson Jr. (hey, Bobby Moore, aka Ahmad Rashad, Briscoe and other players, especially in that era, left the Bills because Wilson WAS to cheap to pay them!), but none of this would have happened without Wilson's knowledge and consent. And, considering the times and the attitudes prevalent not only in the NFL, but in the society at large, it took considerable courage for Wilson and the Bills to be the first professional football team in the US to break what was then the unspoken, but widely acknowledged color barrier at the QB position, not just in pro football, but in major college football as well. And, you have to give Wilson and the Bills credit for doing that.

Finally, it should also be noted that Bills QB and, later WNY congressman, Jack Kemp led the white players in joining a boycott of an AFL All-Star game in the mid-1960s that was organized by their black colleagues when they discovered that, because the city hosting the game was still racially segregated, the African-American players invited to play in the game were being given different (and inferior) accomodations than the white players. With the white players, led by Kemp, joining the black players in refusing to play unless both black and white players were given the same accomodations and treatment, the AFL owners were forced to move the game from its original host city to another city. Kemp was not the only Bills player selected to play in that game--there were other Bills players, black and white, who participated in that threatened boycott. All of them--along with the other players who participated--deserve credit for taking a stand against racism at a time when it was still institutionalized in many parts of the country and it would have been easier for them not to have challenged it than it was for them to take a public stance against it.

Note to some of you younger fans: Just because someone may be an older, white male that does not necessarily mean that he accepts or ever accepted racism or that didn't fight against it or do what he could to try to help eliminate it. While racism still exists in this country and there are many folks (white and black and every shade in between) who are openly racist or more subtly prejudiced against people of another color, race or ethnicity (or religion, too), there have also been a lot of people--white folks, including men, too--who have stood up, fought against and sacrificed their careers and even lives to overcome and eliminate racism in the US.

Going back to the 1920s and 1930s, there have been white men who have publically joined with blacks (and others) to first bring an end to segregation and then to fight racism. There weren't a lot at first, but the fact that a white President, condemned racism and the KKK in an address to the nation and, then, signed a bill, passed by an overwhelmingly white Congress, putting and end to legal racism should tell you that there were and are a significant number of white men--my age (mid-50s), Ralph Wilson's age and even older--who aren't racists and oppose racism of any kind.

So, please, don't assume that because a guy might be old and white that he must necessarily be (or have been) a racist. Making such an assumption is, in its own way, racism.

[Confused]

interesting ltb

[Michael82]

:ill:
How about, sign him John! :snicker:

[henrybacker]

guessing noone got through that post..

[gr8slayer]

Tampa Tribune (http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/sports/comments/bucs-waiting-for-crumpler-to-be-freed/)


In addition to the Panthers and Bucs, the Tampa Tribune reports the Colts and Saints are showing interest in free agent Alge Crumpler. The Colts would be a surprise landing spot, as they're expected to apply the franchise tag to Dallas Clark and have a strong backup in Ben Utecht. The Saints make sense with Eric Johnson also a free agent. These teams must wait for Crumpler to officially hit the waiver wire before setting up visits.