If you’re in the market for outrage, you should shop elsewhere. I think releasing Roddy White is the right move. It’s the first move the Falcons have made of late that I’ve actually liked
I know, I know. He was a very good player for a very long time, the best receiver (pre-Julio) in franchise history. He played hard. He made tough catches. He was money on third down. He said amusing things. He was fun to be around. Alas, none of the above constitutes a reason to keep him. The salary-capped NFL can be a cold, hard place, but if you want to win you’d better be a cold, hard organization.
If you want to grouse that the Falcons have no heart … well, go right ahead. But facts — those pesky things — might get in the way. Here's this damning analysis from Bill Barnwell of ESPN: "No starting receiver drew fewer targets than White, who was thrown the ball on just 11.7 percent of the routes he ran in 2015. And the only wideouts in the league who averaged fewer yards after the catch than White were DeAndre Hopkins and Pierre Garcon."
We can gripe that dumb ol’ Kyle Shanahan didn’t get the ball to White, but think about that: You’re an offensive coordinator, which means you’re judged on making first downs and scoring touchdowns. If you thought White could further those endeavors, wouldn’t you make it a point of emphasis — going all Keyshawn on you — to get him the darn ball?
Those who thought the White of 2015 was capable of being the White of 2010 were gazing through — going all “The Way We Were” now — misty water-colored memories. He was no longer that player. He was a 34-year-old wideout who couldn’t do much with the ball even if thrown the darn thing. He caught 43 passes last season, or 2.7 per game. He scored one touchdown.
And if wasn’t as if Shanahan broke out the single-wing. Matt Ryan finished fifth in the NFL with 4,591 yards passing. Only 506 of those yards — 11 percent of the total — were gained by White. This from a man who, from 2007-12, had six consecutive seasons of 1,153 yards or better. And it wasn’t as if Ryan had spent his career looking off White: They’d been together since 2008. They’d done great things.
If White wasn’t getting the ball, it was because he wasn’t getting open. If you’re a receiver who can’t get open, it’s time to seek alternate employment. Over the first five games, all of which the Falcons won, White caught a total of eight passes. He used to catch eight balls on a slow day.
To say that Ryan only had eyes for Julio Jones is again to ignore the numbers. Tight end Jacob Tamme and running back Devonta Freeman caught more passes for more yards than White. Heck, Leonard Hankerson caught 18 passes over those first five games, and the Falcons liked him so much they cut him in midseason.
On a January conference call, coach Dan Quinn seemed to suggest the Falcons would keep White. Said Quinn: “He’s one of the guys that I feel strongly (about) in terms of the competitor and the leader and the teammate (he is). … I love all the stuff that he stands for as a player.”
Hearing this, I cringed. What a player represents makes little difference if he can’t, you know, play. In salary and a making-the-roster bonus, White was scheduled to earn $6.1 million in 2016. That’s a heap of money for a guy who scored one touchdown. That’s money — some of it, anyway — that can go a ways toward finding younger receivers.
And there’s this: A big-name player who’s not playing/contributing invariably becomes a big-name distraction. That happened a bit over those first five games, when we media types lined up to ask White why he wasn’t catching passes. Imagine if he’d gotten benched. One thing the man has never been is reticent.
To keep White just because he used to be a great player would have been to ignore the first rule of roster-building: Get the best players you can find. The Falcons can find better receivers than what White had become. Time was, he was among the very best in the business. That time, sad to say, was yesterday.
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