SAC’D News - McGahee fits the bill, elects to stay in Buffalo

[Preds]

Pitbulls GM officially announces 4 key signings
Hamburg, NY

GM Mike SantaLucia continues to be unpredictable. A week ago, SantaLucia shocked the league with a late bid devoting over 26% of their cap to LaDainian Tomlinson. That was just a ruse, or so we thought, as SantaLucia has repeatedly stated that he felt the FA prices were out of whack. Yet a day ago, the Pitbulls GM shocked the league again, with a late bid on emerging star RB Willis McGahee for a whopping 3,700 cb’s. This time the bidding was real, and intentional.

After rushing for over 1100 yards, 13 TD’s, and 169 yards receiving in only 10 starts last season, it’s fair to say McGahee has a bright future. And that future will continue in the same place it started. Buffalo, NY. The Pitbulls are ecstatic to keep Willis in Buffalo where he belongs.

Apparently, SantaLucia used the Tomlinson offer as a setup to make others think it was time to stick him with an overpaid contract on a player, in this case McGahee. But according to SantaLucia, in McGahee he feels he’s worth every penny. Especially in a marketplace where the salaries for the top 10 RB’s average over 3300 and climbing, with the top 3 averaging 4400. In a morning telephone statement, the Pitbulls GM put it this way:

If you view Willis as a top 3 back, as we do, then you could say we’re getting a bargain at 700 below the top 3 average. In fact, Willis is being paid less than 400 above the top 10 average, and few will dispute he’s a top 10 back. Look at most drafts around the country, McGahee is widely considered the 2nd or 3rd best back on the board. We’re extremely pleased to be able to keep him in Buffalo, especially at that price.

The Team also announced 3 other signings. Staying on the offensive side of the ball, the team has signed young QB Rex Grossman for an inexpensive 370 cb’s.

Rex has a lot of potential, and we think he makes a great #3. Considering he’s being paid less than 2005 Draft prospect Alex Smith, and already has 2 years under his belt, we think we’ve secured ourselves a fine young QB

stated SantaLucia. Grossman is coming off a season ending injury from week 3 of last year, and it remains to be seen just how effective he can be, but he has some new tools to work with in Chicago with 2004’s #1 WR Muhsin Muhammad a new target, and RB Cedric Benson in the backfield along with Thomas Jones. This signing has some risk, but equally as much reward.

On the defensive side of the ball, the club added 2 hard hitting safeties in Adam Archuleta and Robert Griffith. Archuleta is coming off a disappointing injury riddled season, but he still finished #23 in SAC’D scoring, and looks to have fully recovered from the back ailments that plagued him a year ago. When healthy, Archuleta is one of the best in the business, having showed that just a couple years ago when he was the #1 or 2 DB in most scoring systems.

Adam is still young, and has a bright future. 665’s cb’s for what we feel is a top 10 DB is well worth it in our opinion

stated the GM. At just 305 cb’s, the signing of Safety Robert Griffith has to be considered a bargain. Griffith finished 6th overall in SAC’D DB scoring a year ago with 221 points. He’s moving on to a new system in Arizona, and a shift to the less lucrative Free Safety position, however, the club still expects him to contribute as a solid DB3 if not DB2.

Griffith is the experienced vet every secondary needs.

stated SantaLucia.

He leads by example with smart, physical, hard hitting play. Moving over to the pass happy NFC West should suit his talents well and give him plenty of opportunities to produce for us at a high level.

Combined, the 4 signings will eat up about 25% of the clubs cap, but the GM still appears to be aggressively shopping the QB and WR markets, with recent bids on QB’s Michael Vick and Brett Favre, as well as WR’s Muhsin Muhammad and Marcus Robinson. Regardless of whom the future signings may be, one thing is certain, the Pitbulls have started off with a rock solid core, and this team will have some bite.

-Rhett Zoan