Finally after months of haggling, and
shenanigans, Joey Harrington was traded from the Detroit Lions to the Miami
Dolphins yesterday for an undisclosed "Conditional" draft choice in the 2007 NFL
draft.
Reports indicated that the trade was for Miami's 6th round pick that could be
bumped to a 5th if Harrington reaches a certain amount of playing time for the
Dolphins. How true this is has not been verified.
More than a month ago Miami offered the 6th round pick in the 2007 draft for
Harrington, and Lions GM Matt Millen rejected the initial offer as he wanted a
minimum 4th round pick in the 2006 draft.
After giving Harrington permission to
seek a trade, he worked out a restructured contract agreement with Miami that
would go into affect once traded.
A deal was worked out with Cleveland for a 4th
round pick during the 2006 draft, but before it was made official Harrington
told the Browns he would not report to camp for them, and he was only going to
play for Miami. Shortly there after Cleveland withdrew their trade offer.
After refusing to play in Cleveland, and not willing to restructure his contract
for any other team except Miami, The Lions organization filed a "Grievance"
against the Dolphins for tampering. Miami then withdrew their offer for
Harrington . Upon review the NFL determined there was no tampering as Harrington
was given permission by the Lions to seek a trade.
At this point in time it appeared Miami was content to wait for Harrington to be
released before June 15th when he was due a 4 million dollar roster bonus. After
reviewing the situation in Miami, head coach Nick Saban felt they needed
Harrington in camp as soon as possible. Projected starter Daunte Culpepper is
still recovering from injury, and may not be ready to go at the start of the
season.
At that point in time Miami re-entered trade negotiations with Detroit, and
apparently upped their offer from a maximum 6th round pick to a "conditional"
draft choice to be determined by the amount of playing time Harrington receives.
The Lions finally agreed and put the "Joey Harrington era" behind them.
Jon Kitna appears to be the front runner to
replace Harrington as the Lions starting quarterback, and Harrington will move
on and hope that with a fresh start to his career he can somehow outplay
Culpepper and gain the permanent starting job with the Dolphins who have not had
a "Franchise" quarterback since Dan Marino.
Culpepper was acquired for a 2nd round choice in
the 2006 draft while Harrington was acquired for an apparent 6th round choice in
the 2007 draft automatically making it an uphill climb for him to gain the
permanent starting job in there.
Harrington's four year career in Detroit was up and down featuring 2 head
coaches, a poor offensive scheme, injury prone wide receivers, poor offensive
line play, and no running game.
He was a player that didn't fit the system when
he was drafted to run his entire career. The west coast offense system being run
by the Lions was dependant on a quarterback who could complete a high percentage
of his passes.
This was never Harrington's strong suit.
Of the 17 first round quarterbacks taken from
2002 to present, only one was a worse fit for the Lions "Vanilla" west coast
system. That quarterback was Kyle Boller.
Harrington's college completion rating was a meek
55.2%. Boller's was an abysmal 47.8%. The best of the 17 was Phillip Rivers who
finally ascends to the starting role in San Diego, checking in at 67.1%. That's
more than 10 % greater than Harrington was able to accomplish, and he was still
available at #2 the year the Lions selected Charles Rogers.
Player-Team-College Comp. %
1. Phillip Rivers, S.D. (67.1)
2. Alex Smith, S.F. (66.3)
3. Ben Roethlisberger, PIT (65.5)
4. Byron Leftwich, JAX (65.1)
5. Matt Leinart, ARI (64.8)
6. Jason Campbell, WAS (64.4)
7. Aaron Rodgers, GB (63.8)
8. David Carr, HOU (62.8)
9. Vince Young, TEN (62.2)
10. Rex Grossman, CHI (60.9)
11. Eli Manning, N.Y. G. (60.8)
12. Carson Palmer, CIN (59.1)
13. Patrick Ramsey NYJ (drafted by WAS)(58.9)
14. J.P. Loseman, BUF (57.7)
15. Jay Cutler, DEN ( 56.5)
16. Joey Harrington, DET (55.2)
17. Kyle Boller, BAL (47.8)
In summary, Harrington's career in Detroit was doomed to fail. He had coaches
and players who didn't believe in him, as well as all the reasons listed above.
Only time with another team will tell whether Matt Millen made one of the
biggest mistakes in franchise history by drafting Harrington #3 overall, or by
not putting their faith in him and trading him away.
