Was Kirkpatrick over Zeitler the right choice?

[Whatever]

(09-27-2017, 10:09 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: So far this year, Kirkpatrick's PFF rating is 41.9 which is Poor. He's ranked as the 91st best CB. Zeitler, in a new scheme with the Browns ranks at 72.5 which is Average. Last year he was rated as the #7 Guard in football.

IF we let Kirkpatrick walk, our CB's would have been: Jones/Jackson/Dennard/Shaw then Russell and Benwikere. Granted Dennard has been a disappointment up to this year...but this far this year he's at a 79.6. Jackson has a 77.4. Granted they're not facing a teams #1 WR like Kirkpatrick, but it seems they are capable.

Now the offensive line with Zeitler would have been: Ced/Boling/Bodine/Zeitler/Fisher...and Smith could be rotated with Fisher and Ced and TJ Johnson could be slid in at Center producing something like this: Smith/Boling/Johnson/Zeitler/Fisher.

Which scenario makes the team better?

Personally I think the dropoff from Kirkpatrick to the other CB's is less than from Zeitler to the other lineman. Especially allowing Johnson to slide in at Center.

More food for thought: Jones is a $7.6 million cap hit. Andre Smith makes $3.25 million. Combined you have nearly Zeitler's salary.

I take PFF with a large grain of salt.  Dre isn't amazing, but he's a solid starting CB that always seems to get shafted in PFF's rankings.

From a contract standpoint, Dre still has a much more favorable deal.  The median for a starting CB is $5.5 mil a year, and Dre is getting $10.5 mil a year, so almost double.  However,the median for a starting G is $3 mil a year, and Zeitler is getting $12 mil a year, four times that amount.  Guaranteed money is also a big factor, and Zeitler got $23 mil guaranteed compared to $12 mil for Dre.  That guaranteed money makes Zeitler a lot harder to get rid of.

At the end of the day, Zeitler is more overpaid for his position and it's harder to cut ties with him, so Dre is a better deal.  Being realistic, if we had Z instead of Dre, we would still be 0-3, so I'm not certain what the point we're driving at really is.