Bills trade Lee Evans to Ravens

[Smashmouth]

It tells you which is the generally more productive receiver and that has clearly been Mason.

Mason's average season is roughly 66 catches for about 850 yards and 6 TDs.

Evans' average year is 54 catches for about 850 yards and 6 TDs.

Mason has performed at or above his average for each of the last four years.

Evans has performed below his average year for each of the last two years.

Mason hasn't missed a game in nine years. Evans missed three games last year.

These recent trends suggest Mason would be the preference of most teams.

So Masons numbers are right where Santonios are and over a longer period of time, so, in your freakin world Im still wondering why we didnt pay Mason 10 mil this year. i mean we all know at this point age means nothing in the Jets Nation right ? PAY THE MAN.

[Jets Voice of Reason]

Weak? Really?

Mason will be 38 in January.

He was (is he still?) a top shelf player who had the benefit of playing on contending teams most of his career.

Evans 30, has played on a bottom 5 team his whole career yet somehow managed 6000 yds and 43 TDs in 7 yrs and has a much higher avg YPC than Mason.

Lets hope the Mason geezer still has some gas left in the tank for NYJ this season. I remain a skeptic.

Lets pull this thread up at seasons end and see what Evans did on a real team for the 1st time in his career.

I'm not sure who will have the better season at the end of the year, but what the hell does Mason being on a contending team matter? He's had horrible QBs until recently and the Ravens are good every year because of their defense. That's like saying Sanchez is a top 5 QB in the league because he's made two straight AFC Championship games. Looking at team success is a horrible way to evaluate individual production.

Evans also has had horrible QBs, but Fitzpatrick had a good year last year and he was outproduced by a WR on his own team.

If you're taking a 7-year snapshot, Mason has had 5777 yards and 36 TDs in the past seven seasons. It's not like Evans is some far and away better option than Mason, especially considering the fact that if you take their more recent histories (3 years or so) into account, Mason has been much more productive and consistent.

[RutgersJetFan]

You know, for a good couple of years, Mason and Eric Moulds were like the same guy. I mean you could have switched their jerseys and thrown them on the field, Moulds with McNair and Mason with the rotating band of Buffalo hamhocks and you really wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

This really has nothing to do with Lee Evans, or anything in this thread really, so I guess the moral of the story is that Baltimore would have been way better off trading for Eric Moulds minus like 8 years, or someone Mouldsish, with Moldsesque qualities. Would have provided some continuity at least.

[Kleckineau]

I'm not sure who will have the better season at the end of the year, but what the hell does Mason being on a contending team matter? He's had horrible QBs until recently and the Ravens are good every year because of their defense. That's like saying Sanchez is a top 5 QB in the league because he's made two straight AFC Championship games. Looking at team success is a horrible way to evaluate individual production.

Evans also has had horrible QBs, but Fitzpatrick had a good year last year and he was outproduced by a WR on his own team.

If you're taking a 7-year snapshot, Mason has had 5777 yards and 36 TDs in the past seven seasons. It's not like Evans is some far and away better option than Mason, especially considering the fact that if you take their more recent histories (3 years or so) into account, Mason has been much more productive and consistent.

Do you really not understand how being on a good team helps?

The 7 year production comparison seems like a reasonable analysis.

My only point here is that I would have prefered the NYJ signed a younger player not some 38 y/o question mark.

I am not a big fan of either guy.

FWIW, I wonder how much the fact that Evans torched the Ravens secondary last year for 3 tds in one game fed into their decision to sign him.

[Jets Voice of Reason]

Do you really not understand how being on a good team helps?

The 7 year production comparison seems like a reasonable analysis.

My only point here is that I would have prefered the NYJ signed a younger player not some 38 y/o question mark.

I am not a big fan of either guy.

FWIW, I wonder how much the fact that Evans torched the Ravens secondary last year for 3 tds in one game fed into their decision to sign him.

The age thing is valid. I was just pointing out that putting up numbers while being on a good team vs. bad team is faulty logic at best, especially when the Ravens are doing it year-by-year on defense and putrid QB play (prior to Flacco). Even if your record sucks, QB play and how your offense runs as a whole is a much better way to evaluate a wide receiver than whether the team wins a lot. Look at Brandon Lloyd. He put up monster numbers last year in a pass-happy system and a better QB, but the Broncos still sucked. Team success has so much little to do with individual WR success then how good your offense is, assuming your guys aren't just going through the motions/unmotivated.

Even if that's your argument with Evans, how can you possibly differentiate what is him in decline vs. him just going through the motions? It's just a nice excuse to explain off his declining numbers.

[SenorGato]

Coup by the Ravens. Evans has long been one of the most underrated players in the league, and he's a great compliment to Boldin. I get the feeling they're going to be in the Jets' way this season. It will come down to which young QB sucks less.

[Sperm Edwards]

It tells you which is the generally more productive receiver and that has clearly been Mason.

Mason's average season is roughly 66 catches for about 850 yards and 6 TDs.

Evans' average year is 54 catches for about 850 yards and 6 TDs.

Mason has performed at or above his average for each of the last four years.

Evans has performed below his average year for each of the last two years.

Mason hasn't missed a game in nine years. Evans missed three games last year.

These recent trends suggest Mason would be the preference of most teams.

Mason's average, since becoming a starter, is far more than that. Evans started from day 1. Becoming a starter earlier doesn't mean he was a better receiver when both were starters.

Even so, this isn't a who had the better career starting 5-10 years ago. Who is a better receiver right now is what matters. I think it depends on a team's needs. Baltimore badly needed speed. Sadly for them, Mason at 36 was still probably their fastest receiver. Boldin, Mason, Housh, Heap...you don't exactly need a CB with 4.3 speed to keep up with them. Baltimore made an offer to Mason and he turned them down. Then they looked to their next option in Cotchery and passed on him. Then they looked to Evans and decided that he was worth a 4th round pick and $5M/year for the next 2 seasons. Last year he was Dedric Ward: a speedy guy who's going to give you a handful of huge plays for the season - and almost all of those will come in 1-2 games - but outside those plays there's a dozen games where it's barely noticeable the guy is even playing.

Their acquisition of Evans isn't altogether unlike our acquisition of Lito Sheppard. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. In his favor, there isn't a defense in his division with a top-10 pass defense. Evans had two such opponents with Buffalo (Jets, Miami) last year. Though oddly enough, when the Pats had a bottom-5 pass defense it usually coincided with an off-season for Evans. Still, from a #2 WR's perspective, if I were Evans, I'd rather be facing Pittsburgh-Cleveland-Cincy than Jets-NE-Miami twice a year. Plus they play the 4 NFC West teams this year as opposed to the 4 NFC East teams he'd face with Buffalo (or the same if the Jets had made a move for him as some wish). Point is, he should do well there. But even though it won't stop people from doing so in December, you can't assume the yards/TDs he got with Baltimore all would have occurred here.

The Jets weren't re-signing Edwards to the contract he wanted and ended up taking less from SF. To replace our big-target receiver, we added an even bigger one in Plaxico who was better than Edwards at everything (other than gun safety I suppose) when he was last playing. Beyond that, they just needed another competent WR who could be relied upon to start for a handful of games if needed. They didn't feel Cotchery filled that need anymore and felt it was too risky to purely bank on that role being filled by a mid-round rookie with an abbreviated off-season, so they looked elsewhere and picked up Mason.

When the Jets throw their picks around, or rely on guys who haven't excelled for multiple seasons, they get criticized by their fans. When they don't throw their picks around, or pick up guys who were at their best multiple seasons ago, they also get criticized by their fans. Amazing.