Antoine Bethea...

[cmgww]

So I've read a few NFL articles tonight, and a lot of them mention Antoine Bethea as having a great season and getting snubbed by the Pro Bowl. Bill Simmons had Bethea in his All Pro team and jabbed the Colts (as always with Simmons, noted Pats lover) with the statement "ask Colts fans how much they'd like to have him back, after they stop crying."

So, should we have kept him? I know he got a lot, probably overpaid by SF (4 years, $21 million) but he did have a solid season, especially on a 9ers team that fell apart down the stretch. Also, I know we couldn't have predicted Howell going down so early. Still, after nearly everyone said he was "done" here...he goes out and has a great season.

I sure do know we could use him right about now. Always made the tackle, was decent in coverage (better than Landry for sure)...thoughts? I know I'm playing the hindsight game here, but I'm bored.

[sfergson727]

Bethea was one of our most reliable players and very popular with the fan base.  I was sorry to see him go, personally.  We'll not see him in a Colt uniform again, but perhaps he'll make the ring of honor someday.

[Gavin]

I'd argue Adams has been better this year then Bethea this and Adams has certainly been better this year then Bethea was last year....And Bethea did not do much as a Colts his last year, I expect to see him in the RoH one day however

[Superman]

No.

And I don't think people said he was done, just that he was bad in coverage over the past two seasons. And he was.

I'm glad he had a good year. But no, we shouldn't have kept him.

[NewColtsFan]

Well....

 

We tried to keep him.    We wanted him back.

 

We made him an offer,  but the 49ers made him a better one and we chose not to match/exceed it.  

 

So, we lost him.    But we did want him back.    Just not at any price.

 

As to to Howell,  it was not a surprise to me that he went down early.    He had a long history of dents and dings at Stanford.   That has always been his problem.    He's productive when he's on the field -- he just wasn't on the field as much as was needed at Stanford.     And now the same thing is happening with Indy....

[Derakynn]

Bethea wasn't good at all last year. Good for making the tackle after allowing the catch maybe. Adams has been far better than what we would have and did get out of Bethea. I liked Bethea. But he wasn't all that good here in his last year (or few years). 

[Superman]

Well....

 

We tried to keep him.    We wanted him back.

 

We made him an offer,  but the 49ers made him a better one and we chose not to match/exceed it.  

 

So, we lost him.    But we did want him back.    Just not at any price.

 

As to to Howell,  it was not a surprise to me that he went down early.    He had a long history of dents and dings at Stanford.   That has always been his problem.    He's productive when he's on the field -- he just wasn't on the field as much as was needed at Stanford.     And now the same thing is happening with Indy....

 

I don't remember us making him an offer... ?

[Gavin]

I don't remember us making him an offer... ?

I was sitting here thinking the same thing while trying to look for any facts of that 

[RockThatBlue]

Bethea wasn't good at all last year. Good for making the tackle after allowing the catch maybe. Adams has been far better than what we would have and did get out of Bethea. I liked Bethea. But he wasn't all that good here in his last year (or few years).

Agreed. He used to be really good in pass coverage his first several years, but he was burned a ton the last two or three years. He was a darn good tackler though, I'll give him that.

[RockThatBlue]

I was sitting here thinking the same thing while trying to look for any facts of that

I think NCF has him mixed with somebody else. I'm nearly positive we didn't offer him. Or if we did I didn't hear about it or somehow missed it.

[NewColtsFan]

I don't remember us making him an offer... ?

 

Well...    that's an assumption on my part.    But we were very public in our desire to retain him.

 

So, to me it makes sense that we at least made an offer.  

 

Not sure I can't think of a reason to publicly say we want a player back and then NOT make an offer?

 

I appreciate that no offer was made public,  but wouldn't you think that we did?

[Superman]

Well...    that's an assumption on my part.    But we were very public in our desire to retain him.

 

So, to me it makes sense that we at least made an offer.  

 

Not sure I can't think of a reason to publicly say we want a player back and then NOT make an offer?

 

I appreciate that no offer was made public,  but wouldn't you think that we did?

 

Yeah, I guess we don't know what happened privately. I just was always under the impression that we were going to move on, and pretty much as soon as free agency opened up, he was a Niner. I assumed no offer was made. If there was an offer, I bet it wasn't anything considerable. And I don't remember anything reported about an offer. 

[HarryTheCat]

Well....

 

We tried to keep him.    We wanted him back.

 

We made him an offer,  but the 49ers made him a better one and we chose not to match/exceed it.  

 

So, we lost him.    But we did want him back.    Just not at any price.

 

As to to Howell,  it was not a surprise to me that he went down early.    He had a long history of dents and dings at Stanford.   That has always been his problem.    He's productive when he's on the field -- he just wasn't on the field as much as was needed at Stanford.     And now the same thing is happening with Indy....

I'll bet that offer didn't look so good after he saw the bite that California state income tax takes out of his game checks.  In his tax bracket the marginal rate is 12.3%. 

[BullsColtsFan1]

I loved Bethea and I wish we could have kept him

[dw49]

The "talk"  from Grigson was that they wanted to keep Bethea. Most of us and the beat writers figured that his recent play and age didn't male him a priority considering other "holes " to fill. I think if Grigson had made no offer , he or his agent probably would have leaked it out that Indy made zero offer. I would guess they made an offer that was considerable less that what Bethea was hoping to get. So probably both sides knew he would not be returning to Indy when FA started and he just grabbed the SF offer as it was good many and a desirable landing spot, So there was probably a "low ball" offer and both sides just quickly moved on. Where as with Freeney for instance , we knew there was no offer.

[Gavin]

Yeah, I guess we don't know what happened privately. I just was always under the impression that we were going to move on, and pretty much as soon as free agency opened up, he was a Niner. I assumed no offer was made. If there was an offer, I bet it wasn't anything considerable. And I don't remember anything reported about an offer. 

His first interview with a Niner if I remember right it was brought

[GoColts8818]

I don't remember us making him an offer... ?

i could be wrong but I think i remember Grigson saying they wanted to keep Bethea but money just didn't work out when he was asked about him at one point. I remember being surprised that they wanted to keep him because I thought they had just decided to move on from him.