You had to be there, but let me try to set the scene. It’s towards the end of the auction, Dallas Clark, who was being franchised, comes up for bid at $4. Bidding goes something like this… “$5″… “$6″… then out of now where Shane’s bid skips to “$17!”. The room erupted in chaos. QSN received numerous requests for details on this outlier event as Shane was on the phone unable to defend his actions. From Shane.
QSN: Can you tell QSN readers the background of your $17 Clark bid? The number was so high and so specific the speculation is you must have had a reason, it clearly wasn’t just a “stupid bid”. We all want to know the story.
Shane: My $17 bid on Clark can be explained this way: Clark scored more points than Anquan Boldin last year and only 16 points less than Larry Fitzgerald. However, Boldin went for $20 (to Duppstadt) and Fitz went for $25 (to Hans). When you look at it that way, Clark was a bargain at $17.
I was a little worried going into the auction that I was already overpaying for Fitz with the $22 franchise price because Leinart is certainly no Kurt Warner, Fitz will see more double coverage with Boldin gone, and the Cards will be running the ball a lot more with Beanie Wells. I had therefore decided that I wouldn’t pay $1 more for Fitz and would let him go if somebody bid him up. Enter Hans who bid $25Â for Fitz and gave me the #5 pick as well as a first round pick next year as compensation.
Before I let Fitz go, I had already picked up Colston at $17. There weren’t too many quality receivers left so when Ted matched my $22 bid for Randy Moss and QBC matched my $16 bid for Steve Smith – I knew I had few choices left to replace Fitz’ production. I knew Ian and Jim couldn’t defend Dallas Clark (best WR/TE available at that point in the auction). He had been franchised but I didn’t know exactly how much money QBC had left at the time – I thought they had maybe $15 left so I bid $17 to be on the safe side and of course I got him and sent Ian and Jim the #8 pick and a first rounder next year.
Because I let Fitz go to Hans at $25, I was able to also get Ben Tate ($2) and Thomas Jones ($6) in addition to Clark – all for the same price of Fitz. I think everyone got hung up on the fact that I paid that much for a TE, but Clark is really a top ten receiver and one of Peyton Manning’s favorite targets. Plus, I can now run the wishbone if I want. It was a no-brainer.
Shades