Turley's trade value dropping?

I guess he's finally lost patience with the Saint's front office.

I'm very intrigued by the fire & passion that he brings to the game. Sure, he sometimes spouts off without thinking, but I believe that a young team like ours could use a vocal leader like him. Turley reminds me of Carl Mauck, with more fire & talent. I'm especially impressed with the pride he shows in protecting his QB.

With Boselli's injury taking so long to heal, I have serious doubts as to whether or not he'll ever play again. With Turley, you could play him at left or right tackle & left or right guard. If Boselli is able to return, you could slide Turley over to right tackle, Wiegert over to right guard, & Pitts to left guard. If Boselli can't return, Turley would play left tackle, Pitts at left guard, Wiegert at right tackle, & Schau at right guard. Finally, if Boselli is able to play at a diminished level (due to his shoulder not being completely healed), we could move him to the left guard position, which would take some of the outside torque off of his left shoulder. Okay, enough with the lineup possibilities.

After reading this article, I wonder, with the embarrassment the front office is getting, if the Saints would accept a swap of second round picks & another late round pick (4-7) as compensation for Turley? Our's is #35 & their's is somewhere around #49. With the 49th pick, we could select McGahee, before Oakland does.

Anyway, here's the article I'm referring to. Notice that there are no quotes from his teammates. With the media's love for controversy, could it be that Turley's telling the truth?

http://www.nola.com/saints/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1047797712100512.xml

Turley's talk may be hurting his trade value

Sunday March 16, 2003
Jeff Duncan


Kyle Turley was married Saturday in City Park.

Meanwhile, the Saints' hulking left tackle is going through a painful and well-publicized divorce from his employer of the last five years, the New Orleans Saints.

After weeks of silence, Turley finally vented his frustrations during a March 7 radio interview with WWL AM-870's Kaare Johnson. Throughout the 45-minute diatribe, Turley lashed out at the Saints, General Manager Mickey Loomis and even questioned Coach Jim Haslett.

He followed with a similar rant on ESPN Radio's The Dan Patrick Show earlier this week.

A sampling of Turley's invective:

-- On himself: "As a professional, I feel that I am at the top of my game. . . . I've proven myself at every step of this game and at every level. I've played left guard, left tackle, right guard, and I've played it at the caliber that is deserved of the Pro Bowl every year."

-- On Loomis: "What you have, in Mickey Loomis' case, is a bean counter playing general manager. . . . Mickey Loomis does not do a very good job of maintaining a relationship with the players on the team. I really feel, and a lot of players do, that he really doesn't know enough about football to understand what it takes to put together a football team and keep it together."

-- On his relationship with teammates: "It's ridiculous that people even insinuate that my teammates view me as a distraction. The only way that that could have possibly have gotten started is through rumor. There is no merit to that whatsoever. Every one of my teammates would love to have me on their team.

-- On Deuce McAllister: "Deuce is going to be one of the best running backs there ever was in the NFL if he can stay healthy. I'm excited for him and his career. I have the utmost respect for him. I would love to block for him for the next 10 years. But unfortunately, I am not going to have that opportunity."

-- On Aaron Brooks: "As far as I'm concerned, Aaron Brooks is a tremendous quarterback. If his arm comes back healthy, then he will be a great quarterback. I thought his arm actually probably was a little bit hurt toward the end of the season. But that's a coaching decision. Aaron went out there and tried to win games for us. Coach Haslett knew and everybody could kind of see that his arm was not up to what it was at the beginning of the season."

-- On the Saints organization: "It just doesn't seem like this team cares about continuing to keep the players that it needs. . . . Key payers like Joe Johnson, La'Roi Glover, Willie Roaf, Ricky Williams, Chris Naeole, they just seem to be weeded out when it comes to anteing up, and it's unfortunate."

-- On the tumultuous offseason: "They (the Saints) are bad-mouthing me in the media, saying that I'm a distraction. I am nothing but, and for them to say that about me in the media is very damaging to our relationship . . . to the point where . . . it's irreparable. They have shown nothing but a lack of respect and a lack of loyalty."

-- On the future: "I'm really looking forward to moving on, getting somewhere that I can feel really good about, knowing that the owner and the general manager on down to coaching staff really cares about what's going on with their team and their key players. I'm extremely excited about the chance that I have to go out and start over, because it has just snowballed into a bit of a nightmare for me, really."

When contacted Friday, Turley declined to comment further, maintaining a two-year silence on speaking to representatives of this newspaper.

Loomis and Haslett also declined opportunities to respond to Turley's comments.

The harangue no doubt soothed Turley's peace of mind, but it also might have severely damaged his trade prospects.

The NFL is, above all things, a league of control freaks. The last thing owners, general managers and coaches want on their team is a loose cannon firing unsupervised shots, no matter how talented the player.

This week Saints officials said the market for Turley slowed to a trickle. Stay tuned.