Saturday Buyer Recap - A Heads Up Quad Twofer!

Welcome to my first buyer recap post in the Saturday format!  I'm thinking I'll sort the post by acquisition method (i.e. Ebay, COMC, from a member, etc.) and that should be a good way to do it.  I also want to mention sellers since I tend to fail to do that - it's great to give credit where credit is due!  I'm also gonna detail how much I spent on each item/site...I like how Fuji does that on his site so I'm gonna steal it!

Total spent this post (all on Ebay): $7.01

Bengals Heads Up Quad: $4.10

This card was actually purchased from jillymilly525 on June 4th, so I've been pretty lazy about posting it up on here.  I saw the patch on the front and couldn't not snatch this up for under a fiver.  What follows is your standard quad card write up on the relative merits of each player:

Scott Mitchell, the owner of the nice two colored patch here, finished off his career with those 2001 Bengals.  He began his NFL life as a 4th round pick by the Miami Dolphins, which meant he was the guy who got to hold a clipboard on the sideline while Dan Marino threw touchdowns.  But in 1993, Mitchell's third year in the league, Marino was hurt and Mitchell got to start 7 games.  He looked good enough in those games for Detroit to sign him in the offseason and name him their starting quarterback, a role he would hold for parts of the next five seasons.

Mitchell struggled in his first year in Detroit, so much so that Lomas Brown supposedly missed a block on purpose that led to a Mitchell injury.  He bounced back quite well though in 1995, throwing 32 touchdowns to just 12 interceptions and leading his team to the playoffs.  That would be the apex of his time in Detroit though, as Mitchell threw only 37 touchdowns to 34 interceptions over the next three seasons, eventually losing his starting job to 1998 rookie Charlie Batch.  From there Mitchell spent three years as a spot starter with the Ravens (1999) and Bengals (2000-01) before retiring from the league.

Curtis Keaton is a guy who I thought had a much longer career - he certainly had enough autograph and jersey cards anyways!  He was a 4th round pick by the Bengals in 2000, and spent two years in Cincinnati before a final one with the Saints in 2002.  Keaton didn't accumulate a ton of stats in his three years in the league - his high for carries in a season was 12 (for just 19 yards), and he had one reception total.  He did return kicks during his two Bengals years though, 48 total for 991 yards.  He's a guy I remember fondly from Madden 2004 - he was a decent third down back given his speed.

Brad St. Louis was a 7th round pick of the Bengals in 2000, and unbeknownst to me before this post, he was actually a long snapper for the entirety of his NFL career.  His TE position is a label only - St. Louis never had an offensive stat during his tenure in the league.

That being said, while St. Louis seemingly must've been a decent snapper given that he last 10 years in the league, he's well known for some pretty terrible snaps over the years.  A blown snap in the 2005 AFC playoffs led to a Steelers touchdown in a game the Steelers eventually won.  A blown snap in 2006 cost the Bengals a game and, eventually, the playoffs.  And then six blown snaps in 2009 led to a city-wide backlash and St. Louis' eventual release.  It's always such a shame with long snappers - one of those positions where you only notice 'em if they mess up.  Kudos to the guy for sticking around as long as he did though!

This post opened eyes in a few ways, as the last guy, Nick Williams, a 5th round pick in 1999, isn't a guy I had ever heard of.  That's because he changed his name to Nick Luchey in August of 2002 to honor his father and grandfather.  Luchey spent his first four years in the league in Cincinnati before two in Green Bay and a final victory lap back in Cincinnati.  I'm guessing there were a lot of special teams in his NFL time, as he only garnered 17 starts at FB in those seven years, and average of a little over two a year.  He did grab two touchdowns in 2002 though, which is two more than St. Louis and Keaton ever scored during their NFL careers.

Who wins the card?  It's gotta be Mitchell.  While Luchey had those two touchdowns, Mitchell actually had 11 rushing touchdowns over the course of his career (not to mention all the quarterbacky-stuff too).

New York Giants Quad: $2.99
The other card I grabbed this week is a New York Giants quad from the same set, which came with free shipping from turn2ltd on July 28th.  He actually has a few lots you guys might like, including:

a HOFer relic lot
a giant 60 card lot
and a wedding dress

Cool beans, amirite?

Anyways, the card has no great patches unfortunately, but at under $3 shipped it was just too good a deal to pass up.  So on to the write ups of one of the better/more underrated quads in the set (remember, the Giants were a Super Bowl team in 2000).

First up is Kerry Collins, the 1995 Panthers first round pick who nearly drank his career away before going to rehab and turning things around.  Collins spent three and a half rough years in Carolina (the defense was good but he was not great) before a partial season in New Orleans and the aforementioned rehab.  The 1999 Giants, who were starting Kent Graham at QB, took a flier on Collins as a backup (after all, he did have a Pro Bowl nod to his credit from 1996).  Collins ended up starting 7 games in 1999, and he was even better in 2000 when he played all 16 games and had a career best 22 touchdowns versus only 13 interceptions to help the Giants to that Super Bowl.  Collins was pretty good the next two years, but a 13:16 TD:INT ratio in 2003 led the Giants to pass the reins to Kurt Warner/Eli Manning, and Collins matriculated west to Oakland.

Collins' two years in Oakland which actually pretty decent statistically - he threw for 20+ touchdowns both years, and had the 2nd and 3rd best yards per game mark of his career.  But a lot of that likely had to do with playing from behind, and given the team's terrible record Oakland moved on (to Andrew Walter/Aaron Brooks) in 2006.  Collins went to Tennessee, where he started 32 games over five years as the backup to Vince Young.  2008 was especially great, as Collins, despite only 12 touchdowns over 15 starts, made the Pro Bowl as an alternate at age 36.  That would've been it for Collins, but in 2011 The Indianapolis Colts lost Peyton Manning for the year and, sensing the need for a veteran presence, they signed Collins.  He went 0-3 in 3 starts with a completion percentage under 50% as a 39 year old and lost his job to Curtis Painter, a rough end to a nice, long career.

Tiki Barber was a 2nd round pick in the 1997 draft.  It was a fantastic draft for underrated RBs, as Corey Dillon, picked 6 picks after Barber, is the rushing leader for the class, followed by Warrick Dunn, a mid teens pick in the 1st round, then Barber.  Barber brought a lot more to the receiving game that those guys though, so there's an argument to be made that he was the best RB of the 1997 draft.

Barber was fairly quiet his first three years in the league due to under utilization - he returned kicks and punts, but otherwise just had 11 starts at RB with decent numbers.  Then came the Super Bowl season, where Tiki received 12 starts and responded with a 1,000 yard rushing effort.  In 2001 the Giants again underutilized him, but from 2002 to 2006 Tiki was finally given the starting job and he responded with 5 straight 1,000 yard seasons along with three Pro Bowl nods and two years leading the league in yards from scrimmage.  The only thing that stopped Tiki was retirement - much like Barry Sanders and Robert Smith before him, Tiki decided to retire while he was still young, despite his high level of play.

The Giants used the 11th pick of the 1st round in 2000 on Ron Dayne, and had they known what Barber could do they may have spent that pick elsewhere.  Dayne is 5th on the all time rushing list for his class, but he's behind 6th round pick Mike Anderson and barely ahead of 3rd round pick FB/RB hybrid Reuben Droughns, which is hardly what the Giants expected when they grabbed him so early.  Dayne rushed for 770 in his rookie year (the Super Bowl year) with 5 touchdowns, but just a meager 3.4 yards per carry.  He then saw less and less yards (and playing time) over the next four years before moving on to the Denver Broncos in 2005.  Dayne actually seemed to like Denver's system, and gained a career high 5.1 yards per carry in his one season there.  He was named starter going into the 2006 season, but as the preseason wore on Dayne fell down the depth chart and was released.  The Texans picked him up the next day and Dayne moved on to Houston for the lastt two years of his career.  He gained a respectable 4 yards per carry and scored 11 touchdowns over 14 starts with Houston, but they were not interested in bringing him back after the season and so Dayne was forced into retirement.  Shame too - those last three years statistically looked really good, and Dayne wasn't quite yet 30, maybe he could've put something together.

The last guy here is Amani Toomer, a 2nd round pick in the 1996 draft.  This was a really strong WR draft (Keyshawn Johnson, Terrell Owens, Joe Horn, Terry Glenn, Marvin Harrison, Mushin Muhammad, Eric Moulds, Bobby Engram, Eddie Kennison) but Toomer held his own and finished his career 6th in receptions, yards, and touchdowns among this group.  His entire 13 year career took place in New York, so he not only was part of the 2000 Super Bowl losing squad, but also the 2007 team that beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl.  Toomer definitely peaked from 1999 to 2003, where his five year range was 63-82 receptions, 1054-1343 yards, and 5-8 touchdowns, making him a model of consistency.  From 2004 onwards Toomer became a smaller part of the offense, but he still finished his career with nearly 10,000 yards receiving and 54 touchdowns, which makes it fairly remarkable that he never saw the Pro Bowl once during his career.

Who wins the card? It has to be Tiki Barber.  Kerry Collins and Amani Toomer definitely deserve mention, and Ron Dayne deserves some credit for his final three years, but Barber is a Giants legend so he wins.