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When Anquan Boldin was traded to the Baltimore Ravens for Baltimore's third and fourth round draft picks in exchange for Boldin and Arizona's fifth round draft pick in the 2010 draft there were mixed opinions, but more people than not agreed that Boldin would be better off starting fresh with a new contract and a new team. Boldin's contract situation, his hold outs, err I mean preseason hamstring problem, and his temper made it look like a trade was going to be best for both parties.
Arizona essentially picked up Andre Roberts (3rd - 88th overall) and O'Brien Schofield (4th - 130th overall) with their draft picks, but did Boldin really benefit from the trade?
More after the jump!
If the question is financially, then absolutely. Boldin got his payday, with a three year extension for $25M with $10M guarenteed. He has two years left on his current contract. But from a career perspective his numbers have been in decline, particularly in the TD department.
| Year | Team | GP | REC | YDS | AVG | LNG | TD | FD |
| 2007 | ARI | 12 | 71 | 853 | 12.0 | 44 | 9 | 43 |
| 2008 | ARI | 12 | 89 | 1,038 | 11.7 | 79 | 11 | 56 |
| 2009 | ARI | 15 | 84 | 1,024 | 12.2 | 44 | 4 | 49 |
| 2010 | BAL | 16 | 64 | 837 | 13.1 | 61 | 7 | 43 |
| 2011 | BAL | 14 | 57 | 887 | 15.6 | 56 | 3 | 44 |
Is it the player, is it the QB, or is it just the system? Boldin's numbers in Baltimore look similar to 2007 when the Arizona Cardinals had a QB carousel with Leinart, Warner, Rattay, and even Tim Hasselbeck for one snap.
System? An easy case for blaming the system is the way Baltimore uses Ray Rice. Endzone = Ray Rice.
QB? Flacco puts up numbers and spreads the ball around, especially to Ray Rice.
The questions are; Is Boldins punishing play style finally catching up with him? Is he just in the wrong system? And/Or was Arizona smart to trade him when they did?