Tom Curran • E-mail

You hear it over and over from NFL general managers and decision-makers. The best trades are the ones where both sides benefit.

That’s why we saw Jason Taylor and Jeremy Shockey moved this week just before their former teams' camps opened and it's also why Brett Favre is still on his tractor in Kiln.

For Miami, the benefit of having a fresh, no-distractions start to the Sparano-Ireland-Parcells Era in South Florida was greater than keeping a 33-year-old possible Hall of Fame defensive end/linebacker on their roster.

Are the Dolphins a more talented team without Taylor? No. He and Ronnie Brown were the two best players they had. And the second-round pick in 2009 and the sixth-rounder in 2010 don't trump whatever on-field contributions Taylor would have made in Miami this year. But in starting new programs with the Patriots, Jets and Cowboys, Bill Parcells has always made the team's culture and attitude a priority. The offseason rancor between Taylor and the Dolphins higher-ups promised to be a situation visited over and over.

Questions about Taylor’s mood, mindset and how much buy-in he gave to the new program weren’t going to cease and – with the Dolphins headed toward another miserable season record-wise – those questions would have intensified. At some point, the candid Taylor was guaranteed to weigh in critically on the program. Not having him around will allow Miami to move forward more quickly. Taylor was an artifact of the Dolphins blue period and it was best for them to get him gone.

For Washington, Taylor fills the void left by Phillip Daniels, who went down for the year with a torn ACL on the first day of practice. And even though the Redskins have a new coach too, Jim Zorn, they have a team with playoff aspirations and a roster with veterans and leaders in place. Getting a still-potent player with tread left on his tires for a second and a sixth is a bargain. But that doesn't mean Washington "won" this trade. Both sides won.

The same thing goes for the deal that sent Shockey from the Giants to the Saints. As a fairly constant source of griping, Shockey’s obvious talents were ultimately overshadowed by the agitation he would inevitably cause when he wasn't playing enough, wasn’t getting the ball enough or was blocking too much.

The Giants have a very difficult road ahead of them in 2008. They played their best football down the stretch without Shockey out and won a Super Bowl title. Trying to defend that title will be harder than anything they dealt with in 2007 and having the distraction of Shockey’s annual backbiting would have made it that much harder. To GM Jerry Reese and head coach Tom Coughlin, having unity in the locker room was more important than having a second- and a fifth-round draft choice in 2009.

For New Orleans, which traded for Shockey, the risk is higher than the one in Washington. While Taylor may have an ego, he doesn’t seem to have the unfoundedly high regard for his own talent that Shockey seems to. It will be interesting to see what kind of balance Saints coach Sean Payton can strike with Shockey, who goes to the Saints with expectations and a desire to rejuvenate a career. Shockey’s a lot more likely to act out or speak out in New Orleans, but the Saints' need for a tight end with Shockey’s ability trumped that risk.

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Which brings us to Favre. He’s still capable of playing at a Pro Bowl level, but is the circus that will accompany his arrival be worth it for any team in the market for a quarterback?

“It’s just not worth the distractions,” said one AFC GM. “You have to take into account what (acquiring Favre) means to your offense after an offseason of OTAs and mini-camps and building camaraderie. And you have to think of it in terms of coming in new in August so I don’t know how to account for the learning curve, not only with Xs and Os but also with the receivers.”

Meanwhile, a team dealing for Favre also has to worry about what the Packers dealt with annually each spring: Favre’s wavering intentions.

“If you went out and traded for him, you’d have to look at it as being a minimum two-year deal and you have to be willing to be patient but with him in the spring how does any team know what he’s going to do. If you have extra picks, maybe. But you have to worry if it's a six-month investment and with his head, you just don’t know where it will be.

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