You and I tend to gauge these things differently, and while I still contend that silly catch against South Florida last season was one of the best, given the situation, I’ve ever seen, I’ll always admire Stedman Bailey for his answers to our questions.

There were a lot of those, this season especially, so it should probably be no surprise that he didn’t attach a lot of accessories to his decision. Once aware of records within reach, he was honestly concerned about where his stats might be next season and how that might affect his future — and his son’s future.

“I kind of felt it was only right to go out with them,” Bailey said. “I also think at this point my stock probably can’t get any higher and I knew I’d have a new quarterback next year and Tavon won’t be there on the field and defenses would probably key on me and try to just cover me and I could have my numbers go down from what I did this year.”

I don’t want to reward him for simply being honest, as rare as that trait can be, but I think we all appreciate that reply. We knew the score, we suspected he’d be leaving and we even predicted and understood the reasons. At the very least, that was his pitch on the way out, as opposed to a curveball that everyone would have been too smart to believe.