buffan031

I'm glad we have made some decent cuts the last few days, Nick Barnett, George Wilson and Terrence McGee may have all been great lockerroom guys but their play wasn't great on the field. Contacting Fitzpatrick about restructuring his contract was good to. Lets just hope he is willing to restructure so it opens a little more cap space that can help us sign Levitre and Byrd. The next things that we should do right now for a sucessful offseason is: Release Chris Kelsay- This guy is not worth the $5.5 Million a year that we have been paying since he has been here and i don't know how he manages to make it through cuts every year. We keep saying that we keep him around because he's a good role model for the young players and a good locker room guy. We all know however, that doesn't translate to better play on the field. Plus he is going on 34 and he's nothing more than a situational player right now. I have just seen an article on rotoworld that says that if we release him we can save another $4.9 Million in cap space. This should be a no brainer to our organization. Release Brad Smith- Another guy that is stealing money from us. He is making $4 million a year to come in and run 2 or 3 wild cat plays a game which is a complete waste. This should be another no brainer cut for the organization. After doing these two things and if Fitzpatrick takes a pay cut then our main focus should be Resigning Levitre and Byrd and locking both guys up long term. We can also sign David Nelson to a one year $1.3 million restricted free agent tender and try to work him out long term as well and have our slot guy for many years to come. Once they are locked up long term there are 3 free agent acquisitions that i think we need to go after. Dwayne Bowe: I think the receiving crop in free agency this year is just to talented to be passing up on one of these guys. It's not very often that you see 5 legit guys at one position that is a major position of need for a football team in free agency, which is why i believe we have to sign one of them as opposed to drafting one. That being said I think Bowe is the main guy to go after. He's a deep threat, can catch the underneath routes as well and he is the biggest and most physical of all the receivers. I do think however, that he has a greater chance of resigning with the Chiefs now that Andy Reid is there. Greg Jennings is to injury prone and isn't much of a deep threat which is what we need. He is also a little older than the other receivers. He reminds me of a slightly better Stevie. Mike Wallace i think is just going to command way to much money and he isn't a complete receiver. He is mainly a deep threat and seems to drop the ball a little to much sometimes. If Bowe resigns in KC or signs with another team then i think we just focus on drafting a receiver instead at some point in the draft. Paul Kruger: It's been said that under pettine that we are probably going to be running a hybrid 4-3 and 3-4 defense and linebacker is probably our biggest need on the team right now. They are the quarterback of the defense and we have nobody noteworthy at the position now that Barnett is gone. Nigel Bradham, Arthur Moats and Kelvin Sheppard are not game changing linebackers and often have very little to no impact on our defense at all. Paul Kruger is a guy that may be available from Baltimore. He was a solid player for them last year as he had his best season with 9 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery and one pick. He also had 7.5 sacks in the post season. This is a guy that can add more pressue along with Mario, Marcell and Kyle to help our defense tremendously. Fred Davis: I was going to go corner here because i feel that is also a huge position of need right now. The best corner on the market next to Charles Woodson who would be nothing more than a stop gap for us do to his age, is Brent Grimes who has been strong with the falcons although he was hurt last season. TE isn't a major need for us and it's a position we may just draft a guy for. However, Fred Davis is a guy I like a lot. He is a pass catching tight end and has been solid since he has been in washington. He had a breakout year in 2011 when he had Rex Grossman tossing him the ball and although his production went down a little bit last season with RG III before getting a season ending injury, he is still very solid. Scott Chandler isn't a great tight end and his upside is minimal. He is also going into the last year of his contract. I'm not saying to release Chandler but keep him as a #2 tight end and do a lot of two tight end sets. Fred Davis is the pass catching tight end we have so desperately needed for so long. He should also be relatively cheap to sign We then need to obviously focus on the draft. I think our first two rounds are simple. LB and QB and exactly in that order. There is no quarterback in the draft this year like last year and any of them would be a stretch to take in the top 10. That being said our first two players we should take in the draft is: Jarvis Jones: This guy has been a monster on the field for Georgia and is labeled by some as the best linebacker in the draft. There is a possibility he may be gone by the time we pick at 8 and even though i think we should pick up Kruger in free agency, having both of them would be awesome. Two of our 3 or 4 linebacking positions would be filled just like that without having a question mark at the position. If Jones is there I think he is the no brainer pick. Best quarterback available in the late first or early 2nd: My favorite quarterback in this draft is Mike Glennon out of NC State. However, he is not considered top 10 material either and possibly not even top 20 material but a lot of the quarterbacks aren't this year. I don't think he will be there in the 2nd round which is why if he is there that i think we should jump back up to the 1st round to get him. I would go after Matt Barkley also and possibly Tyler Wilson out of Arkansas. Bottom line if there is a qurtaerback there that we like and there will be we need to pull the trigger and trade up if necessary. That is just my 2 cents on a successful offseason. Thoughts?

There are still couple of bigger receivers out there that we could get with our 7th round pick if they are still there, if not they may be very good to pick up as undrafted free agents. Tommy Streeter is one that is still floating out there and there is also Dwight Jones from North Carolina as well. I'd prefer to have Streeter of the two. If we were able to get either one of these guys with our last pick it could be a very good value for a player that could quite possibly be a starter for us down the road. If neither one of those players were to work out it's a 7th round pick it's not like your really losing a whole lot but they would both be bargains as UDFA's.

Yeah and if we pass on him it will just be another player in a long line of players that we've past on before that just destroys us when we play them. It's time to put past character issues aside and focus on his on field productivity

We haven't had Michael Floyd in for a pre-draft visit and weren't at the Notre Dame pro day. Does that mean we aren't interested in him?

Yeah he threw 50 screen passes to his running back out of the back field doesn't seem very hard

I seen that we have a pre draft visit with Osweiler. I've been looking at some youtube video of him and i'm not understanding how this guy is even gonna be drafted at all. Almost 90% of his throws seem to be little dump passes at the line of scrimmage and when he does throw it upfield it seems like he doesn't have enough velocity on it and almost gets picked a lot. I'm afraid were gonna pick this guy and it's gonna be well before he's even supposed to be drafted. I'm just not understanding what some of these critics see in him.

What position is going to help us get to the playoffs THIS SEASON more a LT or a Game changing receiver that can change the dynamic of your offense? Fitz can have all the time in the world to throw the ball but if he doesn't have anyone outside of stevie to get it to, or someone that can't get seperation then what good is the offensive tackle. Long term yes tackle would work but we are trying to end a 12 year playoff drought, a WR will give you a better chance to do that. You fill the WR need first and then get the left tackle. Not saying that we only go into the season with one LT, I'm saying it's not our biggest need so we can get one or two in the later rounds of the draft.

I'm sure that this has been brought up in other posts but why don't we look at Marcus McNeil especially with Buddy having ties to him. He's only 28 i'm surprised he hasn't gotten more play in free agency. Why don't we look at him to sign for about a 2 year contract shouldn't cost to much.

My look at it also is this, Sure we have to look at long term and left tackle in the long run may be the best spot to go it's always great to have a franchise left tackle. However, we haven't made the playoffs in 12 years, we spent a lot of money on the dline mainly because like nix said he believes we are closer to making the playoffs now than we have been in years. If that is the case is drafting a LT over a possible game changing wide receiver going to make our offense and team better this season to get to the playoffs. I feel our team has gotten better and taken the next step by bringing in Mario and Mark and our defense may keep us in a lot of games. Our offense though without another solid WR outside of Stevie is going to be the same it was in the 2nd half of last season. Donald Jones doesn't scare anybody. There isn't a team in the league that would be worrying about doubling Stevie without a solid number 2 WR. I think WR changes the dynamic of our offense right away and gives us a better shot at getting to the playoffs than a LT would because all a LT does is block which obviously we need but a LT isn't going to change the game for you. A WR can. That is why i say that WR is the biggest need

Us and the Dolphins both finished 6-10 last season but they beat us twice and we wound up in last. How are they drafting in front of us?

The Strength is a big thing to look at out of an elite top 3 prospect at ur position. The fact that he only lifted that much can lead people to believe that he may not be able to handle that many bull rushes. But it's not just the bench press, he has the most questions of any of the top 3 LT's because of stance and footwork also

I think the other part of it is that Fitz is just a quick decision maker. Not necessarily because of the oline

Some of those guys you listed are are 2-4 round picks and thats not what i'm referring to because i believe that they may be able to get a good receivers in those rounds i'm talking about after that. I'm just saying if someone like Floyd is there at 10 we can't say "well you know what we can get Stephen Hill in the 2nd or Nick Toon in the 3rd or this guy in the 4th" because there is a good possibility that they may not be there when you pick and i just think that Floyd's value in that spot is well over any one of the LT prospects at that spot. Part f the reason why the offense went down the shitter in mid season is because we don't have that number 2 guy and why we were sending receivers only 15 yards up the field and guys who can't get seperation and make plays. I know a lot of people as well don't care about what a LT bench's i'm not basing solely off that either but if your going to be a top 10 pick in the draft and a franchise left tackle you have to have strength which he is obviously lacking. I'm referring to Martin

I'm not saying that it's not a need I'm just saying it's not the biggest need

Late round gems WR's like Stevie, Colston, Miles Austin are few and far between. I think the receiving class is deep and wouldn't mind taking a Stephen Hill in the 2nd if there or a Nick Toon in the 3rd but Floyd just has the perfect size and skill set at a skill postion to be able to make an immediate impact, he is a difference make which i don't see from any of the other WR's on our roster nor in the draft. I think we could wait till the 2nd round on tackle and get an Andrew Datko someone who is also a great tackle prospect which probably wouldn't be much different then either one of the guys they can get at 10 anyway. Plus i still think our coaching staff will be able to build Hairston up nicely. They should be given at least a shot to do so Your right i don't because it's not. Take a look at the other receivers outside of stevie on this roster and tell me that your comfortable putting them as number 2 receiver