mike22nc

Julius Peppers. True, we don't exactly NEED any help at LDE, but the guy is a beast and would turn our dominant defense into maybe one of the best ever.

Arrowhead?

Are you speaking of the Bills winning 6 of their last 7 games and narrowly missing the playoffs? Yeah, that was freaking horrible.

"Also, the last year is viodable with easily reached incentives, so really a five year deal. So, if his 25M number is correct, he will cost 5M per year." If the last year is voided, he does not get paid for that year, so even if the #s you have are correct, it would still be less than $5M per year. The discrepency in our total $ amount is probably due to performance based incentives, which could be anything from starting 2 games in the 5 years to going to the moon in an airplane. If you go to this link, http://www.falcfans.com/features/2005cap.html it has the cap figures of all the Atlanta falcons, and Hall's cap # agrees with what I have in my post. Anyways, I am in agreement that I would rather pay Clements than take the 9th pick and hope. But, if we are definitely not going to pay Clements, get something of value for him.

From what I've found, DeAngelo Hall's cap figures are nowhere near the 6 for $25M that you claim. Maybe that is the maximum that he could make. This is what I found. Signed by Falcons to a six-year contract. Terms of his deal were undisclosed, but he has base salaries of: $230,000 (2004); $305,000 (2005); $385,000 (2006); $460,000 (2007); $570,000 (2008); and $957,500 (2009). He also received a $12 million signing bonus, giving him cap figures of: $2.23 million (2004); $2.305 million (2005); $2.385 million (2006); $2.46 million (2007); $2.57 million (2008); and $2.9575 million (2009). That is much more manageable that what Clements is likely to want in free agency next year. Ken Lucas, who is not on the same level as Clements, got a 6 year $36M deal with $13M in signing bonus money in free agency. Gary Baxter and Anthony Henry also got double digit signing bonus's to go along with 6 year ~$30M deals. So, what will Clements demand on the open market? I dont know for sure, but it wouldn't suprise me if he wanted $15-18M in bonus money and 6 years for $42M at the minimum. So the trade for the #9 pick would definitely be the cheaper alternative. Saying all of this, I'm not sure that Clements is not worth all this money. He's 26 years old, and on the cusp of being the best CB in the league, so if we can somehow keep him on board beyond this year, get it done. But, I definitely do have a problem if we are just keeping him for this one year and then letting him leave in free agency for nothing. The Bills must either lock up Clements or trade him now.

Ok, I am really sick of the excuses that are made by some members here for Bledsoe's bad performance. Players make mistakes, it's true, but with Moulds, it will come once or twice a year. With McGahee, maybe once or twice a year. With Bledsoe, you could count on having to make up for one big mistake every game. There are many different players to blame for our losses, but Bledsoe is a key component in pretty much all of them. That's not something you should be saying about your starting quarterback. He was a liability, now he's gone and everyone needs to move on and hope that our next QB is not as big of one.

"The announcers on Fox were giving the old "they have a great future" speech you give to the losing team in the playoffs. But I think the Falcons are on the express elevator to the basement. They are stuck with Michael Vick at QB because the owner Arthur Blank loves his ass, and he sells merch and tickets. But Vick is a mediocre QB despite the Nike ads. They will keep trying to build a team around him, and he's their biggest problem!" That's ridiculous. What was McNabb's rating at 24 years of age? 78.8. Vicks? 78.1. Did McNabb take his team to the playoffs and win in his first two full years as a starter? Come on, Vick still has a lot to learn about the passing game, but he's a special player who will only get better. He may not be a prototypical QB, but he has shown that what he does helps his team win, and that's what it's all about. Do you think the duo of Dunn and Duckett would have as much success running the ball as they did this year without the threat of the play action bootleg threat? The fact is that the Falcons are on the verge of being a very very good team. Mike