offseason moves

[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?

[Malazan]

Where does the cap space come from for all these moves? Bowe and Kruger are likely to make a lot of money.

Edited February 19, 2013 by jeremy2020