Seahawk Free Agents

[obiken]

No way we pay him that kind of money. I say Ifeti, and Clowney go down the road, the rest, I dont care about.

[RiverDog]

No way we pay him that kind of money. I say Ifeti, and Clowney go down the road, the rest, I dont care about.

Obi, you're a Scrooge!

I do understand your thinking, that these players are getting obscene amounts of money for playing a frigging game, but at some point, you have to realize that it is what it is. The object is to put together the best possible team. Us fans don't get a dime if John Schneider comes in way under budget with the payroll.

[obiken]

I do understand your thinking, that these players are getting obscene amounts of money for playing a frigging game, but at some point, you have to realize that it is what it is. The object is to put together the best possible team. Us fans don't get a dime if John Schneider comes in way under budget with the payroll.

I get that but he wants 20 million a year? Too much, we can go get a couple of rookies and hope for the best.

[RiverDog]

I get that but he wants 20 million a year? Too much, we can go get a couple of rookies and hope for the best.

This isn't like running a conventional business, at least not from us fan's perspective. You don't get anything for keeping your payroll low, you only get something if you win football games. The object is to improve our team, and refusing to pay any player whose contract is up isn't going to achieve that goal unless you have other players in mind that represent an upgrade or at least not losing anything by letting them go. We do not have a replacement for Clowney and if we don't resign either Ifedi or Fant, we don't have a RT that would be equal to one of those guys.

As far as rookies go, they're a completely different subject and a separate part of the offseason. Unless you're picking from the very top of the draft, you can't go into an offseason expecting that a draft pick will fill a need because you don't know who's going to be available at what draft slot. Additionally, they are not free agents and will get contracts offered at a reduced rate via a pre-determined formula so money isn't nearly the issue it is in free agency. Who we end up with after free agency in March will enter into the equation as to who we draft in April, not the other way around.

[mykc14]

This isn't like running a conventional business, at least not from us fan's perspective. You don't get anything for keeping your payroll low, you only get something if you win football games. The object is to improve our team, and refusing to pay any player whose contract is up isn't going to achieve that goal unless you have other players in mind that represent an upgrade or at least not losing anything by letting them go. We do not have a replacement for Clowney and if we don't resign either Ifedi or Fant, we don't have a RT that would be equal to one of those guys.

As far as rookies go, they're a completely different subject and a separate part of the offseason. Unless you're picking from the very top of the draft, you can't go into an offseason expecting that a draft pick will fill a need because you don't know who's going to be available at what draft slot. Additionally, they are not free agents and will get contracts offered at a reduced rate via a pre-determined formula so money isn't nearly the issue it is in free agency. Who we end up with after free agency in March will enter into the equation as to who we draft in April, not the other way around.

Exactly... Obi if it was up to you RW would be playing elsewhere, but if you look at his contract compared to his play he was well worth every penny. He had a 26 mil cap hit last year. What would you rather do with that 26 mil? two 13 mil/year players? 5 5 mil/year players? Some people are just worth that kind of cap hit and RW is one of them. Now looking at Clowney. We could pay him 20 mil/year or take that money and divide it among 4 other guys. The problem is guys who are making 5 mil a year are not difference makers in the NFL, If you want a difference maker (that is not a QB) you are going to have to pay them 13-20 mil/year. Thats just he way it is. The way to combat that is to be creative with the cap, but know that will bite you eventually. Look at what the Chiefs did with Frank Clark: His salary averages 20.8 mil/year, but he only had a 6.5 mil cap hit this year.

[NorthHawk]

Every year we seem to have similar discussions about the impact of large contracts.
Wilson was the highest paid player in the NFL, but in a couple of years he won't be and with the
increasing Cap number, his % of Cap space will continue to decrease. It's the same with all
large contracts.

Regarding Clowney, we have a dearth of talent along the DL. It would be folly to let the best player
on our line leave over a couple of million dollars. If he wants to go elsewhere, that's a different
story, but what we've heard is he liked it here and would like to stay.

We can only hope JS has learned a big lesson in Cap management with the problems we had the
last couple of years. I suspect as mykc14 said any large contracts will be structured so as to
load Cap charges into years when large portions can be paid off without impacting the Cap
too harshly in any single year.

We are near a Championship window and we have a big hole on Defense that has to be fixed
but we can't fix it by making that hole larger. I suspect we are going to make a big run at
re-signing Clowney and maybe be surprisingly active in FA or even a trade.

[RiverDog]

Exactly... Obi if it was up to you RW would be playing elsewhere, but if you look at his contract compared to his play he was well worth every penny. He had a 26 mil cap hit last year. What would you rather do with that 26 mil? two 13 mil/year players? 5 5 mil/year players? Some people are just worth that kind of cap hit and RW is one of them. Now looking at Clowney. We could pay him 20 mil/year or take that money and divide it among 4 other guys. The problem is guys who are making 5 mil a year are not difference makers in the NFL, If you want a difference maker (that is not a QB) you are going to have to pay them 13-20 mil/year. Thats just he way it is. The way to combat that is to be creative with the cap, but know that will bite you eventually. Look at what the Chiefs did with Frank Clark: His salary averages 20.8 mil/year, but he only had a 6.5 mil cap hit this year.

Obi, you might be getting hung up on averages and percentage of payroll. The projected salary cap for 2020 is about $200M, so if you were to look at a potential $20M contract for Clowney, 10% would seem like a lot of money to pay one player when we have 53 on our roster. However, the reality is that there are only 6 players currently under contract that make over $5M, and the median salary is only about $700K. It's a socialist's nightmare (sorry for the political dig). Paying Clowney $20M, or for that matter, if you assume Reed and Ifedi between them get another $20M, it's not going to keep us from procuring some very good supporting players to fill in the gaps. Signing all 3 of those players at those numbers would still leave us with nearly $30M in cap space.

Additionally, with both Russell and Bobby under contract, we do not have a huge decision coming up in the next year or two like the Chiefs have with Patrick Mahomes, so there's not a lot of need to worry about our future predicament. Besides, the CBA expires in 2021, and it's anybody's guess as to what kind of salary structure we'll be operating under.

If you want to have a discussion about what a player is worth, we need to balance it as to who else out there is as good as he is for the similar price. That's why I'm not sold on offering Reed a big contract as I think we might see a few players in his pay bracket that might be an upgrade. With Clowney, there isn't really anyone else out there that we could sign that would come close to equaling what he can give us.

[obiken]

Exactly... Obi if it was up to you RW would be playing elsewhere, but if you look at his contract compared to his play he was well worth every penny. He had a 26 mil cap hit last year. What would you rather do with that 26 mil? two 13 mil/year players? 5 5 mil/year players? Some people are just worth that kind of cap hit and RW is one of them. Now looking at Clowney. We could pay him 20 mil/year or take that money and divide it among 4 other guys. The problem is guys who are making 5 mil a year are not difference makers in the NFL, If you want a difference maker (that is not a QB) you are going to have to pay them 13-20 mil/year. Thats just he way it is. The way to combat that is to be creative with the cap, but know that will bite you eventually. Look at what the Chiefs did with Frank Clark: His salary averages 20.8 mil/year, but he only had a 6.5 mil cap hit this year.

NO! Thats not what I said! What I said was IF you are going to pay BW and RW 25% of our cap, you are not going to get the kind of FA, like a Marshawn Lynch, that can put you over the top. You will always make the playoffs, but we never win another title during the RW era again. IS that good enough? I really dont have an answer. I do not want to go back to 9-7 7-9. What I am saying is, paying Clowney 20 million a year, for a guy that does not have a thick body like JJ Watt, or Reggie White, to me is a waste of money.

[NorthHawk]

I don't think it has to be that way, Obi.
We have a huge amount of Cap space available the next couple of years and the Cap goes up a lot every year.
The expectation is with the gambling revenues added, it might go up as much as $15 million in one of the next
2 years. Add in this years expected $10 million and there you have $25 million in extra room we didn't have in
2019 but almost assuredly $20 million . We can easily afford to re-sign Clowney, Reed, and Ifedi and add a couple of FA's to help fix the holes.
We almost made it to the NFC Championship game without the players that were on IR (17 this year, tops in the league), so it's
a wise move to add better players while we can and while the Championship Window for us is open.

[RiverDog]

What I said was IF you are going to pay BW and RW 25% of our cap, you are not going to get the kind of FA, like a Marshawn Lynch, that can put you over the top. You will always make the playoffs, but we never win another title during the RW era again. IS that good enough? I really dont have an answer. I do not want to go back to 9-7 7-9. What I am saying is, paying Clowney 20 million a year, for a guy that does not have a thick body like JJ Watt, or Reggie White, to me is a waste of money.

Obi, I would like for you to take a look at this link:

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/2020/

We have the 6th highest cap space in the league, and unlike Dallas, who is just above us at #5, we have our franchise quarterback under contract. In addition, we have some spots where we can save several million, like cutting Ed Dickson and reworking Justin Britt's contract. We can sign Clowney to a $20M contract and STILL be in the top half of the league in cap space. Furthermore, we do not have any big name players on the horizon that we're going to have to pay next season, and the CBA expires after next season, meaning we'll probably end up with an even higher salary cap. If a Marshawn Lynch-type free agent became available, say Derrick Henry, we could still afford to bring him in even if we sign Clowney.

If you don't like Clowney because he doesn't have a thick body like JJ Watt, then fine, I can handle that. But your argument that we can't afford him because we have Russell and Bobby taking up 21% of our payroll is severely flawed. I love ya like a brother, but on this issue, you're not making any sense.

[obiken]

Obi, I would like for you to take a look at this link:

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/2020/

We have the 6th highest cap space in the league, and unlike Dallas, who is just above us at #5, we have our franchise quarterback under contract. In addition, we have some spots where we can save several million, like cutting Ed Dickson and reworking Justin Britt's contract. We can sign Clowney to a $20M contract and STILL be in the top half of the league in cap space. Furthermore, we do not have any big name players on the horizon that we're going to have to pay next season, and the CBA expires after next season, meaning we'll probably end up with an even higher salary cap. If a Marshawn Lynch-type free agent became available, say Derrick Henry, we could still afford to bring him in even if we sign Clowney.

If you don't like Clowney because he doesn't have a thick body like JJ Watt, then fine, I can handle that. But your argument that we can't afford him because we have Russell and Bobby taking up 21% of our payroll is severely flawed. I love ya like a brother, but on this issue, you're not making any sense.

Riv, you and I know that in the New NFL, you need a Franchise QB, a LT, and an edge Pass Rusher, so I get it. I just don't see this guy as Watt, or Kahlil Mack. You know I am always ready to admit that my compass can be off, but outside of a couple games, I just dont see putting a boatload of money on this guy. Maybe I am wrong, but I would rather pay a WR like Julio Jones, Amari Cooper, or a FA All Pro OLineman, 20 mill a year, than this guy. Moreover, you have to ask yourself, if I am so wrong, how did we get him from the Texans, who know Watt is at the end of his journey. However, If you and CBob just love him, then I am all in!

[RiverDog]

Riv, you and I know that in the New NFL, you need a Franchise QB, a LT, and an edge Pass Rusher, so I get it. I just don't see this guy as Watt, or Kahlil Mack. You know I am always ready to admit that my compass can be off, but outside of a couple games, I just dont see putting a boatload of money on this guy. Maybe I am wrong, but I would rather pay a WR like Julio Jones, Amari Cooper, or a FA All Pro OLineman, 20 mill a year, than this guy. Moreover, you have to ask yourself, if I am so wrong, how did we get him from the Texans, who know Watt is at the end of his journey. However, If you and CBob just love him, then I am all in!

I wasn't saying that you were wrong about Clowney so much as I was saying that the reason you were using not to sign him, ie that we can't afford him, were misguided. We are in very good shape with our cap space, so money isn't a problem.

But I will ask you this: If you don't like Clowney, who are you going to replace him with that would equal what he can do? And please, don't tell me to put in some random body and hope for the best. Unless you think we can trade up to the #2 overall and draft Chase Young, we're not going to find anyone on the cheap that can provide us with the kind of production Clowney can.

As far as our other free agents go, I'm luke warm about Reed and Ifedi. With Reed, it might make sense to offer him a one year "prove it" deal for around $8M. He had a poor season last year, and as mykc pointed out has had just one good year since he's been with us. I've warmed up to Ifedi a bit as he played better this season and has cut down on his penalties, but I still want to see who all is going to be available that we might be able to sign that could be an upgrade.

[obiken]

Great Point River unless someone is available in FA, and I am not up to date on who will be, we are probably stuck with him. I was never a huge Jacob Green fan, but man, some of the one on one match-ups we have today, he might have smoked em! We have to find another Corner and O Lineman. I just cannot see bringing back Ifeti at all, its not a money thing with him, its a dumbo thing. He is a turnover machine. I believe cloning is wrong, but a Cortez Kennedy clone right now would be really nice!

[RiverDog]

Great Point River unless someone is available in FA, and I am not up to date on who will be, we are probably stuck with him. I was never a huge Jacob Green fan, but man, some of the one on one match-ups we have today, he might have smoked em! We have to find another Corner and O Lineman. I just cannot see bringing back Ifeti at all, its not a money thing with him, its a dumbo thing. He is a turnover machine. I believe cloning is wrong, but a Cortez Kennedy clone right now would be really nice!

Well, there are worse players to be "stuck" with besides Clowney. He's not a sack generator himself, but he's a huge disruptive force with those long arms that makes him very difficult to block. He doesn't get as many sacks himself as someone like Frank Clark did, but he's better against the run and he makes the players around him better. And if you don't think he's worth the money, I can guarantee you that at least one team will submit an offer equal or better than what we're willing to pay.

As far as Ifedi goes, yes, he's had penalty issues and it's still a problem that he needs to work on, but he's improved over the past couple of seasons. You have to keep in mind that unless your name is Walter Jones, offensive tackles are always going to be amongst the league leaders in penalties. 9 out of the top 10 last season were offensive tackles. They're more visible than guards and centers and thus more likely to get called for holding and they line up further away from the QB so communication is more difficult and thus they're more subject to false starts. I'm open to moving on from him if we resign Fant and/or bring in someone that is equal or better to replace him but I don't just want to say F him, he's horrible, without a plan to replace him. You don't often find offensive tackles that can start in their first year at the position we're drafting from.

I hate to keep sounding like a broken record, but the objective in the offseason is to improve our team. If you don't want to retain a player on our roster, then fine, tell me who you're going to replace him with that is going to be better.

[NorthHawk]

People talk about replacing Ifedi with Fant like they are lego blocks.
The truth is it would be downgrade on the right side. We know that because Fant has had 3 years
to show he's a better RT and hasn't been able to win the starting job even when Ifedi was having
big problems. As well, Fant doesn't seem to be able to stay healthy. Other things to consider at
RT for us is Pete wants a mauler at RT. That's clear by who has played it and who they drafted to
play it. If we go back we can see it was Ifedi, Britt, Carpenter, and Giacomini. That's not coincidence,
but a design. Fant is more in the LT mold with better feet, but not a dominator.
There might be a couple of RT's in FA, but they will cost as much or in the case of Conklin maybe double
if you are worried about cost, but I'm not convinced the change is worth the doubt. It seems we will
have to replace Fluker sooner than later, so it's possible they don't want to disrupt that side of the line
too much if they don't have to.

[RiverDog]

People talk about replacing Ifedi with Fant like they are lego blocks.
The truth is it would be downgrade on the right side. We know that because Fant has had 3 years
to show he's a better RT and hasn't been able to win the starting job even when Ifedi was having
big problems. As well, Fant doesn't seem to be able to stay healthy. Other things to consider at
RT for us is Pete wants a mauler at RT. That's clear by who has played it and who they drafted to
play it. If we go back we can see it was Ifedi, Britt, Carpenter, and Giacomini. That's not coincidence,
but a design. Fant is more in the LT mold with better feet, but not a dominator.
There might be a couple of RT's in FA, but they will cost as much or in the case of Conklin maybe double
if you are worried about cost, but I'm not convinced the change is worth the doubt. It seems we will
have to replace Fluker sooner than later, so it's possible they don't want to disrupt that side of the line
too much if they don't have to.

Brian Bulaga might be available, and he certainly would be an upgrade over Ifedi, at least in the pass blocking department, isn't near the flag magnet that Ifedi is, and played in all 18 of the Packer's games this season. His estimated market value is around $10M. The Packers currently have $29M in cap space and are going to be in the hunt for some offensive weapons and might not be able to afford him. He is 31 years old, but offensive linemen can still excel at that age.

We'll have to wait and see who's actually going to be available, but if Ifedi's demands comes in at over $10M and we can get our hands on a good replacement like Bulaga for close to that amount, I'm saying bye bye to Ifedi.

[NorthHawk]

Agreed, but what are the chances that the Packers will let him go?
After all, it's only a $1.65 million extra Cap hit for the Pack to keep him and they
don't want the issues of finding a replacement, either.
Replacing a stating RT with another who is equally capable within our system isn't
as easy as some are making it out to be.

[RiverDog]

Agreed, but what are the chances that the Packers will let him go?
After all, it's only a $1.65 million extra Cap hit for the Pack to keep him and they
don't want the issues of finding a replacement, either.
Replacing a stating RT with another who is equally capable within our system isn't
as easy as some are making it out to be.

Bulaga is a UFA and not under contract, so any amount he signs with the Packers will be deducted from their current cap space of $29M. If they have their sights set on a big play WR like an AJ Green or Emanuel Sanders, they might not be able to afford to give Bulaga a $10M+ contract as those guys are going to command $20M. Including Bulaga, the Packers have 3 offensive tackles that are UFA's currently making over $1M and they have a starting linebacker in Blake Martinez that's a UFA with a market value of $16M, so they're going to have some decisions to make.

[NorthHawk]

They can easily restructure contracts to keep their OL intact and they only need a few million to do it.
As far as WR's go, there will be a good one available at the bottom of the 1st round and into the 2nd.
It's very deep this year at WR. They do need to upgrade the WR squad, but they don't need to make
a big splash in FA to do so. It's very timely for them to have this type of talent this year.
As well, they won't be able to use any FA WR if they don't have good pass protection, so it's a must
for them to not deplete their OL.
Just like us.

[RiverDog]

They can easily restructure contracts to keep their OL intact and they only need a few million to do it.
As far as WR's go, there will be a good one available at the bottom of the 1st round and into the 2nd.
It's very deep this year at WR. They do need to upgrade the WR squad, but they don't need to make
a big splash in FA to do so. It's very timely for them to have this type of talent this year.
As well, they won't be able to use any FA WR if they don't have good pass protection, so it's a must
for them to not deplete their OL.
Just like us.

Just by the looks of their roster and what they're paying offensive tackles, you could assume that one of them might be good enough to where they're not depleting their OL by letting Bulaga walk. Bottom line is that the Packer have some tough decisions to make and are not in nearly as good of a shape cap wise as we are, so we'll see. And Bulaga isn't the only OT in free agency, either. We'll just have to wait and see who's available and what they're asking.

I'm not advocating that we move away from Ifedi, I'm just saying that there may be better options than retaining him for an inflated price. If our FO had felt that he's as valuable to us as you apparently do, they would have picked up his 5th year option.

[NorthHawk]

With the Cap space available then, the 5th year option wasn't really an option as they didn't know how much room they had upcoming.
I don't think it's as big a flag as some because of the other things going on with the team. Now that they know they
have a load of Cap space, it becomes easier to accommodate the basis of an agreement to re-sign him. Nobody
expects us to pay $15 million, but around $10 million which is about where a starting RT would be expected to cost today. Exceptions
being young All Pro RT's should they get to FA.

[Aseahawkfan]

Be nice to pick off a few quality O-line pieces in free agency.

I'd like to get the following in free agency in addition re-signing our good D-line pieces:

1. A LT. Brown is good, but he's on the end of his career and getting hurt too much at this point.

2. A good guard.

3. Some CB and safety depth to compete.

4. A decent blocking TE.

I think we're doing well at WR. RBs we can get in draft.

[RiverDog]

With the Cap space available then, the 5th year option wasn't really an option as they didn't know how much room they had upcoming.
I don't think it's as big a flag as some because of the other things going on with the team. Now that they know they
have a load of Cap space, it becomes easier to accommodate the basis of an agreement to re-sign him. Nobody
expects us to pay $15 million, but around $10 million which is about where a starting RT would be expected to cost today. Exceptions
being young All Pro RT's should they get to FA.

We'll see. Like I said, I'm not against resigning Ifedi, just that there might be better options out there for roughly the same money. Ifedi's future with us will depend on which tackles are actually available and how big of an offer he gets from other teams and/or how much confidence our FO has in guys like George Fant, who's also a free agent, and Jamarco Jones.

As a rule, we're not a big player in the first wave of free agency, but that could change this season. If we don't resign Clowney, we're going to have a huge wad of money in our pockets.

[NorthHawk]

It's going to be an interesting few months, for sure.
I think that if you include Clowney as part of the 1st wave, then this year we will be in the fray.
We also need quality along the DL, so it wouldn't surprise me if we tried to sign another player
with a high profile very early or maybe an Offensive player as well.

[RiverDog]

It's going to be an interesting few months, for sure.
I think that if you include Clowney as part of the 1st wave, then this year we will be in the fray.
We also need quality along the DL, so it wouldn't surprise me if we tried to sign another player
with a high profile very early or maybe an Offensive player as well.

We're in extraordinary good shape heading into the offseason, especially when you compare our status with that of our division rivals. The Rams are in big trouble as they have Cory Littleton, Michael Brockers, and Dante Fowler all UFA's with just $19M in cap space, LT Andrew Whitworth isn't under contract with no viable replacement to protect Happy Feet Jared's blind side, and they don't have a #1 pick in this year's draft having traded it for Jalen Ramsey earlier this season.

In Santa Clara, the Niners have Arik Armistead and Emanual Sanders that are going to command big bucks with only $22M in cap space, and they are the poorest team in the league in terms of draft capital as they have just their first round pick, the #31 or #32 overall, and no other picks until the 5th round. Barring a trade, that's a 125 slot gap between picks.

The Cards are in good shape with $51M in cap space, a benefit of having their starting QB on a rookie contract, but they have some decisions to make on their offensive line and their break out RB, Kenyan Drake, is a free agent. They have one selection in each round of the draft but aren't due any comp picks.

So cheer up, Obi!

[mykc14]

Be nice to pick off a few quality O-line pieces in free agency.

I'd like to get the following in free agency in addition re-signing our good D-line pieces:

1. A LT. Brown is good, but he's on the end of his career and getting hurt too much at this point.

2. A good guard.

3. Some CB and safety depth to compete.

4. A decent blocking TE.

I think we're doing well at WR. RBs we can get in draft.

This is interesting. I think those are important, but IMO we have a much greater need on the defensive side of the ball. Even if we were to re-sign our good D-line pieces we were still not a very good D-Line. I would say we need to re-sign our good D-line pieces and add at least 1 good pass-rusher (Daunte Fowler if he's around 15 mil would be a really good fit). I agree about finding a replacement for Brown, but think it has to happen in the draft. You still have at least 1 more year of Brown, maybe 2-3. I would like to think that his replacement is Fant- he played decently there against he Packers. Unless somebody offers him a huge contract you should be able to bring him back with the idea that he is going to replace Brown IF he begins to show his age. If Brown keeps playing well you still have the jumbo package that Shotty seems to love. A good guard would be nice, but IMO it comes after the D-line. I agree about the TE, if only Dissly could stay healthy. I think we look to get a TE in the draft.

[c_hawkbob]

We're in extraordinary good shape heading into the offseason, especially when you compare our status with that of our division rivals. The Rams are in big trouble as they have Cory Littleton, Michael Brockers, and Dante Fowler all UFA's with just $19M in cap space, LT Andrew Whitworth isn't under contract with no viable replacement to protect Happy Feet Jared's blind side, and they don't have a #1 pick in this year's draft having traded it for Jalen Ramsey earlier this season.

In Santa Clara, the Niners have Arik Armistead and Emanual Sanders that are going to command big bucks with only $22M in cap space, and they are the poorest team in the league in terms of draft capital as they have just their first round pick, the #31 or #32 overall, and no other picks until the 5th round. Barring a trade, that's a 125 slot gap between picks.

The Cards are in good shape with $51M in cap space, a benefit of having their starting QB on a rookie contract, but they have some decisions to make on their offensive line and their break out RB, Kenyan Drake, is a free agent. They have one selection in each round of the draft but aren't due any comp picks.

So cheer up, Obi!

Good stuff Riv, thanks!

[Aseahawkfan]

This is interesting. I think those are important, but IMO we have a much greater need on the defensive side of the ball. Even if we were to re-sign our good D-line pieces we were still not a very good D-Line. I would say we need to re-sign our good D-line pieces and add at least 1 good pass-rusher (Daunte Fowler if he's around 15 mil would be a really good fit). I agree about finding a replacement for Brown, but think it has to happen in the draft. You still have at least 1 more year of Brown, maybe 2-3. I would like to think that his replacement is Fant- he played decently there against he Packers. Unless somebody offers him a huge contract you should be able to bring him back with the idea that he is going to replace Brown IF he begins to show his age. If Brown keeps playing well you still have the jumbo package that Shotty seems to love. A good guard would be nice, but IMO it comes after the D-line. I agree about the TE, if only Dissly could stay healthy. I think we look to get a TE in the draft.

I don't have much faith in Fant, myself. Whichever piece they focus on in the draft, we'll go after other pieces in free agency. I'd be ok spending a 1st round pick on a quality LT or DT/DE. We could also use a safety and some CB depth. Diggs was a real game changer when he was on the field and healthy. It seems like Pete's defense runs better with a good free safety to cover that deep middle and back up the weaker CB. When your defense is trying to push everything to the middle, the lack of a strong middle in coverage makes for a weak defense. Earl was the perfect safety for Pete's defense and it's unlikely we find another Earl, but we need at least one strong safety to play the way Pete wants to play.

At least this is one of the first years where our WR group looks good going into the offseason. Lockett and Metcalf are a great tandem.

It is unfortunate we can't seem to find a RB group that can stay healthy after Marsahwn departure. Carson needs at least another consistent back to help him carry the load.

[RiverDog]

At least this is one of the first years where our WR group looks good going into the offseason. Lockett and Metcalf are a great tandem.

Agreed, but I've seen some mocks with us taking a WR in the first round. The draft is supposedly hip deep in wide receivers, but like you, I'm good with our group.

It is unfortunate we can't seem to find a RB group that can stay healthy after Marsahwn departure. Carson needs at least another consistent back to help him carry the load.

I don't have a problem taking a running back with one of our #2's, but it's not the priority like that which we have on both sides of the LOS.

[NorthHawk]

I could see us taking a WR in the first round. The DL is said to be weak this year, so depending on how it falls,
a WR could be the top player on their board - even if our first pick is in the second round after moving down.
The draft is often an event of group think in that we see runs on positions except for the top 10 or so players.
I also expect us to take a RB and hope it's AJ Dillon in and around round 4. He's a Derrick Henry type of RB and
would be a good fit to give Carson a breather or more. An RB that showed well in the Sr Bowl was Josh Kelley
from UCLA. Both are expected to go in the mid rounds or so but they are different types of RB's.

But as usual, it depends on how the draft falls and who, if anyone, we picked up in FA.

[RiverDog]

Here's some more sticker shock. Per Mike Garafolo:

The #AZCardinals have agreed with OT D.J. Humphries on a three-year, $45 million deal with $30m over the first 2 years, $29m guaranteed, sources say. Jon Perzley and Brian Mackler of @SPORTSTARSNYC were able to strike a deal with the Cards on David Johnson and now Humphries.

This is bad news for some of us that were hoping that we could resign Ifedi for as little as $10m. As the article goes on to point out, Humphries is at least comparable to Ifedi and he just signed a deal worth $15M/year:

So, for fans who have cited PFF’s grades as a reason why Ifedi or Fant will not be heavily pursued as free agents, Humphries has never finished with a grade in the top half of tackles league wide. Here is how he (Humphries) has finished during his career:

2015: Did not qualify because he was a healthy scratch for all 16 games

2016: 40th of 63

2017: Did not qualify (11 complete games missed due to injury; would have been in top quarter, but played only 204 snaps)

2018: 38th of 64

2019: 40th of 65

Humphries finished the 2019 season with a PFF grade of 64.5, and before anyone jumps to the comments section to scream, “But Ifedi’s penalties!” he and Humphries were effectively identical in that category.

https://www.fieldgulls.com/2020/2/18/21 ... -humpfries

So much for the hated penalty machine. Hold onto your wallet, Obi!

[mykc14]

Yeah, that looks like a really bad contract for the Cardinals, especially the 29 mil guaranteed. This makes him the 3rd highest paid right tackle in the league. I never thought that we would re-sign Ifedi but now it is clear that we are going to be looking for a new RT next year. My hope was that maybe Fant could be signed for 7-8 mil/year- play RT and then move to LT when Brown retired. It looks like Fant will probably be in the 10 mil/year range too. Not a great situation. This offseason was always going to be important, but when you have teams doing stupid things (like signing a below average player like a top 3 player at their position) it really puts us in a tough situation. One thing that we can't do is overpay for mediocre players. If we can't sign Fant for 10 mil or less I would rather us wait until the 2nd wave of Free Agency and find somebody around the 5 mil range. Not a great situation.

[RiverDog]

Yeah, that looks like a really bad contract for the Cardinals, especially the 29 mil guaranteed. This makes him the 3rd highest paid right tackle in the league. I never thought that we would re-sign Ifedi but now it is clear that we are going to be looking for a new RT next year. My hope was that maybe Fant could be signed for 7-8 mil/year- play RT and then move to LT when Brown retired. It looks like Fant will probably be in the 10 mil/year range too. Not a great situation. This offseason was always going to be important, but when you have teams doing stupid things (like signing a below average player like a top 3 player at their position) it really puts us in a tough situation. One thing that we can't do is overpay for mediocre players. If we can't sign Fant for 10 mil or less I would rather us wait until the 2nd wave of Free Agency and find somebody around the 5 mil range. Not a great situation.

Looking at it with the clarity of 20/20 hindsight, it makes our decision not to pick up Ifedi's 5th year option a huge mistake.

I can't see us letting both Ifedi and Fant walk, not with the shape we're in on the rest of the OL. There's talk of us cutting Britt and with Iupati being a free agent, we're really going to be looking like Swiss cheese if we don't do something about RT. We're going to end up overpaying one of them.

[obiken]

Yeah I was never a big fan of any of them Riv but its a mess. 12 million!!! Ifetti has to go.

[mykc14]

Looking at it with the clarity of 20/20 hindsight, it makes our decision not to pick up Ifedi's 5th year option a huge mistake.

I can't see us letting both Ifedi and Fant walk, not with the shape we're in on the rest of the OL. There's talk of us cutting Britt and with Iupati being a free agent, we're really going to be looking like Swiss cheese if we don't do something about RT. We're going to end up overpaying one of them.

Yep, the 5th year option would have been a bargain, but you can see why they weren't willing to give it to him last year. I agree we don't really want to go into the season with a RT that isn't at least Fant, but we might have to choose between a RT and another pass-rusher (like Fawler). Personally, if we could resign Clowney and sign a guy like Fowler for 16-17 mil that is more important than spending that money on a RT, IMO. Ifedi has been rated in the bottom third in the league his whole career so if we do sign somebody at 6-7 mil/year the drop-off can't be that much (I hope I'm not regretting that statement next year). As far as Britt goes I see it more realistic that we try and extend him rather than outright cut him, or at least we cut him and then resign him at a lower cap number. Right now his cap hit is 11.4 million. He's been a good C and we could resign him and lower his cap hit by 4 or 5 million.

[RiverDog]

As far as Britt goes I see it more realistic that we try and extend him rather than outright cut him, or at least we cut him and then resign him at a lower cap number. Right now his cap hit is 11.4 million. He's been a good C and we could resign him and lower his cap hit by 4 or 5 million.

The problem with Britt is that he's coming off major knee surgery so I can't see us extending him beyond 2020, however we can't afford to let him walk, either, as Joey Hunt, another OL that's not under contract, looked woefully overmatched.

Although it's difficult to find a center fresh out of college that can start on Day 1, this year's draft class is supposed to be loaded with interior linemen, ie guards and centers. I can see us cutting Britt and giving him a one year deal, but there's always the risk that he could bolt and find a better deal elsewhere.

Lots of stuff on Schneider's plate, and the thing of it is that we're in a lot better shape than most teams as we have a lot of cap space and an armload of draft picks.

[mykc14]

The problem with Britt is that he's coming off major knee surgery so I can't see us extending him beyond 2020, however we can't afford to let him walk, either, as Joey Hunt, another OL that's not under contract, looked woefully overmatched.

Although it's difficult to find a center fresh out of college that can start on Day 1, this year's draft class is supposed to be loaded with interior linemen, ie guards and centers. I can see us cutting Britt and giving him a one year deal, but there's always the risk that he could bolt and find a better deal elsewhere.

Although I agree it is a risk to bring back somebody after major knee surgery it is not near the risk today as it has been in the past, but I agree it is a risk. Cutting him and getting him back on a one-year deal is certainly a possibility, but he has almost 3 million in dead money so the one year contract he could get from us has to lower than 7 million to make it worth it, which is possibly, but like you said, other teams cetainly might think he worth the risk and give him more than 7 million. Hunt was overmatched at times last year, but he was OK- he's a cheap backup that can help you in a pinch, but not the long-term answer.

[RiverDog]

Although I agree it is a risk to bring back somebody after major knee surgery it is not near the risk today as it has been in the past, but I agree it is a risk. Cutting him and getting him back on a one-year deal is certainly a possibility, but he has almost 3 million in dead money so the one year contract he could get from us has to lower than 7 million to make it worth it, which is possibly, but like you said, other teams cetainly might think he worth the risk and give him more than 7 million. Hunt was overmatched at times last year, but he was OK- he's a cheap backup that can help you in a pinch, but not the long-term answer.

It's true that they've come a long ways in the surgical repair of knees, and the fact that Britt's an offensive linemen helps his chances of being able to resume his career w/o any drop-off in production. It's certainly better odds than being a wide receiver or running back.

Perhaps I'm a little too critical of Hunt after I watched Fletcher Cox throw him around like a rag doll, but it seems to me that he got manhandled by more DT's than just the All Pros like Cox. Hunt's never going to be a full time starter, so I'm thinking we let him walk and use the roster spot to bring in some new blood either via the draft or free agency.

[mykc14]

Perhaps I'm a little too critical of Hunt after I watched Fletcher Cox throw him around like a rag doll, but it seems to me that he got manhandled by more DT's than just the All Pros like Cox. Hunt's never going to be a full time starter, so I'm thinking we let him walk and use the roster spot to bring in some new blood either via the draft or free agency.

Although I also remember Hunt getting manhandled more than a few times this year I do think you are being to hard on him. Here is are some limited stats to back up my point. The two columns under each player are for our total points and average yards per rush. I know this doesn't tell the whole story, but it does show there wasn't a dramatic drop in our rushing offense with Hunt (Sorry about the formal, it looked nice when I typed it!):

OPP BRITT Points Average per rush..........HUNT Points Average per rush
CIN 21 2.9.......................................TB 40 6.6
PIT 28 4.6........................................SF 27 4.3
NO 27 4.2.......................................PHI 17 6.7
ARI 27 4.3.......................................MIN 37 5.1
LAR 30 3.9.......................................LAR 12 5.0
CLE 32 4.5.......................................CAR 30 4.5
BAL 16 4.1.......................................ARI 13 4.6 CARSON/PENNY HURT
...............................................................................SF 21 4.2 CARSON/PENNY HURT
..............................................................................PHI 17 2.5 PLAYOFFS CARSON/PENNY HURT
..............................................................................GB 23 4.6

I know this is only half of the story (passing is the other half). I haven't looked at those stats yet. Also, it doesn't take into account how good our bad our opponents were. Britt played against 2 playoff teams while Hunt played against 6. Also I didn't look at where the defenses that they were playing ranked, which obviously is important.

[NorthHawk]

Hunt is a technician, but our OL is built on maulers for the run game so he can be
an adequate replacement for a short time, but not a longer term starter. It should
not surprise anyone if we select a Center in this draft along with WR, TE, and DL.