FA Shopping Spree

[dalbuc]

QB:
Bryon Leftwich. We need a starting QB and Bryon is the best FA QB on the market. Big arm, good starting experience. He's has a slow delivery and moves like a statue and he gets sacked more often than most NFL QB's. Still, he has a plus TD:INT ratio for his career so he takes care of the ball. His accuracy is below average (58%) but bearable. I am looking for a guy to hold the fort until we get a real player in here. He's about as good as placeholders get. He's not a championship calibre QB but he's not an excuse for flopping either.

Kyle Boller. A former R1 pick with all the physical tools. He's not terribly accurate (56%) but he does have a slightly positive TD:INR ratio. He's well below 30 and has good athleticism. He's been a starter but has been depsoed for 2 years. He should have the right mentality to be a long term useful backup in this league. There's a way, way outside chance he doesn't suck and just needed time to overcome the Tedford influence on his career.

I know a lot of folks like McCown but he's got no real skins on his wall. His lack of production makes him a blank slate and people are projecting all sorts of greatness onto that blank slate. I think his slate is clear because he's not that talented.

RB:
Derrick Ward might be the most desirable guy but he wants to be a featured abck and if Caddy and Graham gets right he's just going to be commitee man. I need a guy who can be a role player with our RB corps but I don't see anyone I really like in the mix. I can live with our 3 RB's and try and find that role player in the mid-late rounds of the draft.

WR:
Ahh yes. Call the cavalry. Galloway becomes my 3rd WR, slot guy who can use his speed w/o getting jostled too much at the line. Useful but reduced role given his age/injury role. I thus need the 1,2 and 4,5 WR's. I want speed and a threat to do more than just the ball and fall down like Ike Hilliard. Re-sign Bryant. This scares me to no end since you wonder if he got his head on right because he was out of the game and if you give him big $$$$ does he get stupid again. still, he performed well last year and has the tools and background to suggest he should be a good player. For my 2 and 4 guys I go and get a mix of these cats: Brandon Jones and Shaun McDonald. My new 5th can be found in the draft or if Jackson turns into not-trash, sorry Stovall go make special teams tackles somewhere else.

TE
There's no one out there to make me scream and if I'm spending money I can do it better elsewhere. Dump The Rapist while I'm at it and figure I can dreg up a 3rd TE from plenty of places. Plus, I've beefed up the WR so we don't need to worry as much about this spot.

OL:
Tempting place to spend money and there are plenty of decent OG's type out there but if there is anything we don't need it is another OG. Re-sign Davis for depth and OT becomes a spot to try and upgrade in the draft.

DL:
OK, here's where the big $$$$ goes. Haynesworth or Peppers. Very tough call but I'll go with Peppers because he's been more consistently productive and I worry Albert will slack with the big $$$. Peppers is a legit pass rusher and we are talking $15m per for him. He dominates on the LDE spot and will make Adams a lot more effective because teams will cheat towards Julius and also Peppers will flush guys to him. Try and add depth at DT with John Thornton from CIN.

LB
Not shopping here for anyone. Someone out of the 8 trillion LB's we've drafted the last 2 years has to be a player.

DB:
Try and bring back Cory Ivy. He's a decent nickle player and he's still great on teams. Weed replaces P-Buc at starting CB. Sabby has to step up into Jermaine's place because I can't make the numbers work if I give what I think he'll get and that is about $5m per year.

You figure $15m for Peppers, $5m for Bryon and $10m for Bryant and you are at $30m already. I'm guessing about an average of $1.5m per for the rest of the spares so that comes up $9m.  We're under the cap but not very far but then again average cost is usually a big of fiction since the backend of most deals has some bogus figures so this might be lower.

Still, cap room is only useful if you use it.

[white dragon]

hasn't worked out for the skins why would it now

[donny77]

Why would we pay Leftwich 5 mil?  If I'm not mistaken, Garcia made around 2.5 mil last year.  If you are getting a stop gap you aren't going to pay him like a vet starter.

[Booker Reese]

That's not quite what the Skins have done.

Like the call on Leftwich - he's easily the best stop-gap out there, has decent leadership and has an arm that can scare teams. Don't like the Pro Boller call - I just don't think there's any upside left to mine, and I'd prefer to stick with McCown. I'm not sure he's great, but I also that we don't know much either due to the lack of games.

On DL, the guy we need is Suggs, but it's not going to happen. I actually have more fears about Peppers than Haynesworth - some of Haynesworth's problems seem to have been a problem of maturity. Peppers is so hot and cold - a guy with that talent shouldn't disappear as often as he does.

[Detrimental]

For QB options, we're better off starting McCown or drafting a rookie.

And personally, I'd rather give Elbert Mack more PT then signing Ivy.

[warrenfb12]

leftwich sucks, ward is no good. Build through draft

[FireThemCannons]

Leftwich has a very long throwing motion. it's like he's pitching in MLB. he would not seceed here with that motion, takes him way too long to get rid of the ball. might as well let Johnson have a shot  if you want leftwich. Leftwich was the product of one game in college. Everyone knows the game, he gets hurt, keeps playing, teammates have to carry him to the line, they end up winning. He was ok in jacksonville but in no way should we go get him.

[Booker Reese]

He's not the product of "one game." He passed for 11,000 yards in college, threw for nearly 90 tds, and won two bowls.

Yeah he's got flaws - but good luck finding any QB under thirty with 50+ career tds, to 30-something picks.  The motion wouldn't suceed if we are running the WCO, but it doesn't sound like we are.

[jsunm73]

That is not what I call a good shopping spree.30 million on those guys? Yes to Peppers and maybe Ward but Leftwich,dump Stevens,Corey Ivy? I think that spending spree as you call it would suck badly and guarantee alot of losses this year.

[Boid Fink]

When you say Davis, Dalbuc, are you talking about Anthony Davis?  Dude was released for beating on the service staff at some midnight-breakfast joint, along with Bennett.  Denny's maybe?

[dalbuc]

He's not the product of "one game." He passed for 11,000 yards in college, threw for nearly 90 tds, and won two bowls.

Yeah he's got flaws - but good luck finding any QB under thirty with 50+ career tds, to 30-something picks.� The motion wouldn't suceed if we are running the WCO, but it doesn't sound like we are.

Exactly. People act like Byron is pure trash. I thought I'd see a guy with a lot more picks and a lot more sacks than he has when I went looking at the numbers.

The notion that people prefer McCown to Lefty amazes me. Bryon is a proven, if fairly average, NFL QB. McCown is just a guy who has looked good in what? Pre-season?

He's got flaws and is an imperfect solution but there's not a better solution on the market right now.

[dalbuc]

That is not what I call a good shopping spree.30 million on those guys? Yes to Peppers and maybe Ward but Leftwich,dump Stevens,Corey Ivy? I think that spending spree as you call it would suck badly and guarantee alot of losses this year.

The bulk of the cash gets tire up in 2 guys...Peppers and Bryant. The rest is spread over the other players. Maybe they're gonna be less than $1.5m per - i think a lot of them will be but I'm being high on the estimates.

You don't like Ivy? Go find me a better nickle corner out there right now that isn't gonna cost and arm and a leg. He filled that role of BAL so it isn't like he's totally spare. We could bring back P-Bucs are be on a sort of break even plateau but I assume Ivy will be as productive and cheaper, plus he plays on teams.

[redbeard10]

I like the Leftwich pickup alot. I think people forget he was forced on a coach who didn't want him in Jax. His release, while still slow, has quickened up a bit after workin with Pitt's coaching staff. Plus, we may not be a WCO team anymore, so to say he doesn't fit simply isn't accurate. Not sure about the other moves. I think we could likely get an end where we are in the draft to pair with Adams if we wanted to go after Albert. That said we could just as easily grab Jerry at that spot so that is something of a tossup. Mack will be a fine nickle corner, so we could use a draft pick for depth/ST. I don't really think we should cut bait on MoSto just yet. He's a monster on ST, and who knows what he could do with new coaching and more opportunities. I'm also not sure we need a complete overhaul in the corps overall. We need another solid playmaker no doubt, but I like the rest of our cast in supporting roles. I also wouldn't cut Stevens because he's been good here and could be a force in the redzone with new coaching and a different QB.

[Feel Real Good]

The one big money free agent I've been selling myself on is Arizona's Karlos Dansby. He'd probably be looking at 5-6 years for $30-35 million. He steps in as an athletic but more physical WLB who can sack the quarterback, too. Make Brooks compete with June at SLB or just dump June so you don't hurt Brooks' feelings. Who cares about Quincy Black? The old regime drafted him and the new guys don't have to pay for that sin.

[michael89156]

Leftwich has stated he wants to go to the Bears........but who knows, they may be in love with Orton and not want to pay any big bucks for Leftwich.