DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum PFF top 100 2021 Free Agents

Kinda a weird year for free agency... looks to be a very dry list this year...

https://www.pff.com/nfl/free-agency?season=2021

Top 10:

QB Dak Presscot
WR Chris Godwin
WR Allen Robinson II
WR Kenny Gollaway
T Trent Williams
S Justin Simmons
S Anthony Harris
LB Lavonte David
G Brandon Scherff
QB Phillip Rivers

Lots of speculation that most of the top WRs get franchised

Anyone on the list anyone interested in picking up?

Looks to be like 25 free agents for the browns this year... mostly bench players with ike Vernon being the big number guy.


Any predictions or do yo think they can bring anyone in to help improve?

Any safety would be someone I’d want us to explore

A few

Marcus Williams S age 24

Leonard Williams DL age 26

John Johnson S age 26

Curtis Samuel WR age 24

Melvin Ingram Edge age 31

Man I am SO glad our O-line is set. No more speculating over people like Trent Williams. And our depth has really developed there too. Just wish our d-backs could stay healthy.

The list will grow as players have to be released for salary cap adjustments.

Heck, it might be a good year to explore trades, too.

if you look at the upcoming free agent list on SpoTrac, the list of Cornerbacks is about a mile long. It's almost like every CB in the league has their contract ending this year, lol

Not too many Safeties, but a TON of CBs.
There are a couple of young DLine I'd like us to go after, too.. one being Leonard Williams as Peen mentioned, but also Ngakoue, and I'd make a run at acquiring Romeo Okwara from Detroit (they have a Club Option on him). Dalvin Tomlinson and Shelby Harris are DT's that I'd look at, too... but, I think I'd prefer to see if we can fill those shoes in the Draft.

For CB's, I can't even guess. There are soooo many available, but it is a position where the role envisioned for the player within the scheme is as important as their raw abilities; how they fit is what matters, I think. If Greedy makes it back, eventually, then maybe we just need an older veteran to shore up the group... and maybe we already have all we need in house.

at Free Safety: Justin Simmons will be available, again. He did decently in his one year deal with Denver; compiled more INTs than any other Free Safety on the market.

Strong Safety: Keanu Neal and Duron Harmon will be available. If nothing else, either would be a significant upgrade on Karl Joseph and worlds better than Sendejo (who should just become a coaching assistant).



Overall, I don't think the defense is too far off from being Great, IF we can get a few things to go our way in the offseason.

To add to this, I kind of wonder how FA will go this year in general. The salary cap is expected to drop by potentially 20-25 million (today it is 198.2m, it is expected to be 175-180m). Lets say it goes to 180m, the 18.2m drop would kill a lot of teams - there are currently only 11 that have that much space or more slated for 2021. There are 13 that are projected to be over the cap if it stays at 198.2m (including the Saints at a ridiculous 100m over the projected cap). This doesn't include the floor/ceiling thing that allows teams to allocate unused cap space for the future - not sure how that works exactly.

This will drive down contract prices because teams cannot afford big deals (or it'll be a lot of one year deals). It also means that we'll see a lot of contact restructuring this off season and that the number of FA due to cuts will likely flood the market. I think there will be some really good deals this offseason. This should benefit us as a rising team - players will want to come here for a chance at a ring, and may take less to do so.

This all being said, we'll need to be very careful this offseason - we have Ward, Baker, Chubb, and Teller upcoming as FA (or club options increasing salary), as well as 2023 FA Landry, Conklin, Tretter, Bitonio, Hunt...

Going to have to pay Baker, too.

Baker's contract can be structured to be cap friendly coming out of the covid season while still paying him like a franchise QB.

I am glad he didn't receive his huge contract 2 years ago (or last year) where it would be a huge strain on the cap where it would hurt to figure it out.

I highly doubt the Bucs let him get away but I'd love to snag Shaq Barrett.

Especially if we let OV walk

DL Leonard Williams from the Giants would be a good upgrade over Ogunjobi too even though I'd be sad to lose Larry.

We don't need to worry about this right now. He's in his 3rd year. We'll pick up his 5th year option I'm sure so we'll have at least a year before we need to worry about his contract (maybe 2). This being said, they need to take it into consideration this offseason

If you’re a team looking for a wide receiver it’s a great year for you.

I never heard Ogunjobi's name called all year.

I like Allen Robinson a lot, though we won’t be in the market for him

I was going to say they could look at trying to find a top free safety to put into the rotation, but only if he's one of the top 10 in the league.

I mean, if they're going to bring in a Safety, they might as well go all out to try and find a really good one.

Unless you were the Browns wondering what was up with Donte Stallworth, Robiske, and Taylor Gabriel and what not.
Moving on, again.

Lol or Dwayne Bowe or Kenny Britt

A poop load of decent slot CB's. I'd go after one of those and try to bring back Money Mitch on a cheapish 2 or 3 year deal. He's still going to want to be paid close to starter level but the cap situation will probably depress his market enough to get him back.

Safety is a bit more undecided for me. Do we anticipate Delpit coming back healthy and starting back there with Harrison? If not, we go after a higher free safety. If we are wanting to roll the dice on in-house youth, we go after someone like Malik Hooker (between the cap and his injury history, he's almost a shoe-in for a one or two year prove-you-can-stay-healthy deal. At worst, in week 5 when he gets injured again, we slide in Delpit at that point.

Not much going for the LB group. Another short-term, middling vet contract and then hope the draft bears fruit on day 2. I'm good with TakiTaki at SAM and 45-60% of snaps going forward. I'm "hopeful" for Phillips to grow into the MIKE (he has gotten better and quicker in diagnosis throughout the year- when healthy anyway). Eh...Mack Wilson...yeah, no. I doubt this front office would drop thee bag needed to grab Lavonte David (even if only a short term deal), so I'm assuming we continue to try to develop youth here.

I think Leonard Williams is going to get a good bit of attention in the market, so I'd rather not go that route. The Mayfield, Chubb and Ward decisions upcoming are more important to me and Williams would eat a lot of cap. That said, Larry is a FA this year and Richardson and Billings (after taking the year off) are pending FA's next year, so getting a guy in place would be a good idea. I'm still leaning toward Dalvin Tomlinson, myself.

Then there's DE...yuck. Short of Vernon healing up quicker than is likely, we may have to look at teams in salary cap purgatory for a trade possibility on this one. We have our boss-hog end in place so dipping into the FA market for DE2 would likely toast our positional spending and well...Baker, Ward and Chubb, right. This whole DE class is either old or over-rated. Maybe, if need be, we pull another short aging-vet deal...at best.

So I guess,
Get the slot cleaned up and maybe a young DT. Take a swing at FS with Hooker. Then go short term on LB and DE2 (unless a trade option arises that would eliminate the prorated bonuses of a quality DE).

We need a hammer we can send up the middle on blitzes... Myles is awesome as the edge rusher but if we got another athletic guy either at safety or at MLB who can crash the line and fill gaps... would be helpful.

The greatest weakness this team on D has IMO is its interior guys..

S/MLB the D would look so much better if it had help there...

I don't see why we would consider FA for DE. We're have our main guy in Garrett and we have depth guys in Porter and Claybourne. Just take low-rise swings in the draft.

I'd be fine with an aging vet if we like how Delpit's recovery is going.

If we're going to throw major draft and/or FA capital at a position, I think it should be LB or CB if the right guy is there. FS is we REALLY like someone.

I don't think anyone knows what we have in Curtis Weaver. He was pretty highly talked about when he came out in the draft.

I would look at safety maybe. Otherwise I don't think I would do too much in FA.

We have to remember that the cap will probably be less next year compared to this year. I think that we will try to re-sign a priority player or 2, and maybe sign one upper level free agent ... but the rest will be guys like we signed this year. (after Hooper, Conklin, and and Keemun)

JC...A few defensive FA's I would be keen on signing that won't cost a heap of money, well outside of the one. I know FS is a huge need, however I see us addressing that very early in the draft...And a lot of FA's seem high dollar, with maybe the exception of former Brown Tashaun Gipson. I also expect us to resign SS Karl Joseph...as he has a year in our system, and will be fairly cheap. Also would expect us to make a decent offer at CB Terrence Mitchell for at least another year.

Lavonte David LB- I think TB springs into signing Barrett, Lavonte would be our backer whom doesn't leave the field. He is such a well rounded backer, especially against the pass. He will cost some money, but being 31...I don't think it will be outrageous for a 2 year deal. Especially since his play hasn't slipped, and he's still so advanced against the pass. Teammates love him, thus why he's always their captain...he would be a welcomed addition to our young guys and locker room. 2 year/16 mill

Mike Hilton CB- Why not steal one of Pitts talents. I think Joe Woods will push hard for the top nickel CB in the league. Not only that, Hilton may be the best blitzing corner in the league as well. I think you can nab him on a multi year deal slightly more than we paid for Kevin Johnsons service. 3 year/14 mill

Ryan Kerrigan DE- Perhaps the most underrated defender for the past decade. He's def. old, but he's a gritty all effort veteran. I know he's looking to play as a starter, as he was being phased out for Montez Sweat. But I think he can step in initially, while we groom a DE stud behind him (I expect us to draft a DE rather high in addition) Obviously a cheaper one year deal, once again a welcomed addition to our locker room. 1 year/3 mill

Solomon Thomas DT/DE- Thomas will be rather cheap coming off injury, I can see Woods vouching for him. He can rotate inside and outside, so offers some versatility along that line. 2 year/5 mill

I expect us (like most of us) to focus heavily on the defensive side of the ball. I obviously see us looking for CB,DE,FS,LB high in the draft...and we should see several new faces along those lines.

Another option- if they have a number of guys they want to extend (Mayfield, Ward, Higgins, etc), is doing what the team did with Myles' contract and kick the base salary & cap hit ramification further down the life of the contract rather than front loading it. Now, that might spell potential issues down the road but if the team/league feels the cap will go down this year but will rise in subsequent ones, this might be a path teams, not just the Browns, will take.

Lavonte David is the one guy on this list that I can see transforming the defense by himself. I also don’t see the Buccaneers letting him go.

Buccaneers could be in a pickle, though. They have both David and Shaq Barrett hitting FA. Depending on the prices and their cap situation, they might not have much of a choice.

This is what I'm thinking, and they (TB) may opt for Barrett as he is the younger of the two. Plus they have Godwin and Gronk (You know Tom Brady will more than likely keep his weapons retained) I think Suh, Fournette, and AB are all FAs as well.

Yeah Lavonte David is the piece I want badly this off-season...He can play any down, and plays every snap with all out hustle and smarts. Our young guys can learn a lot from him.

Still inclined to slow play the Free Agent market and see who gets released or is available for trade. We're going to be overpaying Austin Hooper quite a bit by 2022, and still have Ward, Chubb and Baker's escalated deals that same year. Don't want to blow it all this year only to have to blow it up next year.

David is the top of my list, Godwin might be a good pickup if we can get him on a decent deal if we move OBJ. We still don't have that WR that can take the top off. Wouldn't mind have a big body WR with a huge catch radius. We have a squad of possession guys, damn good ones but we still need that one piece. On defense, there isn't a single player i wouldn't atleast look at upgrading, its a bad defense. I think Billings will come in and be good, alot better than Larry, I think we Let Larry walk, we still need DE and DE depth, Gustin isn't it, Clayborne is meh and you have to rearrange the defense. Barrett would be a great pickup if TB sticks with David over Barrett, I think its going to be one or the other there. Going to be alot more available because there are some teams that HAVE to cutdown to get under cap. This could turn out to be a great FA season for us. I see us going heavy D in draft. I'd be surprised to see offense before round 5

I agree it might not be possible. I usually don't play these games until we know who is going to be in the draft, when we draft, and who is ultimately going to be a free agent.

Agree with many - David or Williams would transition our D with one signing. But there's probably slim to no chance either hits the free agent market.

Will getting the Billings guy back free up Larry for a role he's better suited for? I don't think his skillset was ever that of a runstuffer.

IMO...Larry does not have the base to be a run-stopper nor the burst and power to be a pass-rusher. I just described a backup DT there.

He's always been a good guy and teammate, but if he wants free-agent, starter-level money, he won't be back.

I don’t expect him to be back

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/3073...on-all-32-teams

Looking through the (long) article, there are some names to track through this offseason (obviously, many will get signed). Below is simply a snippets/summaries of the players that we could/should be interested in (LB, FS, CB, DE and DT).

-Ravens have to make a decision on Judon AND Ngakoue
-Carl Lawson (DE) in Cinci
-Bronco's Justin Simmons (will probably get re-signed)
-Eagles' Jalen Mills (moved from corner to safety recently, might be a coaching transition casualty)
-Vikings have LBs Eric Wilson, Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks and will have to spend way too much money to keep all of them. Wilson will be a FA.
-Saints need to sign DE Trey Hickerson, and he might be too expensive for them.
-Bucs have a situation at LB with Barrett and David, among many other FAs like Antonio Brown and Gronk.
Cardinals have a decision to make re: Patrick Peterson. Could an aging stud be an option for us? Conversion to FS?
-Rams John Johnson 3 is going to be a FA.
-

Would love Eric Kendricks.

It's definitely a decent likelihood especially if we haven't even opened up conversations with him and his agent about an extension. At this point in time, players look forward to free agency in the hopes of getting an extension when teams tend to overpay. We've seen this often, especially during a regime change.

Saints are $100m over the cap as it stands, and the cap will likely reduced. They'll be doing a lot of cutting, restructuring, etc... this off season. With Brees' expected retirement, it will be fascinating to see what that team looks like next season.

A lot of interesting names on that list.