DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Your Free Agency Plan

OK, Here's the plan. You can spend $25 million in cap this year, and can sign 2-3 players. (outside of our own players) Who do you go get?

I go get Anthony Barr. 4 year deal, $47 million, with a $15 million signing bonus and $30 million total guaranteed. 1st year salary is $8 million, and 1st year cap hit is $11.75 million.

Then I go and get Darius Philon from San Diego. He's a nice young DT, who can stuff the run, and who has developing pass rush skills that should, at least, (and probably more) make him a nice rotational piece. 4 years, $28 million, with a $7 million signing bonus and $14 million total guaranteed. 1st year salary is $4 million, and his 1st year cap hit is $5.75 million.

That is a total of $17.5 million 2019 cap hit, and still allows me $7.75 million in cap addition for 2019.

I thought about signing Tyrell Williams, but he's probably looking for a contract in the range of 4 years, $60 million, with $20 million signing bonus, and $35 million total guaranteed. While I trust my receivers coach to get his straightened out as far as route running, I trust my receivers coach to straighten out anyone as far as their route running. That pushes his value down somewhat.

I also thought about Humphries, but I think that he might also get more than my budget will allow.

So, I stand pat for right now at WR. Maybe we work out a deal with Perriman, and maybe we hold out to see who we draft, and who is cut after the draft. I also thought about a reclamation CB ...... and I think I would wait here as well, to see who is cut after the draft.

I want a backup Guard, now that Corbett has ascended to the starting role. I go get John Miller from Buffalo. He's solid, and a good backup type kid, still young, (25) and can probably be had for a 2 year, $6 million deal, with a $1 million signing bonus, and $3 million total guaranteed. The 1st year cap hit is $2.5 million.

That puts me at $20 million in total 2019 cap hit. I have 2-3 year outs on all players I signed, with guarantees coming early. This also puts me $5 million under budget in 2019 cap space spent.

So .... what's your plan?

Good topic, but I don't know enough about salaries to opine w/intelligence.

My top FA would be ...
CB Ronald  Darby (age 25).
He will mostlikely demand between 10-12 million per year.

And then ...
DT Rodney Gunter (age 27)
I have been an advocate for bringing him in to help sure up our porous run defense, and he adds some pass rush abilities, to go along with position versatility, able to play 0t, 1t, 2t, and 3t.

His contract (?) should not be burdensome either.

I have no idea on salary figures...however I will say

Malcolm Brown DT-One of the better run stuffers, coming from the Pats...had a down year, so should be more affordable

Allen Bailey DT/DE- Coming from KC (I believe a Scott Pioli product) However very durable, a noted leader, and very consistent. Won't command a ton since he's already 30.

Jesse James TE- A young big target and improved blocker for our O...plus we steal him from the Steelers.

I wanted Perryman at LB bad (However he was retained by the Chargers)...I don't really know of any other good-very good LBS that wont break the bank (Mosely and Hicks will be getting paid) I guess i'll go at the Kwon Alexander route...Very young guy, at bare minimum gives us depth.

I would also bring in a veteran kicker

James always seemed to play well against us.

Speaking of kickers ... Zane Gonzalez is Dawsons replacement at Arizona.

I like Philon and Gunter to stabilize the DT spot at least until the draft.

They are both considered quality, young rotational guys but DT make less than pass-rushers so I'd guess about 3yrs and 16 million for Gunter and maybe 3 yrs and 19 for Philon ( I don't see either getting much over that 6 million per year range)

Get Perriman back for WR (no clue what his agent is expecting but I think a 2 year deal is ideal since he hasn't proven anything yet (I prefer to keep it under the cost of the DT's though- 2 years, 9 millions with enough of a signing bonus to seal it up).

And a veteran interior O-lineman (I think I breifly mentioned TJ Lang before)

That's about it until after the draft.

I'm lazy in free agency

Why 25 mil? It seems a little arbitrary, I would look forward to hearing you say why.

My moves would be (roughly):

Landon Collins, 4 years, ~14 mil a year.
Shaquille Barrett, 4 years, ~7 mil a year.
Poison Pill Mike Hilton to make sure Steelers can't sign him next year.
Justin Coleman/Darquez Dannard, 1 years ~5 mil a year
Jesse James, 3 years, ~6 mil a year.

That's 32 mil in spending this year. All contracts would be ~75% guaranteed.

I would not mind TJ Lang at all, would be an ideal swing...and insurance at the bare minimum (specially if Corbett still needs time)

I didn't even realize Darqueze is a FA...I wouldn't mind him, he always seems to play well...never makes big plays but always seems to be in the action.

I am curious as to where you would play Collins?

As far as the $25 million, it's because I can't see Dorsey spending much more than that in free agency, so I just went with it as a limit.

Linebacker with Shaq or Kirksey providing depth, but still able to play to sub them in when going against bigger personnel.

I think Collins is overrated. He's a tweener. He is a tough, hard-hitting safety, but he gets exploited in coverage. Guys get behind him too easily. He is not big enough to be a force in the run game to play at LBer.

We already have similar players in Peppers and to a lesser extent--Kinard.

Additionally, Collins would be expensive. I hope he is not on our radar.

I'm looking at Kwon Alexander on a long term deal (5 yr). Probably start at 10 mil/yr average and negotiate to around 12. I'd try to front load it some while Baker's relatively cheap.

Then I'd try to get Suh on a 1 yr deal. I'd actually shoot for a 2nd year team option, but doubt he'd go for it. He'd give a rookie time to settle in.

Those 2 would probably tap out the 25 million. So I'd be more or less done on the FA market.

I would be sniffing around CBs for potential trades. Throw out our 2, the lower of our 3s, and a future 2 for Ramsey.

That's solid, Dawg.

DT, LB, CB and Depth.

Then go to the Draft.

You want either a FS or a SS? Why do you want to dump Peppers or Randall?

I used Fanspeak's Manage the Cap app for help.

Philon, DT $6.5 mil, 3 yr deal Cap Hit $4.55 mil

Damien Willson, OLB $7.25 mil, 3 yr deal Cap Hit $5.44 mil

Eric Rowe, CB $7 mil, 3 yr deal Cap Hit $5.25 mil

$15.24 in Cap spending. I think I'd go get a kicker with some of the rest.

Either Mosely or Barr is all I'd target to be honest

Draft DT/WR/CB

Oh yeah, I'd also throw mad money at Gostkowski.

$$$$$ is a good reason. Landon probably isn't going to come cheap, unless it's later in free agency.

I agree. Kicker has become so much more important over the past decade. I know a lot of people would like a young kicker who can grow and develop. But I don't want to wait on that. We are in a phase where we don't want to lose games because of our kicker. We are just now learning how to win. We can't afford those cheap losses. And our window is open for the playoffs. The Steelers are on the downturn, the Bengals are a mess and the Ravens are quite limited offensively with a great defense that is going to be losing a few starters.

Randal is in the final year of his deal.

Peppers is a solid box safety, and Kindred is a suitable backup. What does adding another box safety, probably at $10 million/year, gain us. Heck, even if he's only at $7 million ..... which I doubt .... how much do you tie up in the safety position? Randall has a base salary of $9 million this year, and he has to be a prime candidate for an extension.

I just can't see us having $20 million, or maybe even more, tied up at S.

Speed and coverage ability at the linebacker position.

Some might say that Landon is a bad coverage guy (untrue), but even if that was the case, he's still able to offer better coverage of a TE or a RB than most of our linebackers.

That's fine, if you are going to use him as a LB .... which I am not sure I would .... and you are willing to pay him what it will take to bring him in in the initial stages of free agency. .

Yes. Is there anyone who the money would better be spent on? As much as I would love to sign Odell Beckham Jr., Derwin James, Marshon Lattimore and other all pros, they're not available. So who else should we spend the money on? Trey Flowers? LaMarcus Joyner? Le'Veon?

We want to spend our money on this class so we don't have to worry about retaining Randall, Joe Schobert and others next year. And as much as % of salary towards a position is important, it's not nearly important when the QB isn't sucking at least 15% of your cap away.

EVERYONE THAT MATTERS says he's a liability in Coverage. Except you. Shocking.

Shocking that I am not a consensus thinker. These guys also think that CJ Mosley is a coverage linebacker lol

Collins is a Pro Bowl player who is only 25.

He would help any team.

And I don't dispute that. But Landon is a pro bowl player who is 25 years old. The major difference is, is that you'll probably have to take Mosley off the field against 3 WR sets. You can play Landon all 3 downs usually.

My plan for free agency would not involve signing many free agents. Veteran players are available through trade for little compensation and with almost no guaranteed money. The Patriots just got Michael Bennett for basically nothing. Also, if you make trades (and signed released players) you don't lose compensatory picks (which I expect we will get when somebody signs Tyrod Taylor, Breshad Perriman, and BBC).

Sign released players. Trade for veterans.

How good would the Browns look Plus Tashaun Gipson.

Doing everything it takes to win?

one thing to remember how about free agency. its a established fact that free agents that do not perform nearly as well with their new team as they did with their previous team.
I think of all the free agents that signed in 2018....only 4 made the Pro Bowl

To make this statistic meaningful, we would need to know how many of that free agent class made the Pro Bowl in 2017.

Not as good as keeping Damarious Randall back there.

I've thought for a while that we'd look SO much better with a dominant LB roaming the field ... Mosely or Barr please