HappyDays

The more it settles in the more I like it. I thought a team like the Pats or Commanders would overpay him on a 2 year deal. A 1 year prove it deal is perfect. If he stays healthy he can really get after the passer, if he doesn't there are no negative consequences beyond this year.

Wow. It is a swing for sure. I like that it's 1 year, he will be motivated to perform and earn one more big contract. This means the Hendrickson idea is dead.

Yeah I'm good with this deal. You're paying for those few plays a year he makes that go above and beyond the scheme. The downfield catch against Miami, the wheel route against Detroit, the 4th down TD catch against Denver in the playoffs. I'm all for rewarding players that create plays.

Hopefully our 1st round pick. Barron, Revel, or Hairston would fit in very nicely here. If all of them are gone and CB value doesn't match up with our early picks, someone like Jonathan Jones would be a fine stopgap.

https://x.com/RapSheet/status/1899561699557904778?s=19 Immediately signed with the Falcons.

Everybody shut up. They're about to read the OJ verdict

The options just aren't as good this year. Last offseason was a prime opportunity to add to the room and Beane instead did the bare minimum. But you can't compound that mistake by making desperate moves in a weaker offseason and leave yourself with no flexibility in the draft. You know I'm the biggest advocate on here of adding WR talent. I'm extremely disappointed that we didn't give up what was needed for Metcalf. But with Higgins franchised Metcalf was the only big investment worth making. So it is what it is. I just disagree with your assessment on Kupp. He doesn't give the WR room what it needs and since we're only keeping 5 WRs that would mean it was guaranteed we wouldn't draft a WR with an early pick.

Kupp is not that guy anymore though. He is still a solid player, but definitely no longer a top tier WR. If we had added him instead of Palmer I would have been okay with that but honestly I'm happier with the younger option who is a traditional outside WR. I mean really, who is the last 30+ year old player we signed that ended up being worth the cost? Unfortunately there is no true #1 WR walking through the door. Metcalf was the only chance we had. With that opportunity gone, we need to add in the draft and hope for the best.

Keep an eye on Kenneth Gainwell

Nah, what's the point? Another WR that plays better from the slot, he's injury prone and is entering his age 32 season, and he'll probably be fairly expensive. They need to keep one roster spot available so they can draft someone relatively high and keep the pipeline going. If they miss out on a WR in the draft, sign a band-aid option after. Would it be a huge surprise if Cooper is still sitting around unsigned at that point? Lockett? Hopkins? I'll add one of these over the hill stopgaps if and only if it becomes absolutely necessary. Hopefully it won't.

I'm thinking we're done adding to the WR room in any meaningful way until the draft. We always keep 5 WRs and we already have 4 roster locks. Beane will want to keep his options open in the draft so 1 WR spot has to remain open. I agree they need to add some speed and/or vertical ability ideally by the end of day two. Draft options will be limited though in this class. A starting 5 of Palmer, Coleman, Shakir, Samuel, Isaiah Bond is not what I would have signed up for a week ago but it's probably best case scenario at this point.

Agreed but I wonder if our AAV expectations are not fully caught up to the new salary cap yet. Every signing for every team today looked on paper like a big overpay. Twitter reactions were nothing but sticker shock today. But I think our brains are still stuck in the 2020 salary cap, even though the 2025 salary cap is 41% higher than it was back then. Naturally the contracts will rise by the same percentage. So Hoecht's contract would be equivalent to a $5.7M AAV in 2020, and that's before accounting for the fact that the reported AAV is almost certainly a fugazi. All in all probably a slight overpay but maybe not as much as our perception tells us. The cap is rising too fast for us to adjust our expections, but agents are very aware and front offices are being forced to follow suit.

Joe Marino's text about him is that he's been a stand up EDGE in a 3-4 so kind of a weird fit for us. He projects him as the Dawuane Smoot role but that's a big raise for that role. From other things I'm reading he's been used in coverage more than the typical EDGE. So somewhat of a hybrid/positionless player that we can use as a chess piece. FWIW PFF graded him as the 104th best EDGE in 2024 with a 61.3 grade. As a pass rusher 60.3, as a run defender 73.5. My initial though is it seems like a substantial overpay but I don't have a strong opinion on it. Given how much they're paying they presumably have a plan so we'll see how they use him.

https://x.com/TomPelissero/status/1899235715369558493?s=19 I'll admit I know nothing about him. It's 3 years up to $24M.

I know there are still solid players available. I'm talking about difference makers. Teams by and large didn't let their difference makers hit the market. It basically ended up being Metcalf and Hendrickson. To your first post - normally I wouldn't support a major investment in safety, but I'm kind of getting there with Holland. Mainly because there just isn't any other big ticket item to spend our money on. He is coming off a down year but you know the talent is real. Plug him in at FS and let Bishop and Rapp duke it out for the SS. It's not the most exciting big fish but it's sensible. And FWIW I agree with you that secondary should be a big focus this offseason. Secondary talent was our vulnerability more than DL talent against the Chiefs. I'm hoping for Barron or Revel or Hairston with our 1st rounder. I personally wouldn't give a big contract to a FA CB unless they already know Benford isn't in the long term plans, but not opposed to it.

There was one big fish player at a position of need that we could have had, but I've had my say on that subject. Adams was somewhat of a big fish but he wanted to go to California so nothing we could do. Garrett and Crosby and Higgins weren't on the table. Hendrickson is the last big fish and I'll be surprised if Cincy sends him here. So yeah we are in kind of no man's land now. We spent last season taking our medicine so that we could afford more high end talent starting this season, but that talent just isn't available. I guess saving cap space for a hypothetical mid-season trade is one option. I can't imagine that's what Beane was planning on though. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a surprise trade.

https://x.com/AdamSchefter/status/1899225118854811715?s=19 Dalvin Tomlinson will be released from the Browns as of Wednesday. I would only be interested if it was really cheap. I've seen enough 30+ year old defensive linemen on this roster.

Well you look at the remaining FA list and it's not exactly exciting. I keep getting told we need to save all our money to rebuild the defense, but who are we spending that money on? Unless we trade for Hendrickson there's no big needle movers coming this year, just some baseline improvements across the board.

Hendrickson would be the best move we can make at this point, for sure. I remain skeptical that Cincy would trade him to us but I would like the move. The reason I bring up Holland is we have all this available money and nothing to spend it on. It feels like a waste not to use all of our resources in this championship window. He's the only big ticket item I see remaining that makes sense for our roster, although I'm not in love with the idea of spending big at the safety position. Ward I don't consider a splash move per se. I would be fine with it though. My preference is a cheap vet and then draft one high but there's a clear need there. Is Benford in their long term plans? If not then I would be more in favor of signing Ward, but if he is then I'd rather not have two expensive CBs under contract at the same time.

Feels like we have one splash move still to come. Albert Breer in an article this morning said we made an offer for Myles Garrett and that we planned on making a run at Tee Higgins if he wasn't franchised. Also FWIW I heard earlier today that we were in on Metcalf, just not willing to match or beat Pittsburgh's offer. So Beane had a splash move earmarked for this offseason. But the potential splash move options are dwindling. Right now we're down to trading for Trey Hendrickson or signing Jevon Holland. Unless I'm missing someone?

https://x.com/RapSheet/status/1899204867786465603?s=19 Bobby Brown to the Panthers.

I've said my piece on this. I'm not going to drag this thread down.

But I understand your sentiment too. We haven't had a stud since the first half of the 2022 season, before Diggs fell off a cliff. The offense has been tough sledding since then and Palmer is not a needle mover. Unfortunately there are no needle movers left to acquire unless a mystery player is available for trade. So it's going to have to be a highly drafted WR, and hope Coleman and Samuel give us more than they did last year.

I wouldn't say he's a bum. If he's your best outside WR it's very underwhelming and I've accepted that that is a real possibility for us this year. But he's better than say Mack Hollins in that role.