tukafan21

I've said it so many times before on here, but far too many people confuse being an NFL #1 with being a fantasy #1 So they only look at a WR #1 as someone who is a top 10-12 player at their position, even if there are 32 starters in the NFL at that position. Sure, everyone wants a Top 10 player at any position, but only 10 teams in the league have one of those

BTW, this is also coming from someone who is a big fan of Ridley's play on the field. I think he's outstanding and even bet my fantasy season on pairing him with Lawrence this past year, I way overpaid for them in my auction draft as I think he's a stud. My view on it is really more around Bryce and that I think he's a bum that we'll be replacing as early as next year if we don't get a player like Ridley. And if we get a player like Ridley, we'll be replacing Bryce in 2-3 years, which at that time, Ridley's game will be fading due to his age. Put the money into younger players that can still be around and playing at a high level when we finally right the ship

I don't know the number I'd be comfortable with as much as I know it won't be as high as it would take to sign him. But I'm also in the camp of belief that Bryce can't be fixed, at least not to the point of being an elite QB that you can contend for championships with. I'd rather not get a top WR this year and suck because of that, while putting us in a position to draft a Bryce replacement, than sign a WR who only has 2-3 years of top level play left and watch them turn Bryce into an average game manager and set back when we can actually re-build another 3-5 years because of it. Again, for me with him, it's his age and the contract we'd need to give him. If he was in the 24-26 age range to where he could realistically have 5-7 years of high end play with us, then I'd be much more for it. For me it's the very high level view of things, Ridley seems like a quick fix to one problem that will only create multiple and worse other problems in a year or two. Which is something we have to stop doing, we need to build smart, not look for quick fixes as they never work for a team needing a full on rebuild.

He's going to get crazy money There isn't another elite WR on the non franchise tag FA market this year, the next best WR is Hollywood Brown, who isn't even remotely in the same league as Ridley is. That combined with the unexpected cap increase, someone will give him a monster contract, no doubt about it. Hence my concern with signing him, because for him to sign with us over basically any other team in the league, we're going to need to go above and beyond the other deals offered to him. Which to me, doesn't make sense given his age.

I'm very torn on going after Ridley and think I'd prefer us not to in the end. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a great WR and in a vacuum I'd love to have him, but for me there is a serious concern in both what it will take to sign him and the long term implications of it. Even though he's only played 4.5 seasons, he's already 29 and turns 30 before the next season will end. This is his only chance at signing a big contract given his age and he will have plenty of suitors out there trying to get him, many of them with legit contending chances, like the Jags resigning him or even someone like KC going after him. If he's going to pass up signing with a contender to sign with us, it's because we dropped a massive bag at his feet to do so and he couldn't turn it down because he won't get another chance at big FA money. If we're going to massively overpay for a WR, it shouldn't be one who turns 30 this year and only has a couple years left before age starts to catch them, it should be someone younger who can be here for 5-7 years. Dropping a bag at a 29 year old WR's feet is something you do when they're the final piece of a puzzle to contend, not your hail mary pass to try and save your awful QB's career when you have TONS of other holes on the team. As even if he were to help turn Bryce around, in 2-3 years he won't be an elite WR anyways and if he's the only reason Bryce was moderately successful during that time, we'd be right back in the same place as we are now, a QB who needs an elite WR to be successful, but without an elite WR on the roster. Find a way to overpay Aiyuk, Higgins, Pittman, etc, before doing it with someone like Ridley at his age.

His cap hits are $63 million a year the rest of his contract. He’d have a $200 million dead cap if cut this year and $136 million if they cut him next year. The only thing they could do if they wanted to move on from him during these next 2 years is to just bench him. Even to get rid of him the next year would be a $72 million dead cap hit. Worst contract ever

Quirky yes, but not old, at least not in modern NFL QB standards for a player with his pedigree, he should have a few more solid years left in him (I don't think he was all that bad this past year, he just had a horrible team around him and a coach who was purposefully tanking on him so he could have a justified reason to do exactly this). The quirky part is the bigger issue in finding a landing spot. The fact that former teammates have come out and talked about how he doesn't give out his cell phone to even offensive teammates, that they have to go through his agent to talk to him, is SUPER weird, for any NFL player, let alone a QB. It's about the antithesis for what today's QB's should be doing and is the reason I wouldn't want anything to do with him if I was a team looking for a QB, even if I do think he still has a few decent years left in him.

I'd have been all for this move after last season, but I'm less certain of it after this year. He's had injury issues his whole career, but he just played in all but 1 game this season. No, he's not an all pro corner out there, but he's more than serviceable as a #2 if he can stay on the field like he did this past season

I actually think the Detroit side of it is very reasonable now due to the unexpected cap increase, however the same cap increase means the flipping of the pick for one of those 2 WRs is less likely to happen. This board is much higher on Jameson than actual Lions fans are, they still like his potential, but they're much closer to giving up on him than expecting him to be a future star. I'm from Detroit and most of my Lions friends still talk about that as a possibility, mainly because they don't think Jameson has the hands to become a great WR and is mostly going to end up as a speed/gadget type of player. 2 weeks ago they'd have been less likely to make the move as signing Burns would have been difficult, but the unexpected cap room makes it much more doable for them now. However that same cap increase is also why the 49ers and Bengals are more likely to try and keep their WRs for one more year as each player's contract isn't far off from the unexpected cap increase amount, so they have a path to keeping those players for another season before needing to move them.

Not exactly a fair question for this situation though. Pretty much any Top 10 picked QB that gets traded during their rookie contract, is doing so because they already look like a bust. Most aren’t even traded, but cut, outside of Darnold, Lance, and Rosen, no other recent trades come to mind while still on their rookie deal. This is a very unique situation where they lucked into the top pick of a draft with a generational prospect. If this was last years class and coming off the season Fields just had, they wouldn’t be looking to trade Fields right now.

Jameson and their 1st rounder Then send that 1st rounder to the 49ers or Bengals for Aiyuk or Higgins and sign them to an extension. Aiyuk, Thielen, Jameson, Mingo would be a real nice Top 4

VERY hard pass on Hollywood Brown, he's barely a #2, let alone a #1. He couldn't even get on the same page to put up good numbers with his college QB. He'd just be a repeat of Chark, signing a #2/3 with the hope they can be a #1, basically, a mistake. Only way I'd be okay with signing him is if we end up with a true #1 and then he can't get the contract he's looking for and comes here on a 1 year deal for like $5 million to be our #2 (which isn't happening). I'd love Ridley, but I don't think the Jags will let him go, nor would he want to leave Lawrence to come play with Bryce. Realistically, our only shot at a true #1 WR this offseason is trading Burns for a 1st and change and then flipping that pick for Aiyuk, Higgins, or a Tyreek/Diggs type of situation where a player is traded instead of given a new contract, like maybe DK Metcalf.

The only reason Jefferson might not want to re-sign with the Vikings is because he wants to know their long term QB plans first The Vikings current long term QB situation is better than ours... they're not tied to a bust they're forced to keep for another year or two and can do whatever they want. He's not coming here because he wouldn't be willing to sign a long term deal with us. End of discussion

So.... a couple things..... First, despite you believing I do... I don't stalk your posts and track everything you say on here. But when I see the nonsense, I call it out and you get frustrated over it. So even if you did change your tune on Higgins at some point, I never saw it, but it's still a moot point as you still missed the point in this post here. Because, second... you said the way Bryce was playing took us out of the Higgins FA pipe dream and how trading for Higgins was our "best chance" to land him. No, it was our ONLY chance, because there was ever going to be a FA pipe dream because he was never going to hit free agency, he was always going to be tagged and traded, that was never even a discussion. However, with this unexpected cap increase, now they may just tag him and keep him for one more SB run with him, or even try to find a way to sign him to an extension because of it.

Not really, they might try to ask for it, but teams aren't going to give it to them. Because as you said, it's all relative... contracts are still relative to the other contracts out there in the league. Teams aren't going to give players bigger contracts than they deserve just because the cap went up in one offseason. The only impact it has on this years free agency class is that it allows the cap starved team a lifeline to be able to re-sign players they expected to lose. In reality, what this unexpected cap room is going to be used for with most teams, is to give out contract extensions to their existing stars and use this unexpected cap space to give out signing bonuses to help out future season cap situations. It's a godsend for teams like the Chiefs who were going to lose a bunch of free agents due to cap space issues.

LOLOLOL Once again?!?!?!?!?! Dude.... you spent the entire season screaming from the rooftops about how we needed to break the bank to sign Higgins in the offseason, while I consistently pointed out to you how he was never going to hit free agency, but get tagged and traded, and we didn't have the draft pick ammo to go after him. My post here had nothing to do with our ability to trade/sign for either of them, was just a general comment about how this increased cap room makes it much more likely that both teams can find a way to keep both players for next year.

This unexpected cap in trade is TERRIBLE news for us Means teams like the Bengals and 49ers have a more realistic path to making it work out to keep Higgins and Aiyuk

I actually wonder if a trade with Seattle of Burns for DK would be on the table. They just hired a DC as their new coach and have a need for pass rushers. They just drafted JSN and have him on his rookie deal for a 3-4 more years, while DK is going to want a new contract next offseason, which they might not want to do. I'd make a call if I was Morgan and look into it, but those are also the player we need to look into, same category as guys like Diggs, Tyreek, AJ Brown, the last few years, players nobody expected to be traded but their teams didn't want to give them a new deal.

Not even remotely close, we won't get the 2 firsts, but we'll get one first and some change, no doubt in my mind we'll get that (or equivalent through players instead) if we tag and trade him. Panthers fans are down on him because he didn't have the dominant season we expected and they purposefully sought out reasons to not want to pay him by focusing on his run defense struggles. He played on a defense with no other edge rushers and had no offense so were constantly playing from behind, no pass rusher is going to put up elite numbers in that situation. Opposing teams focused their pass blocking schemes on him with no fear of the rest of the defense, and most of the time he wasn't ever able to just pin his ears back and rush the passer with a lead. Plenty of teams will be wiling to give up a 1st rounder for a known pass rusher of his ability and age, knowing that once they put him on a defense with better players and playing with a lead, he'll put up big sack numbers. Panthers fans are the only group of people who don't think he's worth that, NFL GM's disagree with them. Also, part of why a team will give that up, is his numbers this year likely dropped his contract demands to a more manageable level. He'd make a lot more just playing on the tag this year, but I don't think he wants to risk it again for another season, he'll take his $25 million from a contender and be happy.

Literally said it in the post just before I think a 1st, 3rd, and 5th would be a very reasonable ask and something a team who feels they are a pass rusher away from contention would more than be willing to give up for him. No matter what Panthers fans feel about him this past season and his performance, the league views him as an elite pass rusher. We might not be able to get the two 1sts for him anymore, but a single first plus a few mid round picks is more than doable, maybe could even do better by getting a 1st this year and a 2nd next year from someone. I'd then be more than willing to trade that 1st for either Aiyuk or Higgins, a trade I think both of those teams would be willing to make as they then get a 1st round pick at a position of need (likely defense for both) on a rookie deal for the next 4 years instead of paying those guys. Or maybe a team like Houston who has a bunch of promising WRs and could use a pass rusher would be willing to give us their 1st and Metchie. Then go into next year with our WR room being Aiyuk/Higgins, Thielen, Mingo, Metchie, Laviska, which would be a dramatic improvement over this year.

Because he's still young enough that if he plays well the next few years, he'll still get another monster contract after this next one. So a team would expect him to sign the new contract, now have no fear of being hurt and losing his big pay day, and him going out and playing loose and balling out with the hope of cashing in again in 3-4 years for a 2nd monster pay day. Luvu also wasn't expecting a stupid big contract, he was playing for a good deal, Burns knew he'd get one at some point, kinda very different situations. But yes, at this point, I'd much rather have Luvu at a much lower number, trade Burns for assets and use that money elsewhere at the same time

Aiyuk is my top choice, Higgins is second After that, I don't think Ridley or Pittman are leaving their current teams so I'm not going to bother speculating on them, Evans is staying in TB or signing with a top contender to chase another ring, and I'm a very hard pass on Hollywood Brown. Problem is both those teams will be trading those guys because they can't afford to sign them to long term extensions, and thus likely will be trading them for draft picks and not interested in Burns who they'd then have to give a big contract to (maybe the Bengals could make it work, but the 49ers sure as hell can't). So really what we need to do is find a team to trade Burns to for a 1st and some more on top, maybe like a 3rd and a 5th, and then try and trade that 1st for one of them, again, Aiyuk is my preference between the two. If we can't make that happen, we have to hope someone like Tyreek or Diggs in the past few years becomes available unexpectedly and maybe we can trade Burns for them. And no, I don't want Diggs right now, just a horrible fit for each side of that one, he wants to win and get force fed the ball down the field, we aren't going to win and Bryce isn't a good enough QB for him to want to play with.

THIS? dumbest sequence of trades and picks that THIS?!?!?! franchise has ever seen? THIS?!?!?! I think you meant to say "the NFL"

What's that? Having less people be able to see your asinine posts and thus less people with the ability to call them out for how non-logical the ideas are? Sure, guess that helps you not look as bad at this as you really are

I'm the one on repeat? All you do is keep throwing out the most unrealistic ideas, so I keep pointing out why they each aren't at all realistic possibility. You don't understand the NFL, at all, it's so painfully obvious and it makes this place worse off by having you posting on it, it makes the Panthers fan base look extremely ignorant (from a football standpoint, I don't mean to demean you as a person, just your knowledge of the NFL game).