Official NFL Free Agency Thread

[Bartin]

1 hour ago, CWORS said:

Who of the FA cornerbacks that are left fit our scheme and we have a chance of signing?

Boykin- Steelers

Robinson- Chargers

Thurmond-Eagles-I know he played safety but he was a CB prior

Thurmond is a better safety and rumor is that he is considering retirement. He apparently has a lot of off field interests he might rather do.

[Saca312]

Panthers showing interesting in B.J. Raji, according to ESPN:

http://espn.go.com/blog/carolina-panthers/post/_/id/20073/paul-soliai-b-j-raji-could-be-options-as-backup-tackles-for-panthers

Quote

The Panthers also are interested in 29-year-old Green Bay tackle B.J. Raji, according to a league source.

 

[CarolinaSunday]

I don't think this necessarily bodes well for us signing Coples:

 

[Bartin]

2 minutes ago, CarolinaSunday said:

I don't think this necessarily bodes well for us signing Coples:

 

Yeah, it's a pretty good bet that we didn't offer him near what he wanted. I'd be very surprised if he ended up coming here at this point.

[CarolinaSunday]

In other free agency news, for those that are starving for some kind of NFL news:

Ha ha, oh Ryan Fitzpatrick. Has now had two teams with no other options running from his salary demands. Wonder what he's asking for.

 

[Bartin]

I love what the Bears have done in free agency. They've gotten 3 impact players for their front 7 and all of them have been for pretty cheap. Freeman and Trevathan give them a very good duo at ILB and Hicks is a solid starter at 3-4 DE. If any of them don't work out then they aren't on the hook for much to dump them.

[top dawg]

14 minutes ago, Bartin said:

I love what the Bears have done in free agency. They've gotten 3 impact players for their front 7 and all of them have been for pretty cheap. Freeman and Trevathan give them a very good duo at ILB and Hicks is a solid starter at 3-4 DE. If any of them don't work out then they aren't on the hook for much to dump them.

Yeah, me too. Freeman and Trevathan, alone, should upgrade their defense notably. Their GM and Foxy are motivated.

[Pox 08]

 

Quote

 

Peter Schrager Verified account ‏@PSchrags

Update on Eric Weddle. Negotiations went on through the night. Down to 3 teams. An agreement is expected w/one in next 24 hours. @NFLonFOX

 

 

It's annoying,  that Weddle is trying to create all this suspense,  when almost everyone knows he's picking the Raiders.            We've known for the last month or so.      I will try to act surprised when it is announced though. 

[CarolinaSunday]

 News where Weddle might be leaning:

 

[CarolinaSunday]

Fascinating news about the status of Kaepernick negotiations. I'm surprised that his contract is holding things up. I always thought the contract was more friendly to the team than to him. Interesting that teams seem to think he's being overpaid.

 

 Regarding restructuring:

 

[Bartin]

I don't really see how Weddle fits in with the Patriots personnel with McCourty already there. Neither are suited to play SS, but I'm not one to question Belichick. Weddle will almost certainly take a really cheap deal to go there given their cap space.

[Ricky Spanish]

18 hours ago, Growl said:

I think you're missing the point , especially by referencing our interview with Paul Soliai. Despite whatever Gettlemanism this board is obsessed with recycling, this team has most certainly not used free agency to address needs and liberate us to do what we like in the draft.¹ Actually, we've spent a lot of high picks on needs²-and when no value was their , our refusal to address the area earlier in the off season ends up costing during the season³, as we settle for extra years with byron bells and Antoine cason's and jerricho Cotcherys (or Kevin norwood or Jason avants or etc etc etc)

 

I'd like to see this team use free agency to replace old underachievers and actually free us to draft that way and do it without consequence⁴. Instead we've desperately wrestled to keep an aging roster together for one last hurrah in the hopes that because they were almost good enough last year⁵ (losing to a team who places a strong emphasis on the methodology mentioned above⁶) that they will absolutely be good enough this year⁷, meanwhile willing to throw some interest at a couple fossils.

 

Free agency was loaded with youthful talent in the defensive backfield. We should've made a move. Instead we'll be hoping this season for no injuries at all and for a late round pick to step up and be an impact player.⁸

I'm going to deconstruct your post point by point and provide counter arguments to what you've said in hopes of helping you see things from the other perspective:

1. Ted Ginn Jr., Michael Oher, Mike Mitchell, Kurt Coleman, Kyle Love, Dwan Edwards, Roman Harper, Drayton Florence, Joe Webb, Jericho Cotchery. All of the previously mentioned are Gettleman FA signings that have contributed significantly over the past 3 seasons to the panthers' success. Many are stop gaps, some are longer term solutions. All are contributors and played significant roles in our 3-peat of the NFCS. By signing these guys to short term deals that are cap friendly, we were able to draft BPA over the past 3 drafts
2. Spending high picks on Star, KK, and KB are all warranted based on their production on the field. I don't see how you could call those reaches. Drafting Ealy in the second was a value pick based on his pre-draft first round grade we had on him. We didn't know Hardy would go full retard, so that was a BPA situation. We didn't know KB would go down when we took Funchess, but he too was graded a first round talent and was believed to be brought in to be an eventual #2 next to KB. You're looking at the drafts with too much hindsight instead of what we knew at the time of the drafts. 
3. How did this cost us our seasons? We lost in 13 due to no goal line TDs and a hose job from the refs. '14 we were lucky to even make it to the playoffs with the cap strapped team we had in place and lost to the Seahawks were the better team, but put up a damn good fight. We lost due to poor play calling. '15 no one showed up for the Super Bowl on offense. That's Cam included. The Broncos served us up some humble pie, but when you have an all time great defense, you can do that. Kony Ealy (a "reach for need" pick according to your assessment of our drafts) would have been the MVP had we won.
4. We have done this. FA works two ways. Just because we aren't signing people doesn't mean we aren't getting better by subtraction. We got rid of Smitty (who wouldn't have produced for us without the fire of being released), Williams (got fat and complacent), James Anderson, Charles Godfrey, Pickles, Fua, Mcclain, Hangartner, Byron Bell - pretty much anyone drafted by Hurney not named Luke or Cam. those players weren't producing period, or weren't producing at the level they were being paid. So Gettleman let them walk (when he could, some based on need and position depth, others based on salary restrictions) and used the drafts to take BPA and it seems to have worked so far. I don't know what more you want other than a SB win, but in my opinion, it seems like the FO has done EXACTLY what you wanted here. 
5. First of all, of all the team isn't old. I don't know what you're talking about here. our core's age is well under 30. the oldest contributors on the team last year were Roman Harper and Thomas Davis. Find me someone better than TD even at his age and I'll anoint you new GM. Don't take my word for it though. Here is a link to our roster so you can look at the ages of everyone on the team.
6. In the past 10 years 6 teams have spent over $500 million in FA. They combined for 0 playoff wins. Denver is the exception to the rule, not the rule itself. The reason they were able to accomplish this was having an all time great QB fall into their laps which is a HUUUUGE bargaining chip when trying to grab FAs. Couple the low tax rates in Denver, legal marijuana (for dank downtime), and prestige of the most consistent franchise in football history. They haven't had consecutive losing seasons in over 40 years. Second best is at 24... It's a great organization and good players have wanted to go there. Not surprising.
7. Now you're just speculating. You don't know what they are going to do this year. No one does. But the way things are looking, it won't be as good as last year. They have already lost their starting QB, their backup QB, Starting RB, Starting LB, Starting DL, and are so strapped for cash they had to trade for Mark Sanchez and can't afford Ryan Fitzpatrick. Yes they still have Von Miller, but they lost a guy that eats some of his blockers, and Demarcus Ware just signed a contract extension that admitted him to being relegated to passing downs only. That defense will not be as elite as they were last year. That TEAM won't be as good as they were last year. Too many departures, but then again that's what happens when you mortgage the future, at least they got a Super Bowl out of it before it all imploded. 
8. And what's wrong with that? The guys on our rosters are known commodities. We know what we have with them. Who cares where they were drafted if they can perform? Draft position isn't the end all to be all, and just because they aren't a first round pick doesn't mean they can't contribute. There's only 32 first round picks each year, we can't stack the team with them. Bene was already producing the past two years but went down with an ankle injury towards the end of the season. He looks really good on the outside. Boston has shown promise as Harper's backup, he certainly brings more speed. Just because we didn't sign a big name FA doesn't mean we won't draft a guy we like in the secondary. We have depth available, and we most likely aren't done. Our GM isn't going to dole out a top 5 contract for a guy that isn't home grown. We still need to re-sign Starr, KK, Benjamin, Ealy, and a few others over the next few years. Throwing 12 million at Janoris Jenkins would have been retarded (the giants will regret this offseason). There's still plenty of guys available that can contribute in the secondary, and some of them are already on our roster. Just because they aren't household names doesn't mean they can't contribute. We don't need a superstar at every position. Every team has weaknesses because of the salary cap. It's our coach's jobs to make sure those weakness aren't exploited.  

 

Anyway, that's why I and many others disagree with you and think you're wrong. Waiting out FA has paid dividends in the years since Getts took over. We have won the division thrice and gone to the super bowl. I trust his judgement on the way the team is run over some random dude on the forum who wants to throw a ton of cash at big name FAs. Historically doing so does not work.

[NcPsa10]

 

[Pox 08]

2 hours ago, Pox 08 said:

 

 

It's annoying,  that Weddle is trying to create all this suspense,  when almost everyone knows he's picking the Raiders.            We've known for the last month or so.      I will try to act surprised when it is announced though. 

Well,  I could be wrong.   One report say that the Patriots are the favorites.           Not sure why.  I thought the Pats were pretty strong at safety.