To all chicken littles out there freaking out over no FA signings...

[Fox007]

HURNEY HAS fugED THIS TEAM FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER TWO YEARS

 

Now write that 100 times on paper until it sinks in.

[mountainpantherfan2]

Let me give you a look at our early depth chart.

QB: Cam Newton

RB: DeAngelo Williams

FB: Mike Tolbert

WR: ?

WR: ?

Slot: ?

TE: Greg Olsen

LT: THE Nate Chandler

LG: Amini Silatolu coming off major surgery

C: Ryan Kalil

RG: Gary Williams coming off of major surgery

RT: THE Byron Bell

Front 7 Dominant

CB: ?

SS: ?

FS: ?

CB: ?

and 4 million to spend. I am usually pretty patient but we need to get something going already

You left some names off that list actually. Some rather important names at that. Godfrey, White, Lester, Dockery, and J Thomas. And to be honest I like that lineup in the secondary. It's not the flashiest but neither was Seatles group just 2 offseasons ago.

As for the offense, we need a starting LT and a 2 WRs (technically Smitty is still on this team so until otherwise I count him) so maybe 3 WRs. 2 of those 4 spots will come from the draft hopefully. The other 2 will be via FA but not until the 2nd wave.

The biggest hole is LT though and I'm hoping that does get addressed in FA. People freaking out over the WR situation is confusing to me. Replacing the production of Smith, Lefall, Ginn and Hixon isn't a very big mountain to climb. (Although addressing the return game is another area of need).

[Rise of The Hive]

It is not how you start it is how you finish, we should all know that by now.

[Riverboat Ron]

It seems to me Getts is going to put a heavy emphasis on building through the draft and grabbing bargain free agents. You guys have to realize how fuged we were by Hurney, we have $17.5 million in dead cap along with another $15 million in wasted cap on Godfrey and Stewart. 

[jarhead]

Gettleman can sniff talent like a dogs sniff asses.

 

[Vagrant]

I don't think anybody is expecting a rush on high price free agents, I do think people are expecting moves to be made to shore up an offensive line that was already a weak point on said 12-4 team that has been DECIMATED by retirements and free agency. We can't even put together a full offensive line and regardless, that's a concern that needs to be addressed. Additionally, we have to look at the WR position. WR are very, very rarely impact players in their first season. Especially at the slot we'll be picking one even as high as a first rounder.

 

There is nothing at all unreasonable about expecting us to be competitive in the above average free agents at those positions. 12-4 teams should be able to secure some talent.

[SmokinwithWilly]

At least we didn't trade for Gabbert.

[Happy Panther]

We just don't have any money. We are #31 in the league for available cap space with $5M s of today. Gettlemen may free up some more but it will not be much - certainly not enough to make some big splash. Think of it this way: we basically have enough cap space to hypothetically resign Ginn and Lafell and that is it

 

The fact that we tendered Bell of all people means the front office knows it will be bare bones.

 

So the draft will be key

[jarhead]

I think Getts is good at sniffing through another teams garbage...that is what he did in NY but from what I have seen he is not very good at handling personal matters like Smitty and Gross . By him asking Gross to take less money last year we lost him this year. He blindsided Smitty this year letting him know through the media that his services were no longer needed.Who knows if Smitty would have played for less but treating any player much less Smitty that way is classless.He could have not commented at all.

[Rhys]

Bennett was an UDFA, Harvin contributed very little this season. Lynch fine, but virtually every core contributor on Seattle was a draftee.

 

Cliff Avril. Brandon Browner (a stretch). Breno Giacomini (starting RT). Zach Miller (starting TE). Chris Clemmons. Steven Hauschka. 

 

And the 3 mentioned above, Bennet Harvin and Lynch.

 

Point is, yes, they drafted well with Sherman, Chancellor, Thomas, Wilson, Tate, Okung, etc. but they also made key pickups. Avril Lynch Miller Harvin were all big names when they signed them, sought after guys. Seattle rolled the dice with those guys. 

 

Also, one could argue that the very little Harvin contributed meant a whole lot. Everytime he was on the field their offense was much better.

 

There are people tripping out and calling us the worst team in the South, and on the other side of the spectrum are the people writing 'splash' signings completely off because of percentages and fringe cases where we got value out of unwanted guys (Mitchell, Dwan, Ginn etc.)

 

You have to find key contributors in free agency, and right now we have found none, so being concerned at this point to me is completely reasonable.  

[Zaximus]

This is different than last year.  We're down an LT and have ZERO WRs.  LTs just don't grow on trees, so it's not silly for fans to be pretty worried right now.  I'm sure we can plug guys into the secondary again, we proved that, but with no LT and any WRs, I'm not sure.  I still think we'll be OK but 12-4 again may not happen, or even playoffs.  We'll have to see.  

[BigBoss]

We have no WR, OL, or DB thats pretty concerning

 

You make it sound like the passing game is actually important in the NFL....oh that's right.... it is.

[CollegePanther]

Yeah, why worry about our roster that went 12-4 last year? I mean 48% of it is still there. 

[Panthro]

WHY ARENT WE SIGNING EVERYONE NOOOOOO OMMMMMGGGGGGGGGG