2022 NFL Free Agency

[ChaosTheory]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

Yeah, figured that was coming but I took the bait anyway.

I am so tired of reading that Ballard can't go improve the team b/c he has to re-sign Nelson. News flash: Nelson currently counts ~$14M against the cap, which is the 2nd highest cap hit for OGs in '22. The highest is Joe Thuney in KC at ~$18M. So if we extend Nelson and pay him in the $19-$20M/year range that's only $5-$6M more than his current hit, which leaves plenty of cap space for Ballard to get off his ass and make the team better.

Sure. But add up Nelson, Taylor, Pittman, Blackmon, Kwity, Dayo, Willis, etc... Assuming these guys earn their paydays, that's a lot of money for guys we want to keep.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

Sure. But add up Nelson, Taylor, Pittman, Blackmon, Kwity, Dayo, Willis, etc... Assuming these guys earn their paydays, that's a lot of money for guys we want to keep.

How the fuck does any team every sign anyone in FA then? Doesn’t every team assume their draft picks are going to work out?

I guess if you think Ballard is such a great drafter that this team can win always worrying about 4-5 years down the road instead of maximizing shorter term windows then we simply disagree. Right now the record supports me.

[rm1369]

I just want to point out one other thing. Losing some players to free agency isn’t a bad thing. It’s actually the sign of a good team. It comes with the benefit of comp picks. And the one thing most of us agree on is that Ballard can draft, so the extra picks would be great.

The key is keeping the right guys, not all of them. I like Willis, but he’s a replacement level player. Letting him walk wouldn’t be devastating by any means. And if we want to be truly honest, Taylor will probably not be a smart resigning- and he’s one of my favorite players. It’s the nature of the position.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by rm1369

I just want to point out one other thing. Losing some players to free agency isn’t a bad thing. It’s actually the sign of a good team. It comes with the benefit of comp picks. And the one thing most of us agree on is that Ballard can draft, so the extra picks would be great.

The key is keeping the right guys, not all of them. I like Willis, but he’s a replacement level player. Letting him walk wouldn’t be devastating by any means. And if we want to be truly honest, Taylor will probably not be a smart resigning- and he’s one of my favorite players. It’s the nature of the position.

Great post. Willis is a decent player, but not great. He probably deserves a Hines/MAC level pay day. If Ballard ignores all of these gaping holes the team has and ends up signing Willis to top level FA money then he needs to be shown the door.

JT's going to be a tough decision. He has without a doubt earned a big payday, but you don't want it to be a Zeke Elliott type situation where his legs are shot 2 years into said big payday and we still owe him a ton of guaranteed dollars. Either way that's at least a year away, if not 2. An NFL FO worth it's salt would be able to figure out how to take care of this without hoarding 10s of millions of dollars in cap space in the current offseason.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

Sure. But add up Nelson, Taylor, Pittman, Blackmon, Kwity, Dayo, Willis, etc... Assuming these guys earn their paydays, that's a lot of money for guys we want to keep.

Kwity and Dayo will hit FA 4 and 3 years down the road, respectively, so holding back spending now just in case they pan out and need to be re-signed is fucking stupid.

And again, every other decent franchise in the league is able to re-sign their own while bringing in FAs that aren't in the bargain bin. What can't Ballard do the same?

Look, I wish that Ballard's methodology of filling all the team's needs through the draft and bargain FAs worked, but it obviously hasn't.

[rcubed]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

Kwity and Dayo will hit FA 4 and 3 years down the road.

This is one part that annoys me. I see alot of FAs sign 1-3 year contracts. Why is a future contact 4 years away affecting us signing someone for the next two years?

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by rcubed

This is one part that annoys me. I see alot of FAs sign 1-3 year contracts. Why is a future contact 4 years away affecting us signing someone for the next two years?

Exactly. It's one thing to say that we need to save some cap space for MPJ and JT, but Kwity and Dayo shouldn't even be in the conversation.

[JAFF]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

Sure. But add up Nelson, Taylor, Pittman, Blackmon, Kwity, Dayo, Willis, etc... Assuming these guys earn their paydays, that's a lot of money for guys we want to keep.

Stop that, using facts.

[ChaosTheory]

Too much from you two to quote each point, but I'll try to go in on some of this...

As far as Ballard not building culture here and that preventing guys from coming... That's not the only reason a player wouldn't come here. Like the Allen Robinson example. Hypothetically, if Ballard values him at $40m but is willing to overspend to $45m and the LAR come in a bid the price up to that $45m... then Robinson chooses to go to live in Los Angeles and play for the team that just won the Super Bowl. Is that an indictment on Ballard for the culture not being enough of a draw?

Beyond culture, just money... If you valued a guy at $12m/yr and some other team offers him $15m/yr, what would you do?

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The point of me bringing up re-signing our guys is not to say we shouldn't spend on free agents or that we will re-sign all of our guys. Rookie contracts go along with our QB situation to shows what a knife's edge this cap situation is...

Our league-leading salary cap room doesn't exist if WAS doesn't save us a shitload of money on Wentz. That alone drops us from "salary cap champs" to like bottom-10. Point being that our future (worth a shit) QB will eat up most of this cap that people are itching to spend. Now pay Nelson, Taylor, Kwity (pass-rusher money), etc. and it's not the same picture.

Darius Leonard's cap hit was $8m last year. It's about to be $11m, $20m, $20m, $23m, $20m. Buckner will be similar, Braden Smith will be up there, etc. Money is being spent.

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And who are these teams we're referring to? Which teams are doing it right in free agency?

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

And who are these teams we're referring to? Which teams are doing it right in free agency?

Bengals, Ravens, and Bills off the top of my head are three teams that have apparently done the impossible - be competitive AND try to use free agency to improve. Guess none of them have any good players they need to pay. Apparently don’t plan to draft any either.