2019 Free Agent Bids

Eagles Bid
Ronald Darby
$8,250,000

Previous
Raiders bid on
Ronald Darby
$7,000,000

 

It all comes down to player assessment and the ability to say 'goodbye' in today's NFL.

If you're taking over a team that is in a rebuild or retool, IMO you have to -

• identify the young guys (preferably still on their rookie deals) on your team that can be long term contributors
• sign those players to multi year team friendly deals early
• avoid contracts that remove the ability to make decisions on a player
• identify talent in the draft
• identify talent in free agency that other teams are overlooking
• sign those players to team friendly multi year deals
• pay the franchise quarterback
• be willing to let the franchise WR, LT, LDE, LB, CB or S walk if the only contract that can be reached is crippling

And, maybe the most overlooked aspect right now, be willing to trade top tier talent in order to free up cap space and address holes in the roster (this includes aging franchise quarterbacks). If you have a star player that is going into his final year of a deal (with likely little chance of retaining him after), don't just let his deal run out. Find a willing trade partner (work with the player/agent when possible) and get some kind of return for him that goes above and beyond a simple compensatory pick.

I'd rather deal with the PR fallout of trading a former SB winning QB, that no longer has the goods and is going into the last year of his deal, than to ride it out for nothing in return.

Finally, coaching is probably the most underrated commodity in the NFL. People love to go on about how you can't win without the players but if you don't have a cohesive front office with a solid coaching staff you can have talent out the ying yang and you still will be on the outside looking in.

Identifying quality coaching is just as paramount as identifying quality players, IMO.

None of this is team specific, by the way.

It's just something from my notebook that I thought would fit into the conversation.

 

Bills are doing and not doing all that at the same time. I don't know what to think. I guess they'll get younger at RB later. You can't fix everything with younger talent all at once when you have many holes.

 

Chicago Bears sign Bryce Callahan $6M

 

The Cleveland Browns have signed:

Sheldon Richardson, DT
$11,000 000

 

Absolutely correct. UNLESS...you consider your team top 4 capable of winning the Super Bowl this year and letting him walk will hurt team chemistry or swagger. The players “believing” is an underestimated aspect of great teams occasionally.

Until I name a team. The Bengals jump out at me. Knew how to draft pretty consistently. But struggled to make the most of it, ever.

 

But you’re 1000% right Tim.
In short, be Bill Belichick

 

Agreed, but that goes away from the original point of my post -

The Bengals are the team that will likely get the majority of my extra time going into this draft. I tend to latch onto a team that interests me until they either get it right or I get bored with it, lol.

Right now, Cincy has the opportunity to reshape the franchise but I get the feeling that instead of taking the plunge they may just stick their toes in to test the water. They have some interesting decisions to make over the next couple of years and the direction of the franchise is going to have to be defined sooner rather than later.

I'll tag you in that conversation on the Bengals board when I get back into it next week.

 

There's a lot of what I posted that does run parallel to what the Patriots do, but I think specifically when it comes to stepping into a new job you have to be willing to make extremely difficult decisions and not be afraid of the public relations fallout.

 

On this point Joe, two signings kind of made me think/caught me off guard.
Bills signing Gore, and Cards signing Suggs.
My thought is, if you know you’re in a complete rebuild, what good is an aged out talent on a one year deal.
As I ponder it more the only good reason I can think of is to teach the younger players how to go about it.

It’s just my take, but the old Walsh or Pete Carroll methodology would be more my style: constant compete. I’d bring in more younger guys to compete for jobs. Help on two fronts. First, the competition should elevate both their games, or at least show me who the gamers are. And second, when you find the gamers, or the guys who fit your schemes best, they’re young enough to continue to help going forward. Neither way is wrong I suppose. It’s just harder for me to see the benefits in aging out talent while your team isn’t good. I’d rather sink or swim with guys who might help us succeed 2/3/4 years from now

 

There was an article last year I read that talked vaguely about the concept. The team that had the most amount of cap in its top 10 players was the Rams (60%) and the team with the least was the Patriots at 46%. Both ways can work. Most teams are in the middle. Even the Patriot satellite teams like the Lions don't work in the way the Patriots do when it comes to promote from within. Even the Packers got away from that model this year. Ted Thompson took more of a back seat, guess you could call it a demotion, as they spent in FA in what seems like forever.

 

Sorry, you’re right. It was a long post. I forgot about the “rebuild/retool” and started thinking about managing a roster in general

 

What’s fun about this statement is it immediately made me think of the movie Draft Day!
And you’re right. If you stop to worry about what the fans think, even occasionally, it distracts you from what should always be priority one: Winning!

 

"Whatever it takes !"

 

If you worry about what fans think, you'll soon be sitting with them.

 

New York Giants have Sign Adrian Amos and Daryl Williams.

 

Cowboys sign S Earl Thomas.

Slight overpay, but we’re a team on the cusp and he is a top 3 safety. I honestly think he might help them push for a Superbowl. He’s got something to prove and a winning pedigree. Jaylon Smith, Vander-Esch, Demarcus Lawrence, Byron Jones...and Earl Thomas. Witten came out of retirement because he believes

 

Raiders bid
Ronald Darby
$9,500,000

previous
Eagles Bid
Ronald Darby
$8,250,000

 

Raiders bid
K.J. Wright
$6,000,000

Raiders bid
Za'Darius Smith
$6,000,000