sflegend89

We need to keep Will Hill at almost any cost, guy is a stud and he was just getting started last year after his suspension.. incredible value for money even if we have to match another teams offer on him, as long as the offer isn't ridiculous he will be worth every penny.

Would be insane if we pulled AJ somehow and then got a wr in the 1st round

Crabtree to Buffalo. The quality wr options in FA are falling off the board fast and it hasn't even officially begun yet. Still holding out hope AJ will somehow end up here. Starting to think Ozzie will only add a mid tier wr in FA and look to the draft to get that potential #1 wr.. even if we have to uncharacteristically trade up to do it. At this point I'm just hoping we can get Denarius Moore or Eddie Royal and a decent corner before draft time.

Michael Crabtree, Percy Harvin and Hakeem Nicks are still out there. So would anyone be ok with adding any of them??

 

I wouldnt mind Nicks. I Remember we wanted Nicks when he was a rookie, but Giants took him. I seem to remember a lot of people mocking us to draft him.

Crabtree is intriguing, never played with a QB the caliber of Joe and is more of a complete wr than Torrey imo.. big no to Harvin and Nicks though. Harvin is more trouble than he's worth off the field and isn't a great pass catching wr, we already discussed Nicks in another thread but he was a massive flop in Indy who had an offense that caters to airing out the ball and making full use of wr's. If Nicks was next to useless with Luck in that type of offense I have zero interest in bringing him to Baltimore.

Crabtree, Eddie Royal, and Denarius Moore are really the only FA wr's that peak my interest in our price range

It is being speculated Dwayne Bowe may be cut after Maclin's signing becomes official with KC. Maybe Bowe could be a nice vet FA pickup?

Free Agency is really going to suck this year huh?... you're right though, those are the caliber of FA's we are going to be looking at unfortunately. I'm all aboard the Denarius Moore bandwagon, as far as the cheaper FA wr's are concerned I think he has the most untapped potential. Bowe is meh, not as bad as some people make him out to be these days but it would surely be met by groans and eye rolls from me if we signed him.

Wilfork's option wasn't picked up by NE. I know he is 33 yrs old, but would be a great stop gap for us should Ngata leave. What do you guys think?

Brandon Williams and Jernigan can hold us down there if we lose Ngata.

Wilfork, while not as expensive as Ngata is certainly no bargain and we just have much more pressing needs where that money could be invested (CB, WR, SS, TE). 

Patriots Forum Timeline:

*Bob Kravitz tweets about deflated balls investigation*

1: "Indy reporter is just a sore loser, there is no investigation"

*Investigation is confirmed*

2. "There's no evidence"

*Report breaks that Pats had 11/12 deflated balls and Colts balls were all legal*

3. "We would've won anyway, it was a blowout"

*Rest of country ostracizes them for cheating* 

4. "We didn't cheat, it was uhhhh... the weather, I passed 4th grade science, trust me"

*Why didn't the Colts balls deflate under the same weather conditions?*

5. "..........."

*Belichcik pseudoscience press conference*

6. "Aha equilibrium or something and rubbing the football, told you, science!" 

*Bill Nye: What he said made no sense*

6. "Well all the other teams cheat too"

*Ball attendant named person of interest*

7. "Aha rogue ball boy! NFL has no evidence on us, nothing I say!"

*What about the 11 deflated footballs with no logical explanation besides tampering*
 

8. "We told you guys already it was the weather"

*Again, Colts balls were legal, same weather, makes no sense*

9. "Well uhh... the Colts...uhhh they hired the Easter Bunny to uhhh break into our locker room... and tamper with the footballs... actually on second thought it was the weather"

*sigh*

People mainly talked about the passing game effect when this story broke.. now I think more and more people are realizing that this was done to cut down on fumbles. Belichick is known for being extremely obsessive about ball security.. there isn't a shorter leash in the NFL than playing RB for Bill Belichick (Stevan Ridley?). Their fumbles per carry stat is astronomically better then the 2nd best team, given the evidence of 11 deflated footballs something is very amiss here and it's all starting to add up.

I found this interesting. Benjarvus Green-Ellis had ZERO fumbles in 4 seasons as a Patriot. As a Bengal he had 5 fumbles in 2 seasons.

The NFL wants the negative publicity about this story to go away and if they could have put it to rest and said there's no evidence the Patriots had any involvement they would've done it by now. I think the Patriots really gave themselves away with how badly they over compensated their reaction to this, if Bill Belichick had nothing to do with it he wouldn't feel the need to do an additional press conference and speculate about a bunch of pseudoscience explanations that made no sense. The charade is winding to a close for NE and more and more of their supposed explanations have been swiftly debunked. 

It wasn't "atmospheric conditions", it was only 51 degrees and every single one of the Colts balls maintained their PSI and both sets of balls were inspected and approved at the same time prior to the game. By far the most logical explanation is that they were tampered with using a ball pump with a pressure gauge post-inspection.. hmm I wonder who had possession of those footballs post inspection. There's episodes of Scooby Doo that are harder to figure out than this.

Jacoby gotta go. His return game was just frustrating. 

Jacoby played scared all year. On all his big returns over his career he would confidently sprint full clip and force coverage teams to take good angles on him or get burned. This year he was afraid to put the pedal to the floor, he would bring the ball out and dance around looking for a lane before he would actually get in stride and he looked borderline scared of taking a big hit.

I'm not sure whether he took a shot that scared him off from being fearless in his returns or what but something was definitely off with him this year. I love Jacoby as a person, I'm forever thankful for the huge role he had in our 2012 SB run but I think his time in Baltimore has come to a close. It's not personal, just 100% a football decision. He's not a good wr and he was sticking around by being a playmaker in the return game. Reminds me a lot of Hester how they both lost their "spark" as returners at a certain point. It's been a hell of a ride but I think the magic has finally run out for Jacoby.

I really can't see Torrey not getting re-signed. Home grown product, loves the city, loves the team, still young and a big part of our offense.. we would have to low ball him really bad for him to test the market. I could see us letting Forsett walk before Torrey.. there's a lot more risk involved with Forsett because of his age/position and his desire for a big pay day after the season he's had. It sucks because he did great this year and he deserves to get paid for how he produced but I can't help but think Ozzie isn't willing to pay him like a top 10 RB just based on one season at age 29. 

There will be a doormat team that is willing to pay him like a top 10 RB because they have a lot less to lose than we do on a bad deal. It's ultimately up to Forsett, take less money and play for the team that gave you your big break and compete for a SB or swallow your pride and take the big pay day as it may be his last shot at that kind of money considering his age/position.

I wouldn't think any less of him if he followed the money, it's understandable given his circumstances but I really want to see him back in Baltimore and I know that's where Justin wants to be as well. But as we all know sometimes business get's in the way of what players want on a personal level and we have to be understanding of that as fans. If Forsett goes after the money it's not for selfish reasons, he would be looking after himself and his family long term. Hopefully both sides can find a happy median here.

I do agreed with this; our offense are young and improved; next season they will be the beast after having playoff experience and performance  under their belts...

 

However, we really need a legit #1 WR; it's either through the draft and FA.

It would be nice to have a guy that fits that "true #1" billing at wr but I can't really pin point how because guys like Dez and Demaryius aren't financially viable for us and are extremely likely to stay put anyway. Outside of those 2 I would say Crabtree has #1 potential still but SF is going to make it a priority to keep him. That leaves the draft which is still possible but not all that likely unless we move up.. a guy that intrigues me and could make it to our neck of the woods is Dorial Green-Beckham from Oklahoma, 6'5, freak athlete. Will have to see how much his stock rises leading up to the draft.

With that said there are so many recent SB winners who didn't have a "true #1". The only reason we lost to NE wasn't because we didn't have enough weapons on offense, it's because we couldn't get a single stop when it mattered, couldn't even force a FG. Losing that game really came down to our injury depleted secondary.. we got picked apart by the short passing game and inexperienced guys like Melvin blew their assignments on those gadget plays. That was the difference in the game and in our season.. the secondary depth and not having Jimmy.

If we bolster any spot on our roster significantly in free agency it has to be CB.

We scored plenty against NE, I don't feel like the WR market has anything major for us this year besides resigning Torrey. Guys like Dez, Maclin, and Demaryius will get massive deals with their teams.. Denarius Moore does seem like a possible bargain signing for us though. The kid is plenty talented and hasn't been able to show much playing in Oakland. I think he could do damage in our offense. Eddie Royal is also an interesting option if there is a deal to be had.

My ideal signing would be Chris Culliver or Antonio Cromartie.. I don't think we have a shot at Maxwell. With Jimmy, Webb, Asa coming back healthy and one of those CB signings I think our defense is absolutely scary. We have to build depth at CB and brace for possible injuries next year, it really derailed our SB run this year. I think we should go offense early in the draft and defense for our "big" free agent signing and we'll be in really good shape.

Bust is a harsh label. I was a big fan of Elam coming out of college. You turn on the tape and saw an instinctual player with outstanding tackling ability for his position. I knew he wasn't great in coverage but the biggest shock to me since we drafted him is his tackling ability went from being considered very above average to being below average. I mean just look at the TD he allowed against the Pats, there's absolutely no excuse for him not wrapping up and making that play and it's become typical from him thus far in his NFL career. We see him miss tackles often.

Elam has flashes of brilliance where he looks like the player we envisioned him being but his negative plays have far out weighed his positive plays. We don't expect him to be Earl Thomas in coverage but we do expect him to be a sure tackler and take good angles and that's something he's really struggled with to my surprise. Personally I feel like he just hasn't pushed himself hard enough. He's just enjoying living the lifestyle of an NFL player but he's not getting out of his comfort zone and really pushing himself mentally. I believe he's a hard worker in the weight room but he's not putting in the time to study other great SS's and evolve his game and hone his craft.

I think he needs to drop about 15 lbs this offseason and focus on his agility. He needs to be more nimble in space and be lighter on his feet. The word that comes to mind when I watch him play is "clunky". What happened to the great open field tackler we saw at UF is beyond me but if he doesn't really push himself to improve in those areas I mentioned this offseason then his career as a Raven is going to be in serious jeopardy going forward. 

blow up his twitter. @BFlowers24

Let him know that he needs to make a visit to Baltimore before he makes a decision! Chargers don't know how to win in the playoffs, would be a mistake to sign there unless he cares about the whether more then winning lol 

https://twitter.com/JasonLaCanfora

Brandon Flowers is visiting the Chargers via Jason La Canfora, will re-evaluate whether to take more visits after visiting SD.

Definitely not good news, players don't usually walk out of a visit without a contract unless they have second thoughts about signing their or fail their physical. All we can do is hope that the Ravens have peaked Flowers interest and he'll want to visit after SD to weigh his options. If he get's a visit here it's a done deal, easier said then done however.

Flowers won't go to the Pats.. they already have Revis, Browner, Dennard, Arrington. What's the point of having starting caliber guys like Dennard and Arrington getting paid good money to get buried on the depth chart and barley play? Move wouldn't make much sense on the Pats end, it's not a move that maximizes the players they already have and just sounds like a media driven headline. They may have contacted Flowers but that's really not that uncommon when a player of his caliber get's cut, then the media just ran with it because they "contacted him".

Big difference between preliminary contact and being legitimately interested in signing him

Definitely hoping we can pull Brandon Flowers but Florence would make a nice consolation prize if he signs elsewhere. Glad were interested in Flowers though, shows we're serious about putting together the best football team possible.

Lets sign him with our magical expanding cap space.

The salary cap actually is expanding quite a significant amount in the coming years, we could definitely get him under contract if there was mutual interest. That's really the only question more then the money, does he want to come here and are we interested in him? If the answer to both those question is yes then the salary cap isn't holding that deal back.

I think we need to consider what it might cost to sign jimmy and Torrey Smith to long term deals at some point. which to me probably makes flowers too expensive. If all of that can happen and somehow we can sign Flowers I'd be all for it.

The salary cap is increasing quite a bit in the coming years, I think we could easily get Flowers under contract without compromising those long term deals if we chose to pursue him. My concern is us not being interested, ozzie is always talking about how excited Chykie and Asa are to compete for the nickel spot and he might feel like he's not giving them a fair shake if he brought in Flowers. But at the end of the day Flowers is actually proven and one of the premiere cb's in the NFL when he's healthy, I hope Ozzie sees that and is trying to put together the best football team possible instead of trying to appease Chykie and Asa's big ambitions. 

If we got Flowers I think it would put us right there with them:

Broncos:

Aqib Talib

Chris Harris Jr.

Bradley Roby

Tony Carter

Pats:

Darrelle Revis

Brandon Browner

Kyle Arrington

Alfonzo Dennard

It's a pass happy league, we've all seen how Denver and NE have stocked up on good cb's in FA as well as the draft in Denver's case. If your top 3 on the depth chart at cb your going to be spending a lot of time on the field in today's NFL regardless. I don't think Webb/Jimmy being here already is going to scare off a guy like Flowers if we're interested in signing him, in fact like someone pointed out he would probably play on the outside opposite Jimmy and Webb could play the nickel which caters more to his strengths.

I've always felt Webb is more effective lining up against slot wr's then he is being on an island on the outside. If the price is right I actually think Flowers makes a lot of sense for us, we'll just have to see how it plays out over the next couple weeks. Doesn't effect comp picks which is our M.O. in FA and it would remind me a lot of the Dumervil signing from last year if we pull it off.

But, if we bring him in now, we won't know what the young guys can do. I'd rather wait until later in August to make a move like that.

Two way street, if we don't bring him in now another team will snatch him up and it will be slim pickins in August. Flowers is the clear cut best cb available now, we pretty much know where Asa and Chykie project on our defense, I don't see a whole lot of mystery there at this point. Having a guy like Flowers is only going to teach them more and push them harder to compete and bottom line we're a better football team with Brandon Flowers then without him. It's more a matter of if he's interested in us.

I would love to add him in August and give all this time exclusively to the young guys but that's just not realistic if we want the best cb available on our team. I'll take the proven player now over playing the "wait and see" game with unproven players because if they don't pull through it will be too late to add a guy like Flowers.

No thanks. I think we've got some good up and coming DBs that need to see the field.

Asa and Chykie? I think Asa will be solid but Chykie is risky. I would absolutely sign Flowers if he was interested in coming here and for the right price. That's a quality cb that doesn't even count against comp picks and he's unquestionably a massive upgrade over Chykie. The young guys will get a chance to prove themselves but when you have a chance to improve your football team I think you take it (Assuming the player is also interested). I would feel 5x better about our cb situation if we signed Flowers, Asa is worthy of getting some real playing time too but I'm not thrilled about the possibility of Chykie being relied upon to be a starter. Let Chykie play ST and be a reserve cb and let Flowers or Terrell Thomas and Asa do the heavy lifting behind Webb/Jimmy. 

I think the Eagles should give us a later round draft pick for Tyrod ... I think he'd run a Chip Kelly offense very nicely, at least it would be fun to see. 

Nick Foles? lol

Andre Johnson makes Torrey Smith look like Yamon Figurs, so I make that deal in a heart beat.  Let someone else be holding the bag when Torrey's speed goes and he becomes completely ineffective.

I feel good about asa..... chykie is a great competitor but not sure he's as talented as asa. Hopefully Seamster is our UDFA gem this year because we could really use another good cb.