BloodRaven

Mason almost single handedly carried our passing game during his tenure and we won a Super Bowl with (and largely because of) Boldin so I don't see how either is an argument against stopgaps. Lets not forget that the average NFL career is 4 years so theres little point holding age against still productive players, almost half of these rookies will be out of the league before Steve Smith hangs up his cleats. As I mentioned earlier there are already homegrown players he is growing with and we'll add more during the draft, we're not rebuilding an entire receiving corps like the Jets we're trying to build a balanced and dynamic offense with a proven commodity.

Smith, Brown and Pitta aren't stopgaps, besides it's about adding proven veteran leadership and skills. People like to point at Housh and Lee Evans as reasons for not bringing in older players yet conveniently leave out Boldin and Mason. You can't teach intangibles and toughness to rookies.

Melton is coming off a rebuilt knee, BJ Raji was a bust in Green Bay.

Those who don't want Smith obviously have never seen him play, nobody plays bigger than their size than Smith. He's the biggest man on the field any day of the week 35 years old or not. Whoever gets him is going to improve their offense for the next few years.

True. Al Davis would have been proud.

$8.5M average for a pass blocking guard? that seems unlikely.

Cook could be an interesting #2 on the outside but he's missed 30 games in 4 years.

They wouldn't have tried to sign Saffold if Watson was their designated LT of the future. They're either stuck with him, or they draft a LT.

He's one possibility, size isn't really the knock on him because he's physical but he'll get burned on the outside.

It seems that way but there are still big contracts being handed out.

Now that the Raiders have lost both Veldheer and Saffold I'm guessing they're going to address LT in the draft, that leaves the Falcons with Lewan at #6.

I wonder who their GM and head coach will be next year?

Far from 180, we still have to fix our non existent ground game and give Flacco space to step up in the pocket and time to throw.

Graham played well and deserves his contract, not bad for a guy buried as a ST player. With that said there are still a lot of corners available, a few would be upgrades over Graham.

$$$?

I would tweet Steve Smith all the comments around the league about how old and ineffective he is, then sit back and watch him in his final enraged form destroying secondaries.

DeAngelo Tyson is a downgrade from Art Jones so we're going to take a hit to our run defense there, do we really want to line another coverage MLB up next to Brown?

I guess I was confused because you said he would play nose and allow Ngata to move back out to DE. I agree with your assessment that we need to build and/or adapt to the strength of our players, a 3 man front isn't going to collapse the pocket without a blue chip stud like Dontari Poe, it's clear that Ngata is no longer that guy.

Melton? he's a 3 tech tackle coming off a knee reconstruction.

Yeah Webb gives us flexibility because he can play inside or out. Theres still a possibility that we fill that role by promoting someone from out current corps or through the draft.

From the names that are left I'm thinking Pat Sims, Bengal fans want him back, Oakland fans want him back yet he has no suitors? I've given up trying to figure out how these GM minds work. He's a high motor two gapper who has a similar game to Art Jones.

Exactly, players who fits the bill of "right player, right price" will freefall in the next few days. I definitely think we need Graham or a competent replacement at #3 as much as we need a starter at FS, the slot is where offenses do a lot of their damage.

He has the power and size to do it but he has no motor, this is the guy who was making 15M a year and wanted to be a 290lb OLB, so I doubt he wants to two gap for chump change.

They're all looking for Talib money but a few of them are going to lose the FA sweepstakes, thats where we come in.