If you were Rick Smith...

[RagingBull]

And your busy offseason were about to start, what moves would you make your priorities?

Mine would be:

1. Resign UFA/RFA's Andre Davis, Will Demps, ND Kalu, Von Hutchins, Matt Turk, Danny Clark, Charlie Anderson, C.C. Brown, Anthony Maddox, Earl Cochran, Joel Dreeson. None of these guys should break the bank and they all contributed well. Davis and Demps deserve decent sized contracts, but don't pay them any stupid money.

2. Let go UFA's/RFA's:
Alexander, Roc
Barry, Kevin
Bruener, Mark
Killings, Cedric
Simmons, Jason
Weary, Fred
Wynn, Dexter
Mathis, Jerome

They either did not contribute, are getting to old/injury prone, or their cost:performance ratio was too high. Give Killings some cash for his career ending injury.



3: Draft needs:
round 1: LT
round 3: DB
round 4: C/G
round 5: G/C
round 6: BPA TE/RB/DB
round 7: BPA TE/RB/DB

4: Consider cutting Greenwood or restructuring his contract (too much $$$ for what he is: $4,017,000 Base salary + $1,400,000 guaranteed = $5,517,000 total) This is the second highest salary on the team. He is not a 5.5 million dollar player. Would free up 4 million with only 1.4 million dead money. Replace with FA see #8.

5: Consdier cutting Weaver, Anthony $3,500,000 base + $2,700,000 guaranteed =$6,200,000) He is the highest paid player and a big time underperforme. Would free up 3.5M with 2.7M dead money. He does not play like a 6.2M or even a 3.5M player. Replace with FA see #7.

6: Cut Jordan Black; he will make 2.2M 900K guaranteed. Not much dead money, but you can sign several scrubs for 500K and let them compete to see which is better than him.

7: FA: Do everything possible to get Jared Allen (25 years old, NFL sack leader 2007, UFA, KC; possibly wants to leave) give him an 8 year 70M+ contract if need be, but get him. He is elite and would instantaneously give us the most potent DL in the NFL.

8: FA: Do everything possible to sign Lance Briggs; wants to leave da bears (27 years old elite OLB, UFA, Chi) give him a 6 year 50M+ contract. He is the real deal.

9: Don't waste money on a FA RB. Sign a bunch of scrubs and undrafteds like we did with the WR's this year and let the bunch of them compete. Keep 4 of them and 1 on the practice squad. Someone will emerge, especially since our OL will be improved.

10: None of the UFA's in the secondary look to be too good or don't want to leave. Don't try to force it or you will end up with another Anthony Weaver. Spend your draft picks on DB's.

11: More cuts: Jeb Putzier: Base: $1,750,000 + Guaranteed $462,500 = total $2,203,750. This dude is not worth 2.2M. Dead money cost not too high.

24% of our salary cap last year went to dead money. So far this year, it is only 6%. If they ditch Weaver,Greenwood, Black, Putzier and possibly Ahman Green that would add 5.5M dead money and a total cap savings of 16.1M giving about 10.5M of free'ed up cap space to spend on FA. If you add this to the 35M that we have already freed up from the previous year, we have 45M to spend. That should give us the ability to sign the above studs + some journeymen + our draftees, and give some contract extensions to guys we want to keep around that have earned it such as Demeco Ryans (2009), Kevin Walter (2009), Kris Brown (2009), Eric Winston (2009), Owen Daniels (2009). By cutting the above guys, our dead money will be right at 10%, which is a helluva lot better than 24%.

[brickman]

Originally Posted by RagingBull

And your busy offseason were about to start, what moves would you make your priorities?

Mine would be:

1. Resign UFA/RFA's Andre Davis, Will Demps, ND Kalu, Von Hutchins, Matt Turk, Danny Clark, Charlie Anderson, C.C. Brown, Anthony Maddox, Earl Cochran, Joel Dreeson. None of these guys should break the bank and they all contributed well. Davis and Demps deserve decent sized contracts, but don't pay them any stupid money.

2. Let go UFA's/RFA's:
Alexander, Roc
Barry, Kevin
Bruener, Mark
Killings, Cedric
Simmons, Jason
Weary, Fred
Wynn, Dexter
Mathis, Jerome

They either did not contribute, are getting to old/injury prone, or their cost:performance ratio was too high. Give Killings some cash for his career ending injury.



3: Draft needs:
round 1: LT
round 3: DB
round 4: C/G
round 5: G/C
round 6: BPA TE/RB/DB
round 7: BPA TE/RB/DB

4: Consider cutting Greenwood or restructuring his contract (too much $$$ for what he is: $4,017,000 Base salary + $1,400,000 guaranteed = $5,517,000 total) This is the second highest salary on the team. He is not a 5.5 million dollar player. Would free up 4 million with only 1.4 million dead money. Replace with FA see #8.

5: Consdier cutting Weaver, Anthony $3,500,000 base + $2,700,000 guaranteed =$6,200,000) He is the highest paid player and a big time underperforme. Would free up 3.5M with 2.7M dead money. He does not play like a 6.2M or even a 3.5M player. Replace with FA see #7.

6: Cut Jordan Black; he will make 2.2M 900K guaranteed. Not much dead money, but you can sign several scrubs for 500K and let them compete to see which is better than him.

7: FA: Do everything possible to get Jared Allen (25 years old, NFL sack leader 2007, UFA, KC; possibly wants to leave) give him an 8 year 70M+ contract if need be, but get him. He is elite and would instantaneously give us the most potent DL in the NFL.

8: FA: Do everything possible to sign Lance Briggs; wants to leave da bears (27 years old elite OLB, UFA, Chi) give him a 6 year 50M+ contract. He is the real deal.

9: Don't waste money on a FA RB. Sign a bunch of scrubs and undrafteds like we did with the WR's this year and let the bunch of them compete. Keep 4 of them and 1 on the practice squad. Someone will emerge, especially since our OL will be improved.

10: None of the UFA's in the secondary look to be too good or don't want to leave. Don't try to force it or you will end up with another Anthony Weaver. Spend your draft picks on DB's.

11: More cuts: Jeb Putzier: Base: $1,750,000 + Guaranteed $462,500 = total $2,203,750. This dude is not worth 2.2M. Dead money cost not too high.

24% of our salary cap last year went to dead money. So far this year, it is only 6%. If they ditch Weaver,Greenwood, Black, Putzier and possibly Ahman Green that would add 5.5M dead money and a total cap savings of 16.1M giving about 10.5M of free'ed up cap space to spend on FA. If you add this to the 35M that we have already freed up from the previous year, we have 45M to spend. That should give us the ability to sign the above studs + some journeymen + our draftees, and give some contract extensions to guys we want to keep around that have earned it such as Demeco Ryans (2009), Kevin Walter (2009), Kris Brown (2009), Eric Winston (2009), Owen Daniels (2009). By cutting the above guys, our dead money will be right at 10%, which is a helluva lot better than 24%.

That's what I'm talking about. I well though out plan. In my opinion, I think this is the way you build a team!!!!!!!!!! Great post!!!

[Pantherstang84]

Originally Posted by RagingBull

And your busy offseason were about to start, what moves would you make your priorities?

Mine would be:

1. Resign UFA/RFA's Andre Davis, Will Demps, ND Kalu, Von Hutchins, Matt Turk, Danny Clark, Charlie Anderson, C.C. Brown, Anthony Maddox, Earl Cochran, Joel Dreeson. None of these guys should break the bank and they all contributed well. Davis and Demps deserve decent sized contracts, but don't pay them any stupid money.

2. Let go UFA's/RFA's:
Alexander, Roc
Barry, Kevin
Bruener, Mark
Killings, Cedric
Simmons, Jason
Weary, Fred
Wynn, Dexter
Mathis, Jerome

They either did not contribute, are getting to old/injury prone, or their cost:performance ratio was too high. Give Killings some cash for his career ending injury.



3: Draft needs:
round 1: LT
round 3: DB
round 4: C/G
round 5: G/C
round 6: BPA TE/RB/DB
round 7: BPA TE/RB/DB

4: Consider cutting Greenwood or restructuring his contract (too much $$$ for what he is: $4,017,000 Base salary + $1,400,000 guaranteed = $5,517,000 total) This is the second highest salary on the team. He is not a 5.5 million dollar player. Would free up 4 million with only 1.4 million dead money. Replace with FA see #8.

5: Consdier cutting Weaver, Anthony $3,500,000 base + $2,700,000 guaranteed =$6,200,000) He is the highest paid player and a big time underperforme. Would free up 3.5M with 2.7M dead money. He does not play like a 6.2M or even a 3.5M player. Replace with FA see #7.

6: Cut Jordan Black; he will make 2.2M 900K guaranteed. Not much dead money, but you can sign several scrubs for 500K and let them compete to see which is better than him.

7: FA: Do everything possible to get Jared Allen (25 years old, NFL sack leader 2007, UFA, KC; possibly wants to leave) give him an 8 year 70M+ contract if need be, but get him. He is elite and would instantaneously give us the most potent DL in the NFL.

8: FA: Do everything possible to sign Lance Briggs; wants to leave da bears (27 years old elite OLB, UFA, Chi) give him a 6 year 50M+ contract. He is the real deal.

9: Don't waste money on a FA RB. Sign a bunch of scrubs and undrafteds like we did with the WR's this year and let the bunch of them compete. Keep 4 of them and 1 on the practice squad. Someone will emerge, especially since our OL will be improved.

10: None of the UFA's in the secondary look to be too good or don't want to leave. Don't try to force it or you will end up with another Anthony Weaver. Spend your draft picks on DB's.

11: More cuts: Jeb Putzier: Base: $1,750,000 + Guaranteed $462,500 = total $2,203,750. This dude is not worth 2.2M. Dead money cost not too high.

24% of our salary cap last year went to dead money. So far this year, it is only 6%. If they ditch Weaver,Greenwood, Black, Putzier and possibly Ahman Green that would add 5.5M dead money and a total cap savings of 16.1M giving about 10.5M of free'ed up cap space to spend on FA. If you add this to the 35M that we have already freed up from the previous year, we have 45M to spend. That should give us the ability to sign the above studs + some journeymen + our draftees, and give some contract extensions to guys we want to keep around that have earned it such as Demeco Ryans (2009), Kevin Walter (2009), Kris Brown (2009), Eric Winston (2009), Owen Daniels (2009). By cutting the above guys, our dead money will be right at 10%, which is a helluva lot better than 24%.

I can agree with 99.9% of this post but cut Weary? He has one injury and he is injury prone?

Wow! Up until his injury him and Winston were the 2 bright spots on the line.

[RagingBull]

I like Weary and thought he did a good job, especially for what he got paid. Unfortunately, he had a BAD injury and I don't think he will be ready to go when camp starts (ALA Spencer). I would not resign him in hopes that he is going to be better by mid season and then end up paying him for nothing. It sucks, but the Texans don't have the cap space to pay guys that aren't going to be able to play. If they think he will be ready and he will sign for a reasonable price with little or no guaranteed money, then I say keep him. But he is not a priority due to the uncertainty. If he were still signed through next season, I would definitely say keep him.

[Fox]

Great post, I like most of those ideas. I like how much attention you paid to the OL via the draft, that's how you build a strong team - from the inside out. I do think that we should not/will not cut Greenwood. Restructure maybe, but I definitely don't see us cutting him, he's one of the best performing players on the defense, and the players, and most importantly the coaches, love him. We're overpaying him but how much is it going to cost our defense in terms of performance by letting him go and bringing in a green unknown player into his position?

I also would like us to bring a high potential player into the RB position. It's not priority #1, but I think it would make an already good offense much more potent if we had a playmaker in the backfield. Currently we're getting almost all of our big plays out of the passing game, adding a big play threat to our backfield would give us a chance to be an elite offense as well as help out the development of Schaub, IMO.

Also, Briggs and Allen would be great, but the odds of us getting either of them is slim, getting both of them almost non-existent. Don't get me wrong, it'd be great, but I just don't see us doing it. Out of the two of them, I'd definitely target Allen. Only concern with the guy is his character off the field. Pairing him with Mario would give us a legit pass rush and would be worth the boat load of money we'd have to pay him. I'm not as sold on Briggs, I know he's a very good player, but don't think we'd get as much improvement for our buck as we'd get from Allen.

Lastly I'd keep Ahman Green and Weary. Weary is another player who performed pretty well and has earned the respect of the coaches. Ahman is a gamble, but I think the risk/reward is good enough that it's worth keeping him around. We'd save some money by cutting him, but if we keep him and he can stay healthy next year he could be a difference maker in our season.

[edo783]

Weary's injury was just a straight up broken leg. Trying to equate it to Spencers is way over the top. The probablity of him coming back 100% is in the 99% neighborhood.

[TheRealJoker]

The only person in FA this year that I would break the bank for is Jared Allen.

That guy is a top 3 DE, young, high motor player who imo is the best player on his team. If he came here we would have the best DE duo in the NFL hands down and I highly doubt we'd ever complain about no pass rush coming from the DL when we've got him at RE and Mario at his more natural LE position.

Other players like Briggs, Samuel, Turner, etc. would be nice to have and I wouldn't be upset if the Texans broke the bank to get them but I think that Allen is the only player actually worthy of the insane contract he'll command because of the impact he'd have on this football team.

Richard Smith wouldn't even be able to smother our pass rush with the bend but dont break scheme!!!

[The Pencil Neck]

Originally Posted by TheRealJoker

The only person in FA this year that I would break the bank for is Jared Allen.

There is absolutely no way the Chiefs let him go.

[Marcus]

Originally Posted by The Pencil Neck

There is absolutely no way the Chiefs let him go.

Absolutely right! The Chiefs will F-tag him faster than you can say the F-word.

[TheRealJoker]

Originally Posted by The Pencil Neck

There is absolutely no way the Chiefs let him go.

Didn't they franchise him last season and there was a clause they couldn't do it 2 years in a row? I may be thinking of Samuel but I thought it happened to both of them.

[The Pencil Neck]

Originally Posted by TheRealJoker

Didn't they franchise him last season and there was a clause they couldn't do it 2 years in a row? I may be thinking of Samuel but I thought it happened to both of them.

From what I've read, the franchise tag is still an option for the Chiefs and Jared Allen but they're trying to work out a multi-year deal.

[TheRealJoker]

Originally Posted by The Pencil Neck

From what I've read, the franchise tag is still an option for the Chiefs and Jared Allen but they're trying to work out a multi-year deal.

That's no good :-(

[RagingBull]

They did Franchise Allen last year; I am not sure if they are allowed to do it again.

I should have stated that I would release Greenwood ONLY if we were able to sign Briggs to replace him. I think he is a good player, but if we could put his salary into Briggs, it would be a big upgrade. If they could find a way to pay for them both, then Greenwood/Ryans/Briggs would indeed be a very solid linebacking corps. Briggs really WANTS to leave chicago, so I don't see any reason for us not to be in the running for him.

If we were able to solidify the LB/DL with those to guys, we could hopefully finish off the DB's in the draft the next year with our 1st/2nd picks and then end up with a championship caliber defense.

I think we have the receivers/QB/FB set for offense. We will need another impact TE if we can get one, and a RB. If we get our line shored up this year through the draft that is.

[LonerATO]

jake scott and ryan lijia will be free this year so we could snag one of them to for the o-line and use a draft pick on another cb in the 3/4 rd

[RagingBull]

Originally Posted by LonerATO

jake scott and ryan lijia will be free this year so we could snag one of them to for the o-line and use a draft pick on another cb in the 3/4 rd

Colts do a good job of hanging on to the players they want to keep by paying them fairly and keeping them happy. I doubt they will hit the market. If they did, it would be great to do double damage by helping us/hurting the colts.

[LonerATO]

the colts dont have a lot of cap room to work with this coming up year and they just resigned bob sanders and are going to f-tag dallas clark so i can see them losing on of those guys to fa

[The Pencil Neck]

Originally Posted by RagingBull

They did Franchise Allen last year; I am not sure if they are allowed to do it again.

They are allowed to franchise him and they would be stupid not to.

Actually, the only reason they haven't signed him to a multi-year deal is because they want to make sure his off the field problems are cleaned up.

[checo446]

Forget Briggs who is a product of nothing more than the Tampa 2 defensive system the Bears run, I would pursue CB Asante Samuel of the Patriots to fill our void at CB. Then when Dunta comes back in November, move him to free safety as I am not sure if Dunta will ever be the same speed wise with how bad that injury was.

[RagingBull]

Do you really think the Patriots will let Samuel slip away? If we could get him, that would be even better than Briggs IMO. I seriously doubt the Pats will not offer him a big contract.

[checo446]

Originally Posted by RagingBull

Do you really think the Patriots will let Samuel slip away? If we could get him, that would be even better than Briggs IMO. I seriously doubt the Pats will not offer him a big contract.

Patriots have already drafted guys to groom him for the replacement. If they wanted to sign him to a longterm extension, they would have done it last year when they franchised him. As a result of him being franchised and threatening to hold out, the Pats agreed not to franchise him again and pursue free agency. It will cost somewhere in the realm of Nate Clements deal with SF, but Samuel is worth solidifying our secondary. If we had Fred Bennett on one side, Samuel on the other, Dunta at free safety when he returns and demps at strong safety, I think that would be very solid.