New and Improved Free Agency Discussion and News Mega-Thread

[Jughead10]

Originally Posted by M.O.T.H.

I think you can announce cuts...but you cant cut anyone until Thursday. Even then, Dallas' money is cloudy, because you cant rework your player's contracts until Friday. And cuts alone wont get Dallas under, more than likely. It's just messy...what are they going to do? Make Free an offer without even having a concrete idea of how much they have to spend? And without the money being readily available? It just kind of sucks, because Free is going to be getting tons of lucrative offers between now and then. Among other Cowboys and outside FAs. I expect Free back, but this is just an odd situation.

While it does suck, the Cowboys put themselves in this situation. They had to know the cap would come back at some point. Even the Raiders attacked this ahead of time by re-signing some of there key guys (the few they have) before the lockout went into effect.

Also can't you go a certain amount over the cap for a little bit? At least to buy time to rework some of your deals.

[M.O.T.H.]

Originally Posted by Jughead10

While it does suck, the Cowboys put themselves in this situation. They had to know the cap would come back at some point. Even the Raiders attacked this ahead of time by re-signing some of there key guys (the few they have) before the lockout went into effect.

Also can't you go a certain amount over the cap for a little bit? At least to buy time to rework some of your deals.

Dont get me wrong, I know they did it to themselves. And it's not going to get any better. Just think they need to re-work Romo, Ware, and Austin's contracts on Friday, so they can even sign their own players and a couple of free agents. It's just a temporary solution, however, which will end up hurting them in the long run. Dallas is going to be in cap hell for quite a while yet. At least, this wasnt a product of over spending on FAs. More so, they've invested a **** ton of money into their own home grown talent...ala Romo, Barber, Miles, Witten, Ware, Newman, soon to be Free, etc.

Luckily, Stephen Jones is one of those cap genius' who manages to make things work every year, but it catches up to everyone, eventually. Dallas could potentially still be in a position to make a few splashes this FA period, but the order of the schedule, kind of disrupts things a bit. Or so it would appear.

[hockey619]

Originally Posted by Dirty Thirty

Skins also signed Willie Smith, OT, East Carolina (excited about him), Shaun Draughn, RB, UNC, and Ben Chappell, QB, Indiana

willie smith has some serious upside, hes pretty damn athletic. Just needs a whole lot of polish, really like him as a developmental guy.

[Jughead10]

So who is going to be the casualty of the cap issues? I would think Barber would be the first to go. Who else?

[Splat]

Report: Broncos want to trade Orton and do it fast

[cmarq83]

Originally Posted by Splat

Report: Broncos want to trade Orton and do it fast

I think Kyle Orton would be a great addition to a team like the Miami Dolphins. Behind a good line, and a young defense they could put themselves in a position to make some noise in the AFC East opposite the Patriots and Jets.

[M.O.T.H.]

Barber and Colombo are 100% gone. That saves Dallas $7.2 million right there.

Cutting the horrible, Leonard Davis, only save about $2.0 million. But it really needs to be done.

Those may be our only cuts. Cutting Newman saves money, but I really dont see that cut coming. We're shaky at CB, and probably wont have the funds available to replace Newman.

The whole Roy Williams thing is just a mess. You're either looking at an insane cap hit this year, or an insane cap hit next year. Depending how you'd designate his departure. So he's probably not going anywhere.

Dallas needs to clear room...but they also need to be aware of the future ramifications of some of these cuts. They're going to be at the cap ceiling again next season, so they cant have all this dead money on the books next year.

[Komp]

Originally Posted by M.O.T.H.

Cutting the horrible, Leonard Davis, only save about $2.0 million. But it really needs to be done.

Oh god, why do I see Al Davis signing him.....stay away Al!

[M.O.T.H.]

Originally Posted by Komp

Oh god, why do I see Al Davis signing him.....stay away Al!

lol. Sad the way he's regressed. He was fantastic for a couple years with us, now he's the worst player on that line. I see he's still in the high 80s or something like that in the Madden 12 player ratings, though. :/

But anyway as for Dallas...if what I've read is correct. We're looking at creating about $17.47 million after reworking Romo, Austin, and Ware. Then you get that $3 million credit per the new CBA. So that's $20.47 million. And then an additional $9ish million by cutting Barber, Colombo, and Davis. So essentially, I'd imagine, we're looking at like $11 millionish in free space, assuming our salary cap exceedings are still sitting at $18 million or so.

We'll need to re-sign at least...Free, Bowen, and Kosier. This still leaves us with a hole at RG and safetyless. So obviously we're going to have get creative. Hooray for signing bonuses, accompanied by small base salaries. Even though, these backloaded contracts will absolutely kill us in the future.

[Splat]

Top 80 Free Agents

[49erNation85]

I would not mind Orton in SF right now.But I doubt it happens.I also hope that SF sings some key defenders and a couple of good play makers on offensive while we have a short FA period.

[bearsfan_51]

Does anyone recall why Jonathan Joseph wasn't franchised? Did the Bengals franchise someone else or are they just stupid?

[bigbluedefense]

I think they franchised someone else, I can't remember who it was, but it was a definite head scratcher.

I could be wrong though, but I remember saying to myself, seriously, you franchised that guy over Joseph?

I'll let a Cinncy fan confirm or refute it.

[Ravens1991]

Its a franchise that turned down 2 first round picks for Ocho Cinco so Ill say stupid

[bearsfan_51]

Originally Posted by Splat

Top 80 Free Agents

Eric Weddle at 20 is crazy. He's so much better than that.

I also think Posluszny is being underrated. It's not a position of value, but the guy can play.

The rest I think is fine. I agree that Braylon Edwards is overrated, but I would still encourage the Bears to take a look if the price is right.

[SolidGold]

I think Alex Smith goes back to San Fran and will actually have a pretty decent year under Haurbaugh.

[SeanTaylorRIP]

Originally Posted by SolidGold

I think Alex Smith goes back to San Fran and will actually have a pretty decent year under Haurbaugh.

That's pretty much been the consensus even prior to drafting Kaepernick.

[bigbluedefense]

I think people need to accept that Alex Smith is what he is, and isn't going to magically not suck after 6 years.

[M.O.T.H.]

That's been a given for a while. I still like Alex Smith, honestly. But yeah, he's 100% expected back.

[M.O.T.H.]

He may not have been a pro bowler by this point (lol)...but he certainly was mistreated and got the short end of the stick, with all those revolving coordinators.

I still cant dismiss him, because while its been years...he shows these flashes and connects on some beautiful balls. Which still make me wonder, if something is there. Hopefully he will have a good year under Harbaugh...I ceraintly would not be surprised if he did.

[bigbluedefense]

At the end of the day though, football is football. It's not like he was running a choice route offense, he was running traditional route running offenses.

So what's the big deal with playbook changes? He just has to memorize terminology and protections. That's it. It's not going to change how he approaches defenses once he gets on the field.

Having the same playbook isn't going to change how he reads defenses, or identify which guy is open on any given play, or be more accurate, or look off safeties etc.

It's an excuse. Yes, it didn't help his development, but it's not nearly as detrimental as you think. By now he is what he is. You could mask his deficiencies and perhaps fluff his stats a little, but he is what he is.

[SeanTaylorRIP]

Originally Posted by M.O.T.H.

He may not have been a pro bowler by this point (lol)...but he certainly was mistreated and got the short end of the stick, with all those revolving coordinators.

I still cant dismiss him, because while its been years...he shows these flashes and connects on some beautiful balls. Which still make me wonder, if something is there. Hopefully he will have a good year under Harbaugh...I ceraintly would not be surprised if he did.

There has to be a certain point when you have to write a guy off as a starter though. Jason Campbell is the same way, still has a job even though he doesn't deserve it because he has the underlying excuse of changing coordinators and showing "flashes." For Smith though he's lucky since regardless he's 20x better than Kaepernick at this point and Harbaugh has the reputation of a QB guru. Smith is kind of QB by default. TBH though if I were the 49ers I'd rather have a bridge in QB like Hasselbeck or Bulger. Smith because of his draft slot and still relative young age will give you reasons to believe he can be a full time starter and will ultimately fail in the long term. This would only set the 49ers back from actually evaulating Kaepernick and seeing if they need to move on completely with a new QB.

[bigbluedefense]

It's one thing if he went from say a WCO to a run n shoot that forces you and the WR to adjust according to the defense, which is much much more complicated than a traditional route running offense.

But the guy ran traditional route running offenses. So what's the difference of learning slants vs skinny posts? It's the same **** once you get on the field. That's not an excuse for him making bad reads, throwing inaccurately, and fumbling bc of small hands, having poor pocket presence, not being able to identify the blitz etc.

It's just an excuse. He's just not a good qb unfortunately. He's not the first and won't be the last qb that looked good in college and wound up a dud in the NFL.

[SolidGold]

Smith has been a victim of shoddy coaching, his second year under Turner was like night and day from his rookie year and than NORVANA left San Fran to coach San Diego.

Mike Nolan did not do Smith any favors and really did alot to damage Smith's confidence. Singeltary was a clueless sideshow of a coach.

Smith will benefit from Haurbaugh's offensive mindset and background. Alex Smith is alot like Jason Campbell, both have not had much stability at the offensive coordinator position yet everyone gives Jason Campbell a free pass and Alex Smith gets thrown under the bus.

[Hines]

Herzlich to the Giants.