2018 Team Needs

As Gut said the GM has to look years down the road to plan his strategy and it is this fact that makes OLBer our biggest need by far. Neither Orakpo or Morgan are signed for 2019...Do you feel good about extending either of them with big $$$ deals this offseason??? I sure don't. JR was trying to get ahead of this by drafting Dodd 2 yrs ago, but that has blown up in his face. Who in FA this yr do you go after??? Not much their who are better than what we have so I don't think we pay big money for a FA. I think we try to sign Walden again to a 2-3 yr deal so we have him at least on the roster in 2019. Some have said to get Khalil Mack when he becomes a free agent...for one you can't count on him becoming a free agent and from a cap standpoint you don't want to be paying top dollar for an edge rusher when you also have to pay your LT and QB.

We invested heavily in Ryans and used a 1st on Jackson...we aren't hitting the draft early at CB this yr.

We invested in WR in the draft last yr....those guys need to grow up and so we don't need to add more youth.

I will be totally shocked if our 1st pick isn't defensive front 7 player and more than likely an edge rusher. Need you impact defensive players on cheap salaries while you pay big time for your QB and LT.

Personally I'd look to extend Byard this yr...sure we could have him for cheap for another year or 2, but why not lock him up for cheaper now than it will cost you later with salary inflation and if he makes more pro bowls....pay the kid and set the precedent for other young guys that we will pay you early if you earn it.

 

I'd put it a different way. We can upgrade one of several positions without HAVING to fill a particular spot (though that could change in free agency depending on who we let go and who we sign).

BPA is something fans have grabbed onto as something they like to say but it doesn't work. What happens if the best player at #25 is a QB. Do we take another one? No...of course not. Therefore...BPA doesn't work.

What they SHOULD do is maximize our draft capital for our team.

 

I agree with most of your post except paying Byard now. He's signed for less than 1mil/yr thru 2019 which means he'll be a RFA in 2020 which means we don't need to pay him top dollar for 3 years. Paying him this early off that kind of season (where he can argue he's the best S in the NFL) would be worse than inflation later on. Plus, it accelerates our cap problems. And then every player who has a good season will want top dollar...we'll be in cap hell within 3 years if you start paying everybody. Can't do that. Most examples of this end poorly for the team.

 

Pass rusher will be an issue soon but its not now, Rak and Morgan both playing at a high level right now. Id rather us top of the defense with a SS that can run.

 

I agree with you we shouldn't resign both Orakpo and Morgan, if not both, but that's about it. You don't "get ahead" like that on guys like Dodd first of all. Even if Dodd was great, he'd have a year before we'd have to pay him big. There would've been practically zero point in drafting him for that reason, and I highly doubt that was the reason. Much more reasonable would've been he was the best player on our board, needed depth at the position, needed to upgrade the position, or J-Rob wanted to try and cut Orakpo or Morgan early.

Which ultimately wouldn't make too much sense considering our fantastic cap situation. I've been over this multiple times, people need to stop acting like the day we have to sign Lewan and Mariota will be the apocalypse to our cap. We have one of the best cap situations in the league, if not the best. We still have room to sign multiple top players on top of them, and that's not including the bevy of defensive contracts, most of them bad we have on our team including 20 million locked up in OLBs that would give us spending money to upgrade.

We can sign Khalil Mack and if they cloned him we could sign that guy too.

Even still, our biggest need isn't OLB right now. It's very clearly ILB in general and defending against pass plays on the line and at SS where we are absolutely awful. Forget next year, we are bad there NOW. If the right player comes along, we should not hesitate to draft on the edge, but we still have next year to do so which makes much more sense for a multitude of reasons. 1. This year's guys are trash. 2. Next year will most likely be stacked, because all the talent returned. 3. We have bigger needs and there is bigger talent to fill them.

We've got guys like Taven Bryan and Vita Vea that could fall to us at 25, a fantastic ILB in Roquan Smith, or a plethora of fantastic safeties. Even Quenton Nelson could be a serious play if he falls down there albeit highly unlikely even though he's a guard. One of these guys is going to be there though. There's much more talent at other positions in the first round, rather than drafting a guy with failed expectations like Hubbard or Landry at 25.

 

Well yeah, I guess I should have said realistic BPA. I think my general point is there though.

 

And cover.

 

Here is the new list of potential cuts in the NFC..

Anyone intriguing to you guys at this point?


Dez Bryant, Jordy Nelson among NFC cut candidates

 

I have no idea what you are talking about in terms of Dodd. We most definitely drafted him planning ahead that he would eventually be our starting OLBer. You don't take a guy 33rd in the draft for him just to be depth. Unfortunately he is a bust and we need to re-address the position.

Forget about Mack...guys like that don't hit the open market and if they do you have to pay HUGE money for them which is not the Patriot way.

I'm all for taking BPA with our picks and would be thrilled to get the next Ray Lewis or Ed Reed with our 1st rnder. No need to reach for an OLBer, but I just feel that our 1st rnd pick will be an impact front 7 defensive guy.