02-25-2023, 06:55 PM
(02-25-2023, 06:01 PM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: These are 3 things we NEED to do:
1. Sign or draft a new day 1 Right Tackle. La'El Collins was not disastrous when he played, but he was clearly playing injured all season and is not dealing with a new injury as well. Even before the injury, we could stand to upgrade him and Adeniji has shown in consecutive post seasons that he is just not a suitable replacement, even in emergency scenarios. If this means going out and spending big money for Jawaan Taylor or Mike McGlinchey, so be it. GET. IT. DONE. I'm tired of having this conversation every ***** off season. Fix the Oline and we win a Super Bowl. It's not a coincidence that the two teams in the Super Bowl had top 5 Olines. Picking late in the first round means we probably miss out on the blue chip prospects, but if they believe Darnell Wright, Anton Harrison or Dawand Jones can be the day 1 RT, that should be the pick assuming we don't address it in free agency.
2. Re-sign Vonn Bell. We should not be going into the 2023 NFL season with two new starting safeties. It's stressful enough losing Jessie Bates and having to rely on Dax Hill, someone who got almost no playing time in his first NFL season. We cannot have a 1st year player standing next to a brand new (likely bargain) free agent, and we definitely don't want Dax to be standing next to a rookie. The safeties, in a lot of ways, are the QBs of the defense and we need quality veteran leadership back there. Bates is gone because he's asking for top shelf safety money and we just can't afford that with Burrow, Higgins and Chase all coming due soon. But as long as Bell is a semi-reasonable price (under 10M AAV), we need to make sure he stays in the Queen City.
3. Extend Joe Burrow. I don't think this needs to be expounded upon too much. The sooner you do it, the cheaper it is. Mahomes' contract was crazy 3 years ago, but now it's a bargain. Burrow is likely going to cost 5 to 7 million dollars more per year than Mahomes, but if you wait until next year, it could be 10M more. The sooner the ink dries, the better.
These are 3 things we SHOULD do.
1. Restructure or cut Joe Mixon. He just makes way too much money for what he offers. You could get 3.9 ypc out of a 4th round rookie and they may even be a better pass blocker than Mixon. He is a good power runner who can occasionally break a big one, but that isn't our offense anymore and we need to embrace the speedy RB that can take a check down 30 yards archetype of running back.
2. Extend Tee Higgins. The team and people around the team, including the players themselves, seem confident that the team can work out a deal to keep Burrow, Higgins and Chase around long term. That may mean structuring the deals so that their respective cap hits balloon and shrink relative to each other (one year, Higgins has the big cap hit which allows his other years to be smaller, Burrow has a similar big cap hit in a subsequent year). If this doesn't happen this off season, you could always franchise tag him and then decide whether you want to extend him, trade him or just have 1 final year with him and plan accordingly in the draft and free agency (as we did with Bates). So it isn't a must do item, but if they can make it happen, they should do it this year.
3. Sign a veteran pass rusher who is looking for a ring. You got Robert Quinn, Jadaveon Clowney, Akiem Hicks, Melvin Ingram, Justin Houston, Jason Pierre Paul, Jarran Reed, and Anthony Barr as 30+ year old pass rushers who are likely looking for a ring. See if any would like to come in on a 1 year deal for relatively cheap. Many of them are coming off of down years as well, so that could be prove it deals, like Hurst was this past season. There are also options like Yannick Ngakoue and Larry Ogunjobi, who are younger but may be hunting for a ring as well. I don't want to break the bank here, but a situational pass rusher would be greatly appreciated in 2023. I would mention Brandon Graham here, but he's currently on a Super Bowl contending team, so that pitch wouldn't work on him haha.
And finally 3 things that would be nice, but it would depend on the price.
1. Re-sign Hayden Hurst. But only if he's asking for a reasonable AAV. That prediction from PFF (3 years, 28.5M) was insane and if that's what he wants let him walk. But if he is looking for something in the 5 to 6M AAV range, I think it's worth re-signing him. He played his role well and, while he is not a game changing tight end by any means, he's got some speed to him and reliable hands. He's a decent starting TE in the NFL and we currently have zero TEs on the roster so...
2. Re-sign Germaine Pratt. But only if he's asking for under 10M AAV. Opposite the situation of Hurst, PFF's prediction was actually fairly reasonabl for Pratt at 3 years, 24.75 M. I think Pratt showed that he's worth 8.25M AAV and it would keep our defense that played so clutch so often (Pratt was a key member of the KC win via the Kelce Fumble and the Baltimore playoff win because he stood up the QB sneak that went for Hubbard's touchdown). Pratt also had a clutch interception against Brady. He's definitely earned a raise. The only concern I have here is if we sign Pratt, do we let Wilson walk? Can we only afford one of the two? If so, you could convince me that Wilson is more important to the defense overall since he plays all 3 downs consistently.
3. Re-sign Samaje Perine. But only if he's asking for under 3M AAV. He is not a starter in the NFL and we should not treat him as such, but if he wants to re-up with the team as the 3rd down back who can sub in for a game or two here and there, I think 3M AAV is a feasible landing spot for btoh camps. It's nearly doubling his salary from the last 2 years while still keeping the position as a whole at an acceptable cost. This would kind of tie into the Mixon decision, as I don't know if you want to keep both of them. We really should implement a thunder and lightning approach in our backfield, not a thunder thunder backfield. So if we keep Perine, draft a speedy RB and cut Mixon. If we keep Mixon, draft a speedy RB and don't re-sign Perine. I don't think these two should remain on the team together.
Beyond that, draft for BPA and sign whatever free agents may be slipping through the cracks and just need a 1 year deal to get to the next free agency period. See if you can't fit a CB, TE and DT in the draft somewhere. But this team doesn't have a ton of needs and we're really just going to be fine tuning from here on out. It should be an exciting off season, but I'm not expecting anything close to the last 3 off seasons where we were signing key free agents on the first day of free agency. This should be a more low key free agency period, similar to what we got used to when Lewis was our head coach (but in a good way this time haha).
Nice post CJD. Cannot really disagree with anything, just think Logan Wilson is the future at LB and Pratt leaves for big money.
Hopefully in the NFC lol
It is ADG's time IMO. Bailey ain't no punk either and is underrated. Just does what is asked of him. Bettcher has done well with
our LB's. All for bringing back Ogunjobi, he is over the injury now. Would be awesome if he only gave his best years to us and not
the stealers or stains. Need a 3-tech to collapse the middle of the OL in pass rushing situations. I like BJ Hill but he is a better run
stopper and not an elite pass rusher, at least not from what we saw last year.
Mazi Smith is an option at 28 if he makes it to us as well.
Also like the idea of adding an older End chasing a ring like the ones you spoke of. Hicks or Houston would be awesome.
