Week 17 - The GRINCH who stole Christmas

[N4L]

6 hours ago, PapaShogun said:

We lost. Good. Kittle got a nice feather in his cap with the record. More importantly though, glad the team didn't shoot themselves in the foot again.

Well, we did turn the ball over on our first four possessions 

Some might call that the definition of shooting yourself in the foot, but at this point we have already had both legs amputated to their entirety. 

I knew as soon as Tomlinson went down that it was an ACL. That's a damn shame. Interior OL was already on my list because I thought we needed someone to develop

Kittle getting the record was pretty cool. It's a shame the Cardinals lost. 

Playoffs or bust next year 

[J-ALL-DAY]

7 hours ago, N4L said:

Well, we did turn the ball over on our first four possessions 

Some might call that the definition of shooting yourself in the foot, but at this point we have already had both legs amputated to their entirety. 

I knew as soon as Tomlinson went down that it was an ACL. That's a damn shame. Interior OL was already on my list because I thought we needed someone to develop

Kittle getting the record was pretty cool. It's a shame the Cardinals lost. 

Playoffs or bust next year 

I still don't think it's an ACL but I'm no doctor lol. But I saw contact there and unless the contact led to an ACL tear, think we may have dodged a bullet there. 

[rudyZ]

We have more pressing needs early on in the draft, so I hope we address G in free agency. Who's available this year? Tomlinson is probably not going to be good to go at the beginning of next season, if at all, so we might as well take this as an opportunity to upgrade on Tomlinson, whereas we might have just gone with him because of the aforementioned other more pressing needs.

[J-ALL-DAY]

15 minutes ago, rudyZ said:

We have more pressing needs early on in the draft, so I hope we address G in free agency. Who's available this year? Tomlinson is probably not going to be good to go at the beginning of next season, if at all, so we might as well take this as an opportunity to upgrade on Tomlinson, whereas we might have just gone with him because of the aforementioned other more pressing needs.

Yeah, I hope we address guard in free agency. Any good ones available?

[49erurtaza]

36 minutes ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

Yeah, I hope we address guard in free agency. Any good ones available?

Especially since both guard positions are in need. I can see us signing one guard and just signing a scrub who ends up beating Garnett for the spot on the other side.

[Forge]

44 minutes ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

Yeah, I hope we address guard in free agency. Any good ones available?

Quinton Spain isn't bad, and Ramon Foster. Those are probably the best in my opinion. Pretty uninspiring crop in my opinion. Levitre would make a lot of sense given he has experience with Shanny though and is a short term solution given his age. So I could absolutely see him being the guy that we bring in. I'd assume that Person is brought back as well. 

[J-ALL-DAY]

2 hours ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

I still don't think it's an ACL but I'm no doctor lol. But I saw contact there and unless the contact led to an ACL tear, think we may have dodged a bullet there. 

Okay, more than a bone bruise as I anticipated, but I knew it was highly unlikely it was an ACL tear. I've never seen a freaking knee to knee injury or knee to thigh injury result in an ACL tear. 

Three months is really nothing. Should be ready for OTAs and what not. Still need another guard, but Tomlinson could be penciled in as a start for next season. 

[49erurtaza]

1 hour ago, Forge said:

Quinton Spain isn't bad, and Ramon Foster. Those are probably the best in my opinion. Pretty uninspiring crop in my opinion. Levitre would make a lot of sense given he has experience with Shanny though and is a short term solution given his age. So I could absolutely see him being the guy that we bring in. I'd assume that Person is brought back as well. 

Thank God

 

 

[rudyZ]

19 minutes ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

Okay, more than a bone bruise as I anticipated, but I knew it was highly unlikely it was an ACL tear. I've never seen a freaking knee to knee injury or knee to thigh injury result in an ACL tear. 

Three months is really nothing. Should be ready for OTAs and what not. Still need another guard, but Tomlinson could be penciled in as a start for next season. 

Yeah, I jumped the gun a little. So, he's likely to be back in time. So do we re-sign Person, find another G, or both? Are we fully committed to Richburg? If so, I feel he'll need a little more help. So the status quo on the interior would worry me. I say re-sign Person, as he's also the back-up C, then sign someone to compete with him, and draft a mid rounder?

[J-ALL-DAY]

16 minutes ago, rudyZ said:

Yeah, I jumped the gun a little. So, he's likely to be back in time. So do we re-sign Person, find another G, or both? Are we fully committed to Richburg? If so, I feel he'll need a little more help. So the status quo on the interior would worry me. I say re-sign Person, as he's also the back-up C, then sign someone to compete with him, and draft a mid rounder?

Honestly, there is nothing we can do with Richburg. Can't get out of his contract next year so he should be penciled in as the starter. And apparently Shanny is a big fan of his and thinks the addition of him is the reason our OL improved the way it did. I digress with that but he's the HC who makes all the calls.

I have no idea what we do with Person. I'd think we bring him back on a fairly cheap deal while at the same time adding some competition whether it be in free agency or in the draft? 

[Forge]

1 minute ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

Honestly, there is nothing we can do with Richburg. Can't get out of his contract next year so he should be penciled in as the starter. And apparently Shanny is a big fan of his and thinks the addition of him is the reason our OL improved the way it did. I digress with that but he's the HC who makes all the calls.

I have no idea what we do with Person. I'd think we bring him back on a fairly cheap deal while at the same time adding some competition whether it be in free agency or in the draft? 

Yeah, It's a wash on Richburg's money, so we should keep him at least a year. He was awful this year though. One of my priorities in this draft would probably be to find another Center / Guard type guy. We can get out of Richburg's contract after next season if Shanny changes his mind, and honestly, I'd like to see a better back up than Mags if nothing else. 

Person I think will be back, and I mentioned it before, but I think he gets a better deal than people think. I don't think it'll be long term or anything, but I can totally see us giving him like 2 years 8 million or something. 

[Fureys49ers]

Glad to hear Tomlinson will be fine for next year but still think OG should be added to through FA and even the draft if we feel so inclined. Keeping our running game productive and Jimmy G upright is most important beyond finding another weapon for him on the outside. Quintin Spain, Andy Levitre and John Miller are all guys I’d hope we take a look at but none of them I believe are permanent fixes, more band aids but with limited draft capitol might be as far as we go in addressing that issue. 

[Forge]

Who would have ever have guessed, after his first couple of years with the Lions, and after our acquisition of him last year for pennies, that Tomlinson not being out for the year would be such a sigh of relief and big deal 

[y2lamanaki]

There is no long-term free agent along the interior that I would be excited about, so I am good with going interior offensive line in one of the first three rounds (first, only if via trade - definitely not with the top pick). I hope Richburg's combination of the injury and first year in the system was what hindered him this year. But I agree with @Forge - a better backup than Magnuson is not the worst thing. 

[rudyZ]

I feel bad for saying this, but I'm a little disappointed. Had he been injured long term, we would have been forced to address the LG situation and hopefully upgrade. Laken is a good but not great type of G. If he's there, you don't necessary focus on upgrading. If he's not, you're not looking to just bring in someone just as good. You try to bring in someone who can hopefully be better. But now that we know he'll be fine, we definitely won't upgrade his spot. We could do worse, obviously. And we can focus more attention to our other needs. But now it's the status quo. And we gave up a lot of inside pressure right between Laken and Weston. We'd need an extra blocker right in that A gap.

So I guess we look at bringing in competition for Person. I think we should re-sign him, even if we don't already pencil him in as a starter. Last year, we didn't hesitate to re-sign Kilgore, and ended up trading him on the 2nd or 3rd day of free agency after signing Richburg. So I could see a similar scenario. We re-sign him before free agency, then explore the market, and if we sign someone, maybe Person asks for a chance to start elsewhere and we give it to him. If not, he'll have a shot at keeping his job. He's versatility is very valuable. 

I would love to have an impact blocker on the inside. Someone who just knocks people around on a pull block. It doesn't have to be a first rounder, à la Iupati. But good guards are found throughout the draft.