2020 Free Agency Thread

[Thaiphoon]

3 minutes ago, turtle28 said:

https://sports.yahoo.com/new-nfl-cba-would-eliminate-suspensions-for-positive-drug-tests-including-marijuana-215756378.html

It's fines now, not suspensions. You still have to go into the program after you test positive.

Thanks. Makes sense.

[turtle28]

Just now, Thaiphoon said:

Thanks. Makes sense.

Yeah, I think I was a good deal for both sides. They met in the middle it seems to me.

[e16bball]

On 4/7/2020 at 2:58 PM, lavar703 said:

I just don’t understand why they were trying so hard to sign Cooper? And not wanting to reset the market on Hooper makes little to no sense if you were willing to go almost $10M a year more for a wide receiver who doesn’t seem like a game changer...just confusing. 

I don’t think they tried that hard to sign Cooper. If the report from Keim that they offered $23M guaranteed is true, then they didn’t really try at all and always intended to lose out on him. 

I’m apparently the only one here who would, but I would have gone hard to sign Cooper too (not just responding to you here, Lavar, but everyone on the thread that’s glad we didn’t get him). He’s undoubtedly one of the top 10 WRs in the league, and guys like that don’t just grow on trees. He’s 6th all time in receiving yards by age 25, and he’s basically top 10 in the league in yards since being drafted and since being traded to the Cowboys. He’s not on the top tier with Michael Thomas, Julio Jones, Nuk Hopkins, and (surprisingly enough) Mike Evans — but he’s clearly on that next tier with guys like OBJ, Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs, etc. 

Is $20M AAV more than I’d like to pay him? Sure. Based on where other WR contracts have come in, I’d have him slotted at more like $17-18M AAV. But I’m not cutting bait on a consistent 1000-1200 yard receiver because the price ticks up about 10% higher than I’d prefer to spend. Not given what he would do for both Haskins and McLaurin. Opening up single coverage for McLaurin (which he won’t get many sniffs of this season) would be crucial in helping him avoid a sophomore slump. And for Haskins, oh boy, what an advantage. Two guys who run impeccable routes and threaten defenses at all three levels? Basically two WR1s? They’re clearly not giving him the benefit of a top-quality OL, it would be nice to at least outfit him with an elite WR duo. 
 

I’ve said it before, and there’s no point really belaboring it again: you don’t win games with bargains and cap space, you win with the best players. If someone can show me a realistic scenario in which will be cap-strapped in the next couple seasons, I’ll change my tune. But I’m under the impression that we’ll have over $100M in cap space next season after we dump Smith. And there’s probably another $20M in easy space from cutting/re-negotiating Moses and bailing out of a lot of the 2-3 year deals they gave out this year. I just don’t see them being in a position where that $20M AAV significantly hinders them moving forward for the next several years. So we can praise them for financial restraint all day long, and we can celebrate that they’ll still have a nice clean cap sheet with all that free space to dream on for rainy days — but on Sundays, we’re also still going to have the worst group of weapons in the NFL. So it feels a little like hollow celebration to me. 

[turtle28]

I'd rather give Terry that $ in 3 years. I'd rather keep all of - or most of our young DL in tact. If Haskins continues to progress, we’re going to need to pay him in 3 years - 4 at the latest. Personally, I think we have a faster version of Amari Cooper when we drafted Terry. 

I would rather be patient - for at least one more year - with our team being so young and with an entire new staff, before we go signing guys to $100 million contracts.

[turtle28]

This is an awesome video, so much potential between him and Terry. 

[naptownskinsfan]

 

[turtle28]

1 hour ago, naptownskinsfan said:

 

It’s a shame, I would have signed him instead of signing Darby but, I get it, Breeland ruffled a lot of feathers his last few years in DC, not as many as Sua or Swearinger but it was an awful DB room in 2016 & not much better in 2017 from reports.

He was always a fav of mine too. My position was in 2016 that we overpaid for Norman and Norman really never bought in here. From the minute he was signed he was doing his own thing, and it rubbed the guys who were here in 2015 and in our secondary that year the wrong way. That on top of Sua coming in and being weird just made that worse.

I was always in favor of giving Breeland a new deal rather than signing Norman. If we had done that at least our DB room would have been better from 2016 until now.

[e16bball]

1 hour ago, turtle28 said:

It’s a shame, I would have signed him instead of signing Darby but, I get it, Breeland ruffled a lot of feathers his last few years in DC, not as many as Sua or Swearinger but it was an awful DB room in 2016 & not much better in 2017 from reports.

He was always a fav of mine too. My position was in 2016 that we overpaid for Norman and Norman really never bought in here. From the minute he was signed he was doing his own thing, and it rubbed the guys who were here in 2015 and in our secondary that year the wrong way. That on top of Sua coming in and being weird just made that worse.

I was always in favor of giving Breeland a new deal rather than signing Norman. If we had done that at least our DB room would have been better from 2016 until now.

I never really warmed up to Breeland, but I would have given him a try at a reunion. He and Fuller seem to get along well. 

I would have signed him in addition to Darby though. I’m not sold on our outside CB depth. I don’t think they’re going to use Fuller out there, despite his contract, which I think is the right idea. I think Stroman and Danny Johnson are pretty much limited to the slot too. Which leaves us with just Moreau, Darby, and Moreland who can play outside. And given the injury history with Moreau and especially Darby, I don’t feel great about that. 

We could always draft someone, of course. But we’ve got a lot of positions to be looking at in the draft, and it would be nice to fill one of these holes with just some FA money. Someone like Amukamara, Apple, Joseph, Kirkpatrick, etc. could at least compete for a spot and give us competent play if we lose a starter. 

[HTTRDynasty]

15 hours ago, e16bball said:

I don’t think they tried that hard to sign Cooper. If the report from Keim that they offered $23M guaranteed is true, then they didn’t really try at all and always intended to lose out on him. 

I’m apparently the only one here who would, but I would have gone hard to sign Cooper too (not just responding to you here, Lavar, but everyone on the thread that’s glad we didn’t get him). He’s undoubtedly one of the top 10 WRs in the league, and guys like that don’t just grow on trees. He’s 6th all time in receiving yards by age 25, and he’s basically top 10 in the league in yards since being drafted and since being traded to the Cowboys. He’s not on the top tier with Michael Thomas, Julio Jones, Nuk Hopkins, and (surprisingly enough) Mike Evans — but he’s clearly on that next tier with guys like OBJ, Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs, etc. 

Is $20M AAV more than I’d like to pay him? Sure. Based on where other WR contracts have come in, I’d have him slotted at more like $17-18M AAV. But I’m not cutting bait on a consistent 1000-1200 yard receiver because the price ticks up about 10% higher than I’d prefer to spend. Not given what he would do for both Haskins and McLaurin. Opening up single coverage for McLaurin (which he won’t get many sniffs of this season) would be crucial in helping him avoid a sophomore slump. And for Haskins, oh boy, what an advantage. Two guys who run impeccable routes and threaten defenses at all three levels? Basically two WR1s? They’re clearly not giving him the benefit of a top-quality OL, it would be nice to at least outfit him with an elite WR duo. 
 

I’ve said it before, and there’s no point really belaboring it again: you don’t win games with bargains and cap space, you win with the best players. If someone can show me a realistic scenario in which will be cap-strapped in the next couple seasons, I’ll change my tune. But I’m under the impression that we’ll have over $100M in cap space next season after we dump Smith. And there’s probably another $20M in easy space from cutting/re-negotiating Moses and bailing out of a lot of the 2-3 year deals they gave out this year. I just don’t see them being in a position where that $20M AAV significantly hinders them moving forward for the next several years. So we can praise them for financial restraint all day long, and we can celebrate that they’ll still have a nice clean cap sheet with all that free space to dream on for rainy days — but on Sundays, we’re also still going to have the worst group of weapons in the NFL. So it feels a little like hollow celebration to me. 

I get where you’re coming from. I want to surround Haskins with as many weapons as possible too. 
 

But it’s hard to feel comfortable giving a significant amount of guaranteed money to a guy who disappears so often and who was sitting on the bench for poor play on a 4th and 8 Week 16 vs the Eagles, with the division and playoffs on the line. 

[turtle28]

@e16bball I guess we’ll see what happens with Fuller, but I think he's going to start opposite Darby. When teams go 3 wide - which nowadays is near 70% of the game except Balt, Tenn & SF - then, Moreau or Moreland will come in and play the outside and Fuller will go to the slot. So, Fuller will be in the slot about 70% of the game, outside only 30%.

[A TRAIN 89]

Is Darby really going to start ahead of Moreau?

I do like the idea of camp competition. Guys should be motivated by the lack of solid starters. Lots of opportunity. 

[turtle28]

12 minutes ago, HTTRDynasty said:

I get where you’re coming from. I want to surround Haskins with as many weapons as possible too. 
 

But it’s hard to feel comfortable giving a significant amount of guaranteed money to a guy who disappears so often and who was sitting on the bench for poor play on a 4th and 8 Week 16 vs the Eagles, with the division and playoffs on the line. 

I agree with those reporters who said it seemed like the Redskins were more in plucking him from Dallas, this weakening their passing game rather than them loving him. 

I was straddling the fence on signing Coop & Hoop all offseason. I wanted them to help the passing offense but I did not want to do so at the sake of losing some of our young talent a few years from now. We will draft a TE to develop in round 3 or 4. We will draft another WR to compete to be a starter opposite Terry w/ Steven Sims, Harmon, Latimer, Quinn and Cam Sims.

[turtle28]

16 minutes ago, A TRAIN 89 said:

Is Darby really going to start ahead of Moreau?

I do like the idea of camp competition. Guys should be motivated by the lack of solid starters. Lots of opportunity. 

Yes as of right now. Rivera said he liked Darby and his quick twitch ability in coverage. I put the quote in the Darby thread, but he was almost gushing over Darby. I think the only way Darby doesn’t start is if Moreau really balls out in Tc & the preseason, which is possible. Moreau is the most physically gifted corner we have, he’s just never put it all together yet and was miscast in the slot after Fuller was traded.

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by turtle28

[e16bball]

2 hours ago, HTTRDynasty said:

But it’s hard to feel comfortable giving a significant amount of guaranteed money to a guy who disappears so often and who was sitting on the bench for poor play on a 4th and 8 Week 16 vs the Eagles, with the division and playoffs on the line. 

I’m interested by the idea that he disappears a lot (compared to other top receivers). At first semi-deep glance, it does seem that’s true. But I’d like to look into it a little deeper still. How would you define “disappearing,” in terms of yards or receptions in a game? Looking to put together a comparison between Cooper and the rest of the top 10-15 WRs, in terms of percentage of “disappearing” games.

 

And I guess my overarching thought process is that you only get so many chances to land high-level players in FA (let’s say, top 100 guys). Flawless players don’t ever hit FA, but on occasion, really good players do. There are so many obstacles to that ever being possible. Their original team has to let them get to UFA, you need to have a roster fit for them, you need to have salary cap space for them, they have to be interested in signing with you, their market can’t get totally crazy, etc. It’s extremely rare that you’re ever even in the ballpark of being able to accomplish that. I can’t be mad that they saw an opportunity and went for it — the chance to add a high-level player that only costs you money and salary cap space is such a valuable opportunity, they should try to capitalize when all the pieces fit like they did in this instance. 

[e16bball]

3 hours ago, turtle28 said:

@e16bball I guess we’ll see what happens with Fuller, but I think he's going to start opposite Darby. When teams go 3 wide - which nowadays is near 70% of the game except Balt, Tenn & SF - then, Moreau or Moreland will come in and play the outside and Fuller will go to the slot. So, Fuller will be in the slot about 70% of the game, outside only 30%.

I don’t think it’s fully clear yet where he’ll be — but I’ve seen him play outside and I’ve seen him play in the slot, and he’s only worth money in one of those spots. Or at least he has been...he’s still very young, maybe he grows into a quality outside CB. But his physical traits just don’t work well for him out there.

That’s just my speculation though. The most specific “inside” info I’ve seen on the issue has been this tweet: