2020 Free Agency Thread

[turtle28]

10 minutes ago, lavar703 said:

If Rivera can't figure out how to use a talent like Allen I think we already have bigger problems on our hands.

It’s not about that. It’s about evaluating how the pieces fit together.

[turtle28]

The talent the Rams had a few years ago was different then what Rivera is inheriting. 

[turtle28]

29 minutes ago, e16bball said:

But if we’re doing this on some sort of a 5-year plan, we may as well start making moves to allow us to swap out Haskins for a 2021 or 2022 QB. 

The greatest competitive advantage in the sport is the rookie QB contract. If you have a capable QB on a comparatively tiny deal, you have the flexibility to build a much stronger roster around him. We’ve already burnt one of Haskins’s cheap seasons on a terrible roster. We’re going to burn next year on a non-competitive roster as well. By the time Rivera has settled in, done all his “evaluating,” and we’re looking to actually field a decent football team, half of that window will already be gone and we’ll be getting close to the point of having to decide whether to exercise his $20M+ 5th year option. 

The NFL is not the NBA or MLB. There doesn’t have to be a “process,” not to the extent that we’ve come to expect in those sports. You don’t have to take forever to build a competitive roster. The Rams did it in literally one offseason. They didn’t sit around twiddling their thumbs and “evaluating” everything before making any moves — they moved aggressively to make their team better around their 2nd-year QB. The Broncos have done the same thing to a large extent this offseason. They’re showing conviction in their young QB and providing him a roster he can take to the top, if he’s able.

I’m not suggesting that we should have been trying to rebuild Rome in a day. Our roster is more delapidated than many. But there are moves we could have made to fill some of the numerous long-term black holes on the roster, in order to set ourselves up to be able take the big step next offseason. As it stands now, our options are either (a) fill all 8+ gaping holes in the 2021 offseason or (b) wait until the last year of Haskins’s rookie deal to even be able to hope to field a reasonably “complete” team around him. 

In sum, it’s sort of the same issue we talked about with Gruden/Haskins, except in reverse. The timetables don’t quite match up. If Rivera insists on doing this in a slow, steady, meticulous fashion, then he’s willingly burning up the greatest roster advantage we’ll ever get with Haskins. 

As far as the bolded goes, umm yeah, you are. You are saying we should have spent up a lot of our cap space on weapons for Haskins bc he’s on his rookie deal.

I’ve said this before, why are you going to go and build a team through free agency?
 

That doesn’t work!

A new coach coming in going and just spending money all over the place on free agents is far less likely to work out long term than building through the draft. Rivera is in his first year of building this team. Giving out the deals the way he did and continuing to build through the draft was the smart move to build a team that can be good for the long term, not just a few seasons or not at all if those FAs you go out and give long term deals to don’t gel together.

The Rams had one Super Bowl appearance. Last year they were average. They couldn’t sustain what they had. It’s a question as if the team they field this year will even be as good as last years team.

Edited April 28, 2020 by turtle28

[turtle28]

24 minutes ago, MikeT14 said:

It was a great post e. I want to harp on one thing, with this tidbit. Not just the Rams. There is a team every year that seems to do this. 2013 Chiefs, 2012 Redskins, 2008 Dolphins, 2019 Packers, last years 9ers, Panthers, etc.

We don’t exactly know that the 2020 Redskins won’t be one of those teams. Right now everyone is just assuming they won’t be. If Haskins really improves, we could shock a lot of people. We definitely have the DL to be dominant on defense even w/o being elite at LB or in the secondary.

A run first approach with Peterson & if our young RBs finally break out and Haskins and the passing game and we could be one of those shocking type teams.

Lets not forget that no one expected what the Rams did - and they did that after a few years of building, not just one - the 49ers, the same, the Packers had Rodgers & weren’t awful before hiring LeFleur. 2012 Redskins was in year 3 of their HC and had added a transcendent QB but that wasn’t sustained.

[offbyone]

5 hours ago, lavar703 said:

I know it may seem like overkill but we should go after Clowney. One-year deal and just go all in on the defensive line lol

Overkill.  I would rather extend Kerrigan.  Guys need reps.

[HTTRDynasty]

Personally, I believe there's a greater than 90% chance we're not making the playoffs this season.

I'm more than happy to roll over as much cap space as possible so that we'll have the maximum amount of resources to be aggressive in FA, and/or trades for vets, once we are on the verge of becoming contenders.

This year's NFL free agency class was below average anyway.

 

Edited April 28, 2020 by HTTRDynasty

[offbyone]

1 hour ago, e16bball said:

But if we’re doing this on some sort of a 5-year plan, we may as well start making moves to allow us to swap out Haskins for a 2021 or 2022 QB. 

The greatest competitive advantage in the sport is the rookie QB contract. If you have a capable QB on a comparatively tiny deal, you have the flexibility to build a much stronger roster around him. We’ve already burnt one of Haskins’s cheap seasons on a terrible roster. We’re going to burn next year on a non-competitive roster as well. By the time Rivera has settled in, done all his “evaluating,” and we’re looking to actually field a decent football team, half of that window will already be gone and we’ll be getting close to the point of having to decide whether to exercise his $20M+ 5th year option. 

The NFL is not the NBA or MLB. There doesn’t have to be a “process,” not to the extent that we’ve come to expect in those sports. You don’t have to take forever to build a competitive roster. The Rams did it in literally one offseason. They didn’t sit around twiddling their thumbs and “evaluating” everything before making any moves — they moved aggressively to make their team better around their 2nd-year QB. The Broncos have done the same thing to a large extent this offseason. They’re showing conviction in their young QB and providing him a roster he can take to the top, if he’s able.

I’m not suggesting that we should have been trying to rebuild Rome in a day. Our roster is more delapidated than many. But there are moves we could have made to fill some of the numerous long-term black holes on the roster, in order to set ourselves up to be able take the big step next offseason. As it stands now, our options are either (a) fill all 8+ gaping holes in the 2021 offseason or (b) wait until the last year of Haskins’s rookie deal to even be able to hope to field a reasonably “complete” team around him. 

In sum, it’s sort of the same issue we talked about with Gruden/Haskins, except in reverse. The timetables don’t quite match up. If Rivera insists on doing this in a slow, steady, meticulous fashion, then he’s willingly burning up the greatest roster advantage we’ll ever get with Haskins. 

Yep.  What we need to be careful is not letting this "evaluation" period end up wasting our cap space.  Now that we are sitting on all this cap space we need to not waste it.  Extending guys like Scherff, Allen, etc now is the way to do this.  If we wait until after the season they are going to cost 20% more.  Managing the cap is a huge component to building a football team.  If you are looking at long term, you need to think about cap space.  You need to secure players before you have to pay them top dollar.  Hey, I am all for paying these guys, but you don't have to put yourself into a situation where you overpay. 

This is also the same reasoning why I am concerned about the volume of 1 year deals we executed during free agency.  Rivera talk about how high they are on players like Sean Davis.  Well if these guys succeed they are going to cost us a bundle to resign.  

[lavar703]

13 minutes ago, offbyone said:

Overkill.  I would rather extend Kerrigan.  Guys need reps.

I’m not touching a Kerrigan deal. I’m either moving him during the season or letting him walk. No way I’d pay him again. 

[lavar703]

2 minutes ago, HTTRDynasty said:

Personally, I believe there's over a 90% chance we're not making the playoffs this season.

I'm more than happy to roll over as much cap space as possible so that we'll have the maximum amount of resources possible to be aggressive in FA, and/or trades for vets, once we are on the verge of becoming contenders.

This year's NFL free agency class was below average anyway.

But they aren’t going to be aggressive in free agency. We had a ton of cap space and a ton of holes and we signed a bunch of replacement level players. Our highest paid acquisition can’t even match up with other teams top receivers. I didn’t want them to go out and blow it all on Amari Cooper but Robby Anderson and Austin Hooper certainly would’ve made this team better. Keeping Ereck Flowers instead of signing scrubs to many that equals what we paid him simply made no sense. I hate rehashing this but we aren’t going to spend money anymore. Those days are long over with. 

[RaykwonDaChef]

1 hour ago, e16bball said:

But if we’re doing this on some sort of a 5-year plan, we may as well start making moves to allow us to swap out Haskins for a 2021 or 2022 QB. 

The greatest competitive advantage in the sport is the rookie QB contract. If you have a capable QB on a comparatively tiny deal, you have the flexibility to build a much stronger roster around him. We’ve already burnt one of Haskins’s cheap seasons on a terrible roster. We’re going to burn next year on a non-competitive roster as well. By the time Rivera has settled in, done all his “evaluating,” and we’re looking to actually field a decent football team, half of that window will already be gone and we’ll be getting close to the point of having to decide whether to exercise his $20M+ 5th year option. 

The NFL is not the NBA or MLB. There doesn’t have to be a “process,” not to the extent that we’ve come to expect in those sports. You don’t have to take forever to build a competitive roster. The Rams did it in literally one offseason. They didn’t sit around twiddling their thumbs and “evaluating” everything before making any moves — they moved aggressively to make their team better around their 2nd-year QB. The Broncos have done the same thing to a large extent this offseason. They’re showing conviction in their young QB and providing him a roster he can take to the top, if he’s able.

I’m not suggesting that we should have been trying to rebuild Rome in a day. Our roster is more delapidated than many. But there are moves we could have made to fill some of the numerous long-term black holes on the roster, in order to set ourselves up to be able take the big step next offseason. As it stands now, our options are either (a) fill all 8+ gaping holes in the 2021 offseason or (b) wait until the last year of Haskins’s rookie deal to even be able to hope to field a reasonably “complete” team around him. 

In sum, it’s sort of the same issue we talked about with Gruden/Haskins, except in reverse. The timetables don’t quite match up. If Rivera insists on doing this in a slow, steady, meticulous fashion, then he’s willingly burning up the greatest roster advantage we’ll ever get with Haskins. 

 

For sure you don't need to overhaul and I understand the advatange of the rookie contract at QB. I agree with all your sentiments. In an indeal scenario the Redskins would have been able to sign a few FAs other than Fuller. But the Skins haven't been an ideal scenario basically in my lifetime. 

 

No official GM, overzealous owner, new head coach etc all may of lead to some FAs not wanting to come here. 

 

While it is easy to say after the fact we apparently were all in on Amari and offered him plenty of dough but he chose the better situation. 

 

There is a chance that it happened with a few other FAs. 

Edited April 28, 2020 by RaykwonDaChef

[HTTRDynasty]

27 minutes ago, lavar703 said:

But they aren’t going to be aggressive in free agency. We had a ton of cap space and a ton of holes and we signed a bunch of replacement level players. Our highest paid acquisition can’t even match up with other teams top receivers. I didn’t want them to go out and blow it all on Amari Cooper but Robby Anderson and Austin Hooper certainly would’ve made this team better. Keeping Ereck Flowers instead of signing scrubs to many that equals what we paid him simply made no sense. I hate rehashing this but we aren’t going to spend money anymore. Those days are long over with. 

Why would it make sense to be aggressive in FA only to end up 8-8?  They legitimately want to see what they have in the young guys first before taking unnecessary long-term risks.

[turtle28]

4 hours ago, lavar703 said:

But they aren’t going to be aggressive in free agency. We had a ton of cap space and a ton of holes and we signed a bunch of replacement level players. Our highest paid acquisition can’t even match up with other teams top receivers. I didn’t want them to go out and blow it all on Amari Cooper but Robby Anderson and Austin Hooper certainly would’ve made this team better. Keeping Ereck Flowers instead of signing scrubs to many that equals what we paid him simply made no sense. I hate rehashing this but we aren’t going to spend money anymore. Those days are long over with. 

[turtle28]

3 hours ago, HTTRDynasty said:

Why would it make sense to be aggressive in FA only to end up 8-8?  They legitimately want to see what they have in the young guys first before taking unnecessary long-term risks.

Us signing 3 or 4 more high priced FAs In Rivera’s first year - when we're not even sure how our young players will develop yet under Rivera - just to get to 7-9 or 8-8 again is not the best strategy to turn this team from an average at best team and a usually below average team into a good or great team for the next decade. We need to build a good team first and then add a few FAs once our team is good that hopefully takes us to the next step of being a great team. We’ll also need the cap space to re-sign our own FAs and keep this young core in tact if it develops like we all hope it will.

I've said it 100 times, I'd much rather see this young team totally shock us and play well or have another year with double-digit losses do so we can get another top 10 pick next year than to see some overpriced near 30 year old FAs we would have signed win 7 or 8 games.

People need to decide if they want to build through the draft and have a team with a core of good to great players that can be great for a decade or to build a team of FAs who will do just enough to make us average but we’ll never get to draft another prospect in Chase Young’s wheelhouse the rest of this decade that can help him and our other young players build a great team.

I know where I’m at. I want a great young team built that can be good for the next decade. I’m tired of building average teams.

Edited April 28, 2020 by turtle28

[HTTRDynasty]

^ Great post.

[lavar703]

23 minutes ago, turtle28 said:

Us signing 3 or 4 more high priced FAs In Rivera’s first year - when we're not even sure how our young players will develop yet under Rivera - just to get to 7-9 or 8-8 again is not the best strategy to turn this team from an average at best team and a usually below average team into a good or great team for the next decade. We need to build a good team first and then add a few FAs once our team is good that hopefully takes us to the next step of being a great team. We’ll also need the cap space to re-sign our own FAs and keep this young core in tact if it develops like we all hope it will.

I've said it 100 times, I'd much rather see this young team totally shock us and play well or have another year with double-digit losses do so we can get another top 10 pick next year than to see some overpriced near 30 year old FAs we would have signed win 7 or 8 games.

People need to decide if they want to build through the draft and have a team with a core of good to great players that can be great for a decade or to build a team of FAs who will do just enough to make us average but we’ll never get to draft another prospect in Chase Young’s wheelhouse the rest of this decade that can help him and our other young players build a great team.

I know where I’m at. I want a great young team built that can be good for the next decade. I’m tired of building average teams.

Then pay Scherff or Dunbar. Reward your own guys. This idea that they aren’t negotiating with players that are currently on one-year deals is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. So we wait until next year when Scherff will be even more expensive?