Draft clouds

[GBHalas]

13 minutes ago, AZBearsFan said:

I’d like to see us go big on OL in FA. Reinvent the whole damn thing. Give me Eric Fisher, Alex Cappa AND Bradley Bozeman. Borom becomes the swing tackle and potentially the long term LT, Jenkins goes to RT where he probably should be. Whole line gets a lot more credible in a hurry. Whitehair likely returns at least mostly to form when not flanked by a 40-year old and a bum. The offset from this is not being able to spend BIG at WR or CB, but we can still add capable vets there in FA with what will be left, and also the draft is deep at both positions for a longer term answer.

Spitballing here: 

Fisher 3/30 (7/10/13)

Cappa 5/48 (6/8/10/12/12)

Bozeman 5/55 (6/10/12/13/14)

Russell Gage 4/34 (5/9/9/11)

Zay Jones 2/6 (2.5/3.5)

Ahkello Witherspoon 2/9 (4/5)

I figure we can get to about $52M in cap space with obvious cuts and a likely Roquan extension. The numbers are ballpark here but that’s $30.5M in 2022 cap hits which still gives room for depth signings elsewhere, our draft picks and in-season flexibility. From there go WR round 2 with Pickens/Metchie/Bell/Dotson and CB in round 3 and you’re off and running, have a long term viable OL (Whitehair upgrade needed next offseason or the one after) and have veteran capable WR options to pair with a high upside rookie and Mooney.

It’s not gonna be everyone’s way to go, but building up a strong OL is never a bad place to start IMO. 

I understand what you're saying but I've necessarily been real big on Spending big money on FA. I'm more for drafting and developing. It seems like the more you go into FA the more bad contacts you have to get rid of a couple of years later.  Looking at their line is actually kinda promising if you can find a replacement for Mustipher, and drafting a solid lineman will do wonders.  I would only spend minimal money on a swing tackle and an extra interior lineman 

[AZBearsFan]

54 minutes ago, GBHalas said:

I understand what you're saying but I've necessarily been real big on Spending big money on FA. I'm more for drafting and developing. It seems like the more you go into FA the more bad contacts you have to get rid of a couple of years later.  Looking at their line is actually kinda promising if you can find a replacement for Mustipher, and drafting a solid lineman will do wonders.  I would only spend minimal money on a swing tackle and an extra interior lineman 

I’d 100% prefer to build primarily through the draft, but we don’t have much draft capital this year, and IMO 2022 is probably the most important year for Fields’ development, so I think we need to set him up with more of a ready-made product with which to work this year. I see the hypothetical wide spread FA splurge as a one off, not as something I’d ever want to be the norm. 

[GBHalas]

1 hour ago, AZBearsFan said:

I’d 100% prefer to build primarily through the draft, but we don’t have much draft capital this year, and IMO 2022 is probably the most important year for Fields’ development, so I think we need to set him up with more of a ready-made product with which to work this year. I see the hypothetical wide spread FA splurge as a one off, not as something I’d ever want to be the norm. 

I think the FA splurge is inevitable due to the new coach wanting his type of guys here and Nagy's guys shown the door. A good gm could generate a little more draft capital if he wants so it'll be interesting to see what happens

[AZBearsFan]

8 hours ago, GBHalas said:

A good gm could generate a little more draft capital if he wants so it'll be interesting to see what happens

How do you suppose they would do this before the draft without creating another roster hole to fill outside of trading down on draft day? 

[GBHalas]

2 hours ago, AZBearsFan said:

How do you suppose they would do this before the draft without creating another roster hole to fill outside of trading down on draft day? 

I don't think you can without creating a minor roster hole.  The only possibilities I could think of is trading Goldman for a middle rounder, since Tonga did so well this year, and I still believe you can trade E Jax, and resign DHC as your starting FS.  My opinion is you would get close to the same results with DHC for a third of the cap space.  This year there could be teams interested in the 39 pick, depending on how the QBs fall.  There will be a couple of QBs in round two someone might be interested in moving up a little for, especially a quarterback needy team like Denver right behind us.