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2023 Free Agency Thread


e16bball

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With the league announcing that the 2023 salary cap will come in at $224.8M, the free agency planning season starts today.

OTC has them at around $6.6M currently. Seems obvious that they’ll cut Wentz loose, so we may as well treat that as part of their starting cap number and call it $32.8M in space. 

Some interesting cut/keep/extend decisions to be made on veteran players like Chase Roullier, Logan Thomas, Curtis Samuel, Bobby McCain, Kendall Fuller, Cornelius Lucas, Andrew Norwell, etc. Those decisions will shape how much cap space we have when we enter FA in March.

Our primary FA is, of course, Daron Payne. He’s in for a huge deal after a big contract year season. They could easily choose to franchise him if they can’t work out a long-term agreement. Letting him walk for a comp pick doesn’t seem like a viable strategy. Cole Holcomb is probably the one second-tier FA, and then a decision on whether to keep Taylor Heinicke looms. Wes Schweitzer is also a FA, but aside from those guys, it’s mostly no-names and a lot of the PantherSkins.

My top targets in FA will be OL and, for what feels like the foreverth year in a row, a genuine nickel CB. At the always-needed ILB position, former draft favorite Tremaine Edmunds may be on the market. There are some interesting veteran TE options, though it appears to be a solid draft at the position, so perhaps that wouldn’t be a wise investment. 

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8 minutes ago, lavar703 said:

My guess is they’ll tag and trade Payne. Then they’ll re-sign Holcomb and do a bunch of nothing in free agency. I’ve given up on Rivera and crew helping this team via free agents. They don’t seem to value that route at all. 

I don't agree with this.  I think they intentionally avoided FA last year because they were specifically protecting the 3rd round comp pick from Scherff but this FO has not been shy towards FA otherwise.  They've had 3 offseasons and they're signings have been: 

2020

OT Cornelius Lucas - has contributed significant playing time. 

CB Kendall Fuller - still our starting CB

OL Wes Schweitzer - contributes a lot along the oline. 

HB J.D. McKissoc - solid contributor 

TE Logan Thomas - Still our starting TE.  For now. 

LB Kevin Pierre-Louis - I believe he started a season for us?  Don't remember. 

CB Ronald Darby - Also started that season for us I believe. 

S Sean Davis - not sure if he made it through training camp? 

TE Richard Rodgers - scrub

HB Peyton Barber - didn't do much

DE Nate Orchard - didn't do much

LB Job Bostic - sigh. 

LB Thomas Davis - was washed up. 

 

2021

WR Curtis Samuel - starting WR 

OT Charles Leno - our starting LT

S/CB Bobby McCain - contributes in the secondary

QB Ryan Fitzpatrick - Injury, didn't work out. 

CB Wililam Jackson - bad fit, didn't work. 

WR Adam Humphries - wasn't terrible. 

OC Tyler Larsen - has contributed at times. 

LB David Mayo - Came from Giants, meh. 

WR Deandre Carter - gave us one decent season. 

 

2022

OG Andrew Norwell - Starter, was passable. 

DE/DT Efe Obada - not sure he did much but he contributed. 

OG Trai Turner - Not the best imo.

 

So 2022 was more of the exception rather than the rule.  Seems like they just really wanted that comp pick, plus they were hampered by Wentz's contract.  I expect us to be more active in FA this offseason. 

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1 hour ago, e16bball said:

Some interesting cut/keep/extend decisions to be made on veteran players like Chase Roullier, Logan Thomas, Curtis Samuel, Bobby McCain, Kendall Fuller, Cornelius Lucas, Andrew Norwell, etc. Those decisions will shape how much cap space we have when we enter FA in March.

Cutting those two (Roullier $4.3 and Thomas $5.1) nets an almost additional $10 million. I'm not sure if I want to get rid of any of the others yet. Norwell and McCain only save about half of their cap and I feel like we need them at the moment. Norwell could change depending on how FA and the draft go. 

So we can get to $42m pretty quickly, and probably wipe out 40% of it resigning Payne. Signing one more splash FA with the $25m left (Like a Tremaine Edmunds (my guess is like 5 for $55 for him?),  replace Roullier with McGovern, or maybe get McGlinchy for RT. 

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8 minutes ago, MikeT14 said:

Cutting those two (Roullier $4.3 and Thomas $5.1) nets an almost additional $10 million. I'm not sure if I want to get rid of any of the others yet. Norwell and McCain only save about half of their cap and I feel like we need them at the moment. Norwell could change depending on how FA and the draft go. 

So we can get to $42m pretty quickly, and probably wipe out 40% of it resigning Payne. Signing one more splash FA with the $25m left (Like a Tremaine Edmunds (my guess is like 5 for $55 for him?),  replace Roullier with McGovern, or maybe get McGlinchy for RT. 

Trumaine Edwards is probably going to go for something like what the Ravens just signed Roquan Smith for, something like $100 mil for 5 years.  Just my guess.  Maybe Smith is a lot better but they seem pretty comparable to me. If its in the Smith territory that is a ton of money for an off ball linebacker.  

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24 minutes ago, MKnight82 said:

I don't agree with this.  I think they intentionally avoided FA last year because they were specifically protecting the 3rd round comp pick from Scherff but this FO has not been shy towards FA otherwise.  They've had 3 offseasons and they're signings have been: 

2020

OT Cornelius Lucas - has contributed significant playing time. 

CB Kendall Fuller - still our starting CB

OL Wes Schweitzer - contributes a lot along the oline. 

HB J.D. McKissoc - solid contributor 

TE Logan Thomas - Still our starting TE.  For now. 

LB Kevin Pierre-Louis - I believe he started a season for us?  Don't remember. 

CB Ronald Darby - Also started that season for us I believe. 

S Sean Davis - not sure if he made it through training camp? 

TE Richard Rodgers - scrub

HB Peyton Barber - didn't do much

DE Nate Orchard - didn't do much

LB Job Bostic - sigh. 

LB Thomas Davis - was washed up. 

 

2021

WR Curtis Samuel - starting WR 

OT Charles Leno - our starting LT

S/CB Bobby McCain - contributes in the secondary

QB Ryan Fitzpatrick - Injury, didn't work out. 

CB Wililam Jackson - bad fit, didn't work. 

WR Adam Humphries - wasn't terrible. 

OC Tyler Larsen - has contributed at times. 

LB David Mayo - Came from Giants, meh. 

WR Deandre Carter - gave us one decent season. 

 

2022

OG Andrew Norwell - Starter, was passable. 

DE/DT Efe Obada - not sure he did much but he contributed. 

OG Trai Turner - Not the best imo.

 

So 2022 was more of the exception rather than the rule.  Seems like they just really wanted that comp pick, plus they were hampered by Wentz's contract.  I expect us to be more active in FA this offseason. 

There were several players last off-season who were cut and wouldn’t have impacted the Scherff pick and they chose to not even sniff around. The only time they genuinely spent in free agency was year 2 and most of it blew up in their face. I guess that’s why they’re hesitant but year one was a bunch of one-year deals with the exception of Fuller which resulted in them losing Darby and then having to overpay Logan Thomas. 
 

So in actuality, they spent heavily in free agency in one season. The other two they went for “value” bargain bin players. So my guess is we get more of year one and year three spending. I don’t see them doing year two again. Trade Payne, Re-sign Holcomb and lock up Curl long term is what I expect. 

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15 minutes ago, MKnight82 said:

Trumaine Edwards is probably going to go for something like what the Ravens just signed Roquan Smith for, something like $100 mil for 5 years.  Just my guess.  Maybe Smith is a lot better but they seem pretty comparable to me. If its in the Smith territory that is a ton of money for an off ball linebacker.  

Whew. I like Edmunds obviously, but is he Roquan Smith good? I dunno. I wouldn't be shocked if he got 5/16 per though too. I def don't want him for that much though either. 

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6 minutes ago, lavar703 said:

There were several players last off-season who were cut and wouldn’t have impacted the Scherff pick and they chose to not even sniff around.

I think this is a little unfair because we did learn that free agents just unsurprisingly chose other teams over us. I'm trying to remember specifics (like Hooper, Golladay, Jackson iirc, was Bradberry one?).

 

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2 minutes ago, MikeT14 said:

I think this is a little unfair because we did learn that free agents just unsurprisingly chose other teams over us. I'm trying to remember specifics (like Hooper, Golladay, Jackson iirc, was Bradberry one?).

 

Myles Jack as well

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I hope first and foremost this FO handles the Payne situation properly. Then I hope their next big move comes in house as well extending Curl before he takes his 2nd team all pro year into a Payne level year and is first team all pro and isn’t paying him off of consecutive years. Show him you know what he’s done and handle that situation early because as I’ve said for the last 3 years I still think Curl is our best defender.


Before Curl if we played a top level TE you might as well chalk up 125 plus and a TD or two and a million first downs. Since Curl we have been one of the best teams against TE play with him on the field. So pay him before he snags 6 picks and 2 FF and 75 plus tackles and 3 sacks and you’re paying him more then Simmons and Derwin. Give him his love and let him have that type of year where you look like a smart team for locking him up and then maximizing return on investment because you were planning ahead for your defensive chess Queen. A healthy DL and Curl and Forrest are gonna eat so lock the man up this offseason instead of after a career year.

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They would be wise to accumulate a few day 2, or day 3 picks if they can through trades.

You're gonna wanna keep the QB position cheap for a while. Having Sam Howell as starter will be huge. I would draft another on day 3, if I were them. They're probably gonna sign a vet, but hopefully it won't be ridiculous.

We need to continue drafting O-Line. 

I would easily do what I could to move Logan Thomas. Not only did he not look good this season? He's been fighting injuries often it seems. He's also making a lot of money & quite honestly? His production is not matching that.

We've got a couple young decent ones, with good potential on this roster. Plus, this draft has some very interesting prospects at the TE position I want us to look at. 

The more picks we can get, the more chances we can hit on them. Plus, keeps our team young.

I would definitely makes some trades, if there is interest in players we have, that are expendable.

 

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