TitanSS Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 Well, it's about that time of year again. I always get excited for the NFL off-season and the possibilites of who we can add to our team. I know a lot of people just want to see the transactions and don't want the long-winded explanations, so I'm going to start off with the structure of the off-season and I'll put my thoughts on some of the moves down below for those who are interested. For the signings, I'm going to just use the APY as our 2018 cap hit. I know it almost never works out that way, but I feel this is better for simplicitys sake. I'm going to start by taking care of business with our current players and sorting those guys out before we try to add anyone from outside to our roster. Starting Available Cap Space: $49.5 mil Re-signings: DaQuan Jones - DE - UFA - 3 year/$16.5 mil - $5.5 mil APY Quinton Spain - LG - RFA - 1 year/$2.74 mil - 2nd round tender Ryan Succop - K - UFA - 3 year/$7.5 mil - $2.5 mil APY David King - DE - ERFA - 1 year/$1.80 mil - Original round tender Available Cap Space: $36.96 mil Contract Extensions: Taylor Lewan - LT - 5 Year/$66 mil - $13.2 mil APY (originally $9.3 mil for 2018) Available Cap Space: $33.06 mil Notable Walks: Avery Williamson - ILB Eric Decker - WR Erik Walden - EDGE Josh Kline - RG Brice McCain - CB Released: DeMarco Murray - ($6.5 mil) Jonathan Cyprien - ($4.5 mil) Da'Norris Searcy - ($3.85 mil) Available Cap Space: $47.91 mil Team Needs: 1. SS 2. RG 3. ILB 4. EDGE 5. RB 6. CB 7. QB Trade: Tennessee trades their 2018 4th round pick and a 6th rounder in 2019 to the New York Giants for Eli Apple. ($4.13 mil 2018 cap hit) FA Additions: Morgan Burnett - SS - 3 year/$22 mil - $7.33 mil APY Jerrick McKinnon - RB - $ 3 year/$14 mil - $4.67 mil APY Christian Jones - ILB - $ 2 year/$7.5 mil - $3.75 mil APY Available Cap Space: $28.03 mil Draft: 1. Harold Landry - EDGE - Boston College 2. Braden Smith - RG - Auburn 3. Kyzir White - SS - West Virginia 4. Traded to NYG 5. Kurt Benkert - QB - Virginia 6. Sam Jones - OG - Arizona State 7. Bruce Hector, DT, South Florida Cap Space Reserved for Draft Picks: ~$6-7 mil Cap Space Rollover Into 2019: $21.03 (minus whatever we spend signing depth players we don't fill in the draft) First off, the trade. I always want to try to keep my mocks within the realm of realism and try to avoid the realm of Maddenism, so trades are something I usually avoid. But this year, I feel like we've seen enough from Robinson to know he's willing to make some moves. Eli Apple is rumored to likely be out of New York before next year because of issues in the locker room. I know a lot of you won't want to add those lockerroom issues to our roster, but we won't have those problems here. Urban Meyer said he has never once had a problem with Eli Apple. When watching Mariota's cut ups, I saw Eli Apple completely shut down one side of the field against Oregon. I really believe he is still a first round talent, and if anyone can bring it out of him, it's the Tennessee Titans. We have his college CB coach on our roster who should get him playing well again. Something I didn't know, and read in an MCM article, is that Logan Ryan is the player he looks up to more than anyone in the league. They went to the same highschool and he goes to him for advice. We are perfectly set up to pull a "Patriots" move and take an incredibly talented player for next to nothing and get him to play to his full potential. In free agency, Morgan Burnett is our top priority after parting ways with Cyprien. I was wrong about us using him to his strengths because he doesn't have any strengths, and even if he was the run-stopper PFF said he was, he was never worthy of that contract. We get out of that and add another well balanced safety to play alongside Byard. Byard is the only safety we had on the roster who could cover TEs or play center-field. This helps us out tremedously by allowing us to finally do both. I was initally against adding Jerrick McKinnon because I thought all he could do was catch the ball out of the backfield, but after watching some more of him from this season, I no longer think that. McKinnon is one of the fastest running backs in the NFL and will help with our screen game and overall add speed to the offense. He is also incredibly strong, benching twice his body weight and squatting three times that amount. Very athletically gifted. 4.41 forty, 32 bench reps, 40.5 inch vert, etc. Top performer in every category. I think he brings a lot of what we need and Murray couldn't give us as he gets older and slower. Christian Jones is a stop-gap ILB for us. He's not going to be great, but he's more athletic than Williamson and has experience playing ILB and OLB and could provide a little pash rush as well. I'm probably one of the few in favor of returning Avery Williamson to play his specific role, a run-stuffer, but someone is going to overpay him above what his role is worth. In the draft, we immediately seek to get younger with our edge rushers. Landry has a great get-off and is really good and bending and dipping around the edge. He needs to improve his run defense a lot and he needs to get stronger, but he should be able to play both OLB positions. Orakpo and Morgan are in the final year of their contracts and I don't believe both will be brought back. Braden Smith is an athletic RG who looks like he could play LT. He's got the strength to move people in the run game and is one of the better pass protectors. If he weighs less than he's listed he'll be on the light side and need to add some weight, but I think he's an immediate and long time starter. Kyzir White is a guy that I really like. This isn't a need with us adding Burnett, so we could look elsewhere, but playing 3 safeties is common and White would look really good as our #3 and box safety for the next two years while he learns from Burnett. He hasn't had much experience playing deep zone, but he won't be asked to early on, and he really excelled covering TEs one-on-one at the Senior Bowl practices. Overall, I think I hit everything that I wanted to, besides adding a better backup QB, while still leaving adequate cap room and not going All-Madden by adding too many big names. I would be extremely happy if it turned out this way. I also would like to add another WR, as this is also the last year of Matthews contract and I'm not sure how he fits in the new offense, but we can do that next year and go with Davis - Matthews - Taylor - Sharpe as our top 4. ILB could hurt if Woodyard falls a lot from last year, but he could dip a little bit and we would still be okay for another year, and try to find that 3 down leader early next year. Whatcha think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Hope- Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 i’d be quite happy with this. my two gripes (and they are relatively minor): 1. i’m not super high on mckinnon. the measurables are there, but the production isn’t. i’d rather draft an akrum wadley or mark walton in the mid rounds. 2. conversely, i think there are quality backup QBs we could look at without spending a draft pick on one. geno smith comes to mind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanSS Posted February 2, 2018 Author Share Posted February 2, 2018 I don't consider Geno Smith a quality backup. He's terrible. Lol. I know Cassell isnt great but I think he's better than Geno. McKinnon's production is never going to be great, especially with Minnesota and their power running. He's not going to carry the load, but be our compliment to the lead back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanRedd Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 15 minutes ago, TitanSS said: I don't consider Geno Smith a quality backup. He's terrible. Lol. I know Cassell isnt great but I think he's better than Geno. McKinnon's production is never going to be great, especially with Minnesota and their power running. He's not going to carry the load, but be our compliment to the lead back. Geno not terrible as backup only as a starter, hide him behind a string running game Mix in play action & short the field with quick reads he’s okay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanLegend Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 Would be shocked if all Lewan gets is 13.2 per. Russell Okung got that last year, and Lewan is 10x the player he is. Unless he pulls a Whitworth and gives a discount(and that's highly unlikely given it's his first big contract), we'll likely see him become the highest paid LT in football per year. Probably closer to if not over 14 per. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanSS Posted February 2, 2018 Author Share Posted February 2, 2018 Possibly. I thought he might settle for the third highest paid as a home team discount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragevsuall17 Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 APY and cap costs vary greatly... So even if Lewan signs a contract that averages 15M, his cap year next year will likely be minimal... As low as say 6-7M. Also ERFA tender amounts aren't out yet, but it wont be anywhere near 1.8M. Not sure if King is an ERFA or a regular RFA, but if its the former, were looking more at something under 750k. As far as the moves, I can't see us cutting both Cyp and Searcy. Cyp is a JRob guy, so I see him sticking around at least one more year. (And yes, I'm still convinced he's a gelreat candidate to move to ILB... Was excited about Bettcher, and that was one of the many reasons). Love the trade for Apple and the McKinnon signing. Can't say I hate any of this... Although I hope we do better with the backup QB. Its time to bring Kaep... I also like the thought of Daniels or Teddy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingTitan Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 I can't see Lewan with a deal worth "only" $66 million. For some reason that seems low. Could be totally wrong. I don't think Cyp gets cut. I think he played better than most people give him credit for and he is a good player in the run game. If Pees can use Pollard, I can see him using Cyp. Is Eli worth the trade? I know he played well his rookie year, but he didn't look all that great this year did he? I haven't dived too much into the draft yet, with all the coaching news. But I've seen Landry from Boston College a little and I'd take his speed off the edge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanSS Posted February 2, 2018 Author Share Posted February 2, 2018 Apple had on the field and off the field issues last year that many attribute to his mother and step father divorcing. From what I watched on Apple in college, I wouldn't hesitate to bring him in. I think it's unlikely we cut Cyprien as well, but there is just no part of his game worth that contract. He's not even a good tackler, he takes horrendous angles. I tried to defend Robinson for that signing, but damn, I was wrong. Absolutely atrocious. Makes us so limited with our safeties. And rage you're right I used last years RFA tender, I didn't find and ERFA in a quick search. Both tender figures were from last year. I know APY and cap costs are very different, but I don't know enough about it to speculate how they would load the contracts. I wanted to bring in another QB also, Bridgewater would be great, but I think he'll be paid to start somewhere. Everyone else I'm seeing looks more like change for the sake of change. No improvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Hope- Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 2 hours ago, TitanSS said: I don't consider Geno Smith a quality backup. He's terrible. Lol. I know Cassell isnt great but I think he's better than Geno. McKinnon's production is never going to be great, especially with Minnesota and their power running. He's not going to carry the load, but be our compliment to the lead back. there is no conceivable way i would take 2018 (or really even 2018) matt cassel over geno smith. not a chance also it's not mckinnon's bulk production scares me, it's that he's had one season where he averaged over 4 ypc. that's bad any way you spin it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titans0021 Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 49 minutes ago, -Hope- said: also it's not mckinnon's bulk production scares me, it's that he's had one season where he averaged over 4 ypc. that's bad any way you spin it. I'd take him as a pure third-down back. Believe I've read good things about his pass blocking and he has 94 catches over the last two years while only playing 47% of the team's snaps. I don't love him as a pure runner, but he complements Henry's game pretty well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttitansfan4life Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 It’s a pretty solid mock. Love the Apple trade and I had the same thought once we hired Coombs. Maybe his old position coach can get him back on track. Don’t know if the Giants are willing to give up on him yet especially with a whole new coaching staff and GM in place. Kurt Benkert to me is going to be a solid pro. Maybe not a starter but I see him being one of better backups in the league. Was very good at Virginia this past year. Love the Landry and he’d be great in this defense. Braden Smith is a solid prospect especially for a zone scheme. Really like the McKinnon signing. I was mentioning him when others wanted Lewis. I think he can compliment Henry extremely well. Like others have said, I don’t see them getting rid of Cyprien already. It was a mistake of signing but I think we fans have to live with it at least another year. I’m just hoping we can find another safety who take some snaps from him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanSlim Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 I love the trade for Eli Apple. I feel he'd be the perfect reclamation project for us. @TitanSS hit it on the head. Obviously, we have his former college coach Kerry Coombs, who it sounds like he has tremendous respect for. We also have Logan Ryan, a veteran and mentor for Apple. We also have veteran filled locker room(specially defensively with the previously mentioned Ryan, Orakpo, Morgan, Casey, ect.) for him. Getting away from the large market of NY and going to the quiet, smaller market of Nashville, I feel will really help Apple. Plus he's very young (only a month older than Adoree at 22), so he's still the age of some of the draft prospects in this upcoming draft. With the pieces we have to support him, I'd take my chance on Apple, with the hope that he get his career together here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttitansfan4life Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 Yep the Apple trade makes too much sense too happen lmao. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanRedd Posted February 2, 2018 Share Posted February 2, 2018 Apple staying in NY, front office already said he gets a clean slate also Landon Collins reached out to him to be his mentor & apologized for his comments. The owner said you don’t give up on 1st round picks so fast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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