My Mock Offseason

jlowe

im not going to lie, that olshensky guy is pretty beast.

@shepwrite said:
When Belicheck went to New England, he did exactly that... and brought in something crazy like 17 free agents to completely remold that team. I look for a LOT of action in the offseason.

If that's the case, then we likely won't be able to afford Jason Brown, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, or - as it looks right now - Chris Canty:

Cowboys beat writer Mac Engle believes free agent DE Chris Canty is "apt to land a bigger deal" outside of Dallas.
Canty's agent is said to be angling for a deal similar to the seven-year, $50.5 million contract signed by Raiders defensive Tommy Kelly last season. Canty wants to return, but his chances aren't looking good at that price tag.

Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram

YtownBrownsBacker

@shepwrite said:
Love the Olshansky pickup, love the draft picks... but Iglesias and Jennings will both go in round 2, I bet.
We'll lose Lewis and McGinest along with the others you mentioned... and probably Stallworth, too. The Browns will NOT pay the big bonuses due to Lewis or Stallworth, but one or the other could restructure. Because nobody is gonna jump on Lewis, he might be willing to do a simple one year deal with the Browns for 3 mill.

The Browns will do a lot of cutting and restructuring to clear cap space, enough to get to 25 mill or more, and they'll look to acquire picks along the way. I could see getting a 2nd or 3rd for Anderson AND trading down from 5 to add another 2nd rounder. I'm betting when the dust clears the Browns have 4 picks by fairly early in round 3.

When Belicheck went to New England, he did exactly that... and brought in something crazy like 17 free agents to completely remold that team. I look for a LOT of action in the offseason.

Problem is that there are a lot of guaranteed contracts and cutting them would add to the cap not create space. Stallworth was guaranteed over $9 million and has about $6+ million left on that guarantee. His contract is worse then DAs as far as cap hit.

D'Qwimbley

@d-qwimbley said:
SS Sean Jones UFA -Transition Tag

In a way, I think the transition tag could be the worst of both worlds for us. Yes, it's about $1M cheaper than the franchise tag, but it only gives us the right to match an offer. So if the demand for Jones is pretty high, he ends up signing a lucrative offer elsewhere that we're unwilling to match. And if the market is low, Jones plays under the tag and we pay him more than $5M.

Personally, I'd be inclined to either franchise him or offer him a modest long-term deal. In the end, I'd probably let him leave via free agency & draft a safety sometime after Round 1.

YtownBrownsBacker

Aloysius said:
In a way, I think the transition tag could be the worst of both worlds for us. Yes, it's about $1M cheaper than the franchise tag, but it only gives us the right to match an offer. So if the demand for Jones is pretty high, he ends up signing a lucrative offer elsewhere that we're unwilling to match. And if the market is low, Jones plays under the tag and we pay him more than $5M.
Personally, I'd be inclined to either franchise him or offer him a modest long-term deal. In the end, I'd probably let him leave via free agency & draft a safety sometime after Round 1.

Do you think Jones is worth what we would have to pay him if we tag him?

That depends on whether you think he could be the good to great safety he's shown flashes of being (between long periods of suckage, of course).

I'd be inclined to say no, but I think the argument for the franchise is stronger than the transition tag, especially if you think he needs to prove himself before getting a long-term deal.

JewDago

with our limited picks and numerous holes, it's a good idea to keep players that are neither great nor terrible around for the coming year, average players, which jones essentially is.

also, taylor mays won't be able to return to USC after next season, and he'd fill jones' spot very well.

Yeah, the safety class could be wicked strong next year. In addition to Taylor Mays, Tennessee's Eric Berry and Georgia Tech's Morgan Burnett could end up declaring.

Berry looks to be the #1 guy, and Burnett could easily beat Mays for the #2 spot.

JewDago

with replacing our safeties in mind because jones is mercurial and pool, to me, is a massive disappointment, it'd be a good idea to look at louis delmas from western michigan in this year's draft. he could easily take over pool's spot and has, based on what i saw in senior bowl practice, what i think are better coverage skills than brodney, who's on the level of everyone's favorite terry cousin when it comes to man to man coverage.

rashad johnson could be another option. his biggest drawback is that he's got no standout physical skill, but he's often in the right place at the right time, which is exactly what a free safety should be.

YtownBrownsBacker

@jewdago said:
with our limited picks and numerous holes, it's a good idea to keep players that are neither great nor terrible around for the coming year, average players, which jones essentially is.
also, taylor mays won't be able to return to USC after next season, and he'd fill jones' spot very well.

"Neither good or terrible, but average" and you want to pay him how much to be average. So this average Safety will get tagged and get Ed Reed kind of money because we are short of draft picks?

I believe there are a lot of players in FA that are as good as Jones (when he is healthy) that would cost about 1/3 as much and you would have them for more then one year. Especially a year when you have a cap problem.

Please let Jones walk instead of giving him over $4 million.

JewDago

oj atogwe is definitely better than jones, but we have to convince him to come here and likely overpay for him for multiple years while we only have to overpay jones for a single year if we franchise him.

and, yes, tagging jones is a temporary solution in the event we don't overpay to sign atogwe or jermaine phillips, who are really the only guys available who are better than him, though atogwe is more of a free safety than a strong safety.

safety is also one of the cheaper positions to tag. when there's not really a better solution to be had, sometimes you have to solve a problem with a less than stellar solution.

YtownBrownsBacker

Dewan Landry is a RFA, but the Ravens are hurting as bad as us with their cap and have 3 LBs and their center to worry about also. They may be able to make an offer that Balt can't match because have to worry about signingSuggs, Lewis and Scott.

The problem with tagging Jones is that the whole amount is guaranteed and all counts against the cap. Then for sure they would have to release or trade some guys to free up some money. Maybe they could rework some contracts.

Would you be willing to give up a 2nd Round pick for Landry? Because that's the absolute lowest level I can see Baltimore tendering him at.

JewDago

the advantage of a team having a RFA is that they can tender him a contract at different levels, the highest of which is still below 3 mil. landry will likely be tendered a contract that will keep him with the ravens unless the matching team is willing to give them a second round pick, which will cost them 1.54 mil or 110% of the player's prior salary, whichever is greater. even if they tender him a higher offer so that they'd receive a first instead of a second, they can keep him around for at least another year for very little money, 2.19 mil.

i'll go on the record as preferring atogwe, but i won't be too surprised when we resign/franchise jones. yes, we'll be overpaying him, but there aren't better options out there. we don't have many options.

and, with our draft needs, there's no way we should possibly give up our second for landry. there's no way he's good enough to merit a second round pick.