Occasional lurker, first time poster, still don’t get that damn yearly NFL calendar. I don’t pay as much attention to professional football as I had in the past but here’s my two cents.
Dowdle - (A-) back to back 1000 yard seasons, not crazy money, good on the Turk. That being said, you have three north-south type backs. Warren can get to the edge but those two are pretty similar in my opinion. (As much as I would’ve loved Walker, you’d have had to been at twenty million to have a punchers chance at prying him away from KC. They are always in it with Mahomes and Reid.)
Pittman: (B) I like the signing, sure handed dude (in a wide receiver room that lacks sure handed dudes,) runs a decent tree, and supposedly, a model teammate. If my memory serves, he can line up outside or as a big slot type which is nice. (What this means for Skroneck? I don’t know. We’ve got a lot of options in that department between TEs, Heyward the second, Wilson and Pittman.) I ball-parked Pittman somewhere between fifteen and twenty-two million (APY.) Twenty and over was a bit of a stretch, would be happier at around seventeen and a half. That being said, it’s an admirable effort, a little on the high side. We’ll see how the cards play out.
Dean: (B-) Occasionally watched him at Auburn and Tampa Bay, I’m meh on this one. At this point, I don’t have enough knowledge. Signing starting caliber free agent DBs is similar to Russian Roulette. You just don’t want to get the bullet.
Savage: (C+) Patch-work move, trying to hodge-podge your way to something serviceable, veteran experience. I really can’t comment any further. I lost track of him after he left the packers.
Samuel Jr: (B-) worthy tire kick, decent depth, I don’t know where he fits. Maybe, there’s some upside after the neck injury. He’s fairly young.
Cameron Johnston: (C+) why the hell not? Let’s have a punt off.
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Call this the revisionist GM section. Hear me out, I think Omar missed a lay-up. There was a golden opportunity and it’s no longer there. You know the old saying, accountants don’t have imaginations. In my experience, it’s pretty accurate, here we go. This is something I was looking at shortly after the end of the season.
Honestly, it’s rebuild time. We need to stop lying to ourselves. Let’s assume that the base defense is a 3-4, hybrid 3-4, bastardized 3-4, whatever. Since the end of the season, I’ve been advocating for a solution in the middle of that d-line. I knew this guy was probably on the block. We’re not certain what Black brings as a long term solution at the nose. Enter T-Sweat, alias Big Sweat, he is a mountain of a man, think three airplane seats or two business class seats. His conditioning needs work. Get him to around 330-340 and allow for some in-depth analysis. Get position coaches to devote some time to his technique in the off-season. This is a full blown Big Snack type operation. Think, put padlocks on the cabinets at around 6:30. He has all the physical tools to get it done. Yes, rostering two NTs is uncommon but this could’ve built depth at basement bargain pricing. The upside was there.
Tenn: Tevondre Sweat
Pitt: 85th Pick & R. Wilson
With the pick, Saleh could’ve used that capital to acquire his first love, Jermaine Johnson. Johnson hadn’t lived up to his potential in NY. Also, he shouldn’t be confused with famed mountain man and Robert Redford character, Jeremiah Johnson. Well, what about Benton? Here’s where it gets interesting, dedicate significant offseason time to moving Benton to DT. Put Heyward on the block. Tampa Bay, if not some other contender who is in need? Let’s use Tampa as a hypothetical example. How about a pick swap, Heyward and a 3rd for their second? Hmm, that’s interesting. What are Jason Lichte’s thoughts on Calijah Kancey? He’s coming off a torn pec. It would’ve been a long shot, but, worth exploring. Now you have a reinforced, young d-line with some real rotational pieces or two seconds. You’ve minimized your cap hit. Even if you had to restructure, take on some dead money to make it work, this would’ve allowed for a more flexible tampering, free agency period and draft. If part one was possible, this would be the hypothetical part two trade…
PITT: 99th pick & Ca. Heyward
TB: ~47th pick
Or
PITT: Heyward, K. Johnson & 99th Pick
TB: Calijah Kancy & 77th Pick
(I would’ve loved this one.)
(Pre-Gainwell signing or post Gainwell, not sure it would matter.)
