Defense, defense, defense

[Boltx]

Everybody is going to talk about Denver's prolific offense this year and all the yards they put up today especially, but their defense really rose above their usual norms. They smothered us for most of last week and did the same to the Patriots today. Don't get me wrong, nobody is going to confuse them for the 2000 Ravens but they played better when it counted. Our inability to stop the run has been the reason we've been bounced out of the playoffs the last several times. Stopping the run and being able to run has never been a bad recipe for success in January.

Really fucking hope the trenches will be a prime focus of this new administration. This next offseason will be the most telling as I think we'll get to see TT's true direction since the first year was more of a "do the best with what you have" approach IMO. I want nothing more than a big, nasty, get-after-the-QB-with-bad-intentions front 7 and a stout OL to let Rivers do his thing. Fuck Denver, fuck New England, Pitt, Cincy and the rest of them. No reason we can't be there at the end next year. PS somebody please light a fire under Liuget and Reyes' collective asses, disappointment of the year.

[Bolt-O]

A run stopping DT or NT will go a long way to help.

[Boltx]

Agreed, as well as another bona fide pass rusher.

But honestly if Reyes and Liuget continue to be lackluster it's going to hurt us badly.

[Bearded14YourPleasure]

Liuget showed enough that I think all he really needs is someone who can draw double teams next to him. He was the only DL that consistently was making plays week after week. Reyes was probably the biggest disappointment of the year and definitely has something to prove next year.

I think improvement on defense, especially in the front 7, along with a RB to pair with Mathews will propel this team into the upper echelon of the AFC. Same formula as Seattle and San Fran.

[Fleet]

I prefer we upgrade NT and CB through free agency. If you dig deep into this draft you will notice that close to 70% of the underclassmen are offensive players. On top of an already lopsided Senior class this is the most loaded draft offensively ive seen in years. OL/RB/WR/TE are extremely deep and its not like we dont need those positions drafted. Maybe not TE.

One can say that the reason we lost to the broncos was not because of the D but because we went into that game without our most important weapon. Our running game. I think its imperative that we fortify our Running game with another stud RB and at least 2 OL to make sure we are deep. Id like to resign Clary for a discount and hope that a rookie OG beats him in camp. Draft an OT that can eventually take over for King or even move inside. Guys like Yankey and Martin would be smart picks in the back of the 1st due to their versatility.

Build the D with free agents and make this offense even more deadly with OL and Playmakers. If the best available player is a defensive player than you take him thats fine. But chances are in this draft there will be teams reaching for D due to needs and offensive studs will be the BPA.

[Yubaking]

I prefer we upgrade NT and CB through free agency. If you dig deep into this draft you will notice that close to 70% of the underclassmen are offensive players. On top of an already lopsided Senior class this is the most loaded draft offensively ive seen in years. OL/RB/WR/TE are extremely deep and its not like we dont need those positions drafted. Maybe not TE.

One can say that the reason we lost to the broncos was not because of the D but because we went into that game without our most important weapon. Our running game. I think its imperative that we fortify our Running game with another stud RB and at least 2 OL to make sure we are deep. Id like to resign Clary for a discount and hope that a rookie OG beats him in camp. Draft an OT that can eventually take over for King or even move inside. Guys like Yankey and Martin would be smart picks in the back of the 1st due to their versatility.

Build the D with free agents and make this offense even more deadly with OL and Playmakers. If the best available player is a defensive player than you take him thats fine. But chances are in this draft there will be teams reaching for D due to needs and offensive studs will be the BPA.

I largely agree with your assessment about positions of need. I would add OLB and drop TE, assuming Phillips is back.

After looking at the CBS's ranking of the top 100, I am having difficulty seeing how this draft is comprised of a disproportionate number of offensive players. In the higher portion of the first 100, the offense did have a slightly higher number, but by the time I reached 100, there were actually more defensive prospects by a score of 53-47. The numbers were fairly close all the way throughout the top 100.

I wish we could do more in free agency, but what I am seeing is that absent some major roster cuts, we are not going to have the money to do anything major in free agency. According to the spotrac website, we are 500K over the cap right now. I think it will take $9-10M to bring back Butler, Alexander, Rinehart, Stuckey, Ohrnberger, Ajirotutu, Marshall and Walker. We would be letting English, Whitehurst, Thomas, R. Brown, Bird, Hawkins and Schilling walk.

Then, I figure it will take about $6M to sign the rookies we draft. That's $15-16M. The only two NTs worth while to sign should carry a cap figure in the $8M range, plus or minus depending on how the contract is structured. Soliai's base salary was somewhere around $5.5M last year, so with a signing bonus, you can see how we get to somewhere approaching that $8M figure. So now we are around $23-24M and we still need to sign some other players. Leaving about $5M for those other players, we are now at $28-29M.

The easier cuts: Clary, Royal, Cox, McClain, Mouton, C. Butler, W. Smith and B. Jerideau, only get us about $15+M, which means that they would pay for us to re-sign our valued FAs and our drafted rookies, but would give us no money at all for new FAs.

So that would take us to the more difficult potential salary cap casualties: Freeney (+$3.5M), Johnson (+$2.5M), Hardwick (+$3.9M), Scifres (+1.865M) and Patrick (+700K). I left out Harris and Geathers, which would give us another million or so. If Floyd cannot return them we would pick up at least another $2.75M (I am not sure if any of his bonus money can be saved on top of that). If we make some cuts late, we can spread some of the money into 2015 and pick up some more money.

Based upon the above, it does not look like we will be doing all that much in free agency, especially with Telesco talking about bringing English back and Freeney believing he is going to be retained. I hope my numbers are wrong, but that is what it is looking like based upon the spotrac website's numbers.

After next year, the Gaither and Meachem money is off the books, which will give us another $7.75M with which to work.

Since I wanted us to draft Nix anyway (even with us possibly signing a FA NT), I especially want us to get Nix if we do not sign a FA NT.

I understand your point about versatility, but disagree with your application of it in this context. Specifically, I do not want us to draft a player that is going to be a guard when we can draft a legitimate NFL OT. In the NFL, Yankee is an OG and Martin likely is as well. I think it is always better to train a legitimate OT to play OG than to force a guy who should really be an OG in the NFL to play OT. In reading about Martin, there is a concern that he lacks the size, speed and technique to play OT in the NFL.

I would rather get a guy like Antonio Richardson or Cyril Richardson if we go OL early. C. Richardson is a road grader. With Mathews favoring runs to the left, we could plug him in at LOG and we would be very strong in our rushing attack on that side.

That said, I am not sure that any of the OL players named by either of us represent great value at #25 in terms of BPA.

#25 is a frustrating place to be because Nix and Dennard are likely to be gone and there will not likely be a dominant LB there, so the draft slot may not fit our needs very well. I think Gilbert has great ball skills, but is inconsistent in coverage, so I am not jumping up and down at the thought of us taking him. The guy that intrigues me more is Kelvin Benjamin. I think he would solidify the #2 WR position very nicely to the point at which we could walk away from the injury risk presented by Alexander if we were so inclined. But even Benjamin, although he looks like a great fit for our team, may not represent great value at #25.

Another player I like is Attaochu at OLB in round 2-3. His ranking is all over the place--I have literally seem everything from the low 30s overall to around #110. The guy was 6th in the nation in sacks and he played against NFL type competition in the SEC.

Later in the draft, I like the idea of us taking a bigger RB that can still run the ball. The guy I like is James Wilder, Jr. because nobody is saying anything about him as he was underutilized and injured at Florida State. He is rated in the 5th round range currently. There is some injury concern, but the guy is supposed to run in the 4.5s (at 6'1" and 229 pounds), has good balance and fights well for extra yardage. A guy like Wilder can split carries with Mathews and Woodhead without us losing anything in the running game. I do not want us to take Hyde early.

A possible round 3-4 player at CB that looks pretty good is E.J. Gaines if we do not go CB earlier with a player like Fuller in round 2-3. Gaines is supposed to run a 4.44 40 and every time I have seen him play, he seems to come up with at least one big play, although I have seen him get beat as well.

It seems like there are so many good draft possibilities this year that there are many different ways that Telesco could go without raising any eyebrows when compared to last year.

[Panamamike]

We will have to see what happens, but a very good all around OLB like Van Noy would not make me upset at 25.

[Steve]

I hope we aren't active in FA. Haven't we gone through enough of those kinds of mistakes in the teams history to see how big a mistake it is? And cutting guys that fill a very definite role to add other players, especailly since we don't have replacments for many of them seems just stupid.

[Beerman]

I hope we aren't active in FA. Haven't we gone through enough of those kinds of mistakes in the teams history to see how big a mistake it is? And cutting guys that fill a very definite role to add other players, especailly since we don't have replacments for many of them seems just stupid.

This is where I'm at this offseason. The only market we should be active in is in the 1-2 year contract range. Keep bringing in productive players that can play, but are affordable, preferably coming off their rookie contract that has room for improvement.

It seemed last season that it was either huge contracts or very small affordable ones. We need to maintain our versatility in the salary cap going into next offseason IMO. My fear is that we sign a few players to backloaded contracts that will put us in the same shitty situation.

[Fleet]

I believe TT wanted to sign a CB in free agency to a long term contract. Cox just isnt as good as advertised and i think TT will go back to the well to fix the signing. By signing another starting caliber CB. Cox was signed to be our #1 CB i believe. Thats 1 of the few FA signings i suggest we make. The other is for a starting caliber NT. Just someone who can play the part and not get pushed back every play. Theres just not enough NTs available in the draft to think we can get a starter there. Thomas isnt the answer. NT is in need of upgrading this off-season. We can draft a project but i want to go into 2015 comfortable at the position.

As far as Yankey and Martin go i think they can play RT in a pinch and hold there own. Despite the short arms these are 2 guys i think have the versatlity to do both. Primary being OG but can play OT if needed. If one of the front line OTs is there than id do that also. I wouldnt be sold on their OG potential though. Richardson looked like shit in Mondays practice for what thats worth.

[Beerman]

There will be a ton of FA CB on the market this offseason since so many of them were only getting 1 year deals last season.

It's going to be interesting to see how the market shakes out this offseason. I still hope we go with short term low cost options that have some upside.

[Fleet]

I dont mind giving a stud CB a long term contract if the price is right. Its a tough position to get right and premium players are rare there. Even a guy like Peanut Tillman would help us. Despite his age.

I wanted Sean Smith last year. And at 5.5 mil per he would have been a better addition at CB over Cox imo. He had a pretty solid year.