Free Agents we should be looking at

[Rymanofthenorth]

Yeah its early and some of these guys will get resigned, some will get franchised but some wont.

Guard - Andy Levitre Bills, a smallish guard at 6-2 306 but excellent pass protector and agile in space guy, would be a massive upgrade over either guard we have currently, managed to fill in at LT so the guy can ball.

Tackle- if we go with a RT, Andre Smith Bengals, he is a bit risky as he gets fat, but he has improved his play and is far better than what we have, an incentive laden contract would be the way to go, still a huge upgrade over polumbus. the Bengals may let him go as his cap number will be high, but as long as he doesnt expect it to stay as high as it is now, he would be good value.

If we get a DC who wants to run a 4-3, DT Henry Melton, but i would be careful free agent DTs rarely pan out but getting a solid 3 tech who can rush the qb would give us a solid front 4.

LT Ryan Clady- if we can get him at a decent price he would be a solid signing as we could move TW to RT thus upgrading two spots. he has experience in this system.

OLB- Connor Barwin- all around OLB who can rush the qb would be solid in a rotation for us.

OLB anthony spencer- makes us better and weakens the cowpies but was franchised and will want big money.

TE Jared cook, a great receiving TE who can block a little. doesnt like the Titans offence.

S - Jairus Byrd, a playmaker who can cover, would give us a legit safety.

CB- brent grimes, before his injury, would have been too pricey but we can take the risk on him because we know we arent winning the superbowl next year, so sign him stash him and rehab the hell out of him and in 2 years you get essentially a redshirt freshman lol if he gets better if not, you lose no draft pick and little against the cap.

Jake Long LT- this would be my primary target, fire up redskins one and open the wallet, we would get an elite LT and be able to move TW to RT where I believe he would become an elite RT as thats what he was best at in college. it would give us an instant massive upgrade on the Oline and give us a guy we can trust to watch Rg3's back for more than long enough for a run at the superbowl. Franchise LT's almost never hit free agency, there is a reason for that, but a combination of new scheme in Miami with a new staff and this is a real possibility. it would also show RG3 that we are serious about protecting him.

unfortunately there are no serious standouts in the cfl who would be almost surefire contributors like Cam Wake and Phillip Hunt were, so I hesitate to name any of them here, I imagine there will be some more guys cut between now and the offseason as well.

 

[SilentThreat]

CB- brent grimes, before his injury, would have been too pricey but we can take the risk on him because we know we arent winning the superbowl next year, so sign him stash him and rehab the hell out of him and in 2 years you get essentially a redshirt freshman lol if he gets better if not, you lose no draft pick and little against the cap.

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I liked most of them but... are you serious? You scream about how Jamaal Brown was wasted, and you wanna bring in a guy for the sole purpose of rehabbing. Come on dude. We gotta get away from this. I know he's young, and if he doesn't get better, 'oh well' but you know what he would do? He'd take training staff away from the other guys. He also occupies a roster spot, unless you just plan on letting him sit on IR... and if that's the case, what's the point of bringing him in.

We need to stop taking these chances on injured/aged players. The theory of "You never know" aint something we can afford right now... how about we get starters in here before we start spending time/money on projects.

 

[DieselPwr44]

We have no money to spend.

Nice list and thought though.

 

[Dead Money]

Free Agents we should be looking at avoiding because they would be some of the same mistakes we've been making.

There, I fixed it for you.


Andre Smith... I LOL'd

 

[Elephant]

He's not a problem Mike, but Jake Long is probably the best in the game. If we could get him and put a much improved TW in his, seeming, natural position our offensive line is improved dramatically with just one player.

While I think the single most important position for us could be CB, no other single signing could improve our team as much as Jake Long at LT. Like I said, he improves our entire offensive line.

With a great CB, which it is questionable if there is one in FA this year, he does improve the defense, but nothing like Jake Long could do for this team. He is a true elite LT in this league...Jim Lachey like elite. He and TW could bookend this line better than Samuels and Jansen did for many years.

 

[Rymanofthenorth]

first off, I think we should be challenging the cap penalty, if we do not it is basically snyders fault for being an idiot.

second off, im not saying throw a huge amount at Grimes, our mistake hasnt been taking chances, our mistake has been throwing huge amounts at those risks, if we can get him on the cheap, you do it, not depending on him for right now, but in the hope that he comes back in 2 years.

third , we should actually not be hurting too badly, I believe, that the entire cap penalty thing should be easily challenged and beaten. it was obvious collusion and just because the cowpies took it, doesnt mean we should, they screwed us for one year, if they attempt to screw us again we should be willing to say " screw you commish and mara, and rooney, we arent willing to take it for 2 seasons" even if it doesnt, we have several people who can be restructured

 

[Neophyte]

We did challenge the cap penalty.

We lost.

Just because none of us agree that we should have lost doesn't change that we lost and have apparently accepted it. I'm not saying this can't change too but I am not planning on it changing and I would recommend all of you do the same. That way no one is disappointed if it doesn't change and we get Christmas in March if it does.

 

[Rymanofthenorth]

We did challenge the cap penalty.

We lost.

Just because none of us agree that we should have lost doesn't change that we lost and have apparently accepted it. I'm not saying this can't change too but I am not planning on it changing and I would recommend all of you do the same. That way no one is disappointed if it doesn't change and we get Christmas in March if it does.

I dont think we pursued every legal avenue, because there is no way that any unbiased judge would say that what we were penalised was not collusion, you simply cannot make the case that in a year with no salary cap, we broke the rules when there were no rules.

I agree mike hope for the best prepare for the worst but BE PREPARED.

There is a good chance Long goes on the market because his skills dont fit what the Fins want to be honest with only a second round pick available to us, I would be calling the fins in the offseason, offer them a second and a conditional pick for long and get him resigned, then you dont even let him hit free agency, but that would require being proactive lol

 

[Rymanofthenorth]

and El and I have been proponents of moving TW to RT since his rookie year, he looked DOMINANT at RY in college and solid at LT, he is not the biggest problem on the Oline, he is our best player in fact, however, when you get an opportunity to sign a franchise player at LT you do it, especially when you just spent the world on a qb.

 

[Rymanofthenorth]

I liked most of them but... are you serious? You scream about how Jamaal Brown was wasted, and you wanna bring in a guy for the sole purpose of rehabbing. Come on dude. We gotta get away from this. I know he's young, and if he doesn't get better, 'oh well' but you know what he would do? He'd take training staff away from the other guys. He also occupies a roster spot, unless you just plan on letting him sit on IR... and if that's the case, what's the point of bringing him in.

We need to stop taking these chances on injured/aged players. The theory of "You never know" aint something we can afford right now... how about we get starters in here before we start spending time/money on projects.

I am absolutely serious, and let me explain why.
1- we know next year we will be better but we wont be superbowl contenders, so we arent signing him to a hug contract and expecting him to save the defence, we would hopefully get him on the cheap and anything he does next season would be a bonus, we would be signing him expecting him to contribute the season after. that would have to be the conditions and the mindset.

2- we traded valuable resources for brown, we depended on him to start right away. with Grimes we would be spending far less as in no traded picks and hopefully get him for cheap. on a team with so many holes, and so few resources to fill those holes, he would be a solid signing with an eye towards the second year.

I agree risking large contracts on old and injured guys is stupid, Grimes is young and if we could get him on the cheap, would be great.

this team has GOT to start thinking outside the box to fill holes , we dont have enough picks and we have little cap room without being creative.

 

[Fear The Spear]

Yeah its early and some of these guys will get resigned, some will get franchised but some wont.


S - Jairus Byrd, a playmaker who can cover, would give us a legit safety.

CB- brent grimes, before his injury, would have been too pricey but we can take the risk on him because we know we arent winning the superbowl next year, so sign him stash him and rehab the hell out of him and in 2 years you get essentially a redshirt freshman lol if he gets better if not, you lose no draft pick and little against the cap.

right off the bat, I notice a glaring problem with your assessment - you only mentioned 1 safety and 1 CB replacement, when we actually need 17 safeties, and 21 CB's

 

[Elephant]

and El and I have been proponents of moving TW to RT since his rookie year, he looked DOMINANT at RY in college and solid at LT, he is not the biggest problem on the Oline, he is our best player in fact, however, when you get an opportunity to sign a franchise player at LT you do it, especially when you just spent the world on a qb.

We have been clamoring for an offensive line since it was obvious that Jansen and Randy Thomas were long in the tooth. We kept Jansen 2 seasons too long and replaced Thomas with...who? Joe Gibbs had a very solid OL while he was here, but we never addressed it when it was obvious they were aging. Instead, Cerrato spends 3 2nd round picks in 2008, when it was more than obvious we needed OL help (after a great trade), on receivers that will all be gone after 4 season. We could have had the starting LT for Houston over the last 4 years, Duane Brown! Yeah, we had Samuels, but we didn't have a RT!

And it looks like it was a mistake to think Shanahan was the O-Line guru everyone thinks he is. He got a handful right over his long career in Denver, but his line was set when he got there. Yeah, he got it right with Clady and Kuper, but overall it looks like Alex Gibbs had more influence than is given credit.

Here? He has only brought us one really good OL and one adequate. I think Montgomery is more than serviceable, provided he had a very good guard on either side of him. Trent is coming into his own, but is not a dominant LT.

If we could pry Long out of Miami, move TW over to RT, our OL becomes one of the better in our division. Even bringing in Clady, which is more possible, would improve the OL dramatically. If we had solid bookends at the T position, with an adequate center, we could disguise the weakness at the guard position. Who knows? Maybe next year a light will have flipped with either Gettis or LeRiebus.

 

[Bulldog]

I missed the part where Trent Williams was doing poorly enough we had to look at LT.

I recall that many have commented that Williams has played quite well in 2012.

And let's forget about getting name free agents on 'incentive deals'.

That's not going to happen.

Brandon Meriweather was cut by the Patriots, failed in Chicago and became a free agent.

The Redskins still ended up giving him almost $3M guaranteed.

If that was not a case of a guy who SHOULD have been on a one year, make good contract it was Meriweather, for his on and off the field issues.

 

[Elephant]

I missed the part where Trent Williams was doing poorly enough we had to look at LT.

Well, since he has excelled at the RT position and only been at best a little above average at LT here in DC, if you have a chance at the best LT in the game...you take it! Then we have a great LT and potentially a great RT to bookend a terrible OL as it stands now.

 

[Rymanofthenorth]

its all about resources, and if you can upgrade two positions with ONE player, you do it. if we were running a 4-3, and could add a great OLB, and move Rak to DE it would be the same thing, 2 upgrades for one player.

 

[Yusuf06]

Actually I think more than FA players we should be looking for replacements for some of our coaching staff. It's looking like there's going to be significant coaching changes around the league and I'd love to see us take advantage of that to replace Haslett (Rivera, Ryan, Pagano??). Obviously the two aren't mutually exclusive but I think better coaching would go a lot further toward improving the team than the caliber of FA player we'll probably be limited to by our cap situation.

FWIW, I agree with bringing in Grimes as long as the numbers aren't too high and the prospects for recovery are good. I realize we got burned with Brown but that doesn't mean we shouldn't ever take risks again. OTOH, given the number of injuries we constantly seem to have I think we might consider re-tooling our training staff too; so then again, maybe this isn't a type of risk we're capable of managing.

 

[Elephant]

Actually I think more than FA players we should be looking for replacements for some of our coaching staff. It's looking like there's going to be significant coaching changes around the league and I'd love to see us take advantage of that to replace Haslett (Rivera, Ryan, Pagano??). Obviously the two aren't mutually exclusive but I think better coaching would go a lot further toward improving the team than the caliber of FA player we'll probably be limited to by our cap situation.

If Rivera were to lose his job in Carolina after 2 seasons, I would be surprised. With that said, I would love him here if he's available. And I think you're spot on with the coaching issue, I don't think that's being over looked. But the fact remains we need to improve this team with limited resources and a top tier LT (I consider TW just an above average LT at best) would make our offense much better than any other single position on the team. And while I don't think it is really going to happen, Jake Long would be that single player whom would have the most impact with our limited resources to sign FA and out limited draft picks. Ryan Clady would probably be nearly as valuable.

 

[SkinnedAussie]

We need to sign FA's who are injured. Afterall, that's what we did for this year and look at how well that has gone!

 

[redskins76]

i would upgrade at safety and corner, but we need a true #1 reciever...mike wallace will be afree agent next year i think...he's got speed and can catch tha ball, garcon is cool but that turf toe is hell to shake off sometimes ,didn't deon sanders retire cuz of turf toe ! also RT is a need big time...

 

[Rymanofthenorth]

Turf toe is hairline fractures in the joint, im pretty sure it has nothing to do with ligaments, when i got it in college it derailed an entire season, its way more painful than you would think.