Is Adam Peter's Strategy Off-Course?

[The Chump Bailey]

It could be both. There is definitely a cash budget but AP isn't aggressively going to them to push this higher because he is confident in his ability to find guys on one year deals + draft well. I've made the comparison a bunch but he really is the football version of Mike Elias.

For those who are not Orioles fans, Elias had a big offseason in front of him to make some splashes in FA for pitching and bats with plenty of budget after a couple playoff seasons where his team didn't win a single game in the post season. Due to the presence of so few meaningful contracts, he could've spent and signed good players to multiyear deals. Instead, he chose to sign 40 year old Charlie Morton to a 1 year deal, a 35 year old rookie from Japan to a 1 year deal and Andrew Kittredge to a 1 year deal. All sucked and a couple those guys got traded at the deadline for peanuts and the Orioles finished in last place in the division this year.

Like AP this coming offseason, Elias has a big test in front of him to grow a pair and spend

O's fan here and my Dad was born and raised in Baltimore. I think Elias should be fired immediately personally.

 

[method man]

O's fan here and my Dad was born and raised in Baltimore. I think Elias should be fired immediately personally.

I’m personally in the boat if this being a make or break year

 

[The Chump Bailey]

I think signing some good, impactful football players in their mid-20’s to “over market” but not ridiculous contracts, structured well, would help us a lot to raise the talent floor. Even without injuries this team wasn’t going anywhere this year.

We are in good shape cap wise 84 million or so if AI is correct I agree but personally would emphasize the draft and acquiring as much draft capitol as possible heading into next season.

 

[The Chump Bailey]

burgold Not trying to stoke ire or anything just want to emphasize the draft but we do have the cap space to make a splash or 2 whatever it takes to protect JD and get rolling again I'm all for it and I suck at the quote functions apparently too!

 

[Bulldog]

Again, I think the moves to use draft capital rather than cap space over the first 2-3 years until Daniels contract is up was a mistake.

We are sitting here with millions of dollars in cap space and a team of 30 plus year old guys signed to short term deals because they are on the back 9 of their careers or have suffered injury problems in past - Lattimore in New Orleans comes to mind here.

Why not sign a Burns or other in FA to rush the passer? A legit DT to stabilize the interior, especially after Allen moved on?

Why not sign a legit outside WR instead of counting on guys in Brown and Deebo that have medical histories longer than your arm?

This team is a mess and now looking forward to 2026 we are going to have a team with as much turnover as 2024.

That’s not real progress in my mind.

All those picks we traded amount to almost an entire draft class of players

 

[HOF44]

The thing is young good free agents rarely hit the market. The ones that do usually have injury concerns or attitude problems. It’s mostly older players wanting big paydays.

 

[Boone]

Again, I think the moves to use draft capital rather than cap space over the first 2-3 years until Daniels contract is up was a mistake.

We are sitting here with millions of dollars in cap space and a team of 30 plus year old guys signed to short term deals because they are on the back 9 of their careers or have suffered injury problems in past - Lattimore in New Orleans comes to mind here.

Why not sign a Burns or other in FA to rush the passer? A legit DT to stabilize the interior, especially after Allen moved on?

Why not sign a legit outside WR instead of counting on guys in Brown and Deebo that have medical histories longer than your arm?

This team is a mess and now looking forward to 2026 we are going to have a team with as much turnover as 2024.

That’s not real progress in my mind.

All those picks we traded amount to almost an entire draft class of players

You aren’t wrong

 

[Boone]

The thing is young good free agents rarely hit the market. The ones that do usually have injury concerns or attitude problems. It’s mostly older players wanting big paydays.

Unless you pay UP for them. I think that would be the point. Bargain and great free agent acquisition are not typically uttered in the same sentence.

 

[SkinsLife]

But my counter to this is what else do you do? You have to use veteran stop gaps because if you're essentially building a team from scratch, what other option do you have?

They could have moved on from Ertz and Wagner this season, but then bring in who at what price? You can't go top of the market at all positions of need, because we needed all positions. So Peters had to pick and choose and use stop gaps while he, well, fills the gaps.

They identified Luvu, Biadacz and Allegretti as guys they wanted longer term deals with last year. Luvu and Biadacz were immediate hits, and Allegretti was great for the amount of salary they paid him.

This year, it's Kinlaw and Wise.

Peters is being judicious so he doesn't get stuck in a bad cap situation or if he signs a guy who doesn't work out.

And Tunsil will probably, assuming they extend him in the off-season, be the LT for 3-4 more years. LTs play well into their 30's. Deebo, no. But he was a 5th round pick. So what?

And saying the Rams didn't have a first round pick for a few years, they didn't have a first round pick from 2017 - 2023, that'5 years, they picked a guy in 2024 (Jared Verse), and then they didn't have a pick in 2025 either. That's no first round picks in 6 of 7 years. That's WILD.

And it's way too early to judge either of the drafts Peters had. It's the instant gratification society we live in, but it takes 3 years to judge a draft class, we're not even at 1.5. And the mid-round picks are the ones who take the longest to develop.

you conveniently forget the Latimore trade.. which was a huge miss and you are incredibly off on the "3y to judge a draft class" . If you're waiting for 3+ years for your top round pick guys to start producing... it was a bad draft, not only did you have to pay others to start at those positions and waste valuable roster space, but also because now you have to pay them. Tunsil has been ok, but nothing special.. decent pass blocking, but one of the worst graded run blocking LTs in the NFL - and with this team being billed as run first.. not sure that trade now makes a lot of sense.
There hasnt been a single star player in the last 2 years of drafts... and yes, i also mean JD .. he regressed this year and got hurt consistently (which was the biggest knock against him at the draft) - cant really help the team if you cant stay on the field. One magical year, does not make you a star.
FO decisions now look poor - O line is terrible, D is terrible.
Didnt do enough to add to the skill positions and knowing full well Terry was holding out, and Brown is constantly hurt - still did little other than Debo - who cant do it alone and not a prototypical WR.
Coaching- bringing in vets based on name recognition has generally failed. one or two players to close a gap is ok, but when you have gaps everywhere.. experience only helps so much.
25 team performance has been a complete and utter embarrassment. This is worse than Texans drop from last year.

 

[Boone]

you conveniently forget the Latimore trade.. which was a huge miss and you are incredibly off on the "3y to judge a draft class" . If you're waiting for 3+ years for your top round pick guys to start producing... it was a bad draft, because now you have to pay them. Tunsil has been ok, but nothing special.. decent pass blocking, but one of the worst graded run blocking LTs in the NFL - and with this team being billed as run first.. not sure that trade now makes a lot of sense.
There hasnt been a single star player in the last 2 years of drafts... and yes, i also mean JD .. he regressed this year and got hurt consistently (which was the biggest knock against him at the draft) - cant really help the team if you cant stay on the field. One magical year, does not make you a star.
FO decisions now look poor - O line is terrible, D is terrible.
Didnt do enough to add to the skill positions and knowing full well Terry was holding out, and Brown is constantly hurt - still did little other than Debo - who cant do it alone and not a prototypical WR.
Coaching- bringing in vets based on name recognition has generally failed. one or two players to close a gap is ok, but when you have gaps everywhere.. experience only helps so much.
25 team performance has been a complete and utter embarrassment. This is worse than Texans drop from last year.

Tunsil is a top 5 NFL tackle and that’s a very supportable statement. Bitch all we want about bad picks or moves but that wasn’t one of them, especially in the context of trying to protect your new franchise QB. And I think the OL looks promising - they certainly committed assets to improve it - you just can’t assess it without the context of injuries and skill position deficits.

 

[HTTR]

The thing is young good free agents rarely hit the market. The ones that do usually have injury concerns or attitude problems. It’s mostly older players wanting big paydays.

True for the most part, but with this year’s FA class, there was a handful of solid guys in their mid-20s with upside at every one of our positions of need, with the exception of WR. And I realize there are multiple teams bidding for those guys, but we had the success from last year, more cap space than the teams bidding against us, and the attraction of a young stud quarterback which usually means years of winning. It just didn’t make sense that we weren’t landing any of those guys so I have to assume we just wanted to bargain shop instead of using our plentiful cap space for young possible difference makers.

Thanks to the Rivera draft disasters our roster was/is severely lacking in players in this age group, which is basically going into their prime. So mostly we have young inexperienced guys, and older players who are past their prime with no upside. I would love to be spending the money to extend all the good players Rivera drafted, but they don’t exist. So I just figured it made the most sense to try to replace them with free agents in that age range. At least a couple like edge rusher and corner would have been nice.

 

[method man]

Unless you pay UP for them. I think that would be the point. Bargain and great free agent acquisition are not typically uttered in the same sentence.

Armstrong, Biadasz and Luvu all fit this category, weren’t overly expensive and have played at a high level here. (I know Luvu has struggled a bit this year but his All Pro year last year makes his signing an automatic win)

 

[HTTR]

It could be both. There is definitely a cash budget but AP isn't aggressively going to them to push this higher because he is confident in his ability to find guys on one year deals + draft well. I've made the comparison a bunch but he really is the football version of Mike Elias.

For those who are not Orioles fans, Elias had a big offseason in front of him to make some splashes in FA for pitching and bats with plenty of budget after a couple playoff seasons where his team didn't win a single game in the post season. Due to the presence of so few meaningful contracts, he could've spent and signed good players to multiyear deals. Instead, he chose to sign 40 year old Charlie Morton to a 1 year deal, a 35 year old rookie from Japan to a 1 year deal and Andrew Kittredge to a 1 year deal. All sucked and a couple those guys got traded at the deadline for peanuts and the Orioles finished in last place in the division this year.

Like AP this coming offseason, Elias has a big test in front of him to grow a pair and spend

This is a great comp to the situation AP is in. Last year was the time for the Os to make their move and spend the money. Young up and coming team coming off a great season that looked like it would be a winner for years to come. And a new owner with deep pockets to support it.
I agree that they need to step up and spend big this off-season, but the problem is after such a bad season of regression, the team is not nearly as attractive a destination for high demand players. Unfortunately, it looks like AP is going to find himself in that exact same boat this coming off-season. Maybe he decides to step up and go after some high-end guys, but are those guys going to be willing to come here?? We can only hope.

 

[HTTR]

Armstrong, Biadasz and Luvu all fit this category, weren’t overly expensive and have played at a high level here. (I know Luvu has struggled a bit this year but his All Pro year last year makes his signing an automatic win)

Agreed. These were young guys with upside, and for the most part they’ve worked out. These are the kinds of free agents I wish we would have targeted this year as well.

 

[SkinsLife]

Tunsil is a top 5 NFL tackle and that’s a very supportable statement. Bitch all we want about bad picks or moves but that wasn’t one of them, especially in the context of trying to protect your new franchise QB. And I think the OL looks promising - they certainly committed assets to improve it - you just can’t assess it without the context of injuries and skill position deficits.

He is not top 5... at best... top 10 sure.

• According to Pro Football Focus (PFF) data: overall grade of 77.8 — 13th of 76 tackles; pass-blocking grade 86.0 (4th of 76); run-blocking grade 67.4 (35th of 76). PFF
• In rankings for 2025 by coaches/scouts from ESPN ahead of the season: Tunsil was ranked at #7 among offensive tackles.

 

[Boone]

You’re going to cite 2025 stats on a bad team as his ‘grade’?

Tunsil is a great LT. Any attempt to argue otherwise to prove a larger point - well, I’m not going to buy into. Sorry.

Quibble about the price but he is one of the best LTs in the NFL. And whatever mistakes AP has made, I think it’s a serious stretch to suggest that was one of them.

 

[method man]

He is not top 5... at best... top 10 sure.

• According to Pro Football Focus (PFF) data: overall grade of 77.8 — 13th of 76 tackles; pass-blocking grade 86.0 (4th of 76); run-blocking grade 67.4 (35th of 76). PFF
• In rankings for 2025 by coaches/scouts from ESPN ahead of the season: Tunsil was ranked at #7 among offensive tackles.

Even if he is top 10 vs top 5, he is a great piece to have. In retrospect, probably gave up a bit too much but not really regretting that trade

 

[Bulldog]

To me the winning strategy for new organizations is to build carefully and in layers.

You don’t want to get out over your skis and overrate your talent or allow a guy like McLaurin to drive an offseason narrative.

McLaurin is not a top 5 receiver and with all due respect to him playing on a poor team to start his career is not this GM’s responsibility.

You could have asked for a trade two or three years ago.

 

[method man]

Agreed. These were young guys with upside, and for the most part they’ve worked out. These are the kinds of free agents I wish we would have targeted this year as well.

There are guys like this out there every year if you look hard enough

 

[Conn]

The thing is young good free agents rarely hit the market. The ones that do usually have injury concerns or attitude problems. It’s mostly older players wanting big paydays.

I don’t really agree. When it comes to the cream of the crop, sure. Elite players rarely hit FA without red flags attached, and they usually get overpaid. But there are better and/or younger players than Wise + Goldman etc. on the market who will get a bit overpaid, but structured well can contribute as solid starters. Plenty of good (not great) players ages 26-28 who don’t get paid totally absurd money, basically Luvu types. We aren’t too good or too deep to justify ignoring potential signings like that, we should have been raising the talent floor of our roster around our rookie QB while he’s cheap, even if it cost us some money. Then keep building the foundation in the background with draft picks until the roster is backfilled enough that it’s MOSTLY draft picks, which would take years and patience. But we weren’t structurally sound enough to rely on JUST draft picks and 1-year vets when the talent cupboard is as empty as it was. I’m not even talking about going all-in, dumb “dream team” type signings. I’m talking about just adding real talent to the roster.

We were all pumped for the vast amount of cap space we had going into the last two offseasons, and the talent that could allow us to add, if we were willing to strategically overpay the right guys, with caution. Most anyone saying they were thrilled with the FA crops we came away with after having $60M+ to spend is lying and retroactively changing their opinions. Outside of a very very few extremely conservative penny pinchers in the fanbase, almost everyone thought we would come out of those offseasons with a few impact players to contribute to our build, not journeyman and near-retirement guys.

Luvu and Kinlaw are our only real swings at potential “red chip” players with multi-year deals on the open market. Not blue chip, but a level below. Solid starters with untapped upside in the right scheme. Really just Luvu if we’re being honest, Kinlaw was seen as damaged goods and has arguably exceeded expectations on a fair market contract that people really didn’t think he deserved. So…two offseasons…tons of money…Luvu. Maybe Biadaz and Armstrong if we’re being generous, they exceeded expectations as well and didn’t break the bank. Yellow chip, let’s call them. More players like them would have improved us a lot and not destroyed the health of our constitution.

With how Daniels played last year and our deep cap space war chest, that’s embarrassing imo and in retrospect a lot of us just talked ourselves into believing it was smart despite our disappointment in the moment, because we like and want to believe in AP. I still like and want to believe in him, but my eyes are open.