The 2025 Free Agency Thread

Hail Raiser said:
Yes, that's a rental and it cost us 2 day 2 draft pick.
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They don’t give top 5 LTs away in the NFL - you have to pay. It’s incredible we were able to pry him away from the Texans at all. I really haven’t heard any NFL analysts arguing we paid an excessive price for Tunsil. He costs that much because he’s worth that much.
 
Listening to Keim "90% of the contracts were bad" I think Peters is going to pick up some good secondary players with potential at a good price.
 
Big, athletic and physical.

Give me Z. Smith, Tomlinson and J. Simmons.
Simmons would be a force multiplier. You have two guys in Harris/Martin with a CB background that can also come down to the box and hit/tackle. It’s not absolutely necessary (Butler and Forrest if back) but 3 safety sets with Simmons/Harris/Martin is a great tool of who’s playing what position, covering, blitzing, etc.
Z. Smith has surprisingly bounced around a lot. But he’s a big dude that strikes me as someone who loves to hit and play football. Hell, I’d love him and Lawrence.

Fowler is way off with his take. Would like to have him back as a situational rusher. But the dude far too often abandoned the scheme to make plays. I think this staff wants guys that can make plays within the scheme. As an example, I don’t know that abandoning the scheme and making an occasional TFL -1 or -2 yards diminishes the opposing offenses’ chance of points as much as a blown assignment resulting in a 10+ yard run increases it. Would love to have him back but him occasionally freelancing and almost a career worth of not being an excellent sack guy (outside of 2 years) work against him and he should be more realistic about that even if it stings.

I’m not real sure about corner. I am sure we should bring back Noah I. Guy actually was a very solid slot player last year and still carries a pedigree. Not sure about Samuel - seems to be decent in coverage but not a willing tackler or aggressive participant in the run game. At the same time he’s better than the empty lockers we have right now. But even average starters are running out and we only have so many draft picks - I expect we trade down but are we really going to have 3-4th round corners that need to step in right away? I trust AP to cover all the basis before the draft but that cupboard is bare right now.

I had the same thought of E Moore at WR as others but upon more thought, dude still seems to have an “arrived” mindset based on everything I’ve read about him over the years and his production never really matched the pedigree/draft status. Far higher athletic talent than OZ for example, but in McLaurin, Deebo, OZ and Noah B (assuming resigning) we have a WR room full of guys that attack every run play and block with 100% effort and bad intentions. I don’t know that Moore cares about any of that or has that attitude. And if that’s the case I’m looking elsewhere. Because we SHOULD add a RB in the draft, but the thought of potentially a running game going left behind Tunsil/Coleman/Bates (assuming Coleman ends up at LG) with a bunch of nasty attitude blocking receivers is fairly exciting.

I don’t really care if Coleman goes to RT or LG or wherever as long as they find the best combo. But in that sense Tunsil is a huge force multiplier. AND I would still be looking at FA guard depth or even any starter quality folks left knowing we’ve got likely half the season without Cosmi and I don’t want the big man feeling pressure to come back early or them playing sooner than he ideally should because we don’t have better options.
 
Faithful Fan said:
You don’t think replacing a third round rookie guard with a Pro-Bowl LT moves the needle? In terms of where a team should spend its resources, I would say LT is probably the most valuable position on offense after QB.
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Devils advocate... what if a QB has off the charts pocket awareness, coupled with grade A mobility... doesn't that kinda potentially maybe minimize the benefit that team may expect with a big up at LT?

Especially when that QBs impromptu scramble drills consistently turn out to be BACKBREAKING plays for the defense. Coupled with an OC that drills off script heavy. We have all been on that ledge, great coverage yet the QB breaks our spirit with an off script dagger.

No need to answer.... just food for thought for all.

I would love to know what percentage of a teams backbreaking or best plays were off script. Or, JD5s.

I do hope Tunsil helps get our run game improved. Vastly improved.
 
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SkinsGuru said:
I disagree on Harris. I've watched some of the Saints games and he was pretty damn good. Also heard nothing but good things from those that cover the Saints. He, IMO, is Chinn with more speed and better at coverage.
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The fly in the ointment is that he was a scrub in Detroit. Got benched in a bad secondary group for other scrubs. Chinn is a former DROY runner up coming off a superior season if you go by PFF. If Harris was Chinn with more speed and better coverage abilities, he wouldn't have gotten half of Chinn's contract in FA

We have the most athletic safety in the NFL on our roster in Tyler Owens. We can only hope that his football instincts improve and he can beat out Harris in camp.
 
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SkinsFTW said:
Yeah they definitely need to find a CB2 upgrade from St DPI.
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At this point, we have to look at the draft. Outside CB was pillaged in FA and not a whole lot left - it's old guys, zone corners and scrubs. Perhaps one guy to watch is Yiadom who we pursued last year but lost out on to the 9ers. Had a good year for the Saints in 2023 and was meh in 2024.

It's a shame we didn't grab Mike Jackson or Eric Stokes. Both guys signed very reasonable deals.
 
Trying to expand beyond the usual Jimmy Johnson value chart, I've been trying to look at Fitzgerald-Spielberger Draft Value Chart. They seem to be about opposites from all the things I've seen (https://www.dailynorseman.com/2022/...fox-assessing-adofo-mensahs-draft-pick-trades).

Adding up based on old charts (https://www.drafttek.com/NFL-Trade-Value-Chart.asp?RequestTeam=hou) vs Fitzgerald-Spielberger (https://overthecap.com/draft-trade-value-chart) there is a big alteration in value.

From my math the Jimmy Johnson value difference would be Tunsil cost ~41-42nd pick in the draft to acquire. (I just used pick 61/131 for the future picks).

And the Fitzgerald-Spielberger cost is about the 9th pick in the draft.

I don't have the premium account to look, but position is a factor that isn't shown on a basic chart. However, I'd say it's fair to say they paid the equivalent of about a mid-first if you use the aggregate. I think the impact along the line will be valuable (so value is needed to acquire), but I will say the return Houston got is likely better than I originally thought in my mind.
 
The point on the relative value of a left tackle to a mobile QB is an interesting one. I’d counter slightly by saying I don’t want Jayden to run or feel like he has to run so often next year. Given that, the traditional value of a left tackle still remains high.
 
We can always argue if it’s the right guy, but at least they are seeing what we are seeing as holes in the roster now. In the past it was like WTF are you even doing?? Gotta build the lines in our division.
 
RandyHolt said:
Devils advocate... what if a QB has off the charts pocket awareness, coupled with grade A mobility... doesn't that kinda potentially maybe minimize the benefit that team may expect with a big up at LT?

Especially when that QBs impromptu scramble drills consistently turn out to be BACKBREAKING plays for the defense. Coupled with an OC that drills off script heavy. We have all been on that ledge, great coverage yet the QB breaks our spirit with an off script dagger.

No need to answer.... just food for thought for all.

I would love to know what percentage of a teams backbreaking or best plays were off script. Or, JD5s.

I do hope Tunsil helps get our run game improved. Vastly improved.
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I think it’s a valid point. However… do you want to regularly rely on your franchise qb’s ability to sense pressure from his blind side? Do you want Daniels to be able to scramble or have to scramble? Do you want to give him the confidence to stand in the pocket and go through multiple reads? Do you want to be able to slide protection to help your weaker (in pass pro) linemen? Do you want to reduce the need for 6/7 man protections, and allow receivers to get in their routes quicker (not having to chip)?
In effect, yes, I trust Daniels vs pressure far more than other qbs, but that doesn’t take away the numerous benefits that come with reducing that pressure to begin with.
 
HOF44 said:
We can always argue if it’s the right guy, but at least they are seeing what we are seeing as holes in the roster now. In the past it was like WTF are you even doing?? Gotta build the lines in our division.
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I love Joe Gibbs, but damn, that year we traded for TJ Duckett.... I mean WTF are we doing?
 
Conn said:
There are people in here reacting to Tunsil the way they should have been reacting if we signed Ronnie Stanley. There really seems to be a disconnect because Tunsil isn’t 28 year old Trent Williams in the run game (a HOF player btw). But Tunsil is ELITE, top of the league, in protecting the QB. An acquisition that is so impactful it actually skews the charts (so to speak) so it’s almost hard to talk about it here without coming across hysterical and over the top.
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Agree completely. Tunsil changes the ENTIRE OFFENSE. Anytime you can leave your LT on an island the entire rest of the offense becomes better. And his salary for the next two years is lower than we were willing to pay Stanley apparently. Tunsil has been dependable and a stalwart. Stanley has been often injured and good. Yes we gave up some serious draft capital for him. But he is worth all of it.
 
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