The 2025 Free Agency Thread

Voice_of_Reason said:
The problem with Sinnott, as others have pointed out, is his snaps and production decreased as the season went on. Logan Paulsen questioned him some as well.

He needs to show enough that he finds ways to get himself on the field in ways other than special teams. Work his way into specific packages to start. We didn't see a lot of that.

McCaffery, I think was maybe taken a round or two early if the expectation is he was going to really produce right away. He made a position switch from QB to receiver, which is a hard shift, midway through college. He just had his first full off-season in the NFL. Now we can see where he is, and if he can work himself into some packages.

One thing his father said at the combine is they tried to have him learn all the WR positions all at the same time so they could see what stuck. That's probably good for the long term but not as good for the short term.

I still think the jury is out on both. Though I tend to be one of the ones where I give rookies A LOT of time. It used to be you judged a draft class after 3 years. I'm not sure it's that long anymore, but it's certainly after the second season.

I compare this to "regular jobs." When you get your first job out of college, you literally have no idea what you're doing probably for 3-4 years. It's all learning and development, with some hope of contribution. NFL, everything is accelerated because you only have elite graduates and it has to be because careers are generally over in your late 20's or early 30's.
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I'm not crowning either as starters, just pointing out that they're not busts. It's definitely too early to judge them.
 
Hail Raiser said:
I'm not crowning either as starters, just pointing out that they're not busts. It's definitely too early to judge them.
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I agree. Though I will say the coaching staff needs to figure out a way to get them both on the field and contribute in some way this year. Ertz isn't going to keep playing forever and he's slower than a concrete truck going up hill. And at some point, McCaffery has to either be an option. It's unclear whether or not we'll re-sign Deebo next year. We have Terry under contract, but the worry about his age didn't go away. McCaffery has the physical tools to be a very productive starting WR in the NFL. He needs to get developed to be able to fill that role and quickly, because both Terry and Deebo are on the wrong side of 30, and while Lane is a rookie and young, he has an opportunity to be a contributor this year, and maybe a real contributor next year.
 
Voice_of_Reason said:
I agree. Though I will say the coaching staff needs to figure out a way to get them both on the field and contribute in some way this year. Ertz isn't going to keep playing forever and he's slower than a concrete truck going up hill. And at some point, McCaffery has to either be an option. It's unclear whether or not we'll re-sign Deebo next year. We have Terry under contract, but the worry about his age didn't go away. McCaffery has the physical tools to be a very productive starting WR in the NFL. He needs to get developed to be able to fill that role and quickly, because both Terry and Deebo are on the wrong side of 30, and while Lane is a rookie and young, he has an opportunity to be a contributor this year, and maybe a real contributor next year.
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I get that, but how do you get these guys seat time, when they have obvious starters in front of them. It's not like you bench your best guys to see what the younger ones look like.

I'm also pretty sure the coaches are seeing a whole lot more than we are, so I really don't think there's a way to get them on the field.

If Ertz goes down, or Ekeler, or Deebo, etc, than I'm sure we'll see more youth, but otherwise it's just what coaches see in practice.
 
Conn said:
I really wish we could see the list of players we put in claims for after final cuts, but didn’t get (that would be all of them at the end of the waiver order). I’d just love more insight into the types of end of roster players who intrigue our FO and coaching staff. More data points is always better.
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Garafolo put this list out but unfortunately, doesn't show teams who didn't receive the claimed player.

 
Higskin said:
Garafolo put this list out but unfortunately, doesn't show teams who didn't receive the claimed player.

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Yeah, sometimes failed claims for guys are leaked, but I imagine it’s usually only done by agents trying to hype up how desired their released client was as a sort of face-saving maneuver. It’s not done very often
 
Kendrick Bourne? Any news?
 
RedWolf said:
Kendrick Bourne? Any news?
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We probably offered similar money to SF, both on a one year deal, and he’s got to choose. Doubt we were willing to pay him enough to make it a no-brainer
 
I would imagine both teams have told him they'd like a quick decision witht the season starting in two days.
 
Voice_of_Reason said:
My response is I don't give a crap what stats and numbers say.

If you take out the number of times TH did the "&@$! it, Terry's down there somewhere" thing and Terry bailed his dumb ass out, the numbers wouldn't look so good.

Taylor was the absolute luckiest QB the league has ever seen for stretches at a time. Bram Weinstein even referred to it as "having a rabbits foot."

When he lost the rabbits foot, he descended to be one of the absolute worst QBs who has played in the last 2 decades.

Give it 2 weeks. I'm pretty sure the NFL is going to take my side on this one. As of this post, I don't see that he's been signed. Which likely means he won't be signed before the season. If he isn't signed by week 4, the NFL will have agreed with me that he just can't play.

Nobody has even put him on a practice squad to stash him as a emergency backup 4th string guy. At least not yet. There are ~102 QBs either on an active roster or practice squad, and none of them are Taylor Heinicke. That says a lot.
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And I am not calling for the team to sign him just stating facts. And yes he was LUCKY as can be but It was some of the most fun this team ever had in a non gibbs era under Snyder
 
To a degree, I am, too.

I could see signing one of our QB 3s to the practice sqad. I don't think either merited the full roster. I sincerely doubt any team would have poached Josh Johnson.
 
The Heinicke comments are appropriate given he was released. Statistically he is superior to Johnson in almost every way. I would rather have TH at #3 and it’s not that close.
 
Simeon said:
I think people are having a WTF moment with the notion that Josh Johnson is on the team and an actual possible backup QB
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If you get that far down the depth chart you're screwed anyway.

Last year it was hartman in that role and at the time we didn't quite realize how bad it would have been had we gotten to that point but we do now.

Id certainly prefer a young quarterback with at least some potential in that role over a 40 year old who's been on every team in the league but its not high on the list of things i care about.

I mean honestly, has a team ever made it to their 3rd string quarterback and been playing meaningful football? Im sure its happened but i cant think of any examples off the top of my head.

And how many 3rd string quarterbacks actually develop into anything more than a career backup? Probably not too many.

To me its a pretty insignificant role on a team, which id imagine is why several teams have their 3rd guy on the practice squad.
 
heisenberg said:
If you get that far down the depth chart you're screwed anyway.
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Certainly screwed if QB3 has to play for an extended period over several games. But more often we’re talking about finishing a game or starting one or two games in the majority of scenarios. That can and does happen, that’s why emergency QBs exist.

A couple of weeks ago it was not certain Marcus would be ready for the opener. We could have had Johnson as our QB2 for the opener. I can imagine JD getting us a lead then having to turn it over to a less-than-JAG who blows the game. Every game counts. Last year I had a lot more confidence in Driscoll.

Any position filled on the team needs to be filled with the best players we can find given all the constraints on budget and availability. That’s why I keep questioning why Hartman is on the PS. I agree that would be an ideal place for our emergency QB, if he could play at least at a JAG level. Hartman can’t.
 
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Simeon said:
Certainly screwed if QB3 has to play for an extended period over several games. But more often we’re talking about finishing a game or starting one or two games in the majority of scenarios. That can and does happen, that’s why emergency QBs exist.

A couple of weeks ago it was not certain Marcus would be ready for the opener. We could have had Johnson as our QB2 for the opener. I can imagine JD getting us a lead then having to turn it over to a less-than-JAG who blows the game. Every game counts. Last year I had a lot more confidence in Driscoll.

Any position filled on the team needs to be filled with the best players we can find given all the constraints on budget and availability. That’s why I keep questioning why Hartman is on the PS. I agree that would be an ideal place for our emergency QB, if he could play at least at a JAG level. Hartman can’t.
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I see what your saying and yeah ideally id love to have scooped up someone like devito to be number 3 but i guess the coaches feel differently.
Me personally i dont think there's anybody out there that'd be much of an upgrade and josh johnson is obviously a smart team player or he'd have been flushed out of the league a long time ago rather than be given literally 23 shots on an nfl roster.

Thats just crazy when ya think about it.
 
I have zero attachment to Hartman. I do like having a developmental qb on the PS though. Hartman’s given no indication he can play in this league, his arm talent ain’t great and he stares down receivers. On the other hand, it’s at least possible that with more seasoning, actual game planning and playing with a starting caliber cast he could become a backup level qb down the line. I’m not betting on it, but if the staff likes him enough to keep him… I’ll trust them. My guess is that we bring in another young guy next year to compete with him.
 
Wtf are y'all talking about. MM is the back up, Hartman is the PS study buddy that can be called up in a pinch in am emergency. JJ will be cut and available all season long if needed.

Y'all are wild. Thank God it's football weekend.
 
Hail Raiser said:
Wtf are y'all talking about. MM is the back up, Hartman is the PS study buddy that can be called up in a pinch in am emergency. JJ will be cut and available all season long if needed.

Y'all are wild. Thank God it's football weekend.
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You're probably right.
Im sure if we sign bourne or find anybody we think can help he'll be the one dumped to make room but why did he even make the cut?
The second we knew mariota would be ready i figured he'd have been ancient history.
 
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