I agree with this. There’s always this disconnect between “what fans want” and “what’s actually possible” in free agency. You can’t force guys to sign, especially when you’re targeting a pretty specific role. And you can’t just throw out crazy money every time or you end up overpaying the wrong players, locking yourself into bad contracts, or chasing guys who are already declining or have injury concerns.
The funny part is how inconsistent the conversation can be. Last year people were pushing back hard on giving Terry an extra $5M per year , a guy who had produced here for six seasons, was a leader, and did everything right. But now you’ll hear a few voices advocating overpaying someone like Jauan Jennings by $5–6M above his market value when he hasn’t done anything for this franchise. If you’re going to stretch financially, it makes a lot more sense to do it for your own proven guy, that at least sends a message to the locker room that production and professionalism get rewarded.
So yeah, I don’t think the plan was “let’s ignore WR.” I think they just didn’t land the upgrades they wanted at the right price.
And there’s still time. Whether it’s waiting on a situation like Brandon Aiyuk potentially hitting the market or adding someone in the draft, the room can still improve.
Plus, I’m not totally out on the internal options. McCaffrey was starting to show something before the injury, 200 yards in essentially 8 games, which puts him on roughly a 400+ yard pace. Small sample, sure, but enough to at least be encouraged. And Lane is still a projection, but the speed is real and there were reports his route running was ahead of what he showed in college. It’s early enough that you can still reasonably hope one of those guys develops into a solid WR3.
So yeah, fair criticism that the room isn’t better right now, but I don’t think that automatically means it was mismanaged. Sometimes the market just doesn’t break your way.
Again, though, Peter’s has been the GM for three offseasons now. There have been next to no real improvements to the room. That is mismanagement. This off-season may not be (or maybe it is, time will tell…) but having not added anything of note to the room in three years is absolutely on his lap.
2024:
McLaurin, Crowder, Brown, Brown, McCaffrey
2025:
McLaurin, Deebo, Brown, Burks, McCaffrey, Lane
2026:
McLaurin, Burks, Jefferson, D. Brown, McCaffrey, Lane
An argument can even be made that it’s gotten worse over time.
In fairness, on paper the 2025 room looks alright, but with Terry’s holdout many, even on this forum, we’re worried about the room due to N. Brown’s health and Terry’s hold out. And for a good portion of the season that room was minus those two and even with those two it was shells of them.
Posters on an Internet forum cannot understand the potential for disaster more than the GM (and I’m sure we don’t) so why not make something happen?
2026 has a room, that if everything fires on all cylinders for the entire season won’t be terrible. But everyone has to be healthy and take significant steps forward from their previous bests. We don’t have much of anything that is a sure thing.
Now, if we go out and get Keenan Allen and Deebo (just as an example) then the room does look MUCH improved.
If Aiyuk comes in before August that’ll be a help.
Lots of things can help, for sure.
But there’s nothing saying THOSE guys want to sign with this team, either. They may have other options that they prefer. So we can’t just count on signing a veteran, either, at this point.
It’s a tough situation, but AP needs to get this room right.
In retrospect some bad draft picks and the Lattimore trade could be do-overs. In a vacuum I still don’t mind Lattimore. But those assets could have been used on a receiver. Now, both position groups were weak and overall still are… so tough to gripe that one too much.
If I’m AP I’m looking at every way I can possibly trade for Brian Thomas Jr without giving away prime draft picks next year - including trading guys that are good players but may not have a future after this season to acquire extra draft capital to enable trades.
And he may be doing that.
But it’s been three years. He is liable for this situation, even if this year just didn’t go his way.
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