Free Agents thread
Rather than bounce back and forth between sites, maybe we can continue discussing free agents on this board now, especially now that we have a new GM.
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I'll just throw out some FAs that I think would be worth looking at based on what the team needs.
Defense: Dontari Poe, NT, Chiefs. Age: 27. Only if his back is healthy. His down season could mean he's not as expensive, and the connection to Ballard is obvious. At his best he is a dominant NT. Kawann Short, DT, Panthers. Age: 28 It depends on what style of defense this team will have going forward, but Short is explosive and disruptive on the line. I thought we had all this DL depth but we're back to needing good linemen. Calais Campbell, DE/DT, Cardinals. Age: 31. See above. I think Campbell probably fits what Pagano supposedly wants to do moreso than Short. Age is a factor here though. Brandon Williams, NT, Ravens. Age: 28 He has that Baltimore connection, and has played at a high level for the Ravens as a starter at NT. We need a NT. I like Parry as more of a rotational player. Johnathan Hankins, NT, Giants. Age: 25 Not sure what he'll cost. He can be a load in the middle. Transition to 3-4 NT might not be worth it. -- Chandler Jones, DE/OLB, Cardinals. Age: 27. I'm not that sold on Jones, but we need pass rushers and there's a lot to not like in the draft at that spot. I'm guessing he'll sign long-term with the Cardinals, but if he doesn't the Colts should take a look. Melvin Ingram, DE/OLB, Chargers. Age: 28 This is another OLB I'm not sold on, but we need pass rush. I see him as a complimentary pass rusher, not a guy you build around. Dont'a Hightower, ILB, Patriots. Age: 27. Injuries are an issue but he's a talented ILB/MLB. Zach Brown, ILB, Bills. Age: 27. This was a no-brainer sign last offseason. Thanks for nothing Grigson. I think he'd be a good fit here if we keep the 3-4. -- Eric Berry, S, Chiefs. Age: 28. There may be some skillset overlap between him and Geathers but he'd instantly be the most-talented player on our defense. Obviously there's the Ballard connection too. Trumaine Johnson, CB, Rams. Age: 27. He's about as talented as Vontae in coverage. Not nearly the same level of tackler though. Corners seem pretty overvalued right now, he'll probably get paid. Stephon Gilmore, CB, Bills. Age: 26. Young and a solid cover corner. Morris Claiborne, CB, Cowboys. Age: 27. One-year wonder but he's always been talented. Offense: Kevin Zeitler, G, Bengals. Age: 27. The left side of the line is set, but the right side isn't complete even with the end-of-season improvement. Zeitler is durable and talented and only 27. He's been consistently good since his rookie season. Larry Warford, G, Lions. Age: 26. Great rookie year, solid career so far, and he's still very young. Andrew Whitworth, OT, Bengals. Age: 35 Old but still good. He'd be a stop-gap at one of the OT spots but he's still playing well. -- Le'Veon Bell, RB, Steelers. Age: 25. Injury is a concern, but he's still young and is arguably the best RB in the NFL when healthy. Not sure Pittsburgh will let him go. |
Wow, you could build a dominant DL with Poe, Short, and Campbell. Jones and Berry are worth looking at as well.
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Chandler Jones won't be available:
Speaking Monday, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said the team will franchise tag impending free agent Chandler Jones if a long-term deal is not reached. Calais Campbell and Tony Jefferson are also headed to the open market, but the Cardinals want to keep 27-year-old (in February) Jones after he tallied 11 sacks his first year in the desert. A long-term deal is the most likely outcome. Jan 2 - 1:23 PM Source: Darren Urban on Twitter |
ingram, brown and a cb
i also wouldn't mind a guard as well. but those dudes have been getting paid in free agency |
I'll throw in two more. I'm not saying that I want these guys. But I might kick the tires.
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Le'Veon Bell couldn't run behind our oline. Hopefully we focus on defense.
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Ballard didn't make it sound like they were going to invest heavily in FA...which is odd because it's not like they have many guys from the 2013 and 2014 drafts they need to worry about re-signing.
I'll be disappointed if they don't sign at least two quality defensive starters. Maybe he just wanted to hedge since he hasn't reviewed the current roster yet. |
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Colts are sitting on around $53.600m in free cap space. Back out around $8m for rookie class, practice squad, spots 52/53 on the active roster and in-season "churn" space and they have around $45m in order to sign free agents. That could be increased by $10.700m if they decide to cut Arthur Jones and D'Qwell Jackson for near $56m in cap space to sign free agents. Of our own impending free agents, only Walden, Doyle and perhaps Butler will be paid "starter" money by someone in the league. Other guys like: Akeem Ayers, Robert Turbin, Jordan Todman and perhaps Darryl Morris might get paid more than veteran minimum in 2017 but probably not much more. So, if the Colts want to retain Butler (for safety?) then it will probably cost them around $4m a year. Doyle is a little harder to figure but will probably be retained for between $3.5 - $5.5m a year but Walden is the issue now that he is a double digit "sack master." Even though we all know that he will probably never hit double digit sacks again in his career (this is only the 2nd year out of 9 seasons that he has had more than 3.0 sacks in a season) he will still get paid for his double digit sack season because pass rushers are so sought after. My over / under on Walden is $7.00m a year. I think there is an excellent chance that he will want more than that and if he does, then even though our LB cupboard is BARE, I think we should let him walk and sign someone else to play the OLB[EDGE] slot. So, if we decide to retain all three guys, the Colts will pay around $16m in 2017 cap hit for those guys (lots of ways to do this but I am figuring straight line) so that would leave around $29m (or $40m if we cut Jones/Jackson) in order to sign new free agents. Three new defensive starters at $8m a year average then allows the Colts to sign a couple of "quality backup" guys like Turbin, Todman or Ayers to round out the roster after seeing what the draft brings. Anyway, I will be shocked if we don't sign a couple of high quality defensive guys to help boost our draft class. One at each level (D-Line, LB, CB) would be pretty brilliant although I will not be opposed to multiple LB signed. Cheers, Thad |
We need to bring in at least 3 guys with proven starting experience to the defensive side of the ball, preferably 4 or 5. This would then improve the depth of the roster considerably.
We could do with a truly dominant defensive lineman, and then at least 2 linebackers, although i suspect we will try to draft a couple of guys to fill this position of need, and then either or possibly both a CB and a S. If we could have a defensive line rotation of Anderson, Langford, McGill, Ridgeway, Parry, Kerr plus the stud addition of someone like Donatario Poe, then we would be set at this position. Linebackers, the cupboard is pretty much bare, we need to cut D'Qwell Jackson, and Walden, going forward i don't see them contributing to the values of the contracts they will command and neither have exactly set the world alight with their play of late. Walden isn't a guy who you think is ever likely to reproduce another 10 sack year, i don't feel like he produced anything like that calibre of play this year anyway. We need to sign 2 mid level free agents and draft 2 guys within the first 3 rounds. The defensive back situation is possibly slightly less of a major concern, but could very easily be upgraded....Vontae Davis is still a No. 1 corner, but Robinson is a nickle back and not really a 2nd corner. But he would be an excellent third guy. The safety position is ok with Geathers, assuming he is healthy, and then T.J. Green might become a decent backup or even reduced to a 4th safety if Butler moves there on a permanent basis. Adams is probably done and to bring in someone like Eric Berry would be an enormous upgrade. A DB group of Davis, Claibourne, Robinson, Butler, Melvin, a mid round draft pick, Berry, Geathers and Green would give us as good a group as i could realistically hope to see the Colts put out on the field. |
After listening to Ballard yesterday, I'm seriously wondering if they're REALLY looking at 2017 as a rebuilding year, where they'll focus most resources on the Draft and pick up guys that fit the system in free agency, without blockbusters.
Then, they could roll over some cap space into 2018 (Sherck can correct me on the details regarding the floor that they must spend to on 2017 and how much of an advantage it'd be to roll over whatever they can) and then REALLY try to hit it hard on 2018. The upside to this is that if 2017 is a rebuilding year and the team again misses the postseason, then at least Ballard would have ample reason to fire Pagano and bring in his new guy and have another offseason, this one in which he might make some more win-now splashes. |
Irsay stated he is fine with some down seasons if they lead to championships. ballard said his overall philosophy is to build from the draft. this is what should have been done from day one of the last regime. we had too much early success and they "went for it" only to fail, now we are set back several years from when we drafted luck.
It pains me to think if irsay had gotten someone like reggie mckenzie instead of the grease ball 5 years ago. at least it sounds like they will attempt to do it right this time. |
I like how the Giants have done it recently, honestly. Mostly build through the draft. Mostly re-sign their own or ignore free agency. But if a year comes up when Snacks Harrison, Janoris Jenkins and Olivier Vernon are available ... yes, you go look at those guys and make some moves.
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Buil primarily through the draft with guys like Von Miller, Malik Jackson, Derek Wolfe, Chris Harris, etc. But then also bring in guys like Aqib Talib, TJ Ward, and Demarcus Ware. Hey, looks like we've found a winning formula! I can see how it'll take a little while to retool based off of that. We'll need a defense heavy draft this year at the very least to set ourselves up for something like that for the next offseason. |
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I wonder if Poe might be a target at NT. |
I'll probably get skewered for this but with all our defensive needs acknowledged.....we need another wr. Moncreif and Dorsett aren't thrilling me.
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it never ends with colts fans |
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That does mean that you can spend a year or two spending under the 90% but then you pretty much have to spend it all in order to bring the rolling five year up to the 90% threshold or else end up having to pay a fine to the players association for "lost revenue" to their players. CLE had an adjusted 2016 cap of $176.686m this year due to having rolled $20m over from 2015. They only ended up spending $130.750m in 2016 leaving an unspent amount of $46.1m that will be rolling into 2017. That means that in 2015, they only spent 86.98%% of cap and in 2016, they only spent 74.00% of cap. That means that over the next three seasons, they need to spent at least 96.34% of cap per season in order to hit their 90% over the rolling five years. That translates into: $168.000m = Projected 2017 NFL salary cap $046.123m = 2016 unspent rollover from 2016 ========= $214.123m = 2017 Cleveland Browns salary cap $102.970m = Cap Hit of current top 51 players $008.000m = Draft Class / slots 52 & 53 / Practice Squad / Churn space ========= $110.970m = Current 2017 Obligations $103.153m = Cap Space available to sign free agents $099.378m = Amount needed to be spent ON FREE AGENTS in order to hit their 96.34% As the players association hoped for, player salaries are going to have to rise just in order to use up the cap space. I am unsure as to how the "fine" is determined that teams will have to pay the PA if they fall under the rolling 90% floor. I doubt it is a 1 for 1 exchange so, in the long run, it will financially benefit the teams to fall under the 90% if that strategy fulfills their team's needs rather than spend money just to spend it. Cheers, |
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now we're talking....
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Thanks Sherck. Didn't know about the 5 year running average portion of the rule. Would still be surprised if we didn't at least add a couple of FAs since we have all of that cap room and not a lot of current players to re-invest in or extend.
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2013. Produced nothing 2014. Mewhort and Moncreif. And a couple backup UDFA's Kerr and Harrison 2015. Andersen, Geathers, Parry, Dorsett 2016. Has IMO turned out to be a pretty good draft so far. I think you need to draft players that will be reaching close to their potential or expectations by year 3. Then every year you have the next class stepping up. But because of the poor drafts it may take a yr or two of bringing in FA's to fill gaps for the next 2-4 yrs as the new guys get up to speed. Then when we have consistently decent draft classes we can resign our own, and build 99% through the draft and UDFA's When I look back at the last few years I have to believe we are still in rebuild mode and will probably be there for 1-2 more years (when the 2015 draft class matures) unless we can find some FA's this yr even if they are 1-2 yr stop gaps. JMO Pete |
By looking at ages/injuries of players here are the positions I think Ballard will need to address in the draft
S. Mike Adams 35 OLB Cole 34. Mathis has retired RB. Frank Gore. 33 CB. Robinson Davis (injuries) I think we are probably set at Safety but if Hooker falls to us we might need to grab onto him CB is very high on my list. Vontae is good but I wouldn't put him as elite anymore and we have too many injuries for this not to be a top priority. I think we need to find a new #1 CB and move VD to #2. Marshshon Lattimore??? Said to be the next Vontae Davis OLB. I think we can get a very good OLB in round 2. Tim Williams, Takkarist McKinnley or Solomon Thomas may fall to us in the 2nd. RB. I love Frank Gore. I think he is a beast, but his age is going to start showing eventually. Recovery time for a RB has to be brutal. I wish Ferguson would have turned out, and maybe he will with a yr under his belt, but if Ballard doesnt see it he is looking at Todman or drafting another RB. If Delvin Cook falls to us in the first I will not be upset if we take him. I'd actually like that a lot, but if not the Hunt kid might be a great pick in the 3rd. My order of preference would be 1. CB. Unless Cook is available then I'd take him and move the everything else down a spot 2. Olb. 3. RB or ILB depending on if Cook is taken 4. OLB 5. OT 6 Punter/KO There is depth in this class at pass rush. So I dont think there is a need to use the first pick on one. |
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2) olber can not just but pushed aside for other positons. it is by far our biggest need and we don't need 1. we need 2 or 3 3) this team can't afford to take a rb in the first round. typical colts fan bullshit. all offense all the time. it has been the same for 15 years. constantly wanting to put the defense on hold for 1 more offensive piece. |
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No chance Ballard takes an offensive player in the first. Zero.
I want an OLB but I'm not sure the value will be there in the first. Need to do more research but after the top two prospects it seems like a bunch of guys with limits or flaws better off in the second or later. If the talent is there at ILB or DL or DB I won't mind taking that player. But this thread is about FA. I think the best approach to FA is to either get serious difference makers, or sign guys that fit the culture you want. |
I think Ballard will make a splash in free agency signing a defensive lineman or linebacker. Possibly Kawann Short or Melvin Ingram or Nick Perry
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If they can get a corner in the draft. They could bring in a vet at olb that doesn't need to get 12 sacks a yr. if they pick up a corner in FA that opens the door for RB and OLB in the draft. I agree with you. We will probably reach for any of the Olb available at 14. They can be had in rounds 2-3 |
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Sign one or two quality free agent defensive players and pay them. We need to quit half assing it like Griggs did bringing in marginal players. Last but not least, Pagano needs to get the fuck out of here, otherwise nothing else really matters. |
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Just wanted to throw this out. The two teams in the SB have 34 sacks each. Indianapolis has 33
https://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/s...ck-yards/2016/ http://www.espn.com/nfl/statistics/t...e/seasontype/2 So IMO and the stats would agree... pass rush while needed is over rated compared to a good secondary CB and Safety. NT and ILB Buoye from Houston might be a great player to look at to play opposite of Vontae. I think we are good at safety. Whether we keep Adams or not. I think he will be gone. But we need to keep Butler to play there. Hopefully Andersen makes a bigger come back a yr removed from injury, so with a NT in FA they can concentrate on ILB and OLB in the draft. |
Buoye seems like a guy that tried hard in a contract year. He could've benefited from playing on a very good defense. I would not give him Janoris Jenkins money at all.
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