James Ihedigbo is an unrestricted free agent, and the New England Patriots already have enough special teams safeties on the roster:
Matt Slater (unrestricted free agent)
Sergio Brown
Ross Ventrone
Malcolm Williams
I'm not against the acquisition of Richard Marshall, cornerback from Fresno State, but what would be the salary cap charge for the 2012 NFL Season and whether that acquisition prohibits the upgrade at the wide receiver position in unrestricted free agency aside from 2011 New England Patriots wide receivers Deion Branch, Chad "Ochostinko" Johnson, Tiquan Underwood.
Cornerbacks
McCourty
Dowling
Arrington
Moore
2012 NFL Draft Pick
Safeties
Chung
Marshall
2012 NFL Draft Pick
Slater (special teams)
Brown (special teams)
I know that Ihedigbo is a FA, that's why I said we'll have to see if BB and the front office value his return or not. Regardless, you don't like him here, and that's fine with me. I think he may (or may not) offer a ST and depth role at safety. I am certainly not advocating using him too often, and only as a true backup and depth options. But if we've seen guys like Slater and Ventrone playing depth safety before, there's really no reason for me to think they wouldn't value a guy like Ihedigbo who knows the system and has played for an entire yr, mostly as a starter. In my opinion, they will certainly at least 'consider' the re-upping at a very minimal price.
Good point on the ST safeties on the roster, but I would argue that:
1. It didn't seem to matter last yr at all
2. Slater is certainly not a 'real' safety, and should never see the field
3. Malcolm Williams is a CB, who was never mentioned as anything near a safety until a recent ESPN article from Reiss 2 weeks ago. Even that could be speculation. Or it could be that Belichick will throw all leftovers into the FS position, and see if something sticks. But he was drafted as a CB, and was a CB on the practice squad last yr.
The only place we really seem to disagree is that you'd have Slater on your depth chart, while I'd probably have Ihedigbo. I don't think either one of us would want to see either one of them actually playing...
As far as the WR's go, that's a different issue altogether, and I am not personally expecting a bigger-type move there. I don't see any kind of BB coached/managed team taking up 20% of the salary cap in 2 WR positions. That's just my theory though, and I certainly hope that I am wrong.
I could see a middle of the road guy as an upgrade. Who that'll be is the question of the next week/10 days. I'm assuming that they go hard at Llyod (hopefully), but am afraid that he may cost too much. I see him asking about 5-6 million per, but we'll have to see. I think either a guy like Wayne, who will come a lot cheaper and offer an instant upgrade (plus BB seems to really value and respect him from all accounts), or a guy like Meachem.
To bottom line it though, don't be surprised to see BB refuse to make any big waves at the WR position. He may once again go against the grain of public thinking or assuming, and have his own way of handling it. Or he may actually feel that Ochocinco may somehow still offer use here, who knows? He may also be totally fine with what we currently have.
I guess we'll all debate about it for the next week--two weeks, but then we should have a better picture about what will happen moving forward. I think that the Welker situation is limiting them somewhat, and that if Wes had signed an extension by now, we may have seen something a bit more aggressive.