NFL Free Agency Thread

Not sure if this guy has any credible sources

From Rapoport 3 days ago:

@Rapsheet
What's on tap for Eric Weddle? He has offers from 4 teams. He'll evaluate the city, roster, schools, levels of the deal & respond Monday.

The above aligns with MA/Boston if he does sign here. Our roster isn't that bad either.

If they did sign Weddle they might be more prone to play more packages with three safeties... McCourty and Weddle plus Chung up closer in to the box, Butler and Ryan at corner, Collins and Hightower, Branch & Easley/Brown at DT and Jones & Nink/Sheard at DE. Chung is kind of like a third LB in that situation but you're sacrificing size for coverage ability. However he can tackle an RB just fine and he's covered TEs very well recently so I don't really see an issue with that. And McCourty and Weddle would be providing excellent support in back.

IMO the team really ran McCourty hard last year. Harmon is pretty good depth but obviously Weddle would be excellent depth.. You don't necessarily have to play both at once but could rotate them some weeks when you play a more run-based team.

I don't really have a strong point or info to add -- just reminiscing:

Back in 2007 we had a lengthy debate on here about which safety we wanted Pats to draft as it was a strong safety draft... We took Meriweather at 24, Reggie Nelson (my binkie) and Michael Griffin went in the teens , Landry (out of reach), and Weddle went 2nd round.

Interestingly - Landry, Griffin, Nelson, Weddle, Meriweather have all made Pro-Bowls -- and one of the better value picks was Dashon Goldson (also a pro-bowler)

Seems like Weddle is the only first day draftee that exceeded expectations...alot of people on here really liked him back then and thought he would be a perfect Pat.. Just interesting to see how things look a number of years later.

Ian Rapoport ‏@RapSheet 2m2 minutes ago
Ex-#Rams DE Chris Long, who is at #Patriots today, has 3 more visits this week. One is #Cowboys. Then he'll collect himself & make a call

64 retweets49 likes

Ross12 said:

If they did sign Weddle they might be more prone to play more packages with three safeties... McCourty and Weddle plus Chung up closer in to the box, Butler and Ryan at corner, Collins and Hightower, Branch & Easley/Brown at DT and Jones & Nink/Sheard at DE. Chung is kind of like a third LB in that situation but you're sacrificing size for coverage ability. However he can tackle an RB just fine and he's covered TEs very well recently so I don't really see an issue with that. And McCourty and Weddle would be providing excellent support in back.

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The fun part for me is offenses wouldn't know which safety (McCourty or Weddle) is going deep and which is staying low. Both could cover "Center Field" so to speak, but could also hover in those intermediate areas and clog those up. Without knowing who is doing what, it makes it harder for those pre-snap reads.

slash83 said:

Why would it be a surprise? He gets to pair up with an excellent safety duo, play on a legit defense, big market team, and a team that's in SB contention every single year.

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Because safety is a position of strength and Weddle is going to get a significant paycheck. It's hard for me to see them paying both McCourty and Weddle big money. If it happens I will be happy because he's a really good player I just don't see them doing it.

Sicilian said:

The fun part for me is offenses wouldn't know which safety (McCourty or Weddle) is going deep and which is staying low. Both could cover "Center Field" so to speak, but could also hover in those intermediate areas and clog those up. Without knowing who is doing what, it makes it harder for those pre-snap reads.

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That too. Having two premier intelligent safeties on the field really lets you do some fun things in the back end.

We already played plenty of three-safety packages last year. Chung and McCourty closer to the line, Harmon deep. There's a reason Harmon played something like 60% of the defensive snaps last year.

Ivan said:

Because safety is a position of strength and Weddle is going to get a significant paycheck. It's hard for me to see them paying both McCourty and Weddle big money. If it happens I will be happy because he's a really good player I just don't see them doing it.

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Report was Weddle's market was at around $5m per.. BB gave 34 year old Shaun Ellis $5m for a year

Would welcome Weddle with open arms. His addition and the subsequent move of Chung to LB where he can excel in the big nickel would make this defense one of the best in the NFL.

JMC00 said:

Report was Weddle's market was at around $5m per.. BB gave 34 year old Shaun Ellis $5m for a year

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But DT then not as strong as FS today. No question he improves back end, but hard to argue RB, WR, OL not greater needs.

TommyBrady12 said:

Not sure if this guy has any credible sources

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I guess we'll see :

Pigskin Snitches ‏@PigskinSnitches 17m17 minutes ago
Looks like Free Agent FS Eric Weddle is going to sign with the #Ravens per sources - @Ravens

JMC00 said:

Report was Weddle's market was at around $5m per.. BB gave 34 year old Shaun Ellis $5m for a year

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An elite player starving for a legit SB opportunity basically openly says please sign me, the signing must happen regardless of perceived need.

You have the leverage. Go from above average safety/secondary to borderline if not elite. Elite wins championships.

FourierSeries said:

According to who?

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We're supposed to just take his word for it apparently.

Ok this source is a little bit more legit - peter schrager from fox sports

Marqui said:

We're supposed to just take his word for it apparently.

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see above

BelichickFan said:

I guess we'll see :

Pigskin Snitches ‏@PigskinSnitches 17m17 minutes ago
Looks like Free Agent FS Eric Weddle is going to sign with the #Ravens per sources - @Ravens

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Battle of the fraud twitter accounts.

BelichickFan said:

I guess we'll see :

Pigskin Snitches ‏@PigskinSnitches 17m17 minutes ago
Looks like Free Agent FS Eric Weddle is going to sign with the #Ravens per sources - @Ravens

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I don't know I think i'd have to go with Ed Bouchette over "Pigskin Snitches" on credibility. But ya we'll see

TommyBrady12 said:

Ok this source is a little bit more legit - peter schrager from fox sports

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Guessing between Pats Ravens and Pitt. Hopefully leaning towards NE.