Finding a gem in the WR free agency list (more realistic options)

[Triumph]

I think we all expect at least one high rookie WR pick this year, so hopefully he will add to the talent of the position.

The main concern that I have is that I question how much they could produce in their first year in this specific system, as we've seen now multiple times and also one of the reasons why Belichick tends to look towards the middle/lower tiers of FA at the position. No doubt that we need a rookie WR here for this year and the future of the WR corps, but we also need someone to produce immediately.

And I'm not sure that I would consider all of those free agent WR's "jags" either. The potential for speed and physicality is surely there, and it was just a year ago that many posters here wanted names such as Devrey Henderson etc.

Look to Oregon., Ohio State and maybe Alabama.

Who are the WRs in this draft from those programs?

 

[mayoclinic]

Armando Salguero breaks down the possible Miami FA market, including this tidbit:

Pending free agent Brian Hartline, a No. 2 receiver, will be looking for $5-$6 million per year on the open market if he gets there.

The cost of doing business ain't cheap | Miami Dolphins In Depth

Salguero estimates the market for Greg Jennings in the $8M+ range, and an "elite" WR (not sure who he means - Welker? Bowe?) around $10M. He also estimates that Sean Smith will want "#1 CB money" at around $8-10M/year.

Hartline at around $5-6M could probably be worked in with an initial cap hit about half of what Welker made in 2012, which might leave enough to sign a good FA S like Kenny Phillips.

 

[Ochmed Jones]

Armando Salguero breaks down the possible Miami FA market, including this tidbit:



The cost of doing business ain't cheap | Miami Dolphins In Depth

Salguero estimates the market for Greg Jennings in the $8M+ range, and an "elite" WR (not sure who he means - Welker? Bowe?) around $10M. He also estimates that Sean Smith will want "#1 CB money" at around $8-10M/year.

Hartline at around $5-6M could probably be worked in with an initial cap hit about half of what Welker made in 2012, which might leave enough to sign a good FA S like Kenny Phillips.

Sans Welker, seems like the Pats have a #2 WR in Lloyd and slot guys in Edelman and Ebert. What they need is a true vertical threat,which I don't see in this FA WR class.

The draft may be the best place to find this type player.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I'm missing why anyone thinks Ebert is of any value. What has he done? Have the Pats coaches valued him when the cut him adrift where any other of the 31 teams could have had him for weeks? OK, I get it. He's the next Troy Brown. That would be wicked pissah however improbable

 

[manxman2601]

Look to Oregon., Ohio State and maybe Alabama.

Who are the WRs in this draft from those programs?

There aren't any in this draft of note. But there are plenty of good WR's.

 

[everlong]

It's too bad Jeremy Maclin isn't a FA until next year. Of all the vertical threats he's the best intermediate route runner and is much better against press coverage than Lloyd.

 

[Claremonster]

Personally, I wouldn't want him even for free. He would be subtraction by addition, IMHO.

I heard that he was a turd, but, what did he do exactly to be blackballed?

Sounds like Terry Glenn all over again.

 

[Claremonster]

Regarding Devry Henderson, I have watched a lot of Saints games over the years: Drew Brees has been my starting fantasy QB in more than one league. Devry might be just what we need: He is big, fast, and stretches the field. The reason Devry's production is just average is because Drew Brees has up to 5 other legitimate receiving options at times and he spreads it around even more than Tom Brady. I believe that he would open things up for us on offense.

He could be Moss's deep threat replacement.

 

[patsfaninpa]

Look to Oregon., Ohio State and maybe Alabama.

Who are the WRs in this draft from those programs?

Why do you mention those programs? Between them, I believe there are three starting wr's in the entire NFL. Julio Jones, Hartline and Santonio Holmes. I don't believe Oregon has any. There are many good football players all over the country. No need to limit yourself to those programs.

 

[supafly]

Why do you mention those programs? Between them, I believe there are three starting wr's in the entire NFL. Julio Jones, Hartline and Santonio Holmes. I don't believe Oregon has any. There are many good football players all over the country. No need to limit yourself to those programs.

He's bringing up those types of programs due to the fact that they currently run the kinds of offensive systems, spread or pro, that may increase the chances of success.

I do agree with both of you on some level. While Triumph makes a good point that taking players from those programs may lead to higher success rates, we've also seen some very good WR's come out of much lesser programs, so you can't start to limit yourself to anything.

Jerry Rice, Demarius Thomas (Georigia Tech's option run, where they hardly ever threw at all), and Mike Wallace's Ole Miss programs weren't really known for their high octane offenses at the time, although argument can be made with Wallace as they threw the most out of the three.

 

[supafly]

I heard that he was a turd, but, what did he do exactly to be blackballed?

Sounds like Terry Glenn all over again.

He's actually done some pretty weird things. He regularly lined up in the wrong place on purpose to try and sabotage the offense because he was pissed about not getting enough touches. He's also turned to twitter to voice his dislike for the Detroit atmosphere, although that may be limited to the specific situation it's not usually someone who attracts teams like the NEP.

He definitely has an attitude issue that screams of locker room cancer, but we also have to keep in mind that there have been examples of this kind of thing before, so the right setting could certainly invoke a change.

It's not about his talent, which is superb. It's about his character issues, so Belichick would have to make that call, but I'd still assume he will at least look over the situatiton as much as none of us really want him here. You never know when you can snatch a high round talent from the depths of despair.

He could be Moss's deep threat replacement.

D.Henderson would come pretty cheap in my opinion, and yes he could certainly offer a speedy presence and downfield threat. We probably aren't going to be looking at the Jennings' and Bowe's of the world, so we'll have to look to improve upon the position in other ways.

No matter what they'll likely need a higher draft pick too, at least to start developing him towards 2014, with some hopeful blending in to the offense throughout this upcoming season.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

cross off jennings,wallace and bowe right off the bat

 

[Deus Irae]

I'm not getting the Henderson love. He had one 50 catch season. Outside of that, he's never topped 35, and his last 4 seasons have been

51
34
32
22

With a "yards per" rate that's in decline. So, in a wide open Saints offense, he's catching fewer passes and converting them for fewer yards. He's also going to be 31 years old, so all the "Welker's too old" people should be hating the idea of getting this guy.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

keep welker..trade for harvin

 

[supafly]

What they need is a true vertical threat,which I don't see in this FA WR class.

The draft may be the best place to find this type player.

While true, I think that they are going to have to use both the FA and draft routes this year.

Typically, Belichick prefers certain positions to be filled with experienced vets, and WR could certainly be argued that we've seen much more success through other proven NFL players.

I think the high draft pick needs to be explored due to the fact that it sometimes/often takes a WR a little bit of learning curve time with this kind of more complicated system. I think we'd have to hit a walk off, grand slam HR to think that someone can immediately step in and contribute on the kind of level that we'd need here for next season, but obviously anything is possible.

In my opinion I think that the high draft pick will be here more for 2014 than 2013, as there will be some rookie growth with the playbook, the scheme, and just knowing the offense inside and out to the point where BB and Brady would feel comfortable enough actually targeting them on a regular basis. This is certainly one of the reasons why we don't have high success rates at the WR position lately in the draft.

They'll need to likely explore the FA or trade route to bring in someone who can immediately step in, at least in my opinion.

In a perfect world, we'd get both in the next few months.

 

[supafly]

I'm not getting the Henderson love. He had one 50 catch season. Outside of that, he's never topped 35, and his last 4 seasons have been

51
34
32
22

With a "yards per" rate that's in decline. So, in a wide open Saints offense, he's catching fewer passes and converting them for fewer yards. He's also going to be 31 years old, so all the "Welker's too old" people should be hating the idea of getting this guy.

Here's my thinking, Deus.

He initially ran a 4.36, so he's likely still decently quick.

He has experience in a more complex kind of offense where one needs to have decent knowledge of all of the specific nuances. At least he's not coming from Pittsburgh.

He'd be affordable.

He's proven to be able to catch the ball on medium to longer routes, so I think his hands are good. He put up decent YPA in at least 2-3 yrs that were in the high teens or early twenties.

He's durable. If you look at the games played, he doesn't miss much, if at all.

It could be argued that some of his production tailed off due to Sproles being implemented into the system this year, with Graham being a favorite target in the past couple of years. On top of that Colston is Brees' "go to" guy, and that's not even taking into account Lance Moore either. The year before Robt Meachem saw some of the other targets.

I'm not claiming that he'd be a mega player, but I do think that he could reasonably offer an upgrade at the WR3 spot, yes.

 

[TomPatriot]

I'd consider Louis Murphy, who is faster and bigger than any Pats wide receiver. Good guy, but needs to be a little tougher. A genuine deep threat, 25 years old and he played for Urban Meyer at Florida. That's my choice and apologies if someone already mentioned him.

 

[Claremonster]

I'm not getting the Henderson love. He had one 50 catch season. Outside of that, he's never topped 35, and his last 4 seasons have been

51
34
32
22

With a "yards per" rate that's in decline. So, in a wide open Saints offense, he's catching fewer passes and converting them for fewer yards. He's also going to be 31 years old, so all the "Welker's too old" people should be hating the idea of getting this guy.

He could be a low cost, high reward role player.

 

[supafly]

I'm not getting the Henderson love. He had one 50 catch season. Outside of that, he's never topped 35, and his last 4 seasons have been

51
34
32
22

With a "yards per" rate that's in decline. So, in a wide open Saints offense, he's catching fewer passes and converting them for fewer yards. He's also going to be 31 years old, so all the "Welker's too old" people should be hating the idea of getting this guy.

Here's my thinking, Deus.

He initially ran a 4.36, so he's likely still decently quick.

He has experience in a more complex kind of offense where one needs to have decent knowledge of all of the specific nuances. At least he's not coming from Pittsburgh.

He'd be affordable.

He's proven to be able to catch the ball on medium to longer routes, so I think his hands are good. He put up decent YPA in at least 2-3 yrs that were in the high teens or early twenties.

He's durable. If you look at the games played, he doesn't miss much, if at all.

It could be argued that some of his production tailed off due to Sproles being implemented into the system this year, with Graham being a favorite target in the past couple of years. On top of that Colston is Brees' "go to" guy, and that's not even taking into account Lance Moore either. The year before Robt Meachem saw some of the other targets.

I'm not claiming that he'd be a mega player, but I do think that he could reasonably offer an upgrade at the WR3 spot, yes.

I think at the end of the day we'd all agree that we're still trying to polish a turd, for lack of a better phrase. However, this entire exercise is probably along those lines. Finding a mid/lower tiered free agency WR is never going to be an easy option, and it's probably never going to solve all of the problems that they have.

The good thing is that it's cheap and affordable, it may offer an upgrade at the WR3 or WR4 positions, and we've seen Belichick spin gold from straw before. In this case we may not even necessarily need gold, as something less will do, but we can't continue with the straw either.

With the TC roster increase all the way to 90 players, there will be quite a lot of players from different routes that need to come in here. Some of them won't work, and some of them will. This exercise was just about potentially finding a cost effective and more realistic/affordable option to fill and improve some of the missing pieces. If we all agreed, then these guys wouldn't even be the mid/lower level tiered FA's that they are, so only a handful of us are going to agree on our selections. Just something to keep in mind.

 

[supafly]

I'd consider Louis Murphy, who is faster and bigger than any Pats wide receiver. Good guy, but needs to be a little tougher. A genuine deep threat, 25 years old and he played for Urban Meyer at Florida. That's my choice and apologies if someone already mentioned him.

Some of these guys can offer certain skillsets that are positive, but of course they lack in other areas. That is why they are in the mid/lower level class of FA to begin with.

I think some of them have speed, some of them have decent physicality, and some have a little less of both. Finding the guy with the right potential is never easy, and the odds aren't good. Yet every year we still see the same class of FA's targeted by all teams who are trying to find that rejuvenation project.

Murphy is a thought. He is on the original list on page 1. I am not as familiar with him as I should be, but he is certainly the kind of player that belongs on this lower tiered list. I thought he had some speed at one point, but IIRC he may be a little smaller?