Where do we need to improve

Hugepatsfan said:

For the Chargers, the reason they have so much cap space is because they have so many players hitting FA. That cap space comes at a cost.

SEA and LAR are much more like us where the cap space is more "genuine" in that it's not coming from a ton of gaping roster openings.

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DoubleDeluxe said:

I'm sorry Ross, but this might take the cake for the worst post of the entire season.
Front of your mind, back of your mind, or anywhere in your mind is 1,000,000% pure ridiculousness.
This would take Vrabel from coach of the year, to idiot of the century.
Unlike some on here who have made excuses for every mistake Maye makes, I haven't absolved him of bad play throughout the season and I certainly won't do that today.
He was not good in the playoffs, arguing that he was is pure foley.
Yes there were factors in that play, weather, online, WRs not getting open......etc.
But you do not trade away guy who is 23 on a rookie contract who finished 2nd in MVP voting.
That would be cause for immediate dismissal.

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Lagaffe_07 said:

They will need to make some choices.

I can see them trading Barmore to get the space to go get an Edge rusher.

I think trading for AJ Brown is almost a no brainer. He stated he wanted to come here. Vrabel know him really well.

I would cut Henry if it means getting a younger TE.

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Ross12 said:

There are a lot of ways to generate cap for the team.

Cut Diggs (post-June 1 designation): $21M new cap space
Cut Onwenu: $17M new cap space
Restructure Milton Williams' contract (convert salary into bonus): $13M new cap space
Cut Hunter Henry: $9M new cap space
Restructure Barmore's contract: $7M new cap space
Restructure Carlton Davis' contract: $7M new cap space
Restructure Landry's contract: $5M new cap space
Cut Bradbury: $6M new cap space
Cut Dobbs: $4M new cap space
Cut Pop Douglas: $4M new cap space

The above are all generally pretty sensible easy moves that don't hurt the team very much, if at all (depending on who is added) and also create around $100M in cap space. Now, some of the moves like the restructures push some cap costs into future years, but in general it makes sense to do that since the salary cap continues to go up exponentially year over year. And they would not really be pushing that much money forward overall.

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KCSVEN said:

I guess the biggest issue is cutting guys for cap space isn't useful if free agents replacing them are worse.

They have options on cap for sure, but the biggest numbers are guys that probably do not make sense to cut.

Onwenu? He started slow, but back half of the year was the best lineman. He is the #4 overall ranked Guard on PFF. (Old friend Thuney #1) and was 15th amongst all linemen. He's worth the 2026 cap hit.

Diggs? Maybe if you get AJ Brown but otherwise, he was the #1 receiver and who is going to be better than him next year?

Hunter Henry is unlikely to be cut as well.

It's all good to cut guys to save money but taking those savings and using elsewhere has to be a net positive.

Waiting until after 2026 you can move on from all of them for a total of 4 million dead cap, all from Diggs.

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KCSVEN said:

I guess the biggest issue is cutting guys for cap space isn't useful if free agents replacing them are worse.

They have options on cap for sure, but the biggest numbers are guys that probably do not make sense to cut.

Onwenu? He started slow, but back half of the year was the best lineman. He is the #4 overall ranked Guard on PFF. (Old friend Thuney #1) and was 15th amongst all linemen. He's worth the 2026 cap hit.

Diggs? Maybe if you get AJ Brown but otherwise, he was the #1 receiver and who is going to be better than him next year?

Hunter Henry is unlikely to be cut as well.

It's all good to cut guys to save money but taking those savings and using elsewhere has to be a net positive.

Waiting until after 2026 you can move on from all of them for a total of 4 million dead cap, all from Diggs.

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KCSVEN said:

I guess the biggest issue is cutting guys for cap space isn't useful if free agents replacing them are worse.

They have options on cap for sure, but the biggest numbers are guys that probably do not make sense to cut.

Onwenu? He started slow, but back half of the year was the best lineman. He is the #4 overall ranked Guard on PFF. (Old friend Thuney #1) and was 15th amongst all linemen. He's worth the 2026 cap hit.

Diggs? Maybe if you get AJ Brown but otherwise, he was the #1 receiver and who is going to be better than him next year?

Hunter Henry is unlikely to be cut as well.

It's all good to cut guys to save money but taking those savings and using elsewhere has to be a net positive.

Waiting until after 2026 you can move on from all of them for a total of 4 million dead cap, all from Diggs.

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Ross12 said:

Going thru my list from with my opinions:

Diggs: He is nowhere near worth the cost. He started strong but fell off very hard. Even if he is not replaced, I just don't think he is a need at this cost. If he took a big pay cut, sure. But he won't, so they need to save that cost. Not remotely worth it.

Onwenu: I am on the fence here - while I think he struggled a little in the postseason, he was not bad on the whole. I'd be more inclined to keep him and instead give him an extension that lowers his cap hit in 2026.

Henry: I am fairly confident someone like Pitts or Likely will get signed as the new TE1, so Henry can be dropped. He could theoretically become the TE2, but that's not worth the cost. They can get that for a lot cheaper, and they'd probably prefer a younger guy to take that job like Dippre, since they carried him all of 2025 with an eye towards 2026.

Bradbury: He'd be getting replaced, either by a new free agent or by Wilson, so doesn't hurt anything.

Dobbs, Douglas: Both have replacements already so no harm done.

Williams, Barmore, Landry, Davis restructures: All are just moving money forward so no harm done.

So if you keep Onwenu and extend him as I said, you end up gaining ~$90M in cap, and then if you sign a TE and C you probably have first year cap hits of ~$20M combined for those two. So you still end up with $70M gained, or about $90-100M overall, with which you can make many other moves such as for WR, LB, DE, RB, etc.

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Hugepatsfan said:

I do think they should look at a significant/notable WR addition while also keeping Diggs. Doesn't have to be a flashy #1 guy, but they could use a better option when they go 3 WR. I think we have 6 NFL caliber WRs on the team in Diggs/Boutte/Hollins/Williams/Douglas/Chism, but it's a matter of where they belong on the depth chart. If you ranked all 32 teams, I think Diggs is probably one of the weakest #1 WRs league wide. Certainly bottom half. Same with Boutte as a #2 - middling at best. Hollins and Douglas look to me more like #4 WRs/certain package players than top 3 WRs which is a starter level position in today's game. Williams/Chism show flashes and maybe there are year 2 leaps to be made but tough to pencil them in as top 3 options now, IMO.

Our current group of WRs doesn't dictate coverage in a way that makes reads easier for Maye or push defenders back/out of the box to make things easier on the OL. I am not saying it needs to be a high profile, flashy #1 type guy but if they added another really strong option then I think they could go 3 WRs more often and someone would have a good matchup. If you're going to go the "strength in numbers" route in receiving options vs. having strong #1/#2 options you need the 3rd/4th/5th to be of a high enough quality that they can consistently win against the coverage they face in that slot of the pecking order even without the #1/#2 drawing a ton of extra attention. I think we have guys who can be fine in those roles with appropriate #1/#2 types, but we don't have that and the current group isn't strong enough to win consistently without that at the top of the depth chart.

In term of roster spot, it probably pushes Douglas or Chism off the roster because hard to keep 7 WRs. It also means Kyle Williams has to earn his snaps, because I do like his developmental potential. But his rookie deal is 4 years and it's very unlikely Diggs or Hollins are here for the end of it so it's not like opportunities won't open up for him through injury or roster change over that span.

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Hugepatsfan said:

I'm just looking at the available list and there are a fair amount of LGs:

Isaac Seumalo
Zion Johnson
Conor McGovern (listed as OC but has played LG before)
David Edwards
Joel Bitonio (Vrabel worked with him in CLE)
Alijah Vera-Tucker (injury risk but upside play)
Dylan Parham (drafted by McDaniels in LV and started at LG as a rookie)


Considering how much cap space we have, it feels prudent to sign at least one of them.

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Ross12 said:

If they decide they want to keep Diggs as their slot guy after bringing in a different #1 like AJ Brown then I can see the logic, but they'd probably need to at least restructure him. Convert his $20M salary into a signing bonus and add a couple void years. Then in 2027 do it again. In 2028 when he hits free agency they'd eat a ~$20M dead cap hit which is probably not that bad when the cap hit is like $375M by then or whatever it is. I think they probably need to lower the salary though... He's not playing like a $20M a year player. At least, IMO. I don't know if he's amenable to that.

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PatsFan2 said:

I don't know why you're so hung up on H Henry: he offers Nothing! has a Blocker and now dropping what he's supposed to be good at. I would not miss him: he came up very short when we really needed him.

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Rob0729 said:

I would take Alec Pierce over Diggs. But he is going to be expensive.

There are a lot of TEs in free agency who would be a potential upgrade to Henry. So there is a chance he is cuttable. Although I expect Vrabel to target Chig Okonokwo. He might be more of a replacement for Hooper, but he does have #1 TE potential.

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Hugepatsfan said:

It doesn't have to be a #1 guy like AJ Brown. It could be a guy like Romeo Doubs for example who I think could be a good, solid X here. I think if you went 3 WRs with him out there instead of Hollins/Douglas /current version of KWilliams alongside Diggs/Boutte, whoever the defense designates #3 is going to have a better shot of winning vs. their man consistently. I think if you're going to go without a #1 you really need to have 3 #2 type options because that #3 needs to be better than the guy covering him.

As far as the contract, teams routinely "overpay" to fill roster needs on a short term, 1-year basis without long term commitment. Diggs definitely isn't a $20M player on a multi year commitment, but I think you can rationalize it within the rest of our cap on a short-term basis.

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Lagaffe_07 said:

If you can get AJ Brown, I would be fine with Diggs as WR2.

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Ross12 said:

Going thru my list from with my opinions:

Diggs: He is nowhere near worth the cost. He started strong but fell off very hard. Even if he is not replaced, I just don't think he is a need at this cost. If he took a big pay cut, sure. But he won't, so they need to save that cost. Not remotely worth it.

Onwenu: I am on the fence here - while I think he struggled a little in the postseason, he was not bad on the whole. I'd be more inclined to keep him and instead give him an extension that lowers his cap hit in 2026.

Henry: I am fairly confident someone like Pitts or Likely will get signed as the new TE1, so Henry can be dropped. He could theoretically become the TE2, but that's not worth the cost. They can get that for a lot cheaper, and they'd probably prefer a younger guy to take that job like Dippre, since they carried him all of 2025 with an eye towards 2026.

Bradbury: He'd be getting replaced, either by a new free agent or by Wilson, so doesn't hurt anything.

Dobbs, Douglas: Both have replacements already so no harm done.

Williams, Barmore, Landry, Davis restructures: All are just moving money forward so no harm done.

So if you keep Onwenu and extend him as I said, you end up gaining ~$90M in cap, and then if you sign a TE and C you probably have first year cap hits of ~$20M combined for those two. So you still end up with $70M gained, or about $90-100M overall, with which you can make many other moves such as for WR, LB, DE, RB, etc.

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KCSVEN said:

I agree on all the restructure. I agree IF you could get a TE better than Henry but Pitts is not leaving and who else rates as equal or better the Henry.
Chig Okonkwo was in Tennessee so Vrabel will know him well enough. Didn't even start every game though?

Report already say Pitts is going to be franchised or signed to extension.
Likely is probably next, though Harbaugh with Giants may want him and he had 27 receptions? Really and upgrade?
Patriots also need to sign 2 Tight Ends if Henry goes.

My view is it won't be easy to replace Henry in Free Agency. If I am wrong then yeah, sure.
Is Diggs worth his contract for 2026? Not in terms of expected value but he was the #1 receiver.

Total receptions:
1: Diggs: 85
Henry: 60
Hollins: 46
Trey H: 35

I just don't see the logic in cutting the top 2 receivers for Drake UNLESS you have equivalent replacements.
I don't see those in free agency. Trade for AJ Brown, OK, bye to Diggs.
I think they will need to draft a TE and need a year to develop behind Henry.
Ideally: Trade for an AJ Brown, cut Diggs, Keep Henry but draft 2nd-4th round TE to develop. If someone has a realistic TE free agent target then sure.

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