Steve102
Any Man Who Must Say I Am The King Is No True King
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01 ~ I believe that we face roster peril far in excess of that which is generally perceived, by media and by fans. To wit: Many key players are at or are on the brink of reaching that inflection point between Rookie Contract and Max Contract that forces us ~ or Mad Bill, were he running the team~ to face tough, grueling questions, given the constraints of The Infernal Salary Cap, about whether or not each key player is more valuable to the team and its championship quest ~ or not ~ than the 1, 2, or even 3 or 4 key Role Players that we might sign or retain instead.
Thanks for the read, Grid. I didn't agree with some of it, but you left a lot to think about that I wouldn't have been aware of, if you hadn't put in the work. I like some of the FA's you are looking at and will be interested in finding out who you like in the draft given we will be at 31 in most rounds.
It took so long to read your tome, I no longer have time to comment on specifics right now except to say I'm glad there is at least one other optimist who is waiting for Nate Ebner to emerge beyond his special teams role.
Just a few thoughts that I've had about our current off season. Many'f'm'll be about moves that've already been made or could've been made, though some'f'm're about moves that might yet be.
I continue to bite off more than I can chew in the Work/School/Workout/Blog worlds, so I probably will fall short, yet again, of the goal of contributing to the Draft Forum, but for anyone who wants to comment on my draft-inclusive theoretical off season, that's where it'll be, though not until the eve of The Draft and, more likely, not until afterwards!! But in any case, I've gotten a lot more out'f this Site, via y'all contributing your thoughts, than I've given back, for quite a while, now, so I'm redoubling my efforts, as they say, to be less'f a lurker and more'f a contributor. Here's hoping this finds y'all well!!
What follows are some'f my thoughts on our prospective ReBoot Season. They are definitely subject to change and are not intended as a defined blueprint, just yet. And I’ll defer any Draft notions until later on, as my perspective on that beloved field of endeavor is still very transitional, except for the top QuarterBack Prospects. This is about Free Agency:
01 ~ I believe that we face roster peril far in excess of that which is generally perceived, by media and by fans. To wit: Many key players are at or are on the brink of reaching that inflection point between Rookie Contract and Max Contract that forces us ~ or Mad Bill, were he running the team~ to face tough, grueling questions, given the constraints of The Infernal Salary Cap, about whether or not each key player is more valuable to the team and its championship quest ~ or not ~ than the 1, 2, or even 3 or 4 key Role Players that we might sign or retain instead.
02 ~ That's tough ~ extremely tough. But it'd be a thousand times tougher if not for the persistently brazen generosity of Tom Brady. How much do you think he would've averaged, the last several years, had he taken his talent on the open market? Even now, going on 41. Were he a Free Agent, with a stated intention of playing for another 4 or 5 years, and exhibiting absolutely no sign whatsoever of slowing down, what do you think he'd get? 35 million? 40 million?
03 ~ Thank God for Tom Brady and his incalculable loyalty and generosity above and beyond his brilliance in realizing that the less he makes, the better his chances of winning it all.
04 ~ According to OverTheCap, we were, when I started writing this and before we made any moves, about $21,000,000 under the Cap, this being on The Ides of March.
05 ~ So I’m looking at Free Agency and possibly Trades with a mind towards freeing up Cap Space, looking at how much Cap Capital we can amass…and then signing Players.
06 ~ My first addition to Cap Space is of course Brandin Cooks. I know that everybody loves that guy and that I’m going to get eviscerated for this, and I do not give a rat’s ass. I lauded Cooks in 2013, and he’s certainly top shelf talent…But I can’t stand’m. I’m a bit’f a braying jackass, myself, so I’ve got nothing against a fellow trying to build his brand, and I’ve got nothing a guy venting in public, per se, but Cooks publicly squawked about his role in New Orleans after a dominant victory, exposing himself, in my eyes, as a guy who doesn’t genuinely care about winning…and his pathetic play in the 2nd Quarter of the Super Bowl, when he easily had the crucial 1st Down, but gave it away to leap in the air like a putz, because he didn’t want to get clobbered when he cut it inside ~ and in so doing, cost us points that would’ve earned us our 6th Super Bowl Championship, for those scoring at home ~ confirmed my impression: He’s a Prima Donna who sells out when we need’m the most. I know that he talks a fine game and everyone loves’m, but I do not. I believe that he’s just been shining it up, to paraphrase Lou Gossett to Richard Gere in An Officer And A Gentleman, and I believe that, as with Randy Moss, his true character will eventually become clear to all. I’d trade’m to the highest bidder, and recoup that 8.4 Million to spend elsewhere. And I’d do so knowing that the market on Players of his skill are going for pretty much twice his 2018 salary. I don’t care. I don’t want this guy on my team, I know damned well he’s gone in a year if I’m running things, anyway ~ this is all an exercise in playing Fantasy General Manager, after all ~ so I’d rather get 2018 Draft Picks than a 2020 Draft Pick whose value is a 3.5 Round Pick at absolute maximum, while spending that 8.4 million on somebody who’ll hopefully think’f his teammates before himself.
07 ~ Cut or trade Kenny Britt. Good God, what a horrible move, picking up that guy. I cannot stand his work ethic. Cooks, at least, has a terrific work ethic. Britt has almost Randy Moss talent, but doesn’t seem to care. That’s $2,000,000 right of the books.
08 ~ Cut or trade Phillip Dorsett. Blech. Zoomer who can’t run routes. All set on that. That’s another $1,600,000 of the books, adding $12,000,000 from WideOuts. Sweet.
09 ~ Probably cut Dwayne Allen. I like the guy, and I’m not 100% sure of this move, because I love’m as a Blocker and I was stunned that he wasn’t more effective as a Receiver. And if he develops as a Receiver, he could become absolutely crucial to our success as a Hybrid who presents more’r less equally effective options in the Run or the Pass…But I’m provisionally gonna cut’m to free up that $5,000,000, as there’re only so many bucks to go around.
10 ~ Cut Jordan Richards. Just on general principles. In fact: cut’m, sign’m back, and cut’m again. ************. I take a back seat to no man in my fawning adoration of William Belichick, but the first thing that I’m gonna do when I’m Emperor of the Universe is to revoke Coach Belichick’s license to draft Defensive Backs in the 2nd Round. That’s $1,000,000.
11 ~ I like Eric Rowe just fine, but I don’t perceive him making the team. $1,000,000 more.
12 ~ OK, that’s a total of just about $40,000,000 in Cap Space to play with. That doesn’t count any changes reconfiguring or extending Brady, Gronkowski, or anyone else might entail. Me, I detest the business of pushing Salary Cap hits down the road, so I wouldn’t do any such thing, but I’m just acknowledging those things…It also doesn’t include the dozen players, all at about $500,000 or so ~ so that’s about another $6,000,000, not including other guys who’re likely to get cut, later ~ that I’ll ignore, in the interest of accounting for Rookie Contracts.
Thank you, Brother Tony!! Mucho Scratchy Ass!!
Dorsett is slightly faster than God. He's not my kind of FootBall Player, but I'm certainly not against the guy, by any means, and won't shed a tear if we keep'm.
Yeah, coming from a complete lack of actual knowledge, I think of Rivers as a speed/explosion kind of guy in the Rivers/Beasley mode. Right now I don't see him as having enough ass to be a set the edge player. So coming off the ACL, my highest expectation of him for this year is that of a situational LB on passing down.
01 ~ You're confused. I didn't say that Cooks cost us the Super Bowl. I said that had he made that play like a man instead of a Prima Donna, we would've probably won the Super Bowl. And that's actually a fact, as difficult as you're finding it to process: a First Down inside the 10, the way were playing on Offense? Almost certainly 7 Points.
Our ending up with 0 kinda destroys your "laughable" argument...which makes your assertion the only laughable part of this discussion, ironically.
02 ~ But I don't believe that one play can be said to cost anyone the Super Bowl, which is why I didn't make that statement. As any one of a dozen plays ~ or several dozen ~ with different results would've delivered us victory, it seems pretty foolish ~ and obviously foolish ~ to claim that one decision ~ like benching Butler ~ caused it, and to ignore everything else.
I don't know if I'd call your thinking that "laughable", though...More like: sad.
Thanks, bud. Always eager to benefit from your words of wisdom.
Dump the greatest player in the history of the game? Got it.
I'll be sure to give your advice all due consideration.
