Houston is broke and probably won't be back (without a massive pay cut)
Berry will be technically on the team but you can't count on him actually playing
I was really excited about the ILBs this year with Hitchens and Ragland but they've been a disaster
Fuller is OK. Scandrick has played better than expected. Nelson is a flag machine
Ford is having his best year in a contract year of course
They cut Parker once and he didn't learn how to tackle during his cup of coffee in Atlanta
The d-line separately seems good in Jones, Bailey, and Nnadi. But collectively they're getting run on
DL: Jones, Nnadi, Bailey
LB: Speaks, Hitchens, ???, Ford/KPass
CB: Fuller, ???, ???
S: ???, ??? (I like the Lucas guy in limited snaps) [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
I question whether or not they can even win one at this point, let alone multiple.
I love Patrick Mahomes but he's not Jesus and this defense needs more than healing, it needs to be raised from the dead.
For this year and next year you maybe right. But if he turns out to be truly elite as per all indications then we have a large window to field an average D. [Reply]
These are the guys who should be automatically gone after this season.
1. Reggie Ragland (No dead cap involved after this season).
2. Daniel Sorensen (Only $2 Million dead cap, can designate him as post 6/1 to spread $1M for 2019 and $1M for 2020).
These are the guys who should NOT be resigned under any circumstances once their contract expires after this season.
1. Steve Nelson
2. Ron Parker
3. Frank Zombo
4. Terrance Smith
These are the guys who should take a pay cut. If it's refused, then best course of action is to cut them.
1. Eric Berry
These are the guys who's contracts are expiring after this season that I would listen to bring back, depending on the years/cost.
1. Allen Bailey. I'd bring him back, but definitely not for $7 million.
2. Orlando Scandrick. He's not terrible by any means. Just depends on what's he looking for in terms of years and salary. Will do 2, maybe 3 years, but no more.
3. Jarvis Jenkins. Still have to have bodies on the D-Line.
4. Dee Ford - Franchise Tag only. Do not sign him to a long contract. KC got burned by this several times, and no need to pony up cash on a player who only has one asset. Injury risk as well.
Pretty much everyone else will have to be kept due to either good performance, cheap/young, or salary cap limitations (ie. cannot release Hitchens due to his dead cap #). [Reply]
Can only hope that they make some moves before kissing this season away. It's easy to overlook the suckage when you're winning but if there are many more games like last night the offense is going to mutiny as they should. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Molitoth:
Fire Bob Sutton. Bring in a new DC..... Do NOT sign Dee Ford.
I wanted to sign Berry, because I didn't want to be the type of team that would bail on a player of his caliber because he was unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with cancer. And he was so dedicated to returning to the team that he started working out while going through chemotherapy. Bailing on him would have been the Patriots thing to do. I was okay with taking that salary cap hit.
But I may have been the only person I know that didn't want to give a contract that big to Houston. During his 20+ sack season quite a few of his sacks were the result of an extended play instead of being the direct result of his pass-rush.
I forget what PFF calls those types of sacks, but the point is that his sack total was a little misleading. Now, I am not saying that he wasn't a good pass-rusher, but I didn't believe he was worth top-tier money. Everyone called me an idiot, but after we gave him that contract, I said it was a mistake. Houston can be brilliant, and can dominate at times, but he was never going to be worth, or live up to $101,000,000.00
So, we will be reaping the consequences of that unfortunate contract, and we have to learn from that and not overpay Ford. Being the best, and nearly the only, pass-rusher on a team with a bad defense doesn't warrant a big payday.