Why? The Niners seem to be well on the road to mediocrity again.
I like this move a lot because I trust Cobb more so than giving such an important position to Davante Adams (who is good, but needs one more year to get his hands right). The problem comes that if they sign Cobb, and because of that can’t sign Bualaga…I won’t be happy. Fingers crossed
On to my second team: By all indications this deal is insane. It’s going to destroy the poor Dolphins for about 3 years, but hey they’re gonna remain in the news. Now they just need a wide out…or two…and a corner…and offensive line help…and an offense…"
That fear being said, being a Packer fan first I hate Suh as a person and as an opponent…but I’ll be damned if he’s not great at football and will finally be happy rooting for him.
Talk about great players’ careers cut short by injury. 
It’s still officially just “contemplating” retirement. He hinted at the severity of the problem when he went on IR last season, and he’s had ongoing problems with his hands, too. It’s sad even without all the rest of the crap this off-season.
Oddly enough, his retirement will impact the team less than some of the other player losses due to Chris Borland’s emergence.
As for the rest…
I’ve been round and round with Hamlet about how wrong he is about Kaepernick. I’m a fan of his and think he can have great success, but let’s look at this objectively. I believe whatever talk you hear about Kap being “shopped” are overblown reports of 49ers GM Trent Baalke playing the GM game. If some team calls and offers to overpay to obtain Kaepernick, Baalke is more than willing to play teams off each other to get the price even higher. Kaepernick’s contract is already set up to allow them to cut bait cheaply, so you know they are willing to move ahead with or without him under center.
Multiple 1st Rounders? Trade. Duh.
A 1st, a 2nd, and a few later picks? Trade I guess.
Less than the above? Keep Kaepernick for yourself.
As for other players, none are individually much of a loss. For the price to retain him, Iupati isn’t that much better than his replacements already on the team. Crabtree is about as close to a bust as you can get without actually being one. Culliver is going to get overpaid due to a weak CB draft class. Justin Smith is adequately replaced by Dockett. Gore’s loss is emotionally tough, but the “dump 'em a year early” principle applies. All these player departures were going to happen even if Harbaugh was still the coach.
And yes, I’m totally and selfishly downplaying our mediocre upcoming season before it even happens for my own psychological reasons. 
Chris Borland while a pleasant surprise is undersized. Someone like Lynch will drag him for 5 yards. Still as long as Bowman is there too, this might be ok.
While I’m not quite ready to call him a bust, his basic skills are clearly lacking. Vernon Davis disappearing from the offense is an indictment of Kaps basic skills.
I agree with all of this.
And this…
And this…
Andre Johnson officially on the market.
Am I crazy or he is the PERFECT target for Andrew Luck?
The team didn’t really give any reason for trading McCoy. They just did it. And I’d agree with the first paragraph, except to note that 1) RB and CB are two very different positions with very different valuations, and 2) they were pretty much desperate.
Kelly certainly is putting himself up for big criticism if this flops, but saying he wants “lackeys,” honestly tells me you haven’t read much on him. His players (and coaches) pretty much universally rave about his willingness to explain his thinking, delegate decisions, accept input, and even admit when he is wrong. He’s very big into Apple/Google 21st century corporate decisionmaking. What he *won’t *tolerate are guys who he sees as me-first/lacking committment.
That may or may not be a realistic approach on the professional level, but it’s certainly a very different one from the my-way-or-the-highway “college tyrant” Schiano/Saban school.
Am I ridiculous to think that the Arizona Cardinals are the perfect landing spot for CJ Spiller? Ellington can’t be the only back.
Borland isn’t undersized. He’s an inch shorter than Bowman and a few pounds heavier. His arms are short and that’s about it. He did better going against Lynch than most LBs.
If the Colts wanted an aging, slowing possession receiver they would have held onto Reggie Wayne. Johnson might have more left in the tank than Wayne, but I don’t think Indy’s going to find out.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see him land in Baltimore - they’re a consistent contender, need a wide receiver (losing Torry Smith in free agency), and have had pretty good luck with 30+ free agents at the position (Derrick Mason, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith). I’m not sure about the cap room right now, but once Haloti Ngata’s deal is resolved (either way) they’ll have a lot more to work with.
Wayne is 36. Johnson is 33.
When Wayne was 34, he had 106 catches for 1355 yards.
Just jumping in for a quick drive by, but had to comment on some of the stuff from this week. Haven’t read the thread, so apologies if this is redundant.
Naturally I’ll start on the Bears. Shit man. I totally pissed about the Marshall trade. The radio stations seem to be of two minds on this. He’s either a cancer and they had to get rid of him to save the locker room or this is some strategy where they’ll gain assets and cap room to get younger and faster at the position.
Personally I think these are both bullshit. First, I think the clubhouse cancer thing is total crap. Marshall had a couple blow ups in the locker room after embarrassing losses, which I don’t hold against him, and he had a few bad media things. Both of them I call small potatoes. The guy showed up prepared, in shape and played injured all year. With a few exceptions he was the most intense and committed guy we had on the team this year. Far outweighs a couple bad emotional moments.
The second issue is even more crap. They only saved about $4M in cap room while creating about $6M in dead money. That’s not a money saving move and it’ll take way more than $4M to replace his productivity. They are probably getting a 4th rounder back from the Jets and 3rd day picks aren’t exactly something you can count on as building blocks.
So this move is obviously about the Bears deciding it was addition by subtraction. The only arguments that make sense are 1) they think Marshall is due to decline and they are bailing early, 2) they think Alshon is the new #1 and they don’t want Marshall getting his looks, 3) they think the Cutler/Marshall relationship is part of the problem, 4) they think Marshall is somehow setting a bad example, 5) they don’t want Marshall doing the weekly flights to Jersey for Showtime, 6) they think that Marshall, Jeffery, Wilson and Bennett are too similar.
Some of these have merit, some more than others. I’m hoping that it’s mostly about 1, 2 and 6. I think the Showtime thing is stupid but not worth losing one of your best players over. There have been some loud rumors about 3, but this doesn’t really jibe with the other rumors about Cutler being on the outs too. As for 4, Marshall is a lot of things be he’s a great example for preparation and effort on Sundays.
So…based on this, it feels like the Bears are looking to bottom out.
As for Cutler, most experts think that the Bears are done with Cutler. I get it but the fact remains, there’s no realistic way the Bears are getting someone better for this year. Getting rid of him probably means a 3-4 year rebuild with a big series of long shots on rookie QBs. That sucks. The experts also think that the Bears are stuck with Cutler for 2 more seasons due to the guaranteed money. If they decide they really are stuck with him, I hope they don’t just half-ass it for 2 years. If you’re not sold rip the fucking band-aid off.
The Bears are losing Paea, apparently to Washington. I’m a little disappointed, he was one of the few Bears draft picks that actually panned out. I understand that with the system change he’s probably not a fit but it’s kinda of a bad break.
The Bears have apparently agreed to terms with Pernell McPhee to be a new 3-4 OLB edge rusher. They are paying him handsomely too, too handsomely in my opinion for a situational guy who sucks against the run. We already had Shea McClellin. I don’t know McPhee’s game that well and I’m sure he’s much better than Shea, but for what they are paying he we could have landed one of the top DB FAs.
There was a short rumor that the Bears were a destination for Kaepernick. If there’s any truth to that I’m throwing bags of shit on the front steps of Halas Hall.
I want the Bears to get one of the top Safeties. McCourty is going back to the Pats so he’s out. Da’Norris Searcy is the new guy at the top of my list.
The Bears are supposedly a possible destination for Terrance Knighton and they do need a NT in the wake of Paea leaving and the shift to a 3-4, so that makes a lot of sense. I prefer him to drafting Danny Shelton if that’s what it comes down to.
Well, that’s enough for now. I guess I didn’t make it past the Bears. Lots more to discuss with the Eagles, Niners and other craziness. I’ll check back tomorrow and read the thread.
I think that the Bears are just looking to rebuild. They’re desperately trying to get rid of Cutler but realize that no one in their right mind will eat his contract. They realize the team is more than just a couple pieces away so they’re starting the rebuild while Cutler’s guaranteed money plays out, they’ll dump him and get a new QB, and by that time hopefully the rest of the team will be in better shape. Getting rid of Marshall was just an acknowledgement he was getting old and going to decline before the rebuild finished, and so they might as well get something, anything, while they still can.
But no team that Cutler would go to if it became a hat in hand issue would really have to pay his contract, would they? Eventually the Bears would just cut him without recompense. Cutler is damaged goods in the eyes of everyone at this point.
Good Lord the NFC North is just GIVING this division to the Packers.
Looks like Frank Gore may be having second thoughts about the Eagles. Free agency hasn’t even officially started so of course anything could happen (and there are plenty other viable options at that position), but at the moment this kind of leaves Chip Kelly in the lurch.
They’re in the position the Jets were with Sanchez in 2013: they gave a guy a long-term extension, and then one year later realized he wasn’t the guy they wanted, but the contract made him untradable/unreleasable.
Sanchez of course, was courteous enough to suffer a season-ending injury to get out of the awkwardness. Bears fans should probably root for the same.
You’re right, that’s a good fit and as a Browns fan I hope it doesn’t happen. Anquan Boldin is a great example of what Andre Johnson could be now. He won’t take the top off the defense but good luck stopping him.
ETA: John Fox is a curious hire if a team wants to rebuild. Fox strikes me as a guy who can have success with an existing collection of talent, not a player developer.
McPhee is a good, not great, pass rusher who benefited enormously from playing with Suggs and Dumervil over the last couple of years. One of the best things about him is his flexibility - he can rush from the edge or inside. He’s actually better against the run playing inside, where his size isn’t a disadvantage. If the Bears can keep him inside (or off the field) on running plays, he’ll do ok… not great, and not as well as you’d hope for the money he’s getting, but ok.
Ravens defenders leave consistently Baltimore, sign for big money on new teams, and underperform those contracts. Adalius Thomas, Bart Scott, Jarret Johnson, Danell Ellerbee, Arthur Jones… McPhee’s going to do the same. Baltimore doesn’t let go of the guys who make that defense run, and the guys who are free agents benefit immensely from the guys who aren’t.
That’s one way to fix the Seahawks lack of talent at WR.