TLEF316
Footballguy
Final synopsis from my perspective.....
QB- obviously a disaster. Stranger things have happened....I guess. But they obviously need to proceed as if Wilson is a sunk cost and plan around getting him off the roster as soon as it is financially doable. Let him "reset" and compete in camp next year......but you need to bring in a viable NFL starting QB and pencil them in as a starter. Whether that's Carr or Jimmy G (the 2 most likely candidates, IMO), you need someone that you know can move the football at a league-average level. I'm going off the assumption that Lamar will not shake loose and that they wouldn't pursue someone like Rodgers or Brady if they became available. Would like to see them re-sign White at a reasonable number. But you can only spend so much $$ at QB.
RB- IMO, other than QB....the health of Breece Hall is going to define next season. And that's not a great bet. As someone (forgetting who it was) outlined earlier....RB's generally aren't 100% year 1 post ACL. Bam Knight looked great early and then fell off with the rest of the offense. Maybe a healthy/rebuilt offensive line is enough for a Knight/Carter/James Robinson/not 100% Breece committee to be productive. Sure hope so.
WR- If I'm going to say "I told you so" about ZACH Wilson, I have to eat some crow about Garrett Wilson. While I also liked him, I wanted Jameson Williams (knowing it would basically be a red shirt year. I believed and still believe he's a game breaking talent). Turns out Garrett is a potential top 5 stud who was incredibly productive year 1, so I was obviously wrong. So glad they have him. The rest of the crew is iffy. Corey Davis just isn't an elite pass catcher (great blocker) and isn't worth the $$. He'll have to be re-structured. They need to figure out what they have in Moore and whether he can be salvaged and properly utilized as a WR2. And then they need to determine if Mims is part of their plans and what they want to do with Berrios (thank God his deal was short and relatively cheap). Lots of decisions to make here
OL- again.....lots of unknowns here. I assume AVT comes back and resumes his all-pro trajectory. Becton is a total wild card. Brown could retire (or he could come back and give you one more really solid year with a repaired shoulder) Tomlinson was really bad this year (Michael Nania is posting some pretty shockingly bad reps on twitter) but they're stuck with him for 1 more year. McGovern is a FA, as is Fant. No idea what this unit looks like in September. And if they do move on from MLF, do they shift away from the SF zone blocking system to something more power based? Seems unlikely, but it would help get the most value out of Becton.
TE- Ruckert apparently was destroying dudes blocking yesterday. Hopefully they give him a chance to have a bigger role next year. Uzamah didn't do much at all this year but his contract is uncuttable. Conklin was productive most of the year but is pretty meh.
DL- decisions to make here too. Obviously you have to pay Q. Pay him whatever you need to pay him. He's elite and has earned it. Lawson was reasonably productive this year by the end (7 sacks) but not worth the $15.33M cap number. Re-structure (or cut) and use the $$ to pay Bryce Huff (who is a restricted FA). Gotta get Jermaine Johnson into a starting role and up the snaps for Clemmons. Both showed excellent potential. \
LB- Tough situation. Mosley is cuttable post June 1 and carries a $21.4M cap number. So that's a re-structure or cut situation. I'd bring back Alexander and Quincy williams (I believe both are UFA) but this is a spot I'd look to upgrade on day 2 of the draft if someone they like is there. This D needs a future leader/play caller in the middle once they move on from Mosley.
CB- Obviously the best part of the team. Sauce is everything they hoped for and more and Reed was great (and still just 26 years old) Michael Carter II is a good to very good slot guy and i guess Echols is a decent enough (and cheap) 4th guy. Would have been nice to extract some value from Hall via a trade (Seems like someone would have given up a pick for him prior to the year) but after a year of DNP's, that's not happening now. Feel bad for that due....seems like he's a startable NFL CB and his career is getting wrecked due to lack of opportunity. Hard to believe he kept his mouth shut all year while a guy like Moore popped off in a middle of a winning streak.
S- Joyner is bad. Whitehead is terrible in coverage. Davis was a bad pick compounded by a bad decision to keep him (instead of Pinnock). Just a total re-build back there again.
ST's - Greg the Leg was mostly really good all year. Missed some long ones in tough spots, but given how bad our situation has been for so long, I think you have to bring him back. Mann will forever be known as the guy that cost us Lawrence and he is incredibly inconsistent (and cost them at least 1 game this year). Time to move on. They have Hardee under contract for 1 more year, which I dig. The guy is a leader and clearly cares deeply about his craft. Sucks to pay 2M for a guy that only plays specials, but he's worth it.
Coaching- I think Saleh should stay with a playoff mandate. Despite the late season swoon, Ulbrich should obviously stay. I want MLF gone. He occasionally breaks out something relatively creative in the passing game, but most of the time he seems to have no idea what he's doing. He did nothing to develop Zach and couldn't scrape together single TD the last 3 weeks. He's the obvious scapegoat and I hope they move on.
QB- obviously a disaster. Stranger things have happened....I guess. But they obviously need to proceed as if Wilson is a sunk cost and plan around getting him off the roster as soon as it is financially doable. Let him "reset" and compete in camp next year......but you need to bring in a viable NFL starting QB and pencil them in as a starter. Whether that's Carr or Jimmy G (the 2 most likely candidates, IMO), you need someone that you know can move the football at a league-average level. I'm going off the assumption that Lamar will not shake loose and that they wouldn't pursue someone like Rodgers or Brady if they became available. Would like to see them re-sign White at a reasonable number. But you can only spend so much $$ at QB.
RB- IMO, other than QB....the health of Breece Hall is going to define next season. And that's not a great bet. As someone (forgetting who it was) outlined earlier....RB's generally aren't 100% year 1 post ACL. Bam Knight looked great early and then fell off with the rest of the offense. Maybe a healthy/rebuilt offensive line is enough for a Knight/Carter/James Robinson/not 100% Breece committee to be productive. Sure hope so.
WR- If I'm going to say "I told you so" about ZACH Wilson, I have to eat some crow about Garrett Wilson. While I also liked him, I wanted Jameson Williams (knowing it would basically be a red shirt year. I believed and still believe he's a game breaking talent). Turns out Garrett is a potential top 5 stud who was incredibly productive year 1, so I was obviously wrong. So glad they have him. The rest of the crew is iffy. Corey Davis just isn't an elite pass catcher (great blocker) and isn't worth the $$. He'll have to be re-structured. They need to figure out what they have in Moore and whether he can be salvaged and properly utilized as a WR2. And then they need to determine if Mims is part of their plans and what they want to do with Berrios (thank God his deal was short and relatively cheap). Lots of decisions to make here
OL- again.....lots of unknowns here. I assume AVT comes back and resumes his all-pro trajectory. Becton is a total wild card. Brown could retire (or he could come back and give you one more really solid year with a repaired shoulder) Tomlinson was really bad this year (Michael Nania is posting some pretty shockingly bad reps on twitter) but they're stuck with him for 1 more year. McGovern is a FA, as is Fant. No idea what this unit looks like in September. And if they do move on from MLF, do they shift away from the SF zone blocking system to something more power based? Seems unlikely, but it would help get the most value out of Becton.
TE- Ruckert apparently was destroying dudes blocking yesterday. Hopefully they give him a chance to have a bigger role next year. Uzamah didn't do much at all this year but his contract is uncuttable. Conklin was productive most of the year but is pretty meh.
DL- decisions to make here too. Obviously you have to pay Q. Pay him whatever you need to pay him. He's elite and has earned it. Lawson was reasonably productive this year by the end (7 sacks) but not worth the $15.33M cap number. Re-structure (or cut) and use the $$ to pay Bryce Huff (who is a restricted FA). Gotta get Jermaine Johnson into a starting role and up the snaps for Clemmons. Both showed excellent potential. \
LB- Tough situation. Mosley is cuttable post June 1 and carries a $21.4M cap number. So that's a re-structure or cut situation. I'd bring back Alexander and Quincy williams (I believe both are UFA) but this is a spot I'd look to upgrade on day 2 of the draft if someone they like is there. This D needs a future leader/play caller in the middle once they move on from Mosley.
CB- Obviously the best part of the team. Sauce is everything they hoped for and more and Reed was great (and still just 26 years old) Michael Carter II is a good to very good slot guy and i guess Echols is a decent enough (and cheap) 4th guy. Would have been nice to extract some value from Hall via a trade (Seems like someone would have given up a pick for him prior to the year) but after a year of DNP's, that's not happening now. Feel bad for that due....seems like he's a startable NFL CB and his career is getting wrecked due to lack of opportunity. Hard to believe he kept his mouth shut all year while a guy like Moore popped off in a middle of a winning streak.
S- Joyner is bad. Whitehead is terrible in coverage. Davis was a bad pick compounded by a bad decision to keep him (instead of Pinnock). Just a total re-build back there again.
ST's - Greg the Leg was mostly really good all year. Missed some long ones in tough spots, but given how bad our situation has been for so long, I think you have to bring him back. Mann will forever be known as the guy that cost us Lawrence and he is incredibly inconsistent (and cost them at least 1 game this year). Time to move on. They have Hardee under contract for 1 more year, which I dig. The guy is a leader and clearly cares deeply about his craft. Sucks to pay 2M for a guy that only plays specials, but he's worth it.
Coaching- I think Saleh should stay with a playoff mandate. Despite the late season swoon, Ulbrich should obviously stay. I want MLF gone. He occasionally breaks out something relatively creative in the passing game, but most of the time he seems to have no idea what he's doing. He did nothing to develop Zach and couldn't scrape together single TD the last 3 weeks. He's the obvious scapegoat and I hope they move on.
