Really don't think they're putting a priority on replacing Free. He's at the top of the discard pile for fans now, because he was never popular and never a standout player and now he's old. But there are players like that on every roster who just fit in and hold down a position that can otherwise be tough to fill. Teams like guys who stay in lineups, do everything right in meetings, and who are predictable and at least serviceable on gamedays. Free might blow some protections now and again, but he's not getting plays blown up the rest of the time by messing up a responsibility. When you have problems with players not knowing exactly what to do in other areas, the salty veteran who's not athletic enough becomes a secondary or tertiary problem.
Speaking of secondary problems....we need to fill our holes in both DB position groups. And we need to improve a DL rotation that's 3 good players short and 8 players deep. We're not going to knowingly create a new hole at RT that would require a relatively premium draft pick to fill, and we're not creating a hole at LG to fill a non-hole at RT, and we're not going to rely solely on Green and Cleary this season in order to save money on the last year of Free's contract.
I do think we should see an open competition in camp for that RT job. And if we're able to extend Free and keep him another two or maybe three years as a swing tackle after he loses out a head:head competition, I could live with that if he could. I like what we've seen from Green when he manages to play. He's just completely unreliable.
