The first questions about any FA

[CouchCoach]

Somewhere this gets lost in the discussions about age and salary but the very first thing I would want to know about any player entering FA is this.

Why is he available? Why doesn't his present team want to keep him? Is it just the money, the perception of value? Or is there something we don't know about this player?

I see criticism of the front office over the FA issue because they only fish in the mid and lower level ponds but what successes have they had with another teams' players?

In the East division alone, we've seen two instances where the dream team situation really didn't work, the Eagles and Giants. The Giants one looked good for a while but the measure should be the success of the player and team over the long haul, not just the first season.

The second question should be does this FA address our #1 need? If you feel S is that, then Thomas could be the answer but at a very high price. I think the OL and DL are bigger needs and the team should be spending their FA money there.

And one thing about this still bothers me but doesn't seem to be a problem to others. What kind of player approaches the opposing HC after the game about a future job in plain view of his own team and then gets on the plane to ride home with them? Does that fall under that is there something else we don't know about this player?

 

[slick325]

I hear you Coach but...his former DC is about to be the DC in Dallas. I point that out because the Joneses have a source that was in the meeting room with Earl Thomas for years and can give insight as to the person and player the team may be getting.

Further, I doubt that Pete Carroll would have any negative statements to say about ET either. The issue was with the front office not the teammates or coaches. I'm sure at the Combine next week, the Cowboys will be talking with Pete Carroll and the Seahawks coaches several times.

 

[Future]

The second question should be does this FA address our #1 need? If you feel S is that, then Thomas could be the answer but at a very high price. I think the OL and DL are bigger needs and the team should be spending their FA money there

How is OL possibly a bigger need than Safety?

The question isn't what's your biggest need, it's what holes can you fill. Dallas has a hole at safety, ET could fill it. Simple.

 

[glimmerman]

Somewhere this gets lost in the discussions about age and salary but the very first thing I would want to know about any player entering FA is this.

Why is he available? Why doesn't his present team not want to keep him? Is it just the money, the perception of value? Or is there something we don't know about this player?

I see criticism of the front office over the FA issue because they only fish in the mid and lower level ponds but what successes have they had with another teams' players?

In the East division alone, we've seen two instances where the dream team situation really didn't work, the Eagles and Giants. The Giants one looked good for a while but the measure should be the success of the player and team over the long haul, not just the first season.

The second question should be does this FA address our #1 need? If you feel S is that, then Thomas could be the answer but at a very high price. I think the OL and DL are bigger needs and the team should be spending their FA money there.

And one thing about this still bothers me but doesn't seem to be a problem to others. What kind of player approaches the opposing HC after the game about a future job in plain view of his own team and then gets on the plane to ride home with them? Does that fall under that is there something else we don't know about this player?

That was my problem with ET. He could have reached out to The Cowboys in a discreet manner, but he made a total spectacle of the whole thing. Likely to force the seahags plan. But it backfires IMO. That made the seahags play even harder. Had to cause hard feelings.

And I believe that after the injuries last year to our O-Line we need more backups. Didn’t help that the new O-Line coach tried to change what wasn’t broken to begin with.

The FO has to plan the signings and upcoming contracts carefully if we want to retain the talent we have.

 

[OmerV]

How is OL possibly a bigger need than Safety?

The question isn't what's your biggest need, it's what holes can you fill. Dallas has a hole at safety, ET could fill it. Simple.

I see why he might think that. The offense was easily a bigger problem than defense, and the main problem areas were WR, which improved once Cooper was acquired, and O-Line, which struggled to overcome injuries. On defense, while the Safeties aren’t the playmakers we would like to have, they made a lot of tackles and didn’t give up many deep passes.

 

[CouchCoach]

How is OL possibly a bigger need than Safety?

The question isn't what's your biggest need, it's what holes can you fill. Dallas has a hole at safety, ET could fill it. Simple.

At his price and the cap effect, I think biggest need is the most important part. The OL struggled more than the S's last season.

 

[CouchCoach]

That was my problem with ET. He could have reached out to The Cowboys in a discreet manner, but he made a total spectacle of the whole thing. Likely to force the seahags plan. But it backfires IMO. That made the seahags play even harder. Had to cause hard feelings.

And I believe that after the injuries last year to our O-Line we need more backups. Didn’t help that the new O-Line coach tried to change what wasn’t broken to begin with.

The FO has to plan the signings and upcoming contracts carefully if we want to retain the talent we have.

I think we need starters because I am not sold on Collins or Williams, Elliott had to fight too hard for too many of those yards last season.

 

[Future]

At his price and the cap effect, I think biggest need is the most important part. The OL struggled more than the S's last season.

Signing a starting T or G, let's say at $9m, means releasing Collins or benching Williams. What is actually the point of that? Replacing Collins means spending more for a similar player, or having an OL that costs $60m with a 2nd-round pick riding pine. That's a dreadful allocation of resources. The OL will improve with Frederick back, that's the only move they can make that will have any impact.

ET is a colossal upgrade over any safety on this roster. The safeties did struggle, because they didn't make any plays. A press-man corner isn't judged by turnovers and PBUs, but a free safety in this defense certainly is. With every DB on what amounts to a rookie contract, now is the time to upgrade.

I also don't buy that the OL struggled as much as people want to say. Given the complete ineptitude of the playcalling and passing game, plus the Tfred injury, it was about as good as you can expect it to be.

 

[tm1119]

The “why is he available” argument is lazy and short sighted.
Maybe they weren’t in the right scheme
Maybe they were injured
Maybe the former team doesn’t have cap room
maybe they had personal issues
maybe they got cut and it woke them up

There’s literally dozens of reasons a player could be available. Of course the front office needs to do it’s due diligence on any/every body but writing off free agents in general is purposely hand cuffing yourself

 

[glimmerman]

I think we need starters because I am not sold on Collins or Williams, Elliott had to fight too hard for too many of those yards last season.

Expecting Williams to come improve. They may have to swap him and Collins around. I am wondering if TC this year we won’t see them cross training positions and maybe spending a few bucks on some young talent on the line. Elliot should have a easier run this year just from having our center back in..

 

[CouchCoach]

I hear you Coach but...his former DC is about to be the DC in Dallas. I point that out because the Joneses have a source that was in the meeting room with Earl Thomas for years and can give insight as to the person and player the team may be getting.

Further, I doubt that Pete Carroll would have any negative statements to say about ET either. The issue was with the front office not the teammates or coaches. I'm sure at the Combine next week, the Cowboys will be talking with Pete Carroll and the Seahawks coaches several times.

I don't know the relationship with either staff, Carroll replaced Richard and didn't want him for the D and secondary rebuild. I don't think they'll be hanging out together in Indy.

When Thomas was flipping off from that cart, where was that directed? Sure looked like the coaching staff to me. Carroll was saying all the right things because he fashions himself as a players' coach but he could not be happy with Thomas' behavior. And remember Carroll saying they were "in a good place"?

slick, I do think Richard is a bit of a wild card in this because I do think the interest for Thomas will be high and expensive, mainly because of all the cap space and shortage of that position. How much does he feel he needs him to go to the mat for him? If they did offer a 2nd, they had a contract in mind and I would be surprised if that didn't get discussed on the QT but that was before he was a FA.

It would not surprise me at all for Thomas to end up with his old Boomer in SF. The Niners rank 5th with 76M in space. And they play LAR and SEA.

 

[CouchCoach]

The “why is he available” argument is lazy and short sighted.
Maybe they weren’t in the right scheme
Maybe they were injured
Maybe the former team doesn’t have cap room
maybe they had personal issues
maybe they got cut and it woke them up

There’s literally dozens of reasons a player could be available. Of course the front office needs to do it’s due diligence on any/every body but writing off free agents in general is purposely hand cuffing yourself

Really? I didn't say why he was available, only to ask why he is. There could be any one of dozens of reasons. I may be lazy but you seem to be the short sighted one.

 

[QuincyCarterEra]

CC you can and should ask why the player is available, but never never never use "if he's so good then why is he available". Which happens often over in the roster threads.

Also every FA doesnt need to fill the #1 need of a team. Far from it. Edge rusher might be far down the list, but if one is presented at what I think is less than his actual value I'm still going to sign him anyway.

 

[conner01]

How is OL possibly a bigger need than Safety?

The question isn't what's your biggest need, it's what holes can you fill. Dallas has a hole at safety, ET could fill it. Simple.

I don’t know if it’s bigger but it’s big
Our swing tackle is a free agent and RT is a FA next year
Ideally you draft a guy and get him developed to be RT next year but don’t know if tackle is a deep part of this draft
That said if I can get ET close to reasonable I sign him in a heartbeat

 

[foofighters]

At his price and the cap effect, I think biggest need is the most important part. The OL struggled more than the S's last season.

Which facet of the team struggled the most in our last playoff game?

 

[DandyTom64]

When Thomas was flipping off from that cart, where was that directed? Sure looked like the coaching staff to me. Carroll was saying all the right things because he fashions himself as a players' coach but he could not be happy with Thomas' behavior. And remember Carroll saying they were "in a good place"?

If that's Pete's ideal of a good place then I wouldn't want to be in the shower after practice with him at the same time. Don't you dare drop that soap.

 

[cern]

Somewhere this gets lost in the discussions about age and salary but the very first thing I would want to know about any player entering FA is this.

Why is he available? Why doesn't his present team want to keep him? Is it just the money, the perception of value? Or is there something we don't know about this player?

I see criticism of the front office over the FA issue because they only fish in the mid and lower level ponds but what successes have they had with another teams' players?

In the East division alone, we've seen two instances where the dream team situation really didn't work, the Eagles and Giants. The Giants one looked good for a while but the measure should be the success of the player and team over the long haul, not just the first season.

The second question should be does this FA address our #1 need? If you feel S is that, then Thomas could be the answer but at a very high price. I think the OL and DL are bigger needs and the team should be spending their FA money there.

And one thing about this still bothers me but doesn't seem to be a problem to others. What kind of player approaches the opposing HC after the game about a future job in plain view of his own team and then gets on the plane to ride home with them? Does that fall under that is there something else we don't know about this player?

this post has met all of admiral rickover's abc's. accuracy. brevity. clarity. I endorse this message.

 

[cern]

Which facet of the team struggled the most in our last playoff game?

I'd say defense. the interior of our d-line was pushed around like rag dolls. as for the o-line, if connor Williams improves as most think, sua filo plays even better than last year, smith returns to form, and of course freddy being back in the mix, i'm not too worried. but they were tops in 2016 and not so much in 2017. what a difference a year makes.

 

[nobody]

I think we need starters because I am not sold on Collins or Williams, Elliott had to fight too hard for too many of those yards last season.

I have to agree. Mostly the games were won or lost in the trenches. That being said, an upgrade at safety would help. The question and gamble is, at what price?

 

[Alexander]

Why is he available? Why doesn't his present team want to keep him?

Good question, Mickey.