2026 Free Agent Thread

I wouldn't count out a trade up for Caleb Downs either.


Again, I personally don't have him in my Top 3 under my sig for I believe Downs will be selected within the Top 8 at worst to Top 5 at best. Safeties like him simply don't come around too often. When they do, they are usually gone very early.


Beyond him, adding someone like Colton Hood wouldn't be too bad either. Never hurts having a third Corner on the roster. Yes, Asante Samuel Jr is back on a one year deal but it never hurts to have a rock solid contingency plan in case something goes wrong there.

 

I'm not saying we will, but that is the age of decline of reaction time, and we know the CB position isn't the Wrs position. Wrs knows where, and when they are going, a CB doesn't, and must react, and quickly.
Again, I like the signing, and He did well last year. What I'm getting at is this doesn't mean taking a CB in one of the 1st two rounds is now out of the question . We need youth there also.

 

Probably will. At least somewhere in the first two days.

 

Fixed it for you.

 

I remember being shocked when I found this out (the year I wanted to draft Humphrey). Makes it hard to draft a C in the 1st when you know that you can't give them the option without massively distorting their value.

It's silly too, because they do sub-divide DBs into the high (CB) and low (S) paid positions. So it's not like they aren't sophisticated enough to do this for OL. Even if they lumped Gs and Ts together.

This is worth us remembering as Frasier only has 2 years left on his deal. So we want to look to extend him after next season IMO.

Hopefully, the Rats end up with the equivalent of Kendrick Green. Lamar has enough trouble staying health. If they don't get a quality replacement at C, he'll spend a lot of time running for his life back there.

 

Kamara wouldn't be awful in the short term, but we'd be drafting another one in that instance. Warren only has 2-3 years left in prime (IMO) so we would be pretty old at the position. Someone like Dowdle or even a Rachaad White could make some sense.

 

It's pretty hard to complain about this signing. He's played winning football on a Super Bowl team and has been rated a pretty good corner for a while now.

This is a pretty solid #2 corner. They have twelve draft picks so I would still like to see a cornerback drafted. Now we need to see a younger, athletic safety signed, traded for, or drafted along with some of the players they already have in the secondary and the backend has a chance to be much better and much more athletic.

I think they've added a couple solid pieces to this point that are clear upgrades.

 

Oh Kenneth Gainwell and not this Kenny G

https://share.google/qwetz9BYiRPWgbFBe

 

I'm sure some will find a way.

But, yeah, this is a pretty clear upgrade. Now....if they could just get Echols to move on to somewhere else....

 

I think they should draft a CB as well. But....they don't have to force it now. They need a safety in FA - just too many questions on the roster at that spot right now.

I really like what I am hearing about the safety out of Oregon. Could start him in nickel or other sub-package role to get his feet wet and then transition him to a full time starter as either Elliot or Ramsey age out or prove ineffective.

 

This.

Just like last year.

Wait around a bit and get a vet for ~ $3MM/year.

We're looking for a RB2. Who we hopes gets passed by Johnson or a rookie.

 

Not this year.

Probably not ever.

 

My understanding is that top speed doesn't decline too much by this point. But explositivity (explosion?) does.

But I think for CBs, acceleration (explosion) is more important than top speed.

Hopefully, the decline is slow.

I think the thing here is that this signing shouldn't stop us from drafting a CB on day 2. But I do think it probably means that the day 1 pick won't be a CB (although I'd personally always be in favor of BPA).

Anyone know if Dean can play slot-CB?

 

That's hilarious

 

They're both 29.

I think Dean is slightly younger.

The thing is that Dean has consistently been a guy who gets significant snaps. Pierre really flashed last year, but wasn't much before that.

My guess is that neither will be as good as they were last season. But the mean reversion should be better for Dean than Pierre (who's mean is much lower).

 

Devin Bush to the Bears @ $10M per/3yrs. He was top ILB in Schwartz's defense last season.

 

There will never be a another Troy, but it would be great to have another great S back there.

 

While I really wanted him to work out for us, I didn't have much confidence in his decision making after seeing him on draft day:

 

Huh?

 

In the last few years,several former steelers have been great with their new teams after being up and down with the steelers for different reason like Bush,Dotson,Pickens

 

Raiders blow a wad on Linderbaum, 3 yrs/27M per. Yes, you read that right! Brady tired of watching the QB get beat to snot. Ravens now looking for a center. Heyward smiling....

 

He's very fast. He is rated high by most, but he isn't a slam dunk to me.

There are several really good safeties. Everyone knows the top-rated players. If they wait until a little later in the draft, I like a player like Zakee Wheatley from Penn St. He's 6' 3" 200lbs and runs a 4.40. He isn't a true box safety. He can play there, but at the NFL level he is a free safety. He is a guy that is at his best as a single high or playing in shell coverages to run sideline to sideline with his speed to cover. He's a pretty solid tackler coming downhill in run support. If you play him as primarily a true FS, he has the athleticism and length to succeed. He can hold up in man coverage as well. He has played in the slot against receivers and tight ends. They have played him in the box. He can kind of do anything you ask of him and in any scheme. I would like to see him put on 10 pounds of muscle because he is more than fast enough. He's a little thin for that height.

He is someone I think could be a very good player as a value pick rather than one of the safeties taken in the first round and a half. He has the physical gifts and has very good ability. He's a guy that I think has a chance to be better than most of the players taken ahead of him.

 

The idea here is that most things "revert to the mean".

You might roll a pair dice 10 times with an average value of 10. But the long term average is 6.

So on the next 10 rolls, you would expect the average of the 20 rolls together to move toward the expected value (long term mean).

And if the average of the first 10 rolls was 4, you'd expect the average of the next 10 rolls to be higher.

Football players aren't dice.

But the "true performance" of a player is probably closer to their career averages than the previous season.

So when a player has a better than average season, we'd expect their next season to be worse.

Both Dean and Pierre had better than average seasons.

We shouldn't expect either to play at that level again next season.

Instead, we would probably expect them to be somewhere closer to their career average.

And Dean's career average is still "guy who gets a lot of snaps". While Pierre's average is "guy who usually dresses, but doesn't often play on defense when everyone is healthy".

FWIW, this is also my thinking on Gainwell. He was very good for us last year. But I think it's unlikely he gets that production again. Although there, I think that's a lot about the role he has vs. his ability.

 

Good start. Like the 2 big additions, glad Willis isn't here, and only Gainwell is a loss I don't agree with but RBs are everywhere. Still lots of money and picks. Keep going.