McCants to draw heavy interest from other teams...

I think McCants is a very important player for us. All of the backup wideouts - Cliff Russell, Taylor Jacobs, and Patrick Johnson - are players who have promise. But McCants we can see for sure is the real deal, and I think we are taking a chance by putting forward the minimum restricted free agent offer.

It's not absolutely critical that we keep McCants UNLESS we trade Rod Gardner. We need at least one big, strong possession-type receiver on the team. Personally, I think Gardner is better but I know that many of you like McCants. As long as we keep one of them we should be OK, though we could be in trouble if Taylor Jacobs is a bust and/or Coles gets hurt.

We can't tie up the money with Christmas day almost upon us. If someone wants to deal, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We couldn't risk the cap hit, as SC mentioned.

The market will fix the price, and we'll make an informed decision. I like him, but we're deep at WR.

Beemnseven:

You are absolutely correct. There are three levels of qualifying offers. the higher the offer from the team tha has the player now, the more the team will get if he signs elsewhere.

HOWEVER, that qualifying offer cannot be changed. If the RFA does not get a better offer, then the qualifying offer is his deal and there is no ability to make it cap friendly. To give McCants the top level offer would mean that he might cost them close to $2M in cap room next year and that probably is more than he is worth at this point in his career.

I would not be surprised to see the Eagles or the Browns make him an offer.

I'd say you can count the Eagles out. The Philadelphia consensus is that other teams third receivers (Thrash?) aren't enough of an upgrade. They need speed at the position, anyway.

My cryastal ball tells me that Rod Gardner will be involved in a draft day trade. Just a gut feeling.

I think McCants and Ohalete will both receive good offers elsewhere and I think they will allow Ohalete to leave. (I'd prefer him to stay if the price is not too high).

:rolleyes: