Mega-Merge: 2010 Free Agency Rumors and Reports Thread

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Hard to believe some are upset over losing out on marginal guys like Clifton and Pashos, who in normal years would have barely registered a blip on most teams' free agent radar. I can see people getting upset over losing out on someone like Dansby, but then again if we're turning over a new leaf you have to at least give the new direction a chance. "Winning" the offseason hasn't gotten us anything in the past.

I was a little upset myself just because these would have been nice band-aide fixes while we got younger in the draft. Now if we kept drafting skill position players after this draft THEN I might start questioning the process a little bit, but I don't find a whole lot wrong with signing these guys.

If we end up going QB with our first pick, we're going to get him killed in my opinion.

Maybe I'll be surprised by the end result, but those would have been nice stop-gaps to help with the rebuild for the time being.

[CRedskinsRule]

So here is the official Redskins stance:
Redskins Insider - Under Bruce Allen, free agency for Redskins may last for months

Finally, after what might've been a few frustrating days for some Redskins' fans, General Manager Bruce Allen offered an explanation for the team's slow-play approach to free agency.

"Free agency isn't a day, and it's not a weekend. We think free agency runs 'til the first day of training camp," Allen told Sports Illustrated's Peter King on Sunday. "Let's see who you have a couple of months from now, not just who you have after a couple of days. What difference does it make when you sign them, if they help you?''

Also in the article, interesting that BA still isn't giving the Post an interview.

[MTK]

Patience is something Skins fans aren't used to. Good read here

Julius Peppers, Antrel Rolle, NFL free agency, Five For Fighting - Peter King - SI.com

[Pocket$ $traight]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Anyone else read this? I couldn't disagree more with this:

Losing the offseason*|*Warpath Confidential

1000% wrong. This article should have been shelved as soon as the author pointed to the Bears as who we should emulate. The Bears are the same team that traded a starting quarterback, two first round picks, a third round pick and a 5th round pick for a guy who was an absolute disaster. The Bears are in panic mode! Their entire front office is fighting for their jobs and they had no first or second round pick. They had no choice.

This person does not understand what they are trying to do at the park. If it was just about having the most talent on the field, then we probably wouldn't have cut most of those guys. This year is an organizational change where a new philosophy is being implemented.

First step (executed) - get rid of the offensive contracts where the player was significantly overpaid for their production to date and likely future production. The pundits would say "What about Portis!!" Well, Portis has $7 million guaranteed and despite all of the critics, he is/was the best runningback on the roster. No available FA is clearly better than him. Cutting Portis and paying him 7 million then having to pay a few million to a different guy who may or may not be better that Portis just does not make sense. Plus, Portis was ridiculous in Shanny's system. Isn't it worth trying to see if he can regain the magic?

Second step (in process) - Use free agent WISELY. Washington is no longer where you go to get paid. The new regime wants Washington to be where you go to win. This free agent class just isn't that talented. To say that they should be throwing money around is poor analysis. The author is just as impatient as "joe the fan" who is upset that we didn't have 4 guys signed in 24 hours. That approach is gone because it doesn't work (see the last 10 years as evidence).

Third step, the draft (upcoming) - Washington definitely needs to improve here. We have 5 picks and we need ALL FIVE to contribute. No punters, no deadweight linemen or fullbacks who will never see the field. And for the love of Pete....If we draft someone like Cody Glenn and Antonio Dixon, is it too much to ask for them to remain on our roster? I don't want to see them in playoff games helping out other teams.

Bad article all around. Just an example of they are damned if they do, damned if they don't.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by Pocket$ $traight

1000% wrong. This article should have been shelved as soon as the author pointed to the Bears as who we should emulate. The Bears are the same team that traded a starting quarterback, two first round picks, a third round pick and a 5th round pick for a guy who was an absolute disaster. The Bears are in panic mode! Their entire front office is fighting for their jobs and they had no first or second round pick. They had no choice.

This person does not understand what they are trying to do at the park. If it was just about having the most talent on the field, then we probably wouldn't have cut most of those guys. This year is an organizational change where a new philosophy is being implemented.

First step (executed) - get rid of the offensive contracts where the player was significantly overpaid for their production to date and likely future production. The pundits would say "What about Portis!!" Well, Portis has $7 million guaranteed and despite all of the critics, he is/was the best runningback on the roster. No available FA is clearly better than him. Cutting Portis and paying him 7 million then having to pay a few million to a different guy who may or may not be better that Portis just does not make sense. Plus, Portis was ridiculous in Shanny's system. Isn't it worth trying to see if he can regain the magic?

Second step (in process) - Use free agent WISELY. Washington is no longer where you go to get paid. The new regime wants Washington to be where you go to win. This free agent class just isn't that talented. To say that they should be throwing money around is poor analysis. The author is just as impatient as "joe the fan" who is upset that we didn't have 4 guys signed in 24 hours. That approach is gone because it doesn't work (see the last 10 years as evidence).

Third step, the draft (upcoming) - Washington definitely needs to improve here. We have 5 picks and we need ALL FIVE to contribute. No punters, no deadweight linemen or fullbacks who will never see the field. And for the love of Pete....If we draft someone like Cody Glenn and Antonio Dixon, is it too much to ask for them to remain on our roster? I don't want to see them in playoff games helping out other teams.

Bad article all around. Just an example of they are damned if they do, damned if they don't.

You can't help but think that had the Skins signed Pashos, Clifton, Dansby, etc. we would be reading an article from this guy saying here we go with the same old free spending Redskins.

[over the mountain]

im not upset with the way things are going. honestly, outside of dansby and peppers, there wasnt great talent.

i cannot find myself to be upset that we didnt sign pashos, who couldnt play his way into a starting job on the 49ers O line.

i was warming up to the dansby idea with his experience as an inside 3-4 LB but foote, if signed, brings that same experience.

i thought chad clifton was the best OT in FA, but i wouldnt give him what the packers did. While i think there is a drop in talent from clifotn to the next guy, that drop off is really marginal.

outside of peppers, there wasnt a real impact player available in FA imo.

dunta robinson? know his name and hype, but i havent really watched him play to make an opinion of him.

would signing pashos really help anything? idk, he signed for a fairly cheap deal but who here can honestly say you watched enough film of him to know if he could even start for our O line and be an upgrade?

there just is not alot of talent in FA this year with the RFA tenders.

[Pocket$ $traight]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

You can't help but think that had the Skins signed Pashos, Clifton, Dansby, etc. we would be reading an article from this guy saying here we go with the same old free spending Redskins.

I agree. They would have had to overpay for Clifton. Dansby's contract is ridiculous IMO. Because Parcells signed him, "He must be worth it". I think they could have signed Pashos but that Bruce and Shanny decided he wasn't worth those dollars. So be it, there will be more tackles available later.

The Bears are Schefter's running punchline. That is who we should emulate? Really?

[johno]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

we'd only be back where we were today in 2012 if we traded 2010 and 2011 draft picks for veterans or the new CBA has a grandfather rule that penalizes teams who spent big in the uncapped year by taking draft picks away from them. bringing in free agent veterans in an uncapped year doesn't hurt the team if the players fit the system.

i was alluding to the fact that all of those free agents were older players that would be expensive.

[Trample the Elderly]

Originally Posted by over the mountain

im not upset with the way things are going. honestly, outside of dansby and peppers, there wasnt great talent.

i cannot find myself to be upset that we didnt sign pashos, who couldnt play his way into a starting job on the 49ers O line.

i was warming up to the dansby idea with his experience as an inside 3-4 LB but foote, if signed, brings that same experience.

i thought chad clifton was the best OT in FA, but i wouldnt give him what the packers did. While i think there is a drop in talent from clifotn to the next guy, that drop off is really marginal.

outside of peppers, there wasnt a real impact player available in FA imo.

dunta robinson? know his name and hype, but i havent really watched him play to make an opinion of him.

would signing pashos really help anything? idk, he signed for a fairly cheap deal but who here can honestly say you watched enough film of him to know if he could even start for our O line and be an upgrade?

there just is not alot of talent in FA this year with the RFA tenders.

No way. There's talent, just not a lot of big name talent like we're used to. That guard we got is talented. So is the dude from Dallas that we're trying to get. I like this better than what we've been used to.

[BigHairedAristocrat]

Originally Posted by johno

i was alluding to the fact that all of those free agents were older players that would be expensive.

who cares if theyre older if we're only relying on them to start for 1-2 years? and who cares about the expense in an uncapped season? I think Campbell or Bradford would have a much better shot at success with Pashos and Clifton protecting him than a 2nd round rookie tackle or any of the scrubs we currently have on the roster. Ideally, we could have signed one or both of them and then drafted a tackle with one of our 1st two picks in the draft. and come on, its not like the contracts either clifton or pashos signed were outrageous. both were 3 year deals without much garaunteed money. both could have been signed and (if necessary) cut next year (even if there is a cap) with minimal negative cap hit.

[Trample the Elderly]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

who cares if theyre older if we're only relying on them to start for 1-2 years? I think Campbell or Bradford would have a much better shot at success with Pashos and Clifton protecting him than a 2nd round rookie tackle or any of the scrubs we currently have on the roster.

I know. We need to buy some time for some of the gaping holes we have. If we get a guy that only plays for two or three years, hell just one year; that's more than enough time to fill holes with a draft or two. We should be good in the next two years, maybe one?

[over the mountain]

yean i guess any guy who made an NFL roster is talented.

honestly i dont know anything about hicks except for what i read in the articles after we signed him.

i will read with sinicism to anyone on here who says player X (like hicks, pashos, etc) should have been signed and would be a starter on our O line.

what do we really know about these guys outside of ESPN's ranking of the top FA o lineman available in FA? id trust shanny, allen and co. to make actual talent evaluations outside of matt mosley's player rankings.

[Trample the Elderly]

Originally Posted by over the mountain

yean i guess any guy who made an NFL roster is talented.

honestly i dont know anything about hicks except for what i read in the articles after we signed him.

i will read with sinicism to anyone on here who says player X (like hicks, pashos, etc) should have been signed and would be a starter on our O line.

what do we really know about these guys outside of ESPN's ranking of the top FA o lineman available in FA? id trust shanny, allen and co. to make actual talent evaluations outside of matt mosley's player rankings.

Exactly! I trust Shanna-Allen to make the right moves until they prove me wrong. That is the reason I like the Hicks signing. We haven't heard about him because he's been doing his job.

[over the mountain]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

who cares if theyre older if we're only relying on them to start for 1-2 years? I think Campbell or Bradford would have a much better shot at success with Pashos and Clifton protecting him than a 2nd round rookie tackle or any of the scrubs we currently have on the roster.

there is enough tape and clifton has started enough in the NFL for us to get a feel for what clifton would bring . . .

but how would any of us know pashos would be an upgrade? hes just a name im going to assume me and you never heard of until a month ago.

if you knew the 49ers backup o lineman who started what, 4 games last year, then kudos to you. but i doubt that im handing out kudos for a tony pashos.

[ethat001]

It's an interesting time to be fiscally responsible, since we apparently we have the 4th lowest payroll right now, and have an uncapped year where we could be crazy and sign ALL the FA's on the market without much problem.

BUT I like the decisions made so far because they seem -- smarter. Now, I'm still concerned for the O-line, but at least that has been focus so far. I wouldn't have minded overpaying for Pashos or Clifton on a year like this, but they've made a strong statement with their moves. I'm hopeful there's a plan with the draft and picking up stop-gap veteran O-linemen somewhere later as well.

I just hope is that come September 2010 our QB is not staring at the clouds on his back.