1. the new rookie wage scale has changed everything! for example, drafting tavon austin is still completely plausible after signing mike wallace with the conceit that we will be signing/restructuring ONE of them to a $7-10M/year deal in three or four years. Before, there would never have been a consideration about acquiring both. 2. i hope we sign dustin keller; he always seemed to be the most undefendable jets player. its funny to see the jets bashing him on their boards now. (however, i hate going to the jets board an seeing dolphin fans posting how good of a signing dustin keller would be. Nothing ruins a good NYJ commiseration party like a boastful dolphan. if let to themselves they can get very surly.) We definitely need to add another TE though and it seems like it will be eifert, kelce or escobar. I'm fine with whatever they decide; I just hope its not in the third round. 3. Sometimes its cheaper to dispose toxic waste in a river and just pay the fine instead of disposing of it properly. I feel like thats what Jeff Ireland did with our linebackers. This dead cap space is a calculated admonition and a luxury of having $40 million to spend. 4. I think Jake Long will be back. I think Miami gives him a hometown discount. By that I think he went to STL asking for 11 and was offered 8 and MIA will give him 9 or whatever is a touch more than he's worth. While this year is proving to be Ireland's signature on the franchise, I would claim drafting Jake was his defining moment before. I attribute Tannehill entirely to Sherman, and thus Philbin. Jake Long is his legacy in Miami and, if this offseason bombs and otherwise, would be his only saving grace. Let me put it other words, somethings are worth more than a couple million dollars in cap space. let me put it in other words again, if jake long starts the next 5 years with dolphins and we win the super bowl, he will go to the hall of fame. 5. what do I think we do for the remaining FA? It sounds like a CB, and a tackle if its not Long. That would be a great offseason. It sets up nicely to go into the draft for BPA, where the P means PLAYMAKER. I think this FA screams Tavon Austin, but i wonder what effect Pat White has on Jeff's opinion of mighty WVU midgets. We are also obviously in the market for a #2 RB, which means i think we would go RB a lot higher than people think (eddie lacy 2a?). 6. this was really exciting this year. I assume it was cuz we were so active, but i wonder what impact the three day tampering period had. There was a comment yesterday about honing the action in more and moving it to primetime. I would watch that! Years ago no one watched the draft and now its a spectacular event; I can definitely see the NFL moving that way with the start of free agency to create another media "frenzy". 7. where would you rather be, just winning the super bowl like baltimore but gutted, or just losing the super bowl like sf but poised to win the next three? I guess you have to say BAL and take one definite super win over the possibility of three or four, but I'd love to be a SF fan with a super bowl team that's going to have a top 3 offseason. i'd guess sf fans are happier right now than bal fans; its amazing how fleeting the super bowl glow can be. 8. thephins.com has been invaluable the last few days. Thank you, the admin, the posters, the newshounds, the gurus, and the inside sources. *
The Ravens remind me of the Florida Marlin team that won a championship and then was gutted by the owner.
I don't think Austin and White are the same player at all. I think Austin has some muscle on his bones.
Pat White was muscular... He was pretty ripped, in fact. It was one of the reasons people who supported Pat White thought he could succeed. Even though he was small, he was muscular. They were wrong. Not saying that is Austin's destiny, but it's obviously a concern.
Good read, particularly your point about honing the action of free agency for prime time. This FA is intriguing! News is more available than ever what with Twitter and the internet in general, and although there is some misinformation, that almost adds to the intrigue. Case in point, Big Jake was reported to have come to terms with the Rams, only to find out later that things were far from done. There is to this minute suspense about Jake's situation. Wasn't the NFL Channel calling it Free Agency Frenzy?
To answer point #7 I would have to go for the win over sustained success with no guarantee of a superbowl win.
Not a fan of Keller, but at this point, I think he's an important signing (assuming he gets a bill of health). Still would go with TE in the draft but it's not as critical. I'd also like to land an OT (Winston? Why do we keep toying with this guy? Just sign him); At least one CB (maybe safety as well). I think it's too big a risk to draft a CB at 12. So, there still is some work to do at TE, CB, OT (in FA). Obviously Tavon Austin is very tempting to think of him as a #3 slot receiver with Wallace in the line up, that would be a big difference in the offense; and as a PR/KR who can also shift to the backfield. But, then I also like the two interior OL that we have a shot at (Warmack and Cooper) because they are secure picks (obviously, if one of the top 3 OT's were there that would be hard to pass up).
He's turned into a pretty good blocking H-Back in the same kind of mold the Packers have used and I don't think he has beat his wife recently. Who knows?
Don't sell the Ozzie and the Ravens short...this was planned and would likely have happened even if they hadn't won the SB. The only thing I think they miscalculated was Ellerbe. Other than that, they are right on their plan... Now, I don't think they are poised to repeat, but Ozzie has been thru this before... Remember, Ozzie was there before Ray-Ray....
