Does anyone think we go after him? Would you want to? Do you think he's too injury-prone to warrant a look? In my opinion, I think it's all dependent on a salary reduction from what it was this year (10.3 million). If the price is right, I say we give him a go. thoughts?
I'm not sure what his salary or contract situation looks like but he would certainly be the best corner on the team if he signed here. Smith has progressed but is too inconsistent, I do hope we resign him though. From what I've seen he has solid ball skills and seems to make a lot of game changing plays, definitely something our secondary lacks.
I remember watching him steal a completion on a play where he launched in the air and caught an pass to a player who was a good few feet away from him. That game I watched him and knew he was going to be a solid player. Guy turned into a top CB and I'd like him on the team with Smith and Patterson next season. If we switch Marshall to safety and have he and Jones play back there, I think we could have a unit good enough to do some damage. Not every position can be elite. That's a solid lineup IMO.
**** Brent Grimes. He's going to get Brandon Carr type money so I'm not interested. I'd rather draft a CB for pennies on the dollar and use the savings on a real (not perceived) team weakness, WR.
Very serious injury but I agree with you that a healthy Brent Grimes is an excellent asset in the secondary.
"We wanna be an exciting, up tempo offense, and take advantage of our elements"...Ross. Where we are gonna pick, I see that draft being offensive heavy.
Dude.... I realize that you build though the draft. I understand that is the best way to build a team. The thing is times have changed. The beauty of the new rookie pay scale is that it opens up money for two different things, keeping your good players and getting good players from free agency. So while I agree the draft our the main way to build a team, we do have the option of getting some important pieces from FA.
The new rookie pay scale only really effects the top 10 or so draft picks. After that it is pretty much the same. Also, most money openning up is closed by the slowing of the salary cap. Especially since most contracts before the Lockout were written with a bigger inflating salary cap in mind.
I hear ya. But realistically, with the stands looking the way they do on Sundays, how much leeway do you think Ireland has in terms of paying top dollar for a defensive player? Especially when homegrown Sean Smith is coming up for FA and he just signed Marshall to a 5 mil/yr deal last off season. I think Irish is more likely to get clearance for signing an offensive player. we did just draft a pretty decent QB and the whole planet knows we have a good D but we can't score worth a damn. If we're going to look at DB, or anywhere on defense, IMO it should be via the draft or a low risk high reward guy like Talib, or Mike Jenkins if he's cut.
I really have become a believer in thinking that the corner position is one where you can recycle players via free agency and get good results out of doing it. I mean I talked about Tom Gamble of the 49ers who has been their Director of Pro Personnel until being named Director of Player Personnel when Harbaugh took over. I talked about some of the more impressive decisions he's made over the years while being in charge of pro scouting. He's taken guys like Walt Harris, Dre Bly, Nate Clements and most recently Carlos Rogers, he brought them in and they were fairly productive players for the 49ers. There were a lot of other pieces during the Nolan and Singletary eras that were not working properly of course, but that doesn't mean they weren't getting some good work out of the veteran corner options they kept bringing in. But in addition to that you look at the Jets recycling Antonio Cromartie and coming out looking good for it, look at the Redskins and DeAngelo Hall, heck even look at what the Bengals are getting out of Terrence Newman. Johnathan Joseph with the Texans, Antoine Winfield with the Vikings, Dunta Robinson with the Falcons, Chris Houston with the Lions, Sheldon Brown with the Browns, the list really does go on. Aqib Talib shows up to the Patriots only mid-season and he's playing good football. Josh Wilson playing decently with the Redskins after coming from the Ravens. Look no further than our own history. We did well drafting guys like Sam Madison and Pat Surtain. No denying it. But we also did well recycling Terrell Buckley. We grabbed Andre Goodman from the Detroit Lions and he actually turned out to be a nice player. Will Allen was a high quality player for the Dolphins. Not all these guys have Brandon Carr type price tags and some of them have even at various points been considered highly frustrating players, and/or busts. What I'm wary of is another 2009 scenario where the Dolphins have two rookie corners who are both allowing a LOT of passing, whereas any number of veteran players could've been playing and played a lot better football. We did that for the purposes of developing those guys but then we shipped one of them off after we developed him.
Yeah but wasn't Nate Clements like the highest paid defensive player ever when he signed the San Fran deal, I'd say that's similar to a Carr deal. IMO Clements was way overrated especially for that type of money.
He was no more overrated in San Francisco than Karlos Dansby has been in Miami. He was a good player that was paid really well. Just as Karlos Dansby is a good player that is being paid really well. If you track the general success and return expectations of large free agent signings, I think he got about what he paid for in Nate Clements. He didn't go to San Fran and stink up the joint. He collected somewhere between $30 and $40 million over 4 years of quality corner play, and then they terminated him before his salaries started to get more expensive.
Yeah man what happened to him? He was one of the top 2 corners in the league in Oakland. I don't if it was the system or what because he has done **** in Philly. I know he's never been known for his tackling but some of the games I've watched he's struggling to just force a guy out of bounds.