Free Agency Thread? Free Agency Thread.

Man I understand the wariness of a 30 year old free agent tailback but I watched Steven Jackson play ball this year and to call him washed up...I dunno about that. He looked great to me.

 

I want to go back to Mike Goodson.

I just did all of his 2012 Coaches Tape and he is definitely one of the NFL's better kept secrets. The Raiders are a little bit stuck with Darren McFadden right now and Goodson could look for an opportunity to genuinely go and compete to be "the man". In Miami, he could do that, because in the end Lamar Miller is just a 4th round pick that had a tough time getting onto the field as a rookie because he couldn't remember his assignments. Goodson not only played in Mike Sherman's offense in 2008, but he just came from Oakland's WCO last year where he excelled.

There's a myth making the rounds here that Mike Goodson hates Mike Sherman and vice versa, and so they would never re-unite. Earlier in the thread, Disgustipate brought up some quotes found during a quick google search that seem to suggest that there could be bad blood between Goodson and Sherman. I personally didn't see that with those quotes. I thought the quotes could have been alluding to a number of things that constituted the "complications" that saw Goodson underperforming and then coming out early for the Draft.

So I did some more thorough digging. I don't think it's true at all that Sherman and Goodson dislike one another. This article sheds some more light on the subject. Some interesting quotes:

These are the "combination of things" that Mike Sherman alluded to in his end of season press conference when asked about Goodson not being featured as much as he could've been, and leaving for the NFL early. There was an injury, a little bit of the two not quite getting a good feel for one another, and then Goodson had a family/financial situation that demanded he leave for the NFL early. That's pretty much it. Goodson didn't have to say ONE WORD of praise for Mike Sherman if he didn't want to, but he did. He called him a "great guy" and said that if they'd had that extra year together (which they couldn't get because of family/financial situations) they'd have gotten their chemistry together a lot better. He didn't have to say that. He could've left it blank. "What's in the past is in the past," he could have said, and just left it at that. I think there's even a strong possibility that Mike Sherman helped Mike Goodson get into the NFL with strong recommendations.

What I think you should pay attention to is the fact that Mike Sherman knows just how talented Mike Goodson is. He fully intended to build his entire Texas A&M offense around the guy in 2008. And as he said at mid season, he considered Mike Goodson the asset they have that should be making them a lot better than they are.

Since entering the NFL in 2009, Goodson has faced a stacked deck. He goes to the Carolina Panthers where they've got not one but TWO first round picks. But by 2010, he worked his way up and due to a combination of injuries and just really good play, he took more snaps than either Jonathan Stewart or DeAngelo Williams. He had 103 runs for 439 yards, including 18 missed tackles he created and 288 yards after contact. He also had 40 catches (on 51 targets) for 310 yards including another 10 missed tackles created.

In 2011, he landed in Ron Rivera's doghouse for "fumbling" issues which is at least a little bit baffling because I can't find that he fumbled the football during a game that year. He never had a carry. He caught 1 ball and had 11 kickoff returns. The thing to note though is DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart were healthy and doing really well, and now they had Cam Newton taking a ton of carries as well. Josh Vaughn and Mike Goodson the other two tailbacks on roster had 15 snaps all year between the two of them. Any non-Williams, non-Stewart running back snaps were dished to fullbacks Richard Brockel and Jerome Felton, in that scheme. He ended up injuring a hamstring in November and being placed on injured reserve.

So in 2012 the Carolina Panthers traded him to the Raiders. The Panthers needed help at tackle because Jeff Otah had gone psycho on them and so the Raiders shipped over Bruce Campbell (the super athlete). Goodson really missed an opportunity with the Raiders because Darren McFadden (again) got hurt in Week 9 against the Buccaneers. But Goodson himself got hurt in the same game and didn't come back until Week 15. It was a real shame because after watching the tape there's no doubt in my mind which player was better overall. That was Goodson. But I think the Raiders felt tremendous pressure to make Darren McFadden work. They still seem to feel that pressure. Arguably they fired their offensive coordinator because of it.

Mike Goodson ran 35 times this year for 221 yards. He created 8 missed tackles and had 171 yards after contact (an amazing 4.9 yard average). He caught 16 balls (on 16 targets) for 195 yards with 1 TD. He created 5 more missed tackles on catches. You may remember him from the Dolphins-Raiders game. He is the one that blazed that 60+ yard catch for a touchdown on a screen pass. Once the OL managed to trip up Koa Misi, Goodson was gone.

The thing people are going to ask me about is his pass protection. Let me tell you, he was easily better than Darren McFadden in pass pro. I saw pretty much every snap of his in pass pro this year. He started out the year shaky. His very first pass protection snap of the year came against the Miami Dolphins and he got blown up by Kevin Burnett. But what is important to note is that I did not record a single pass pro loss in any of his other 26 snaps there. I realize PFF says he let up a QB pressure against the Buccaneers but I didn't agree with that call of theirs.

What I noticed about his running is that in particular he seemed a natural in the zone cutback game. Sometimes he would give up on the play side a little too soon and try and cut way back to the back side, but it usually was not long before he got back to north-south running.

Three things:

1. He just has a knack for making guys miss, which he also showed in 2009 and 2010. On 160 runs in his career he's created 29 missed tackles, and on 59 catches he created 15 more misses. Adrian Peterson made a guy miss this year (his damn near record breaking year) every 5.4 touches. Well, in his career Mike Goodson has made a guy miss ever 5.0 touches. Obviously I'm not saying this guy is Adrian Peterson. Peterson created 3.9 yards after contact per carry this year, Goodson's career average is 3.2 yards after contact. But the ability to make guys miss and fall off the tackle is a big part of Goodson's game.

2. What I particularly like in him is the growth. There's every suggestion (based on the numbers) that Goodson was not a good pass protector in 2010 when he got a lot of playing time. He had a pretty strongly negative PFF grade with 3 sacks given up 1 hit and 2 pressures on 65 pass pro snaps. What I like is you fast forward to 2012 and like I said aside from one loss, literally his first pass pro snap of the year, I thought he did marvelously. There's been a suggestion that fumbling was an issue in the past. He had 1 fumble on 42 touches (including kick returns) in his rookie year...but had 6 fumbles on 191 touches in 2010. The reason he supposedly got in the doghouse with Ron Rivera was fumbling, but he didn't fumble a single time in games in 2011 on 12 touches. Fast forward to 2012...no fumbles. Not one fumble on 67 more touches. But that's not the only growth. As I said he had 171 yards rushing in 2012 after contact, which averaged out to 4.9 yards. Previously in 2010, he averaged about 2.9 yards after contact. I think overall you're looking at a guy that has grown during his time in the league.

3. Go back to the measurables coming out of college and they're very strong. He was 5117 and 208 lbs, ran a 4.43 at his pro day (while pulling a hamstring). He ran a 4.46 at the Combine with a 1.49 second 10 yard split (FWIW, I don't have much trust in 10 yard splits due to measurement error sensitivity). He had a 39.5 inch vertical and 9'10" broad jump. His shuttle was 4.22 seconds and his cone was 6.89 seconds. He did 14 bench reps.

I think there will be a market for him in free agency as several teams have to have noticed him over the years. The Raiders will definitely want to keep him but they're handcuffed because of Darren McFadden. He knows that so long as Darren McFadden is there, he's not going to get many opportunities even to be a 3rd down type of guy because that's supposed to be one of McFadden's strengths.

The Green Bay Packers could make a play for him. That would have to seem a temptation for Mike. They essentially had to roll with DuJuan Harris, a guy that was selling cars not too long ago, all through the playoffs. I'm not saying he didn't do some pretty impressive work. He's a genuine NFL back and I've loved him since he came out, wanted the Dolphins to sign him undrafted real bad. But if they don't re-sign Cedric Benson then they'll be in the market for a guy. But Goodson will have to ask whether they're so desperate for a back that even after they sign him, they're drafting a guy real high...someone like Eddie Lacy or Gio Bernard.

I think his relationship with Mike Sherman and experience in this offense could actually HELP the Dolphins land him, if they wanted to, believe it or not. He clearly harbors no ill will toward Sherman, calling him a "great guy". In Miami, I'm not sure he'd have to compete with a high draft pick. They are allowing Reggie Bush to walk and they have 4th round pick Lamar Miller to try and take his place. Daniel Thomas is a not even an NFL caliber back, so I doubt Goodson will be worried there. He'll at least get to be part of an active two-man rotation. And who is to say that the 5th year veteran can't supplant Lamar Miller as the lead dog in that rotation?

Either way I doubt Mike Goodson is going to be an expensive get in free agency, yet I'm pretty sure he's going to be worth it.

 

I don't know if there's any way of knowing that. He's a unique case in that the film is good but it's scarce which means he's unproven.

Can he handle a bigger workload? He got 13 carries against Kansas City this year and he seemed to handle it fine with 89 rushing yards, plus a catch for 14 yards. Over a span of 3 games in 2010 he got 75 touches and produced 400 total yards and 1 TD. But he also fumbled 3 times during that span.

Has he exorcised his fumblitis?

Because he's so unproven I can't imagine you're paying more than $2.5 to $3 million a year for him and even that much might make some General Managers choke on their soup. I was estimating something like maybe $2 million for him on a short term deal.

 

Might be too expensive relative to the role Miami would have in mind for him...but it wouldn't be a bad signing all in all. If the Falcons ditch John Abraham I'd rather have him though.

 

Teams are allowed to begin negotiations with players on March 9th but signings can't begin until 4pm EST, March 12th.

Of course, the reality is teams have already begun negotiation with pending free agents. It's a worst kept secret. Even Greg Jennings flat out told reporters that he's already been talking to teams during Super Bowl week.

 

Not all free agents are "over the hill". Many are 25-26 years old.