Jrry32's First Mock Off-Season of the Year

[Merlin]

Last offseason Les didn't really have the option to rebuild the edge position for the defense. But after another season where the edge rush fell far short of what this scheme requires, and when considering better options in FA and a first round pick in a deep DL draft... I think Les is going to do much better this time around.

Your approach hit all the basics (with the exception of restructuring Whit's contract to spread that $15M cap hit). But I think it comes up a bit short on the edge, and that's considering that I effin love the Bush and Winovich additions in your draft. If Les goes into this draft without a FA addition at ROLB it's a virtual certainty he'll use the high draft capital to solve it right out the gate.

Another area that needs more attention is Safety. Not only is Stewart mediocre as F, but he's also got poor instincts in coverage and the deep middle which is more of the same. Adding a vet is fine by me, but his strengths need to align with where we need to get better. Yours is the kind of move that might work out, but I think it's a bit underwhelming.

Like your NT addition, and I'll agree that Wade will be all for a guy who can anchor in when he needs to up there and not get washed out. And Groy is interesting, kind of funny how Buffalo matched our offer only to have him not really develop into what they obviously expected. I do like him as an under the radar type addition (he struggled a bit) that will play better than people think for our OL coach.

As always appreciate the time it takes for those, was a fun read.

 

[rdlkgliders]

Once we get the combine hype train out of the way we will no better where guys shakeout. Our first round pick is a real conversation point to me with a lot of options. If we stay where we are.
1 Nasir Adderley is he available? (if so he is a solid upgrade with huge upside @ F.S
2 Where is Hokinson going to go? Is he available somehow, if so would we dare pull the trigger?
3 Which D.L falls to us? there is bound to be a very tempting DL prospect on the board (Lawrence or Tillery maybe)
4 Edge guys Ferguson and Polite 1 of the 2 should be there.

I love our options and would be fine staying where we are but if we dropped up to 10 places and picked up an early 3rd + I could see us making a deal.

 

[jrry32]

Last offseason Les didn't really have the option to rebuild the edge position for the defense. But after another season where the edge rush fell far short of what this scheme requires, and when considering better options in FA and a first round pick in a deep DL draft... I think Les is going to do much better this time around.

Your approach hit all the basics (with the exception of restructuring Whit's contract to spread that $15M cap hit). But I think it comes up a bit short on the edge, and that's considering that I effin love the Bush and Winovich additions in your draft. If Les goes into this draft without a FA addition at ROLB it's a virtual certainty he'll use the high draft capital to solve it right out the gate.

Another area that needs more attention is Safety. Not only is Stewart mediocre as F, but he's also got poor instincts in coverage and the deep middle which is more of the same. Adding a vet is fine by me, but his strengths need to align with where we need to get better. Yours is the kind of move that might work out, but I think it's a bit underwhelming.

Like your NT addition, and I'll agree that Wade will be all for a guy who can anchor in when he needs to up there and not get washed out. And Groy is interesting, kind of funny how Buffalo matched our offer only to have him not really develop into what they obviously expected. I do like him as an under the radar type addition (he struggled a bit) that will play better than people think for our OL coach.

As always appreciate the time it takes for those, was a fun read.

We did make a FA addition at OLB. We added Shaq Barrett. We can't restructure Whit's contract. 2019 is the final year. The only way to restructure it is to extend him. We could do that solely for cap purposes if need be, but I'd rather avoid it if I can. I did restructure Cooks and Havenstein. I just didn't mention it. Both of their contracts are easy to restructure. We just turn the roster bonus into an option bonus and prorate it. That opens up about $11 million in cap room.

As for Darian Stewart, he played extremely well in Wade's scheme in Denver. We're not going to get a safety who specializes in playing the deep middle. That's not what Wade or the scheme want. Wade wants his safeties to be interchangeable. They basically need to be jack of all trades, master of none types. We're not going to go out and sign an Earl Thomas imo. Frankly, Wade has always done well with under-the-radar types. In Denver, it was Darian Stewart and T.J. Ward. Here, we have John Johnson. In Houston, he had Glover Quin and Danieal Manning. In Dallas, he had Ken Hamlin and Gerald Sensabaugh. Other teams tend not to value the skill-sets that he does at safety that highly. That's something he exploits. He's actually quite good at finding converted CBs who most teams would consider to be tweeners (too slow for CB but not big enough for safety).

I appreciate the feedback! Reasonable minds can certainly disagree.