NFL 2017 Post-Draft Offseason

I'm with you there. Seeing as Aaron Donald is about to take up a ton more cap space next year, I'm a little bit at a loss where they think Watkins is gonna fit in. They're sitting at $36 mil in cap space next year and that's without Trumaine Johnson's salary since he's been tagged.

It's gonna be tight.

garion333 wrote:

Can the Rams cut Tavon Austin now?

I hear the Browns are big on taking over contracts for teams looking to get rid of mediocre players other teams overpaid for...

*Legion* wrote:

I don't think it was a very good trade from the Rams' perspective. Sure, I'm on board with bringing in Watkins, you need someone for Goff to throw at, and he's as talented as you're going to conjure up at this point.

But as always, you trade for contracts, not players, and Watkins' contract is up after this year. Trading a 2nd round pick for the rights to 1 season of Sammy Watkins... that part, I'm not on board with. I'm assuming the team has to have discussed a contract extension with Watkins, and if so and if the deal is team friendly, then maybe it's not quite as bad... but still, the trade is a 2nd round pick plus (one year contract of) a cornerback, for one year of Watkins.

Granted, but it's the Rams, who both need an influx of offensive talent and need to make a splash to get noticed. They've got a year of Watkins on a super-cheap deal, then the option to franchise if necessary. Which, obviously isn't great, but this is their only shot at a potentially great WR.

There's also the Jared Goff factor; you want to see if the huge price you paid for this guy was worth it, and how do you do that with Tavon Austin and a rookie?

I mean, yeah, big dice roll, but it looks like for the first time in years the Rams might actually be trying at the whole football thing.

What the Rams need is players for their offensive line. Goff is gonna be dead if they don't get at least one more legit offensive lineman. Whitworth was a great get, but their C, RG and RT are not good.

garion333 wrote:

What the Rams need is players for their offensive line. Goff is gonna be dead if they don't get at least one more legit offensive lineman. Whitworth was a great get, but their C, RG and RT are not good.

The Rams need a sh*t-ton of things, and I have to assume this is just a calculated hope that whatever value you get from that second-round pick is going to equal what a hopefully healthy Sammy Watkins gives you. Jared Goff was so bad last year it's hard to imagine him turning it around, but, for him to have any chance, this is the kind of move they need to make.

I will withhold full judgement until we see if a contract extension materializes or not.

An extension that is full of incentives for if Watkins blows up would make a lot of sense. The Rams could set a reasonable base price for him, with the incentives jacking the contract value way up if Watkins has the kind of year that would net him a big free agent contract in the offseason. Watkins gets to play to get paid, and the Rams get to hang onto him at a more appropriate value if he merely peaks at "capable starter".

Yes, even without an extension, they have the ability to franchise him next year. But you don't spend a 2nd round pick for a guy's contract season, just to have to "buy high" at market rates the next offseason, and it leaves zero margin for error if Watkins is anything less than a superstar in 2017.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
garion333 wrote:

What the Rams need is players for their offensive line. Goff is gonna be dead if they don't get at least one more legit offensive lineman. Whitworth was a great get, but their C, RG and RT are not good.

The Rams need a sh*t-ton of things, and I have to assume this is just a calculated hope that whatever value you get from that second-round pick is going to equal what a hopefully healthy Sammy Watkins gives you. Jared Goff was so bad last year it's hard to imagine him turning it around, but, for him to have any chance, this is the kind of move they need to make.

I'm still holding out hope for Goff. He was drafted by the wrong team. Because they were trying to teach him Chinese it was always gonna be a tough transition. If they had stuck to English he likely would've probably looked less Bortles-esque.

If he's still trash after this year, I'll certainly lose most faith I have. Little as it is.

Love the kid, but he's so gone.

I hope he invested his money well because it's about to dry up. The only salvation is to hit all his kicks from here on out.

As far as I'm concerned, the truly bad part of the situation happened when they were dumb enough to not only draft a kicker in the second round, but trade up to draft a kicker in the second round. All the missed kicks are just sh*t-flavored gravy at this point.

Maybe he can get some residual royalties for showing up in every single "worst draft pick ever" list in the future.

He'll be working at a car lot by opening day.

Watched KC and SF last night. Well, I skipped the Niner offensive drives, and just watched the KC QBs, because it was late.

The first thing is that all three QBs ran the same first play, a deep pass down the right sideline to a man-covered receiver against a SF defense with just one deep safety. Smith hit Hill for 38. Bray hit Conley for an 83 yard TD that was called back because Conley pushed off. And Mahomes hit, I think, Conley for a nice long gain that was called back for holding.

But all three made the the passes, which was nice. The Chiefs seem committed to airing it out. The first run Alex Smith called on his opening TD drive was a two yard push into the end zone by Spencer Ware, made easier by all the previous passes.

Mahomes showed off all the skills that makes you think of Favre. His TD pass was off a scramble, thrown across his body back to a standing WR. He made a nice third down pass on a broken play in which he was being sacked. Ran for a first down in a broken play.

The kid will either live up to the hype, or he will be a turnover machine. He's not a lot different than Johnny Manziel, to be honest. Only he is way more focused on working and learning.

Being raised in MLB clubhouses, as his dad pitched for 6 teams in 11 years (plus a couple in Japan), I think he saw how hard players work for the right to play professional sports. His dad probably sweat most spring trainings.

He might really have that it factor that will help him make it. No way he is ready to play yet. But a year under Smith will do him good. He will never be that conservative, but the more he learns the better he will be at managing risk.

He could also be a colossal bust. It's way too soon to tell. But, so far, everything seems to be going as planned. He seems to have the perfect demeanor to become a fan favorite, too.

In other, less meaningful news, the Chiefs have a couple of undrafted FA WR's that look like they could make the squad. Gehrig Dietrich was a WR I threw to in our old GWJ NCAA dynasty leagues when he was with SMU. So I'm super rooting for him. The other, Seantavious Jones, looks like he could be a beast.

That's another way to say that the Chiefs are woefully thin at WR.

The only surprise here is that it took this long. When they brought in Folk, you knew Aguayo was done.

I truly hope that the kid follows the time-honored tradition of leaving Tampa Bay and going on to a
long and fruitful NFL career. (Nothing against the Bucs, but this does seem to happen with their guys an awful lot).

When I saw the beautiful news Aguayo was cut, I literally yelled "WOOOOOO FREEEDOOOOOOOOM", because now I get to stop hearing about a kicker. Drafting him was moronic and idiotic, and I'm impressed that GM Jason Licht and Koetter were willing to swallow their pride, realize their mistake, and cut his inaccurate fanny from the team. These are people who understand the draft pick (wait, picks) represent a sunk cost, and, regardless of what you spent, he sucks donkey balls.

Also, I don't care if he's good elsewhere. Go away so I can stop hearing about you now.

I'm a little heartbroken because now what are we gonna talk about for the next year and a half?

Jayhawker wrote:

He's not a lot different than Johnny Manziel, to be honest. Only he is way more focused on working and learning.

His arm strength is way better. Manziel had just enough to maybe make it in the NFL but Mahomes can make all the throws, as they say.

garion333 wrote:

I'm a little heartbroken because now what are we gonna talk about for the next year and a half?

We can still keep on mentioning that the Bucs drafted a kicker in the 2nd round that turned out so bad they had to cut him over and over.

cube wrote:
garion333 wrote:

I'm a little heartbroken because now what are we gonna talk about for the next year and a half?

We can still keep on mentioning that the Bucs drafted a kicker in the 2nd round that turned out so bad they had to cut him over and over.

Yeah, but it's just not going to be the same. Cutting a second-round pick a year later is a tough thing to do, and that's a big positive for the Bucs' front office. They did something dumb and admitted it. It's just not going to be the same.

We can just go back to mocking BORTLESMANIA per usual.

garion333 wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

He's not a lot different than Johnny Manziel, to be honest. Only he is way more focused on working and learning.

His arm strength is way better. Manziel had just enough to maybe make it in the NFL but Mahomes can make all the throws, as they say.

This is definitely true. He does have a cannon. But the real issue is, and this is similar to JFF, is whether he can get away with the risky throws he got away with in college. Can he adapt to bigger and faster defensive players. I read that he began to learn this on day one of camp, when his first pass in the 2-minute drill was intercepted and run back for a TD. He was throwing the ball away, but didn't realize just how far away needs to be. And more importantly, when a play breaks down, will he take the sack instead of forcing a ball where he shouldn't.

There is a fine line between Favre and the waiver wire. It's fun to think that the chiefs might have a guy on the right side of it. But it is way too early to tell. As his confidence grows, we'll see if he avoids becoming as pick machine. He definitely has that gamer instinct of making a play. I liked this blurb from an article in the KC Star, which gives me hope.

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt...

But if you watch the touchdown again, you see a lot to like. He kept his eyes downfield while scrambling away from pressure, and had the foresight to point Kemp — his third read — to an open spot in the end zone.

“I was pointing to tell him to stay where he was at,” Mahomes said. “(Defenders) were trying to follow me, I saw the defense really flowing. We’ve built a good chemistry at camp, him figuring out what I wanted him to do, so he was already on that track. I just threw it up for him to go get it.”

Sounds easy.

Mahomes makes it look that way at times, too.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/1ImCQXp.jpg)

Just posting this for the headline, no other comment needed:

Brock Osweiler can explain why he kept overthrowing receivers in preseason opener

Osweiler starting the game was pretty significant, given that he is not the incumbent starter, and the incumbent starter is still there and not injured (Kessler played with the 2s). But Brock might already be blowing it.

There was a quote from Coach Jackson saying he wanted to see how Oz would respond with only three days of prep time (with the first team). It's pretty clear he didn't respond well, but I took that to mean he wanted to see how Oz would perform when the starter gets hurt..

That's reading easy fast between the lines, but the job is Kessler's at this point and will be Kizer's once he works through some basic rookie issues (holding onto the ball too long, etc.)

*Legion* wrote:

Just posting this for the headline, no other comment needed:

Brock Osweiler can explain why he kept overthrowing receivers in preseason opener

Osweiler starting the game was pretty significant, given that he is not the incumbent starter, and the incumbent starter is still there and not injured (Kessler played with the 2s). But Brock might already be blowing it.

Maybe Brock and Roberto can be roommates, travel the country together, that sort of thing.

IMAGE(https://media.profootballfocus.com/2017/05/Roberto-Aguayo-1024x510.jpg)

Cardinals coach Bruce Arians had QB coach Byron Leftwich calling plays in their most recent game, to be executed by QB Blaine Gabbert, in an attempt to beat the opposing team, coached by Jack Del Rio.

The Bears claimed Aguayo. Did they feel like they weren't being made fun of enough?

iaintgotnopants wrote:

The Bears claimed Aguayo. Did they feel like they weren't being made fun of enough?

You're missing the best part. The Bears' incumbent kicker is Connor Barth. As in the kicker that the Buccaneers cut immediately after drafting Aguayo.

*Legion* wrote:
iaintgotnopants wrote:

The Bears claimed Aguayo. Did they feel like they weren't being made fun of enough?

You're missing the best part. The Bears' incumbent kicker is Connor Barth. As in the kicker that the Buccaneers cut immediately after drafting Aguayo.

I'll take "Failing to Learn From Others' Mistakes" for $500, Alex.