AZ54

You might want to read my posts from a couple weeks back where I said I wanted to move Long back to RG where he can dominate the LOS and find a FA to play RT. FWIW I'm still upset the coaches didn't consult with me on this, not even so much as a courtesy call from Ryan Pace. If that is in fact their decision I still think his Pro Bowl selection will validate it in their eyes (not mine), and I think it ends the debate for them.

Coaches already came out and said he'll be staying there. I think this just validates that. If not in our eyes, at least in theirs.

Congrats to Kyle! This should end all debate about where he plays next season, unless we're talking about a move to the left side. I'd keep him where he is as teams no longer have their dominant pass rushers always coming from RDE spot. Besides that, it seemed the more speed he faced the more he struggled.

I know you weren't advocating this position but it sparked some thoughts on the whole catering to Cutler theme... It's not clear to me why we wouldn't want to keep continuity in a system where Cutler has had his best year in many statistical categories. Belichick caters to Brady's strengths with the spread offense and short passing game, he's labeled a genius. Harbaugh caters to Kaepernick's strengths with the read-option and he's a genius. Ken Whisenhunt was a genius when he allowed his offense to cater to Kurt Warner's strengths. He was no longer a genius when he spent too much to get Kolb, a QB with no strengths to cater to, and he failed. Packers get credit all the time for always keeping the same offense year after year. Now we finally had two guys in Loggains and Gase who got through to Cutler to just play it smart, and he did. Why it took so damn long we'll never know but I personally think Cutler himself had a lot to do with it. Part of that might have been the huge guaranteed contract that basically said you get all this whether your good or not so no need to worry about the stats anymore, and he decided to try something different. Regardless, if Fox feels Loggains is ready to ascend to this role under his supervision, and maintaining continuity with his QB and the rest of the offense is certainly a legitimate reason for wanting this, then why not? I don't think Loggains will light it up this year but I also don't feel like there will be a terrible step backward into the unknown.

...ugh

As this draft process gets underway more and more questions about NKemdiche come to light. Given where we pick I prefer to stay away simply because there will be better options, much better options. It's way early but most likely there will be two QBs taken ahead of us. Which two I don't know but if that happens someone very talented falls to us. Plus we're not in the spot to afford a big question mark in attitude on a rebuilding team, at least not from a #1 pick, and this guy causes some issues in the locker room. Right now I see Jerry Jones drafting a QB with his first pick. When Nkemdiche falls into the 20's I see him trading up to get him to replace Greg Hardy.

Right now Drafttek has us taking Stanley at #11. I just watched a few games on Stanley (Clemson, OSU, Texas) and I'd be perfectly happy if we signed Osemele and drafted Stanley. Stanley has a couple things to work on with anchoring better at times but that's easily fixed. He's a heck of an athlete with great vision, great hands, and very quick on his feet. At times he's covering blitzes with one arm on two pass rushers. No issues at all having that Oline.

Players I'd like to see back in order of priority: Jeffrey. He'll be tagged if needed but I think we come to an agreement on a long term deal before we get that far. Zach Miller: Should be relatively cheap and a 3yr deal seems reasonable with maybe 1/3 guaranteed. Prosinski: His might be a 1 year deal but special teams coverage got a whole lot better once he was signed. As a backup S he's serviceable and that gives him some more value than just a pure special teams guy. There's going to be more high turnover at the bottom end of our roster and he can be the guy who brings continuity to our coverage teams. Porter: I'm not as enamored with Porter as others are but I think we need to sign him simply because we have nothing much at CB. I'm not breaking the bank for him either but I don't think he'll get that much interest around the league. There isn't a lot of talent at CB in FA so it will be interesting to see what else we do. I'm sure we'll sign at least one other starting quality FA. We may see two CBs drafted. SMC: I wouldn't guarantee him a starting job but I'd bring him back to compete. We really have nothing here and need some continuity. I like Timu but his range is limited. I don't see Timu or SMC as more than backups long term. We need to sign a starter in FA and draft another guy to compete for a starting role. Unrein: I thought he played well for us and would like to see him back to compete for a spot. Jenkins: I put him on par, or just slightly behind Unrein. He played great early then sort of disappeared. Bring him back and let him compete. Might be interested depending on.. Montgomery...ideally we draft or sign someone to be our starter at RG. Osemele! I see Grasu as the starter at Center and think the team will be good with Slauson as the backup there, or possibly the rookie or FA we sign also has backup C experience. Forte....I'd love to see him back but don't want the big money contract for an aging RB. I expect Pace let's Forte test the market and then see's if he wants to match. Jacquizz Rodgers...why not bring him back? He did enough early on to backup Forte. He's cheap so let him compete for that 2nd/3rd spot again. Sign him early while we wait to see what happens with Forte. Housler...another 1yr no commitment deal can't hurt if the team liked what he did late in the season. Mundy....hard to get a read on what the coaches thought of him but I think Fangio wants more range in his safeties than what Mundy offers. He fell down the depth chart quickly in camp before the injury so I doubt he's back. OTOH we don't have depth at Safety. Not interested: Ball...waste of $3mil McManis....he was not that good on special teams coverage and he was not good as a DB. Acho...Houston and Young out performed him by a lot. McPhee is locked in as one starter and we need a real speed element to the outside rush and that's not what Acho offers. Ducasse....just sign Osemele and we'll work to forget Ducasse was ever on our roster. Mariani....KR/PR not good. Slot WR was just ok but we're rebuilding here and need to draft a late Rd returner/slot guy.

I happen to agree that Cutler is a top 15 QB. I guess that makes me delusional as well. I won't use QBR since we've proven that to be complete BS. Even ESPN cites it only when it "fits" the narrative. Total yards: Cutler is 19th but missed most of two games, and is 250yards from the 15th spot. For comparison Aaron Rodgers is 17th with two more games played. I feel comfortable that he'd be right at 15th, or better, if we had something closer to a 2 starting WRs playing most games instead of practice squad guys being out there. Comp%: Cutler is tied for 12th among qualified QBs (meaning need enough attempts) with Brady and Flacco. Notables below Cutler on this list are: Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Palmer, Tannehill, Carr, Rodgers, Cam Newton, and Andrew Luck. Yards/att: Cutler is 11th. Notables below him are: Ryan, Rivers, Bridgewater, Stafford, Carr, P. Manning, Flacco, Rodgers, and Luck. INTs: hard to sort out the "qualified" QBs and actual ranking but Cutler had 11 INTs which puts him somewhere in the middle of the pack. Worse than him are: Luck, Flacco, Carr, Stafford, Rivers, Matt Ryan, Roethlisberger, Manning brothers (again). Better than him: Newton, Rodgers, Bridgewater, Wilson, and Brady INT/Attempt: 20th INT/game: 11th in the league. Yds/game: Cutler is 23rd. Cutler will never be Brady on the INT front but I think he can get to the same performance level the Cardinals are getting out of Carson Palmer. I've watched a lot of Carson Palmer when he was throwing more INTs than Cutler in recent years.

I don't think these QBs are that good and they are moving up simply because they are QBs. Lynch has a lot of question marks. Wentz is coming out of nowhere. We have far too many needs right now. The right time to draft the QB is when we hit the next deep QB draft and can find a decent talent in late Rd 1.

I just asked that question (was Ragland out on 3rd and long?) in another thread. That's not what I want to see from a draft pick at #11. Plus not running hard all the time fits what I saw in some earlier games; when the play goes away from him he doesn't hustle to get in on the action. His draft stock has been dropping on Drafttek lately into the 20's. If people start thinking he's just a two down LB that'll plummet further. With Smith injured and Ragland falling Myles Jack is the last man standing in the ILB top 15 discussion.

Easy to make plays when there is no defender there as Clemson's coverage was horrible. Now we know this guy can run but have no idea if he can run routes well. Can he make contested catches? His draft stock went up a couple rounds no doubt from way back to maybe early day 3. Saban is not the type of coach not to use his talented players so his disappearing act for most of the year is concerning but it's possible the coaches just fell in love with Henry and the run. Plus Alabama had QB issues so passing wasn't exactly their strong suit this year. Speaking of which, I hope we don't draft Henry. Not that we're looking RB early anyway but he looked very pedestrian around the LOS. I know he's good at running over college DBs but I don't see 1st Rd shiftiness around the LOS that means you just need to defend the initial direction the play goes and not worry about the backside contain. I didn't see the most of game but it appeared Ragland was being taken off the field on 3rd and long plays. Since there were so many players we could be drafting I recorded the game and I'll watch it someday to focus on guys like Ragland, Robinson, Jarran Reed, Shaq Lawson, Tankersley, Kearse.

The last significant coordinator hiring from within the organization that I can recall was Bob Babich and he was in way over his head. In this case, I like the fact we have continuity. Fox statement that this is "our" system means Loggains isn't bringing in his offense. That's something I didn't want to go through all over again and it would have been that way if we'd hired someone with more experience. Fox knew there was a strong likelihood Gase would be gone this year so he's been able to keep an eye on Loggains, and other coaches, this past season to see if he had a realistic candidate for OC. We know Loggains was heavily involved in devising the game plans each week when we had so many injuries so it appears he has a good handle on adapting the system to what the players can do as opposed to those who want to adapt players to the system. It's one thing to pass that test. Up in the air is if Loggains can adapt the play calls to what the defense is doing on game day. People learn and grow over the course of their career so we might not want to put too much weight into how Loggains fared in his work as the Titans OC. We have a stud DC in Fangio who needs no help from Fox. That means Fox can slide over to the offensive side in practice and prep meetings to ensure he's getting what he wants in the game plans.

That I find to be a stunning decision and one that validates the disfunction in that organization IMO. Gase has never been a HC before. With all the new job responsibilities he has to learn what could possibly convince an owner that he can also handle personnel decisions? We've seen some outstanding experienced head coaches like Mike Holmgren fail under that mantle. I believe Miami has hired their new "GM" when they promoted a guy from within the organization. http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14495393...general-manager This isn't the best quote you can find from a guy who is an executive decision maker: "I think, in this league, you can have your philosophy and how you think you should build your team, but at the end of the day, you have to be flexible in your thinking and work with what wins in the league." I'm sure he's a talented guy but that "flexibility" to bend to what other people want is why he was promoted to this role because.... ...Gase and Grier still have to deal with Mike Tannenbaum. http://www.miamidolphins.com/news/article-...23-345d822a1cff Then clearly Tannenbaum is running the show in Miami, or is he? The GM is basically the top scout running both the pro and college scouting departments. It appears Gase reports directly to the owner but he has control over the final roster decisions so that leaves Tannenbaum where as far as personnel? I wish Gase well but the day he makes a big decision Tannenbaum doesn't agree with he'll soon learn that Tannenbaum relayed that bit of information privately to the owner. Then the owner is running the show but Tannenbaum is what...his confidant? I don't think this group (Gase, Tannenbaum, Grier) makes it past 3 years together.

I got this one wrong and Gase is gone. Except I did get it right that a lesser profile club (Miami) would jump toward the less experienced candidates. I don't think that's a good situation for any new HC to be in but best of luck to him. If he thought Martellus Bennett was hard to deal with wait to see him handle Suh and his $20mil/yr deal.

Welcome to Miami Mr. Gase. Get ready for your first press conference: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-footba...ld-twitter-rant

I got this one wrong and Gase is gone. Except I did get it right that a lesser profile club (Miami) would jump toward the less experienced candidates. I don't think that's a good situation for any new HC to be in but best of luck to him. If he thought Martellus Bennett was hard to deal with wait to see him handle Suh and his $20mil/yr deal.

I'm with you, not sure why he'd be one of the hottest candidates, or maybe the hottest. He's only been an OC for 3 years, one of which was very average. If Gase leaves I wish him well. Right now word is he is getting his 2nd interview with Miami.

Unless he screws up like Shane Ray did last year right before the draft I believe Nkemdiche is gone before we pick. The draft process is all about athleticism and his will be off the charts. Just like Clowney did despite concerns on his game performance and how hard he worked. Clowney did not have similar character concerns but we're talking about a guy going #1 overall versus picks 5-10. Somebody will fall in love with Nkemdiche's athletic freakishness, his ability to move around to multiple spots along the Dline, and they will take him in the top 10. I bet his agent does all he can to lock him away for the next four months, just make sure there isn't a window to jump out of. I agree he is not the type of player Fox or Pace prefer with such an early pick. Just looking at the character of last year's picks and it's clear what they value. If we are going DE at #11 and both are available I think we'd take Buckner before Nkemdiche, and I'd agree with that.

That's awesome for a guy who played a bit more than half a season in his return from an ACL injury. Yes, he was available early on but clearly not moving as well as he did later. Some of that may have been him taking to the coaching and the position change back to OLB but we still have to be pleased with that performance. Get someone else besides Goldman with pressure up the middle and we'll be seeing even more from these outside rushers.

I feel bad for Gase. The worst job openings have him as top candidate. Neither Philly nor Miami have their front office act together and that's a big problem IMO when the HC is being hired first. Gase might think it helps him have more control but I feel it's a recipe for disaster once egos collide. The fact both teams have come out so quickly and publicly going after him indicates just that kind of mess in the front office. These are meddling owners who want the hot young candidate to sell optimism to their fans. I wish him well. I'm so glad the Bears did it the right way last year and while we were a bit slow and some names rolled off the availability list it paid off. I watched Fox and Pace at the season end press conference. It was clear they are both on the same page as far as what needs to be done to improve things. The flip side of the Gase show was reporters asking Fox what happens if we lose Gase. Fox nonchalantly says (paraphrasing) "look, our systems are our systems. They don't leave or change when one guy goes out the door." Pace backed him up 100% stating that while they wish Gase best of luck, their job is to hire the best coaches and there are other quality coaches available. Translation, we have a plan in place and Fox is not worried one bit, Pace is right there in his corner.

I'm in this camp more than the pay Forte $5 or 6mil/yr. I think we'll survive just fine with Langford and Carey especially if I take the $5-6mil for Forte and spend it on the Oline in front of those two guys. For 2 years I have not been enamored with Forte's pass protection and have said so here. He fairly often misses blocks completely or he gets pushed around so quickly that Cutler has to adjust almost immediately. He does not have long speed, never really did. He is great at reading the plays and setting up blocks and he's great at versatility as far as being able to split out at WR. I'd like to have him back but my calculation says that his money spent on fixing the Oline makes Langford and Carey better, plus it makes Cutler better, which makes any WR we can manage to get on the field better. There isn't a whole lot out there in Free Agency at RG but at LG there is a young stud named Keleche Osemele from Baltimore (the fact he's a Cyclone doesn't hurt either). Ravens don't have a lot of cap space right now and he's going to get a lot of interest around the league. He also reportedly played at LT when needed this past season and did well enough, which is great versatility to have on your roster when your starter will likely be Leno. He played at RT in his career as well so he's been on both sides. I'd gladly sign him and put him at RG next to Kyle Long. We grabbed McPhee from Baltimore last year why not double dip? http://espn.go.com/blog/baltimore-ravens/p...-agent-rankings We have a lot of cap space so it's possible we could come back and sign Forte as well but he is not my priority FA heading into the offseason. I much prefer to go after someone like Osemele early and hard with a lot of guaranteed money. In the meantime, I'd tell Forte to shop around and let us know what he's got and we'll see what we can do.

Jack hasn't played much LB inside so at the moment he will need time to learn the position but he has the strength and quickness to get off blocks from lineman. There is no doubt it will be a learning curve for him but his upside on coverage is better than either of the other two 1st Rd LBs. If all 3 LBs are available when we pick, and if we pick one, it will be interesting to see who we go with because that will let us know which trait the coaches viewed as more valuable at this time.

We have a GM who is smart enough not to burn bridges. Not sure if Bennett falls into that category.

Looking over RB contracts it seems Forte will likely fall into the $4mil/yr salary range. The trick is figuring out what to guarantee. Charles avg $6.9mil/yr, 3.95 guaranteed Vereen avg $4.1mil/yr, 4.75 guaranteed Gore avg $4mil/yr, 6.5mil guaranteed Spiller avg $4mil/yr, 5.75 guaranteed Ingram avg $4mil/yr, 6.1 guaranteed Mathews avg $3.6mil/yr, 5.0 guaranteed Sproles avg $3.5mil/yr, 5.5 guaranteed Gerhart avg $3.5mil/yr, 4.5 guaranteed