Feel the Hate

Drives me crazy! There’s no provisions to make the slacker owners work harder to promote their revenues. Mike Brown has a homage to his father at other’s expense and nothing in this deal imposes any burden on Brown for doing. At least there should be some offset for the lost naming revenue, minimum ticket prices and other mandatory marketing efforts.

Swidge,

Remember, Jerry must have found the only way not to sell out the name “Texas Stadium”. At least we are not “Texas Instruments field at Texas Stadium”….yet… but maybe at the new house. Don’t get me wrong and I agree with Jerry and Dan Sphincter in those quotes whole heartedly.

The players union has forced a welfare state to exist between the capitalist owners. What next? Civil Service Football.

An update on some signings:

Skins are have John Abraham in for a visit.

Eagles signed DE Darren Howard

Packers are negotiating with Vanderjack

Also, the Skins are giving Brandon Lloyd over $10M in guaranteed money. How do they do it?

Yes, Just how do the Skins do it???
I thought they were 2 million over the cap on Friday am.

Update on Ayodele from KFFL.com

Giants | Team wanted to meet with Ayodele
Mon, 13 Mar 2006 05:34:08 -0800

The New York Daily News reports the New York Giants wanted to meet with free agent LB Akin Ayodele (Jaguars), but his agent, Mike Sullivan, said they are negotiating with the Dallas Cowboys and no visit to the Giants is planned

Ayodele would be a good pick up. I think he is and will be much better than Fujita. With him, we will probably not draft a OLB.
i see us picking up;
ayodele
fabini
Owens(hard to believe)
Vinateri
Hope(my wishful thinking but Pitt will probably get him back)

I’d also love to see us swap our no 18 and Greg Ellis to Denver for their two first rounders.

anyone know anything about Ahmad Brooks out of UVA? He was once a projected top 5 pick but with injuries and something else, he is down. There is rumor he may go in the supplemental draft. We could really use a nice big and fas 250lb LB.

WHERE IS OUR KICKER !!!

I heard over the weekend Viniteri is considering staying with the Pats.
( MAYBE JUST TRYING TO DRIVE UP PRICE?)

With James gone will the Colts let Vanderjerk go ? From what I understand he is in Green Bay interviewing.

I really thought we were going to move fast on this. I hope we didn`t miss the boat on this one.

i hope we do SOMETHING today!!!

Everyone try to keep calm. I know this slow start sucks, but something tells me JJ has something up his sleeve. Unfortunately, that something will be TO. No one hates it more than me. I’m going to purchase a Teague jersey today to wear during each game. Anyway, I see things shaping up over the next few days. We will have signed-
Kosier
Ayodele
Fabini
TO

The problem is that we will lose Mawae, Hope, and Vinatieri. This means that we will have to go out and get a couple overpriced midlevel players to fill the gaps. This is the way I see it!

I just love this stuff. This blog is more entertaining and informative than all of the paid mediots put together. We’re also a little bi-polar. On one hand, we love to rip the little garden gnome that spends like crazy on over rated and over aged players. On the other hand, we seem to get our panties in a wad if JJ and BP don’t do the same thing.

This round of free agency just confirms a few things. One, BP is in this for the long haul. He has a reputation of leaving teams in good shape talent wise and with youth. He’s signed on for two more years. Look for him to sign a few bargain FA’s. (Can anyone say Aaron Glen?) Look for the usual wheeling and dealing in the draft. The other thing confirmed by FA this year is that JJ learned his lesson. I don’t think he’ll ever put his team in cap hell again just to take a one year shot at the title.

Relax folks. Have one of those Mexican cervezas Chandus is kicking back with. The real action will be in the draft. I’ll bet a six pack of the stuff that the draft addresses NT, LB, and O-line. Plug in a decent kicker and we’ll be a pretty good team.

The Skins strike again and sign Adam Archeletta. Someone really needs to audit their books. They are spending money like they got more $$ under the cap than the Vikings.

i wonder if the archeletta signing means they are worried about taylor going to jail.

josh:
I would think the Gurode signing pretty much spelled doom for signing Mawae.

J-MAN, I think there is some concern that Taylor may be headed to the slammer for a brief stay, but I think the signing is mostly to replace Ryan Clark who they are going to lose in free agency.

J-man,

I thought that too, but was still hoping to get an upgrade at the position. I’m just not that pleased with Gurode or AJ, but I’m sure BP knows something I don’t.

If we sign Ayodele, I would really like to drop down to the end of the first round(or early 2nd) and pick up Giles. What do you think.

Good point J-Man, Taylor IS supposed to go to trial soon and will probably have to do jailtime.As far as I can see Vinitari has probably been hit with a hard close by Dallas but still wants to think about it because he really wants to stay a Patriot.We have the cash and they don’t,so he’s going to Argentina to relax and think about it.By the way JJ has a place in Argentina(Hmmm)These are just my opinions…….Jerry told the Ft.Worth Star reporter during the CBA negotiations that Dallas intended to address the holes of OT,OG,OLB,FS and Kicker during free agency and then take the best players available during the draft so take that for what it’s worth……I’m sure we have more to come………

Josh:

If by Giles you mean Max Jean-Gilles, I would not count on that one. With Gurode and Kosier getting signed, and Peterman still under contract, OG is not likely to be a position they draft for at least another year.

I think Ayodele is a no brainer at this point. Chalk it up. Major upgrade to the defense.

Josh:
I think that would be great. In fact, i posted earlier that maybe we should trade Ellis and our No 1 to Denver for their two first rounders. Possible targets could be;
Gabe Watson,
Max Jean-Gilles
Jonathan Scott. we could probably trade down to the first part of the 2nd round and get Gilles, or Spencer for that matter. Both will be good for us. Getting two lineman would be good b/c if Rivera crashes again, he will be cut next june.(which gives Gilles a year to develop….

Raf,

Do you have any info on the Redskins piggy bank? .. This is starting to get a little strange. They were a projected $20+ million over the cap. The new CBA gave them about $8 million more to work with, cuts and releasing Arrington saved them about $11 million. So how are they signing players to multi-year million dollar contracts?

Sterling,
you may be right but Gurode is more of a center and a backup guard.(he only got a 1 yr deal). Peterman is beginning to look kind of like a flop and we all know of riveras struggles.

sharkz,

That makes sense. If Dallas can sign Ayodele alone, I think it puts them in a position to draft the best player available. Right now it seems that there is more talant in other positions, than the positions of need for the Cowboys. With Ayodele, Dallas can draft Lawson or Jackson and still have a decent player at SOLB. Without a SOLB from free agency you get a sense that the Boys have their hands tied.

I still believe all this T.O. to the Cowboys chatter is a big smoke screen. Look at what the Broncos, Dolphins, and Chiefs have done so far in free agency. Next to nothing. I think they are all keeping their powder dry so they can grab T.O. In the case of the Broncos and Chiefs they actually DO have a glaring need for a #1 WR, while the Cowboys do not. They both have offenses that pass the ball far more than the typical Parcells offense.

In the end, I see T.O. as being a Bronco. Not only the interview at Shanahan’s house, and all the other contact he has had with the team, but the fact that they have been WAAAAAY too quiet about him lately. In Wall Street trading, we call that a “contrarian indicator”. That is, you don’t want to make too much noise about something like this and draw too much attention to it. The Bentley to Philly deal rumors when all along there was silence out of Cleveland, and a lot of thought Cleveland was the natural place for him to end up is a good example.

Trust me guys, T.O. has Broncos written all over him. A team that believes it is one receiver away from winning the AFC Championship game and that runs a Bill Walsh/Reid/Shanahan-style (incorrectly named) West Coast Offense that he has played in his whole career. Does that sound strangely familiar to the 2003/04 Philadelphia Eagles? The final piece of the puzzle is that Mike Shanahan is possibly the absolute worst GM in the NFL and has a history of taking headcase players like Dale Carter, Maurice Clarett, and many others with the idea that either his personality or the lack of oxygen up there will straighten them out.

T.O. is the antithesis of everything a Parcells/Palmer offense looks for in a WR. If he was put into a Parcells-style ball control offense where he had to run block on at least 2 of every 4 downs and maybe got the ball thrown his way 1 out of every 3-4 passing plays…trust me it wouldn’t last long before a media whining session occurred. Put that together with what would be a very questionable relationship with Drew Bledsoe, and you are mixing a potent and combustible concoction that will end up blowing up in everyone’s face. Remember how he got along with Jeff Garcia and Donovan McNabb? I give it 6 games maximum before T.O. throws Bledsoe under the bus and Parcells has to kick him off the team.

Much better to let Shanahan get his wish and leave our young talented team alone to develop on their own.

J-Man:

That still doesn’t mean that they will draft a Guard this year. There are only so many roster spots that can be given to Guards…even if one of them is a Center too. Besides, I think Parcells sees Gurode as a future starter or he wouldn’t have re-signed him. I have no idea about Peterman, and I suspect few others do either since he hasn’t gotten hardly any PT. I have to believe he will still be around until I see them cut him. Either way, Guard will not be a priority in this draft.

If LA gets cut then guard could easily be a position we’ll look for in the draft. Kozier would step up into LA’s old position, Rivera would man the other side, Gurode could end up being the center, then what’s left? Peterman as the only backup guard…we’ll need more ammo than that.

Rafael:

Thanks for the link to this article BTW. I read it last night and thought it was funny how similar the conflicts and discussions were to the things a lot of us were writing about on this blog during those contentious days last week. The fact that they mortgaged the future to get this deal done is a story that is not going to go away either. I look for the next CBA to be a much tougher negotiation and possibly much worse labor trouble on the horizon for the league…but we have a few more years before we have to start worrying about that.

Sam:

That would be the same number of Guards that were on the roster last season. I don’t think they will address it in the draft, certainly not in the early rounds. They want early round picks to play their rookie year, not sit as backups.

Also, don’t be so quick to have Larry Allen cut. As woefully pathetic as our O-Line was last year, and as poorly as LA played (especially compared to his other years), Larry Allen still played better than any other O-Lineman (post-Flo injury) by a big margin. I don’t think they are going to be inclined to cut the best Guard in team history after one down year where he was still the best player on the O-Line. They aren’t in that much cap trouble.

I think if for some reason we do draft a guard, it should be Spencer. He’s one of the top guards in the draft and also played LT in college and you know how Parcells loves versatility. He’s projected at OG or RT. Then there’s the fact that he showed a lot of potential at DT his first two years of college before they moved him to OG. I say lets bring him in and try him out in a rotation at NT and we’d have a backup NT, OG, and emergency OT. They could evaluate him to determine where he would eventually start. The guy certainly has the size to play any of those spots (6’4", 352).

If we can land Spencer in a “best player available” scenario, I say take him and try to trade Peterman for a second day pick. I think I read that the biggest knock on him is that he is not versatile at all. He can only play 1 guard position and he hasn’t proven he can even do that at this level.

Sterling,

If Parcells thought Gurode was the future starter at C, I think he would have given him more than a 1-year contract. Gurode is good for depth as he can play multiple positions, (just like Kosier), but I still think we might sign Mawae. He is, despite his age, head and shoulders about what we can throw out at C.

Male25Dan:

I didn’t say Parcells saw Gurode as a future starter at Center, I said he might as a Guard though or they would have let Gurode walk in FA. I agree Mawae would be a good pickup, but it probably won’t happen now that they kept Gurode. It does present an interesting situation at Center though. AJ will be an UFA next year and Gurode will require a new contract. By that time Parcells should know for sure what he has in each of them. I have said all along that Center was more important than it was being made out to be, but as things stand today it appears that the interior of the O-Line is set for personnel.

I expect they will turn their attention to the OT and TE situations next.

Sam and Eric,

I wrote a little on the Redskins cap at the bottom off the previous thread. It looks like what they’re doing is possible because of the combination of their cuts and the rise in the cap. They’re just continuing to spend today what they’re assuming they’ll make tomorrow. A bad way to run a business if you ask me.

I love a tough defense, but we have great potential there already. I’m not committed to drafting offensive talent positions just yet. If we draft OL like we did last year for defense, we can be very optimistic about the future. If we draft 3 strong OL, and only 2 are good, I’ll consider it a very successful draft. We will then have young talent on both sides of the ball. Ware is going to be a monster this year. A decent offense will make our defense much better even with the current players. Just random thoughts.

Sterling:

Don’t get me wrong…I hope they keep LA; I’m just looking at the possibilities. You bring up a good point of the team wanting their top draft picks to play this year, but consider the following scenario. Maybe Peterman is a bust…now we have no guard backups if LA gets dumped. Also, it’s a possibility that we trade down in the draft and maybe pick up an additional #2; if that be the case then it would be OK to have one of those top three picks to play the role of backup until we show Rivera the door. I understand we do have guard overload right now, but there are some fine prospects in the draft that I’d be surprised if we didn’t consider.

Sam:

I see your points too, however we do have Guard prospects in Gurode, Kosier, and Peterman. None of us have seen Peterman play much, so we can’t say if he is a bust or not…only a backup that never plays, like Tony Romo.

The point I am making is that if you look at recent FA history with this team, you will notice that when they sign a player in FA they rarely use early draft picks on the same position in the same offseason too. That means to me that if they draft an O-Line position then look for an OT and/or TE, not interior linemen.

With Gurode being kept, Parcells will likely only suit up a maximum of 3 other Guards and AJ at Center. Even if LA is cut, with MR, SP, and KK there is your four. If Peterman is a bust and gets cut in camp, then look for LA, MR, and KK with Gurode. Either way, there are plenty of options already on the roster.

If we don’t get TO (good or bad),what about David Givens ??? The draft really isn’t deep in wide receiver like in the past anyways. The only problem is we’d probably have to overpay (for Givens), but with our cap room, I guess that’s OK ?

For my part I want Chad Jackson… Bring in TO for a 1 year deal until Jackson is ready to start. And then if TO is a model citizen, determine his trade worth at the end of the year, or resign him if we think he can still help and not hinder the progress of one of our younger guys. IMHO