Khyber53

Good luck to him and to them, unless we're on the same field together. Guy gave us everything while he was here, nothing but best wishes to him. And we move on... we're just building our playoff window. The Bills are right in theirs. We need younger, they need veterans.

We need to make LB our biggest position of strength. Again. We aren't the Panthers we should be when we don't have the best linebacking corps in the league.

Best of luck to him and I hope he finds great success in his second act. On the flip side, I am glad we aren't on the receiving end of his first act anymore. That guy could play!

The latest and it's a tawdry story for sure.

Normally, I wish a guy who goes on to somewhere else luck. And I like Rosenboom. He did very well for us and was a great team guy. I wish him great off field success. On the field... if he could struggle versus us for those two games a season, I'd be happy with that.

It's his brain that really helps the most. High football IQ and can decipher plays well. Get smart players, it helps every single time. Getting bullied a couple of times will happen as he gets into the league, but he'll figure it out. And there's a weight room and professional nutritionists to help add some muscle mass. And guys like Luke and TD are around to show him how to make bullies cry.

Life is short and an NFL career can be just a blink of the eye. Sometimes its the talent level, more often it's the immense wear and tear. I always want to feel sorry for them, but then I remember they've made a million or more if they've had a three year career at the least. Then I remember growing up working on homebuilding projects with my family and seeing carpenters or masons in their 60s, broken down, sun-beaten and worn out completely coming to work every morning. They'd never see a million dollars in their entire lives, and they were broken and hurting every morning and even more so at the end of each day.

Snooooze. Like soccer, flag football is much more fun to play than to watch.

Good mention here of Ed Reed. He's the prototype and there's never been another one that was really up to his level. Just like, on a more local note, Luke was that guy for MLB. Chasing the position, hoping for that kind of player can be troublesome. It's why those guys have gold jackets and the thousands upon thousands of other good to really good players don't. Your first round pick HAS to be either a game breaker like one of those guys, guaranteed, or needs to be a solid, multi-year starter in a position of need AND, as the OP stated, a cost savings overall. And the OP made a heck of a good case for OT and DT being right in line for us. Still... can you catch a falling star? A lot of teams break their future trying to reach for one.

Gotcha and the others who've said the same. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Sure are a lot of other folks with less injuries that could have been brought along to be camp bodies. Ones with less injuries, maybe some unknowns. Must be some reason we sought him out when there are cheaper vet minimums out there.

Good luck to Andy, thanks for making this place home for a while. There were quite a few moments there and one incredible game. And however Bryce turns out, it was good to have a vet here to help bring him along.

I'm more worried that we already squeezed the last of Brooks' career in those three plays or so already... Grabbing this guy makes me worry that Brooks isn't being counted on... again.

I think it's a good move for a couple off reasons. Punting was an area we had no worries with last season. The guy could put the ball right where it needed to be and he was excellent at getting them inside the 20, 15, 10, 5... whatever we needed. But the other factor is his relationship with our young kicker. He wasn't just the punter, but also the holder on field goal attempts and his veteran skills there may have helped turn out UDFA into a kid that is going to be fantastic for us in the coming years. Plus, man, I'm always going to be in favor of App State players.

My only thinking is that perhaps there's a reason New Orleans let him go. I don't know of one, but we've bought a lame horse a time or two. Also, I like getting younger and cheaper on the o-line. We need a good program for continually growing that line. Center is an excellent place to start, especially if you choose ones that can play guard, too. We've got a lot invested in our guards right now, but they can and do end up injured. But hey, if Fortner proves to be the guy, then alrighty!

^This. Rico was dynamite when we needed it last season, but not enough to keep but it massively upped his earning potential. It was a win-win for both sides. And he was there to cover the hole left by the injury to another RB, and hopefully his release to free agency means there's good news for us on the way. These new ones give us the opportunity to do that again, on the offensive line and elsewhere. We've got some long term question marks here and there due to injuries and age, and these players have a chance to up their value on the open market or settle down with us if the opportunity arises. And none of it ties us down with dead money down the road if it doesn't work out. And we've been in dead money hell for a decade now. Lease the ones you like, buy if you fall in love.