Khyber53

Not saying he's bad, but that situation happens to a lot of players. Good position grouping, right schemes... sometimes even bad opponents (and that's something you have to watch for in "stars" from divisions like the current NFC East).

Good reason to draft your tackles instead of picking up FA ones. If you blow it and the guy straight up can't play, it's a whole lot cheaper to have him on a rookie deal than to be stuck paying OT full retail prices for multiple years. And if you blow it in the draft, just move the tackle over to the right side and pick again. Chances are you're going to have a high draft pick the next year, too if the guy was bad enough.

Kano back in the day... like 1992. Whew, that franchise had legs.

Honestly, not sure how much money he is worth. Kind of middle of the road performer. Noted, that's better than what we've fielded, but not sure he's second day of FA quality.

About 1/5th of the top 25 free agents out there are wide receivers. The position is often overpriced and this year is salary cap strap land with some really great WRs available in the draft. It might be a few days before the WR market gets serious.

Sadly, I thought that would be the case. Wow, was I wrong. It probably kept him on the team longer, though, in an effort to keep Kalil the Greater.

Well, he was our most effective TE last year. We'll just leave that for you to make your own decisions as to what that means.

Man, I still hate to see Kerr go. I really liked the dude, both on the field and for his locker room presence. Guy seemed to be one of those fellows who gets it and has a good time doing the work. Hope he catches on somewhere. And I'll always crack up thinking about that slow, slow, slow saunter onto the field while the other team's play clock ran down. He made the most of that moment! It may have been the high point of our year!

Thanks, man.

They're drafting a QB. All of these pick-ups should help Cam's game, but they are really meant for someone else. Cam never played Belichick's style of football and I don't see either of them being able to change at this time. Cam's contract doesn't even match up with the voodoo contract that Taysom Hill got in New Orleans. What the Patriots have picked up is targets for a pocket passer QB, while letting go some old legs on the offensive line. At least that's my take on it.

And that's the mantra that keeps the wheel cycling through.

I really think they will go WR in the first round, probably Smith from Alabama. If Jones isn't snagged in the first round, they'd be wise to move on him in the second. Personally, I think Jones doesn't make it past 8, but what do I know?

Spending sprees in free agency ... nothing says desperate like that. Hope we don't head that way.

A million or two dollars will pay for a lot of visits back home. Never understood why anyone would think a player would give a hometown discount.

Big guy, big heart, still a big future ahead of him.

Oh that is such awful news. God bless the family and give them strength. Cannot imagine the hurt of losing a child.

That's how great teams are built. Been true since 1957 or thereabouts.

1. If you aren't a solid starter, you're at risk of getting cut to make room. A seven year player even at vet minimum is more expensive than a UDFA rookie. 2. FA guards are always over-priced, especially if you've ever heard their name mentioned before. 3. The good tackles stay on teams, even when there is a cap crunch. The tackles on free agency/trades you know of are probably sporting some long term injuries or have some locker room issues. If there is a unicorn OT out there, particularly a left tackle, you can't afford him without losing a lot of your future cap space. 4. If a player has been in the league for more than three seasons, particularly if they saw the field regularly, chances are they have some lingering injuries. All vet players have lingering injuries, some worse than others, some more able to cope with it than others. They all have hard miles, but its the quality of the maintenance that often matters. 5. Some teams have bad position coaches and they can ruin some players beyond redemption. More importantly, some teams have terrible trainers/conditioning coaches and those teams often spin out players with lingering issues that will spring up. It wasn't that many years ago that the Bengals facility had MRSA issues that spun out with almost all the free agents that came from that team. 6. If the average fan knows a free agent player's name, you can believe there is an entire hype machine out there working to gin up interest in them. Some are legit, many aren't and some are just looking for one more good paycheck before they pack it in and call it a career. 7. Beware of guys coming from a team that had a "players' coach." These vets are often used to just rolling up to the trough and feeding while not being required of much. Giving one of these guys a big contract can produce a whale you're stuck with. 8. The draft is still the best building tool out there. There's a whole legion of agents, bloggers and Twitter artists that want you to think otherwise. Many of them are happily paid to lie. 9. There are always a handful of bad players who blossom into something great with a new team. It's worth it to try and snag a couple of them on the cheap. 10. Top quality scouting departments are very rare (maybe only four or five in the league right now). Really bad ones can cripple a team for a decade or more as their bad evaluations are often blamed on the players and then the coaches. (We may be suffering from this.)

If our GM is looking for a WR for this team right now, he needs to be fired. It's like picking out new drapes while the kitchen is on fire.

Sadly, I think that it is the rotational part of it. I think that the new regime wants rotational guys to be young ones -- rookies or second year players. Cheaper, more development, maybe find a star. I loved having both Kerr and Obada in Panthers uniforms and I think both contributed majorly last season, I hate to see either or both go. But, let's be honest, our defense got trampled to death in the majority of our games last season. There was/is going to be a hog killin' on the defensive side this year, particularly among non-starters. Just hate to see it happen to two fan favorites like that.

Dude's cup of coffee never even had a chance to get cold. Honestly, didn't even know he was on the team. Good luck to him, though.

Hate to see him go, I really like the guy and he has a great story. He's a rotational player on the d-line but someone is going to pay him big for potential. Can't blame them or him... if he keeps going, he'll be devastating. If he maintains where he is, though, he's going to be an expensive rotational guy and that is probably why nothing came together before today between him and the Panthers.

Ding, ding, ding... we have a winner here! This could be a bad thing for the team's capabilities. There's nothing in Fitterer's past (look at Seattle's on field work -- Russell scrambles so well because he has to) or the 2020 Carolina Panthers that gives me a reason to believe we can build a good offensive line. I hope they prove me wrong, but looking at the two guys so far just shows injuries, an inability to keep starting spots and meh performance versus a bit of flexibility and maybe some coachable potential? I mean we've got guys who've come from Minnesota's organization (and boy didn't Remmers and Kalil the Lesser work out for us) and a guy from the Cowboys -- a team with a ton of top end draftees on their line and nothing to show for it. We're going to have to see some magic on draft day and then some bigger magic from Pat Meyers after that.

He had a helluva year when someone finally figured out how to use him. If he gets on a team like the Ravens, he's going to be a madman out there. His abilities and a hyper-mobile QB... scary.

My worry was just that -- the Vikings don't have a good track record with their offensive line spin-offs, even beyond the turds they've dropped on us over the years. Six games with the Jets last season after being released... not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.