takeitdown

I'd be very excited about that this year if we had any cap space. I know it can be manipulated, but only so much. I think in general, going forward, that will absolutely lead to better teams. And having young guys ready to replace veterans coming up on big contracts. I just wish we had 40M in cap space to put it into effect this year, along with 2 great pass rushers in the top 6 players. It's a really odd FA year, and a really odd draft talent at the top year. They're going to have to earn their paychecks.

I'm sure a number of teams do have similar amounts of cap tied to not that many players. I will say, however, that this team has gone a little too much in the "stars and scrubs" direction the last several years instead of building a whole team with depth. It's what happens when you're trading up and losing picks all the time (and when you miss on a few FA and picks like everyone does). That won't get turned around immediately, but I look forward to midlevel FA's and a lot of draft picks. When you have fresh youth developing, you can let some people walk instead of being force

I actually had hopes of this on Sheffield. But I have no idea if he has the head for it. But his quick footwork and closing speed seemed great going downhill or down the sideline. But safety is so much more mental than physical that none of that matters if you can't spot what's coming. I just get enamored with footwork and speed sometimes.

This was always the most sensible approach back in the day. Bring in mid tier FA's to fill holes. They won't be great, but they won't be liabilities. Eric Coleman types. Then get maybe 1 big FA. Use the draft to get most of your stars. It's going to be a little harder this year due to cap constraints and losing so many players...but I like this philosophy in general and think it leads to a much stronger team over time.

It's pretty much impossible to tell. If he were playing in college today, he'd be in a far more explosive oriented offense, and would have better stats. That's why it's hard to compare across eras. I thought Ryan wasn't a very good prospect though. He's been a much better pro player than college player. He had a lot of INTs in college, and a very low YPA. That very seldom translates to working out in the pros. But it was obvious in his first year that he was going to be legit.

Interesting. Ryan's usually top 5 in these. Wonder if he had a drop off this year on the deep ball. There are only 50 of them, would be neat to see a cut up, to see how many were throwaways/last minute plays. But it wouldn't surprise me if the deep ball wasn't as good as normal. Everything looked bad this year.

I would hope Davidson and Comisky, but Comisky has been a lot more linear than I hoped and Davidson I have no idea what happened. These guys seem like they have talent, but we'll see. Could be Mean, Mariner, Senat. We have a lot of OK guys. Maybe 1 or 2 will become good.

Yeah, in a normal year, the top 4 pick should be an All-Pro type player (top is a bit weak this year) and the 2nd round is like a late first. So you basically get a normal "winning team" draft plus a top 4, should be all-pro, pick. Really wish there were a surefire DE and CB this year.

The player that would help the QB most is the best OL player...probably Sewell. If we had an excellent LG, for instance, the entire line is better, pass protection is better, the run game is better, play action is better. We need a RB at some point too, and a mismatch TE would help. But OL would go the furthest toward improving the run and pass game. And D is the biggest team need.

A slightly better last year's 2nd half of the year defense, combined with an offense like 2018 (not even 2016) with more run game is a 10-11 win team in the playoffs. Now whether we get there, I don't know. But we're not far from a 10-6 team that's dangerous. We're a ways away from a perennial 13 win team...but if we can be 10-6 until we get there, I'll take that.

Coverage also makes sacks from every position go up. We didn't have that last year either. Still, it looks like we're about 5-7 sacks on interior under better teams, while we're 15 sacks on edge under better teams. So we're more deficient on edge. Legitimately we're one good interior player and 2 good edge players away...which is everyone besides Grady. But 2 would work...an edge and an interior or 2 edge would make a huge difference. Secondary has to play tighter regardless.

I still think Green Bay was the better team this year, but Tampa has been ridiculously talented for a long while. That's why they kept being picked every preseason as a surprise team. They just needed any decent QB to be a playoff team (and from there, who knows. Bucs could have easily lost in the playoffs, or won...it's getting to the 2nd season that's the deal). Think of their defense. A DL that can get to the QB with 4. That sets up a defense. Then you have 2 of the best young LB in the league. Then you have a solid secondary with one of the best young safeties. On of

I don't know that KC would have won, I'm just saying in a game that came largely down to Mahomes being pressured constantly, missing his main 2 pass protectors and not being able to scramble like normal affected him. I think it would have been a much better game with some pass pro from KC. But the Bucs D has also been on fire the last 1/4 of the year.

KC was playing without both OT's and with a gimpy Mahomes. Your points are still on, but it would have been a different game otherwise.

Thanks. You're obviously better with the search than me. I'm very interested to see how the coaching comes together. They definitely didn't hire the people or "types" that I expected at several positions (QB coach, young DC type to pair w Pees, etc.) so I'm interested to see what their plan is.