jidady Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14777459/fives-moves-bucs-falcons-panthers-saints-make-offseason-nfl Here are our five: 1. Cut Roddy White and Devin Hester. The Falcons have already begun to clear out some of the veteran logjam on their roster by releasing William Moore and Justin Durant. Now they need to clear out space on the offensive side of the ball by revamping their receiving corps. Hester is the easier cut of the two: Despite being one of the best return men in league history, injuries limited the 33-year-old to 14 touchdown-less returns and just one offensive snap last season. He's a luxury the Falcons can't afford right now, and releasing Hester would save $3 million. White is the tougher call. The Falcons surely don't want to move on from one of their franchise players and locker room leaders, but White simply isn't the player he once was. He can't get the separation wideouts need to thrive. No starting receiver drew fewer targets than White, who was thrown the ball on just 11.7 percent of the routes he ran in 2015. And the only wideouts in the league who averaged fewer yards after the catch than White were DeAndre Hopkins and Pierre Garcon. White is due $6.2 million this year, but the Falcons could save $4.3 million on their 2015 cap by designating him as a post-June 1 release. It would be nice if the Falcons could bring him back at a lesser salary, but he's not helping Atlanta making as much as he is. 2. Re-sign Adrian Clayborn. One of the few highlights from Atlanta's wildly frustrating defense in 2015, Clayborn was effective as a utility lineman for coach Dan Quinn. He should get a raise on the one-year, $3-million deal he signed with the Falcons a year ago, but Scott Pioli and Thomas Dimitroff should be able to give him that raise and keep him in Atlanta for the next couple of seasons. 3. Pick up Desmond Trufant's fifth-year option. This is about as close to a no-brainer as it gets; even if Trufant didn't make the sort of leap his talents suggested he was about to make last season, the Washington product continued to shut down his side of the field and played about as well as a corner can play behind a terrifyingly anemic pass rush. The Falcons need to pick up Trufant's option to lock him up for 2017, then use that leverage to negotiate a contract extension as soon as the window to do so opens. 4. Draft offensive linemen! Atlanta's line remains a frustrating work in progress. The Falcons have used five picks on offensive linemen over the past five years, including first-, second- and third-rounders, but the only one still left on the roster is 2014 sixth-overall pick Jake Matthews. The Falcons used their first-round pick last year to try to improve their pass rush, and while Vic Beasley failed to turn things around for Atlanta, you can at least understand their logic in how they approached the draft. This year, with Chris Chester an unrestricted free agent and stopgaps filling the starting jobs at multiple spots, the Falcons badly need to use one or more of their draft picks to keep Matt Ryan upright. It would be a bad idea for them to deal away one or more of their picks, unless they ... 5. Trade for Kam Chancellor. With the Falcons cutting Moore, they could be turning over the strong safety job to 2013 seventh-rounder Kemal Ishmael, which would be totally defensible. It would also be reasonable to trade for one of Quinn's former Seattle stars. The 2015 season exhibited both sides of Chancellor: He's the big-hitting, run-stopping safety in the box who gets the other team's attention; and he's the enormous athlete who teams picked on in coverage with athletic tight ends when they needed big plays in the fourth quarter. (Chancellor versus Greg Olsen twice a year is not a good matchup for the Falcons.) The Falcons, 25th in DVOA against the run and sixth in DVOA against tight ends last year, could use the former of the two sides of Chancellor. Atlanta would likely have to give Chancellor a new extension if they traded for him, given that the Legion of Boom member was principled enough about his value to hold out for two games in 2015. That would be reasonable, but the bigger question becomes Chancellor's trade value. Would the Seahawks accept a fourth-round pick from the Falcons for their star safety? Atlanta is already down a sixth-rounder after the Andy Levitre trade, and they badly need all the draft picks they can get, but the opportunity to add a Pro Bowl-caliber player familiar with Quinn's scheme seems like it would be hard to turn down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clark Kent™ Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Agreed with all except #5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD dirtybird21 Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 A 4th rounder for Chancellor? It'll cost a lot more than that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delaigle Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 completely ignores the LB situation SLB (Durant cut) (Wheeler FA) MLB (Worrilow RFA) (Stupar RFA) WLB (Scofield FA) Reed Starr really need a "starter" at all 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leggggggo Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Could not disagree with #4 and #5 more... #4 - I want the OL addressed in FA... Pay for some top proven talent... Let the draft, and Quinns apparent genius at seeing defensive stars, focus on the defense. I'm not sold on Shanny or this system... But since we are stuck with it, take the guess work out of trying to find stars in unproven college kids... #5 - I will never want the selfish type player Kam is... Holding out? No thank you... Keep giving the Julio Jones' who trust in the organization, his teammates, and his skills to get him paid... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monolith2001 Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 #5 is a bad idea imo. KC may be a difference maker on the field but I think he would certainly cost more than a 4th rounder. His contract would likely leave us with less cap room to address other needs as he will likely take all the savings from cutting two relatively high priced players in RW and DH and then some. I think that much money could be better spent on multiple good players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FentayeJones Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 There should not be any Atlanta Falcons off-season moves list that excludes the linebacker situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JC Falcon Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 #5 Chancellor seems a luxury not a no-brainer must-do. He did win a game immediately after his holdout by causing a fumble, but we need more pass rush before worrying about coverage. (Roddy held out and got paid too - sonIndont mind when a guy proves his worth - it's a business.) As for Olsen, double him with athletic corners and make Cam throw deep or outside with pressure coming at him and he either forces in the middle to Olsen or he doesn't set his feet and he overthrows outside. It's what we did and what Denver did even better with much better pressure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FentayeJones Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 27 minutes ago, delaigle said: completely ignores the LB situation SLB (Durant cut) (Wheeler FA) MLB (Worrilow RFA) (Stupar RFA) WLB (Scofield FA) Reed Starr really need a "starter" at all 3 Its crazy that the only LBs currently under contract is Brooks Reed and Tyler Starr who only has 1 career tackle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD dirtybird21 Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 22 minutes ago, Leggggggo said: Could not disagree with #4 and #5 more... #4 - I want the OL addressed in FA... Pay for some top proven talent... Let the draft, and Quinns apparent genius at seeing defensive stars, focus on the defense. I'm not sold on Shanny or this system... But since we are stuck with it, take the guess work out of trying to find stars in unproven college kids... #5 - I will never want the selfish type player Kam is... Holding out? No thank you... Keep giving the Julio Jones' who trust in the organization, his teammates, and his skills to get him paid... Roddy once held out and it ended up being fine. It worked fine with Kam this year too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leggggggo Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 1 minute ago, JD dirtybird21 said: Roddy once held out and it ended up being fine. It worked fine with Kam this year too While that is true (and it still bugs me about him) it was for a total of 8 days. He didn't miss any games and it was at the end of his contract, not in the middle. Vastly different attitudes in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slamee101 Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Cutting Hester and picking up the option on Tru are kind of no-brainers. I question the cutting Roddy move and the drafting OLineman b/c like someone said, a lot of that was dictated/may be influenced by Shanny. I'm not willing to make some of those decisions based on a guy that I'm not convinced deserves to be here or will be here past next season. Kam...*shrugs. Not anything they have to do. Good player and only 27 but I think with what he's probably looking for we'd be better suited to invest that kind of $ into a LB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD dirtybird21 Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 2 minutes ago, Leggggggo said: While that is true (and it still bugs me about him) it was for a total of 8 days. He didn't miss any games and it was at the end of his contract, not in the middle. Vastly different attitudes in my opinion. I get what you're saying but I actually understand when a player holds out in the NFL. They could have a career ending injury on the very next snap they play. Someone like Chancellor who is equally important to that defense as both Thomas and Sherman is making much less than both. He's also 27, half his career is already over. Whenever someone says "he's under contract so he should honor that!" Well, what about when he tears his ACL and the team cuts him the following season and just tears up his contract? If players shouldn't hold out and honor their contracts, then teams should honor them as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colty77 Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 On defense, resources are best spent on the front 7. If your foundation is good, the the back 4 can thrive even if they are average (by NFL standards) talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leggggggo Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 1 minute ago, JD dirtybird21 said: I get what you're saying but I actually understand when a player holds out in the NFL. They could have a career ending injury on the very next snap they play. Someone like Chancellor who is equally important to that defense as both Thomas and Sherman is making much less than both. He's also 27, half his career is already over. Whenever someone says "he's under contract so he should honor that!" Well, what about when he tears his ACL and the team cuts him the following season and just tears up his contract? If players shouldn't hold out and honor their contracts, then teams should honor them as well. Oh, I understand why they do it, I just don't agree with it. Because when they have bad years you never see them holding out until the team takes some of their salary away. Trust, I fight for every dollar I can in salary at my day job. However, when I have a stellar year I might get a modest raise knowing that next year might not be as good. If ball players want to sign yearly contracts so they can make "market value" I'm all for it, but they won't and the risk tells them they shouldn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponge Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 21 minutes ago, FentayeJones said: Tyler Starr who only has 1 career tackle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
direwolf Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 I agree with the idea of replacing number 5 with something about "competent NFL linebackers". Ishmael can probably hold it down well enough for a year and we can look to draft a safety. Why would we trade one of our limited picks for a guy that the article states is a liability in coverage? That doesn't make any sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesus Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Ishmael might be good enough long term. Its not like he is a liability out there. I agree with making the front 7 better. Get another pass rusher and Ishmael will look like a probowler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romfal Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 1 hour ago, JD dirtybird21 said: A 4th rounder for Chancellor? It'll cost a lot more than that... I'll have what hes having too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HASHBROWN3 Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 The guy basically said Cam can't cover. So lets keep our picks and get a hybrid OLB/S or SS with one of our picks. There are plenty this year. Chancellor is awesome and I really love the guy. But we'd be paying him a healthy azz contract for somewhat of a one-dimensional guy?? Cravens & Deion Jones, or Bell, Cash, Killebrew & Joseph... All on a rookie contract. This is a crazy year for figuring out FA vs Draft for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHALCONABERNATHY Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 I don't see us doing any of these things except picking up Trufant's fifth year and cutting Hester. D Led said were not spending top dollar on any free agents which tells me any new guys making a huge impact will have to come through the draft. We have a long way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRUNKuno Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 We arent drafting any offensive linemen. It's rare that a Shanahan led offense drafts offensive linemen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abstract Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Did this guy even watch a falcons game last year? Probably not. I disagree with almost all of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cnst Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Not a fan of drafting O-line. Would rather use FA for that and draft defensively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theyhateme : ) Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 I'd much rather have Irvin at LB than Chancellor at SE. We have some young thumpers back there ready to knock your brains out. Let them have their growing pains (DBs), especially since this is the year before the Benz Dome AND is the most difficult schedule they'll see in "forever." Add a vet, but not to be "the man"....Therezie, Ishmael, Allen...has to claim those positions! Don't insult them by bringing in a Chancellor when we need a DT, MLB and a DE. If anything, get another young "buck-wild" DB to fit Therezie and Ishmael's mold. Just my two cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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