Offseason thread, WR hunt, Cap Space now $4.768M not counting JJ and Jacobs

[michaelwarner]

Schef says the Bills are on the verge of signing Stevie J to a 5 year deal.

The frustrating thing about this, and the Desean and soon to be Bowe franchising, is that it shrinks the WR market. I see Manningham and Meachem's market value going up considerably.

Hopefully, and I'm sure it's a naive thought, I'll be proven wrong.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Stevie has officially signed, btw.

 

[mufasa76]

Stevie has officially signed, btw.

Oh boy, this is getting interesting..

 

[AU_Fever]

The wide receiver FA pool keeps shrinking. I also hope that this doesn't drive up the price of Meachem.

 

[Ray_Dogg]

Schef thinks we will be in the bidding for VJax. I hope so.

In an ESPN.com Q & A, Adam Schefter mentioned the Vikings, 49ers, and Panthers as potential suitors if free agent Vincent Jackson makes it to the open market on March 13.
Schefter is plugged-in enough that he likely wouldn't have mentioned those teams without inside info. Schefter suspects Jackson's willingness to give the Chargers a "slight discount" gives them an edge over other teams at this point, but that could change quickly after March 13. We've heard the Vikings and 49ers mentioned in connection with V-Jax. The Panthers would be a new addition to the bidding for this year's top free agent wideout.
Related: Vikings, Panthers, 49ers
Source: ESPN Insider
Mar 5 - 12:56 PM

 

[ChrisPozz]

Schefter:

Colts trying to sign DE Robert Mathis to a new deal but if they can't, they told him they will use franchise tag on him by today's deadline.

14 minutes ago

 

[CalamityX11]

taggin Mathis? ewww?

 

[michaelwarner]

Schef thinks we will be in the bidding for VJax. I hope so.

In an ESPN.com Q & A, Adam Schefter mentioned the Vikings, 49ers, and Panthers as potential suitors if free agent Vincent Jackson makes it to the open market on March 13.
Schefter is plugged-in enough that he likely wouldn't have mentioned those teams without inside info. Schefter suspects Jackson's willingness to give the Chargers a "slight discount" gives them an edge over other teams at this point, but that could change quickly after March 13. We've heard the Vikings and 49ers mentioned in connection with V-Jax. The Panthers would be a new addition to the bidding for this year's top free agent wideout.
Related: Vikings, Panthers, 49ers
Source: ESPN Insider
Mar 5 - 12:56 PM

I hope so too. But can we afford him? Stevie J just got 36.5 for 5. You'd have to think he'll get 50 for 5 with 20-25 guaranteed, right?

 

[EaseUrStorm]

Looks like Garcon slipped through.

 

[CalamityX11]

NFL.com news: Teams that have used franchise tags on 2012 free agents

The Tagged

 

[Flyingiguana]

hopefully we have enough cap room to resign our guys and bring in both colston and lloyd.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Interesting read re: the cap in 2014 and beyond by John Clayton to start off his chat. This is really interesting. Apparently the cap will stay more or less level this year, but is then projected to go up sharply in 2014 when TV revenues come in. So it makes sense for teams to sign guys to longer deals. This could make the Brooks deal look good, even though somewhat back-end heavy.

NFL - Long-terms deals not in the cards - ESPN

 

[BINGO]

Alex Smith's next deal
4:22 PM ET

Alex Smith | 49ers

Previous reports on the size of Alex Smith's next deal from the San Francisco 49ers have pegged it as a two- to three-year pact, worth between $8 and 11 million per season. It's also been reported that both sides are interested in continuing this relationship, which makes us wonder why a deal has not yet been sealed. Of course, seeing as Smith was not a likely candidate for the franchise tag, the deadline in question was not Monday (as it was for many players around the league), but March 13, which is when Smith will be a free agent if there is no new deal.

Though the numbers quoted above may seem fair to some, they're certainly not the figures for which Smith's agent, Tom Condon, is likely shooting, according to Matt Maiocco of CSN Bay Area. Instead, Condon's viewpoint may very well be that his client should be compensated in line with the deal that the Buffalo Bills gave Ryan Fitzpatrick during the 2011 season -- six years, $59 million, with $24 million guaranteed. The issue is not necessarily the yearly cost, but the guaranteed portion, which is a concern common to many NFL clubs.

Either way, expect things to heat up as we get closer to that March 13 date.

- Tim Kavanagh​

 

[Flyingiguana]

a 2-3 year deal would be ideal for smith. i was thinking 5 year deal, 10 signing bonus and like 6 a year for the first 3 years. then a roster bonus going into year 4 and bigger numbers to make the agent happy the last 2 years.

basically 3 years of smith while we see what we have and develop our next starter. either smith performs and gets restructured to a long-term deal or we kick him to the curb.

 

[maniax]

Alex Smith's next deal
4:22 PM ET

Alex Smith | 49ers

Previous reports on the size of Alex Smith's next deal from the San Francisco 49ers have pegged it as a two- to three-year pact, worth between $8 and 11 million per season. It's also been reported that both sides are interested in continuing this relationship, which makes us wonder why a deal has not yet been sealed. Of course, seeing as Smith was not a likely candidate for the franchise tag, the deadline in question was not Monday (as it was for many players around the league), but March 13, which is when Smith will be a free agent if there is no new deal.

Though the numbers quoted above may seem fair to some, they're certainly not the figures for which Smith's agent, Tom Condon, is likely shooting, according to Matt Maiocco of CSN Bay Area. Instead, Condon's viewpoint may very well be that his client should be compensated in line with the deal that the Buffalo Bills gave Ryan Fitzpatrick during the 2011 season -- six years, $59 million, with $24 million guaranteed. The issue is not necessarily the yearly cost, but the guaranteed portion, which is a concern common to many NFL clubs.

Either way, expect things to heat up as we get closer to that March 13 date.

- Tim Kavanagh​

I guess what I don't see is what other team out there would be willing to give Alex $8M to $11M a year? I just don't see it.

The two teams that draft Luck and RGIII are not gonna give Alex that money. And if Peyton is healthy some team is gonna sign him as their starter. So the 3 teams that go after Luck, RGIII and Peyton will probably have no interest in paying Alex starting QB money.

I bet also if you could read the mind of the GM of the Cardinals or the Bills both of those GMs now are regretting giving Kolb and Fitzpatrick the money they gave them.

The only possible suitor for Alex is the Redskins, assuming Luck->Indy, RGIII->Browns, Peyton->Miami.

 

[Flyingiguana]

maybe the seahawks...

 

[maniax]

Seahawks have other options too, like the draft, or Matt Flynn, or stick with what they got.

I'd be curious to see our defense going up against an Alex Smith led Seahawks offense. I think our D would win that battle. In fact I don't think I'd be worried about that Seahawk offense too much would you?

 

[Flyingiguana]

their offense is poop, but wouldn't it suck to watch smith pull one of his patented last drives against us? cuss u know it'll be a close punch u in the mouth defensive game right till the end

 

[maniax]

their offense is poop, but wouldn't it suck to watch smith pull one of his patented last drives against us? cuss u know it'll be a close punch u in the mouth defensive game right till the end

I think our defense would suffocate Alex Smith and the Seahawks worse than the Giants D suffocated him in the NFC championship game, and we'd sack him more too. It would be real ugly. Plus there is no athlete on the Seahawks offense as good as Vernon, there's a couple of decent TEs but we could cover them and the WRs.

 

[4lifer9er]

I would love for us to sign Alex to a 4 year 28 mil contract.. I think he would drop his price/year if we go out 4 years. Ideally, I'd like us to sign Carl Nicks in FA over any of the top WR's that will most likely cost more. Although it is possibly Nicks could get 10 mil/yr which would be tough to swallow for 5 or 6 years, but easily payable to the top Guard in the league.