Which player(s) move will improve the incoming team the most for 2015 season?

[ducky]

Looking back at those choices now you'd have to pick non of the above.

My original pick was Gore and Johnson. How wrong that was!

It is like this almost every year. Free agency is more often than not fool's gold.

....and yet come the first week of March I will be on the boards here telling people how much FA X or FA Y improves the teams they just signed with. Get fooled every year. These moves always look good on paper....but the player leaving the system he was drafted to, getting a fat pay day, and having to adjust to a new team always seems to equal a lot less production than you would guess.

 

[SonnyCID]

8 sacks and he may make Chandler jones easier to lose in free agency (jones is gonna get 100 plus million and it won't be here, even tho he deserves it)

Jones won't get anywhere near 100 mil.

 

[Duffman]

It is like this almost every year. Free agency is more often than not fool's gold.

....and yet come the first week of March I will be on the boards here telling people how much FA X or FA Y improves the teams they just signed with. Get fooled every year. These moves always look good on paper....but the player leaving the system he was drafted to, getting a fat pay day, and having to adjust to a new team always seems to equal a lot less production than you would guess.

Denver seems to have the most success in Free Agency. In the past few years they've picked up people like Stewart, Talib, Ware, Sanders, Vasquez, Welker to name a few and they have all worked out great. Even some of te smaller name guys like Vance Walker and Antonio Smith have worked out great this year for their value.

 

[sooner4life130]

Ironically enough, Sam and Suh probably had the best seasons among the names listed.

 

[Rock Strongo]

Jones won't get anywhere near 100 mil.

He will be a 27/28 year old pass rush specialist in a pass happy league. Just wait...

 

[ducky]

He will be a 27/28 year old pass rush specialist in a pass happy league. Just wait...

Justin Houston who is a much, much better pass rusher got 6 years $101M.

It's highly, highly doubtful that he gets a larger contract than that. The whole fake weed incident probably is going to scare off some teams too. My bet is the he gets a big 4 year (approx. $60M) deal rather than the longer and larger 6 year one simply based on that incident and the fact that being a fool runs in the family. I can't imagine anyone guaranteeing him $50M+ like the Houston, Suh, Watt contracts simply on that alone. And if your guarantee isn't that large, the contract doesn't need to run 6 years.

 

[Clayton]

If he plays then he is an upgrade

Well, def wrong on that one. Foles was an upgrade for exactly one week and then the worst starter in the league.

Graham probably had the best year of everyone on here. Not a good list at all.

 

[Broncos6482]

Justin Houston who is a much, much better pass rusher got 6 years $101M.

It's highly, highly doubtful that he gets a larger contract than that. The whole fake weed incident probably is going to scare off some teams too. My bet is the he gets a big 4 year (approx. $60M) deal rather than the longer and larger 6 year one simply based on that incident and the fact that being a fool runs in the family. I can't imagine anyone guaranteeing him $50M+ like the Houston, Suh, Watt contracts simply on that alone. And if your guarantee isn't that large, the contract doesn't need to run 6 years.

Justin Houston signed his contract before the 2015 season, and Jones will be signing his before the 2017 season. That's two season's worth of the cap increasing, which means the contracts will be bigger. If Jones can stay healthy next season and get in the teens with his sacks, I'd bet he could get $100 million.

 

[ducky]

Justin Houston signed his contract before the 2015 season, and Jones will be signing his before the 2017 season. That's two season's worth of the cap increasing, which means the contracts will be bigger. If Jones can stay healthy next season and get in the teens with his sacks, I'd bet he could get $100 million.

The NFL has known about the cap increases for years now. Contracts will be going up some in the future but it is not going to go up as the same percentage as the cap increases.

The perfect example of that is the Suh and Watt contracts being identical despite Suh signing his contract 1 year later. Or seeing the young QB's like Cam and Wilson sign less than expected contracts instead of resetting the market.

And Jones would have to play a lot better next season than he has in this past to command this type of contract. NFL teams aren't just going to look at sack numbers like casual fans. Jones is a good pass rusher....but he is far from an elite player in this league yet. There are a lot of DE's who provide more consistent pressure than what Jones does in this league....Jones just got lucky and turned a lot of his pressures into sacks.

 

[SonnyCID]

Justin Houston signed his contract before the 2015 season, and Jones will be signing his before the 2017 season. That's two season's worth of the cap increasing, which means the contracts will be bigger. If Jones can stay healthy next season and get in the teens with his sacks, I'd bet he could get $100 million.

Oh, so he's not a FA this year?

Well, then who knows what can happen in a year.

Houston was coming off a year in which he led the league in sacks and was the best player at his position in the league.

 

[SoCalWizFan]

Ironically enough, Sam and Suh probably had the best seasons among the names listed.

I tend to side with the school of thought that you don't pay huge numbers to any non-QB FA especially if they were not originally on your team. Suh is a good example of this. Even if he plays at a high level it still is likely not worth the price since that is money that cannot be applied to the rest of the team.

 

[sooner4life130]

I tend to side with the school of thought that you don't pay huge numbers to any non-QB FA especially if they were not originally on your team. Suh is a good example of this. Even if he plays at a high level it still is likely not worth the price since that is money that cannot be applied to the rest of the team.

Agreed. I was just going off my perception of the question

 

[SteelersPride]

so of the given options, who was it

 

[Fountain City Blues]

so of the given options, who was it

Suh is far and away the best player... his team has not exactly been well managed unfortunately for him. None of these guys put their teams on a different level than they were before exactly either. "Another not mentioned" looks like a clear winner for me.

 

[SonnyCID]

Free agents are often like rookies, it takes time for them to find their groove with their new team. Sometimes a month or two, sometimes a year or two.

One difference though is that rookies are motivated to get that free agent deal, where the guys listed broke the bank already at some point.

 

[eaglesnut]

No one had a bigger impact than Maclin.

 

[NWPATSFAN]

To me the top three options here 1. Graham, 2. Suh, and 3. McCoy

And I could interchange Suh and Graham, but give Graham the slight edge because a) I'm a homer, and b) The Hawks offense should now be a nightmare match up for defenses.

Why woukd you think Seattle will be a nightmare matchup NOW? They had Lynch and Graham last year and weren't a nightmare? Have they improved the roster during the off season?

 

[NWPATSFAN]

I went Graham to Seattle.

The team at the end of last year had one of the worst receiving corps in the NFL during the last decade. Graham alone gives the group a modicum of respectability.

Angry Doug Baldwin was a freak at the end of the season.

 

[Rock Strongo]

Suh is far and away the best player... his team has not exactly been well managed unfortunately for him. None of these guys put their teams on a different level than they were before exactly either. "Another not mentioned" looks like a clear winner for me.

The traditionally weak pats pass rush was what, 2nd in team sacks?
Sheard was huge.

 

[ducky]

Free agents are often like rookies, it takes time for them to find their groove with their new team. Sometimes a month or two, sometimes a year or two.

One difference though is that rookies are motivated to get that free agent deal, where the guys listed broke the bank already at some point.

You're just saying the because you still have your fingers crossed on Graham.