Bearstalk

Patriots | No franchise tag for Moss Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:39:15 -0800 John Clayton, of ESPN, reports the New England Patriots did not place their franchise tag on impending unrestricted free-agent WR Randy Moss before the deadline.

Today I am reading that we not only want to re-sign Rex, but that we are confident we will. What I do not understand is, why the hell would Rex want to come back? Even more questionable, why would Rex want to re-sign w/ us before FA begins. 1. Rex has been shredded by his own fans and media in Chicago. 2. The market this year for QBs is so bad, Rex would likely be the top of the heap. 3. We are not going to offer a long term deal, and thus Rex would be banking on having a great year then hitting FA hot, but, (a) While we all hope for better, we have not today improve the OL a bit, and have in fact created a pair of holes ( We have just sen…

I read more and more about this guy. He was an OG in college, but finished the year at LT. I am reading he is a stud OG, and many/most believe he can move to LT in the NFL he is so good. He is going to be a 1st round pick, but w/ such a solid OT class, he is more likely to last to the back half of the 1st round. I mentioned earlier about trading up into the late 1st. Could he be a target too. The more I read about him, the more I love. If you believe the writing, at worst, he is a stud OG. At best? He could be a stud LT. If we do not take a OT w/ our 1st pick, what about moving up and taking him next?

I am not saying we will, as Angelo has not shown an inclination to move up in drafts, but I wonder if there is an argument for a move up in a couple different situations. Situation one Clady has really risen since he was first mentioned on this board. At one time, there was belief he could be there for us. Now, it is a virtual lock he will not. This situation hinges on Long to a large degree. If Stl takes Long, I think it Clady doesn't make it out of the top 10. If Stl takes DL though, as many mocks have them doing, Long could slip a bit more. Oak is the next team, but Oakland could be looking at McFadden (despite the Fargas deal). I doubt Long slips past…

http://nfldraft.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=777329 According to the Steelers GM, this is the best OL draft in 24 yrs. Means we can take a top notch OL man in 1st or 2nd.

I started to talk about this in another thread, but felt it might be an interesting topic to start new. We have something like $30m in cap space. I think we can all agree we are not going to spend $80m in cash, or whatever, to sign 4 or 5 big names, including our own. So the question is, how will we use up all that space. Signing a bunch of mid tier FAs will not use up the space. W/ that in mind, I am wondering if we will see some big roster bonuses this year, as opposed to using just signing bonuses. By doing this, we would still use up the cap space this year, while at the same time, improving our situation in the future. Harris would be a prime c…

The #7 is retired as it was Papa Bear's number! Go with 17...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=jc-4...o&type=lgns Damn, that would've been nice to have gotten something for Briggs.

Link

Listened to Thayer on the SCORE with Double Z earlier tonight and he said Orton has progressed enough to be given the starting job. He also seem to say 5 yrs is enough time on Rex and the Bears need to move on - Rex has too many questions to answer. Peace

I lost my feed to NFL Network. (Dang Dish Network!!!) And was hoping to see some Combine stuff, specificially the OLer's and Flacco!! By the by, I for one am disappointed to see Muhammad go. He may not have been like they hoped he would have been 3 years ago but I believe that he was a strong and positive influence in the locker room with the younger players. And, he was willing to go over the middle, despite his advanced years. Good luck Moose wherever you end up next.

I mean, he is a freakin DT. Where on earth will this end? Look at where is gotten to in the last 10 yrs. Bruce Smith made 2.2M 10 yrs ago. He was a premier player. Dwight Freeney got his deal last yr at 6 yrs 72M, 30 guaranteed. Even using simple math, thats 12M per yr. based on the same rate of growth, that implies that 10 yrs from now, that a premier guy like Smith or Freeney is going to make what? 72M a year unless something is done. These salaries have gotten completely out of hand. Hell, Deion Sanders was the highest paid NFL player 10 yrs ago and he was paid 4.9M a Yr and people were going gaga over that. How can the small market teams survive, let alone compet…

Okay, I am going to say upfront. This is from PFT, but while there are some haters out there, PFT is a pretty good source for rumors, and an excellent source (IMHO) for number crunching and legal analysis. Anyway, here is their list for all teams cap space. We are shown to have about $20m in cap space, which jives w/ LT2, but does not reflect the recent moves, so I would put another $10m in space on top of that. Three teams (Carolina, Wash and Indy) are over the cap and will have to restructure and/or make cuts just to be under, much less make moves. CURRENT 2008 CAP NUMBERS PROJECTED PER-TEAM CAP: $116,000,000 Arizona Cardinals $109,500,000 …

Sure, it is still WAY early to give a true grade to a draft that took place only a year ago, but w/ so much draft talk, what the hell. 1st round, 31st pick - Olsen Most of us still believe this was a great pick. Someone just needs to explain that to Turner. 2nd round, 30th pick - Bazuin We had a high 2nd round pick, and traded down. We ended up taking Bazuin, Wolfe and Payne w/ those new picks. Bazuin does not look like a good pick at all. The injury aside, he is 4th on the depth chart w/ little room to move up. 3rd round, 30th pick - Wolfe I hated this pick than, and still do today. While many will argue, what does it say about ou…

I just noticed that he hasn't missed a game in his career. 2003: 16 games 2004: 16 games 2005: 16 games 2006: 16 games 2007: 16 games Very impressive for an outstanding special teams guy.

That is the question. I have gone back and forth. On one hand, I do not want to tie up a ton of money into a player who I question will ever be a #1. On the other hand, can we really afford to lose him? So some talk about the tag, as have I at times, and I just got to thinking about the numbers. What sort of deal do we expect Berrian to seek? He turned down, I think, something in the $20m range w/ $8m guaranteed, which is about what we offered Randle El a couple years ago. So what is he looking at. Last year, I don't think there were any deals for WRs that Berrian would use. Stallworth signed basically a one year gimick deal. Moss, Welker and the rest …

the New England Patriots. WR Booker will meet with Patriots http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/rumors;_ylt=Al...WETQsZCsZlDubYF Tuesday, Feb 19, 2008 8:16 am EST Marty Booker Getty Images The New England Patriots are setting their sights on another former Miami Dolphin, as receiver Marty Booker is scheduled to meet with team officials at Gillette Stadium Tuesday the Boston Globe reported. Much like the Patriots' decision to pursue Wes Welker last year, Booker's success against New England might be a significant factor in the level of interest he's received from Vice President of Player Personnel Scott Pioli and head coach Bill Belichick. …

From the Sun Times, Brown was due to get $500k base this year, but that just went up to $5m. The report says he also gets another $5m up front, which could be a signing bonus or roster bonus. Unknown at this time. He was also due a $600k (other bonus). He also still had (I think) around $1m due in bonus allocation from his original signing bonus. If it was a SB, then his cap hit jumps up to around $8.5m. If it was a roster bonus, his cap hit jumps to around $11m. Both of these are not counting the $600k "other bonus". This is pretty significant, as Brown was due to hit our cap for around $2m, but will now cost better than 4 or 5 times…

The Trib says several times the cuts were part of a youth movement, or trying to get younger. As all the guys released were 30 or over, I guess it is not wrong to say as much. But was that really the reason? I personally think age had very little to do w/ yesterday's cuts. If Miller's 2008 base was the vet minimum instead of $4m+, would he have been cut? I think that if he was due to make the minimum, the team would have talked about how he was injured last year, and give him another season. If Walker was not due that roster bonus, would he have been cut, or would he too have been given another year after an injury riddled season. Moose is different, as w…