Zoltan

agreed

I think you only heard part of that, because he said the reason they picked Leonard where they did is because of what he could do on third down. It's not that they are looking at third down specialist but when scouting Lbs they hold a linebackers ability on 3rd down/pass coverage in high regard. If you think about it Leonard and Okereke fit this mould

The reason I think it's later is because he mentioned the depth when they picked Pittman in the 2nd and he's obviously happy with how that worked out, so may go with the same mentality of getting a WR in the 2nd.

Yeah the Titans tried that with AJ Brown... It did not end well with Burks I'm okay with it, Moore was already mad with his contract with the Colts trying to get a new deal two years ago. My guess is that he knows this could be his last big contract and will go to whoever pays him the most in free agency and I'm okay with that not being the Colts and using that money to bring in a Vet CB that can play outside. That would give Nick Cross, Jones, and Flowers to compete for the nickel position, personally I think Cross may be the best if Blackmon comes back to play SS and we bring in a real FS.

The talk of depth at the WR position makes me believe we will not be drafting one in the 1st round, because they believe they will be able to get a good WR later.

I like what he said about linebackers, where when scouting he doesn't care what they do on 1st down or 2nd but what a Linebacker can do on 3rd down and prioritizes a linebackers ability in pass coverage. This gives me hope we will be looking to improve our LB room with a new starter as our current LBs struggle on 3rd down.

Instead of making a thread on a specific Free Agent, I figured I'd just make a thread so we can discuss any free agent that interests us. For me I think Jordan Fuller could be an interesting free agent addition this offseason, first because I see it as a Ballard move, he's a 26 year old drafted in the 6th round by the Rams and ended up becoming a team captain. The leadership I think Ballard will like for the secondary as it's a young group and Fuller was the person directing coverages from the free safety position and we all know how important communication is at that position. Next he isn't a big name so won't be getting a huge deal (Like Winfield Jr) I imagine a 3 year deal that has an out after 2 years, I think this move would give us adequate depth at the FS position to be more flexible in the draft. Here's PFF Summary https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-2024-nfl-free-agency-rankings-safeties

Honestly, was not trying to get a debate about PFF scores, just wanted to show my source. That’s why I said I don’t always agree with them in the original post. I do think Franklin and speed are low end starters, or high level back ups

I was using this as a reference https://dfshub.com/pro-football-focus-pff-player-grades/ The PFF rating system works like this: 100-90 Elite 89-85 Pro Bowler 84-70 Starter 69-60 Backup 59-0 Replaceable Sure you can have individual bad game grades but season grades are different

Yeah Franklin Pff grade is 60.9 and EJ Speed is 65. Which 60-69 is considered a grade you would expect from a backup. Now I don’t always agree with their grades, it does reflect how I have seen them play, they are good backups but we need starters.

Man I am ready for some combine news, to get things more exciting and more information on draft prospects. Of course soon after we get into the free agency news swarm, I love the offseason but the time between the super bowl and combine seems to take forever.

Yeah, I believe LB is a much bigger need than some think for that exact reason. Franklin and Speed are liabilities in coverage which often leads the middle of the field open. We need a true 3 down LB that can cover and be good against the run. That's why I like Edgerrin Cooper as our 2nd round pick, he excels in zone coverage and is good against outside runs, he does have a weakness against power runs but pairing him with Franklin should help.

I have to say Steve Smith has some weird comps and some I just don't get This one I don't understand because Franklin and Addison play very differently. Addison is a guy that find the whole in the zone and is very technical in his routes, while Franklin who is 4 inches taller is more of a deep threat burner. The closest similarity is that they are both underweight than what you would want. This is another one I don't get as DK Metcalf was an athletic freak with all the measurables. Which if you go by just what his 40 time was I get but Metcalf is 3" taller, 1" bigger hands, 3" longer arms, while also putting up 27 reps on the bench. We will see Legette at the combine and how he does on his official measurements and scores but I just don't see him comparing to the Metcalf craziness. If a WR is a consistent body catcher, that would take him off my board, catching gets harder in the NFL and idk if you can fix ability to catch.

I imagine we will see more franchise tagging this week, possibly Pittman since it's the last full week before the March 5th deadline

I don't think so either, but the closer we get to the deadline the bigger the possibility gets to losing him. Stewart is also an important resign. Of all of them I think Moore has the biggest chance of leaving, they had the contract dispute in 2022 when he wanted a new deal with two years remaining. I could see him leave and go to the team offering the biggest payday since this may be his last chance at a big contract.

This is my thoughts as well, but until they announce a contract or tagging him, I'm gonna get progressively more nervous as the tag deadline approaches.

The funny thing is that the Stefanski summarization could very well be Steichen's as well, Both had injuries at QB (the Colts longer), both were missing their elite RB for good portion of season and both had injuries to the tackle position. We also had the same offensive ppg 23.3 The big difference between them though is that Jim Schwartz (13th for points allowed per game) is a good DC and we have Bradley (28th for points allowed per game). But you all are right, if we made the playoffs Steichen may have won coach of the year but we didn't.

First 4 seasons being compared, because thats when Kirk got his Jax (2nd) contract and that's where Pittman is currently.

2 tds more than Pittman true but 100 fewer catches and 760 less yards...

All i know is if Christian Kirk got an average of 18 million a year without every getting to 1000 yards receiving, Pittman who had two 1000 yard seasons and 100 more catches will probably get 20+ Million.

I guess we just disagree, I mean there's probably 5 or 6 teams where MHJ wouldn't immediately be the best WR on the team, so it's hard to use the MHJ argument and you would still want to still resign Pittman and draft MHJ, because the ideal situation is one rookie contract and one veteran contract like the Bengals, Dolphins, and Eagles. 4 Qbs in 4 years will always be an issue, for any receiver/team and yet despite being the only real threat at receiver and the focus for the defense he has been productive with mostly average at best QB play. So I have to disagree that his production would be the same, with more consistent/better QB play because outside of his rookie year he's been at around 1/3rd of our receiving yards each year.

Man, I feel a lot of our fan base don’t appreciate how good Pittman is and how productive he has been despite our QB situation his entire career with the Colts.

I'd be happy with that pick

Yeah, as long as there’s an upgrade at the position. Otherwise the middle of the field is gonna stay wide open

The kelly retirement possibility is completely not true, it's a story driven by fans and people speculating. He actually got agitated when it got brought up. As for our LB position, I think there is no way we can have Speed and Franklin start this season. When they are both on the field they are just too much of a liability in coverage, which is huge since its a passing league. I don't really think that either are 3 down LBs, franklin is more of a downhill run stopper and same with Speed. I like Harrison if he gets brought back but he's more of a coverage specialist LB for when we know its a pass. I wouldn't be surprised if we grab a linebacker in the 2nd.