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The 2021 Offseason Thread
- Thread starter rossihunter2
- Start date
He may go play with his bro on a pay cut
JJ Watt is available. I hope we can get him otherwise I hope he goes to you guys.
UPennChem
Hall of Famer
Why is there such little talk about this. If this was really true isn't that going to pretty much directly put us out of the ARob, JJ Watt, Judon/Yannick sweepstakes? Like we don't have any money. I just don't see how our defense doesn't take a big step back if we lose potentially all 3 major guys. I always thought we were gonna retain our guys and try to build through the draft and sign very cheap veterans. But signing a priority OLine man has very different consequences.
I've been looking at this all morning. I think Pittsburgh could open up some cap space with some extensions/cuts (Haden/Nelson are good extension candidates, Ebron, McDonald, Vince Williams could all be released to open up some room). That being said, the Steelers just gave an extension to Heyward and are halfway through Stephon Tuitt's big deal. With around $30 million tied up with the DL this year already ($40 million if you include TJ Watt), is JJ Watt really good value for them? They really have to find a way to put a decent OL out there with their fat, old, slow, injury-prone QB and I don't think going cheap at LT because you want to pay a 3rd DE 13+ million is a reasonable decision.
JAAM
Hall of Famer
Literally any other year I’d be all in on this but I think we really need offensive help hahah. This is a tough one
It's definitely a fun discussion point. I always doubted we'd be in on the top wideouts so not shocked there.
The pass rush is more interesting to me though. I know Covid has something to do with it, but no pass rusher on our team played more than 53% of the snaps last season. With how much rotation we have AND how quickly teams are getting the ball out, does it even make sense to pay a guy $15-20M to only play roughly half of the snaps?
On the other hand, you can give a big contract to a guy that will play 100% of the snaps pending injury or a blowout basically. It might make more financial sense.
idk - that's what i thought too - especially with the strong OL class
but then again there look to be some opportunities at EDGE in the draft - evaluations are all over the place and there's no clear EDGE 1 either - so it's certainly possible that we might have EDGE guys available that we absolutely love in the class at some point in the draft but would be odd to not retain at least 1 of the big 3 guys we have leaving otherwise we'll find ourselves completely hamstrung to taking multiple edge guys (which is certainly possible anyway)
i wonder what the price is on bowser - and i wonder if maybe his price is low enough that he wouldnt be considered a "significant expenditure"
you don't want to dilute it with too many candidates either lol
Bowser is the one that intrigues me here, because I think you absolutely need to keep one of him or Judon for that complex SLB role. Can't see any way we let both walk unless we're going to have significant defensive changes, and I just don't see that being the case.
It's just interesting how the NFL has evolved in just a couple of short years. Teams are getting the ball out so fast now. Still think you need a pass rush but if you don't have a bonafide star, is it really worth a heavy expenditure?
that's true - but i wonder if maybe it's worth paying bowser probably half of what the other 2 might be looking for to still get basically 50% and we get to keep our best coverage linebacker
obviously ball's coming out quicker but it would be wild to lose all except 302 of the 2487 snaps by EDGE guys in 2020 - now it's likely we bring back McPhee and Ward again but that's still only 2/5 of our EDGE snaps and basically all of our pass rush gone (all 3 of these guys played predominantly on running downs on the EDGE)
it's also making a whole breed of edge rusher completely obsolete - if you can't win with speed on the edge and you can't slide inside and beat a guard/center and win quickly then no matter how skilled you are you've basically become a non-factor as a pass-rusher
you don't have to be blazing fast - but you do have to be able to win fast
Yeah that's what I was getting at in regards to Bowser. Judon does a lot of nice things and is more of a pass rusher, but is he worth $15-20M or whatever he's going to get? When you can get Bowser for whatever his rate will be - even though I have no idea how to peg his market.
It would be a big shift but I'm also not convinced we get that much worse by letting both walk. I originally thought we had to keep 1 of Yannick or Judon but I'm no longer convinced. Re-sign Bowser and McPhee, sign a cheaper vet maybe, and go to the draft and I'm not convinced we're losing that much when you weigh the cap value as well.
JAAM
Hall of Famer
I’ve come down to a few #SIIE’s, including Thuney/Linsley or Robinson and a couple other options at IOL. If Jeff thinks we can make one big signing, it almost has to be on the offensive side of the ball. Watt would just be a luxury, as much as I love him
Dom McRaven
Hall of Famer
DID YOU NOT SEE MY POST IN THE AROUND THE NFL THREAD?
i agree with that - i loved having judon and bowser on the field at the same time with the amazing versatility that gave us - they helped create a ridiculous number of free rushers in 2020
feel like judon's a bigger loss than ngakoue but ultimately there's probably ways of getting around the loss of both of them as long as we can keep bowser
We can really make this shit work out well if we can grab thuney/linsley or watkins/green and trade brown for a 1st+.. watkins is from sarasota, FL so i wouldnt be surprised if he didnt wanna play with lamar and hollywood.. i mean i dnt like watkins but who we like doesnt matter lol
watkins also worked a ton with our new passing game specialist keith "dubb" williams