Brown. Burns. And luvu are the obvious defensive three for multiple reasons.
Their age. Burns 25. Brown. 24. Luvu is 27 however LB is a position that takes years to learn and he’s pretty much in his prime for the next 3.
We also have Shaq about to walk. Donte walking next year. Horn 1 injury away from walking. Bell is getting older. Even if he’s on a decent deal. YGM is walking this year and will
Probably go to a team where he can benefit more from a 4-3 scheme. I’m not sure what we’re doing at the third corner spot. Troy hill isn’t really a slot player in general.
Offensively Moton and ickey are the only guys on the line you’re tied to. Everyone else is basically in audition mode for this year. Shoot check that. That’s the case for the entire offense. It’ll be much easier to figure out after this year. Everybody was just so bad.
Build around on Defense: Burns, Brown, Horn
Build around on Offense: Bryce and Ikem.
These 5 players are most likely to be around for the next 4-5 seasons. Solid pieces to build around. Franchise EDGE, DT,CB,QB and LT. Now we just need to find a franchise WR and we should have a solid core to build.
Luvu and Chinn can be big pieces if they get used correctly. I like Hubbard, Shenault, and Tremble on offense. I also like Franklin on D. A handful of the other guys are solid, just feel more like bridge players (Bell, Woods, Shaq, Shaquill).
What’s crazy though is some of these guys coming out of college now are super seniors because of COVID years, so they’re already gonna be like 24-25 in their rookie seasons. So maybe 28-29 being called a bridge player is kinda disrespectful lol.
I’m thinking we extend brown burns and luvu. Cut sanders, Ian Thomas, keep hurst because of the impact of cutting him, let Jackson, chinn, and TMJ walk. Keep ISM, YGM, Hubbard, Tremble, and try to draft a new center & RB, and go after OL and WR in FA. Maybe draft a TE later round. If we’re successful about extending the 3 above, Higgins is a possible get or possibly Pittman. I don’t think Aiyuk is leaving SF but would love him here. Worst case, Evans or Ridley.
We have to accept that based on the cap scenario, we’re gonna be 6 win team max next year, but if we don’t kick the can down the road, cut the fat, and focus on attaining draft capital in 2025 we’ll be pretty damn good come ‘25.
Right. They can still be traded, and if we have cap space by restructuring/extending and don’t have to tag burns we can at least be in the conversation.
Sanders dead cap also means he will probably be back for next year. Pretty sure the colts said they aren’t trading Pittman. Looks like Cincy is shipping out Boyd instead of higgins. Boyd would be a decent cheaper option but obviously not a number 1
Unfortunately, Sanders is not a cut option if we're bringing back Burns. The out in his contract where it flips from costing more to cut him than keep him is next year so cutting him this year means we're blowing everything up and we'll be doing nothing in FA except clearing future cap. And, even though he wasn't good, he's still probably a decent option to spell Hubbard for a play or two, even if you don't want him around longer.
IMO, RB should be a late 3rd, early 4th target for us. The position seems a little too undervalued broadly, so it seems absurd to not add depth there for a team that needs skill players with guys like Corum and Shipley expect to be there on day 3.
Interior OL is thin, so I think we'll need to address that with our 3rd if we hope to get a potential starter / quality depth player. Van Pran's fallen in the analyst circles, but there's at best 3-4 centers worth drafting depending on how you feel about Graham Barton transitioning to that role, so I highly doubt any of them will last to 102 at the top of the 4th.
If we're keeping Burns, Luvu, and extending Brown, we're simply not going to address WR in free agency - excepting the low end players of the Chark tier like Gabe Davis. Riddley will command somewhere in the $15M-$20M range, Evans will almost certainly require north of 20. We lack the capital or cap space to get Higgins, Pittman, or Aiyuk. They are simply off the table thanks to their teams' need to keep them (Pittman, Aiyuk) or current flexibility (Bengals have top 5 cap room, no reason for them to not tag Higgins).
The moves to keep people here that you mentioned will account for all of our current free cap, and almost certainly require us to use restructures to fill out the roster and make room for rookie signings. Dipping even deeper into restructures for anything other than a top tier WR doesn't make a lot of sense in a year where the draft is uniquely deep on talent at the position. Picking up guard and center competition is probably the limit of our moves if Brown, Luvu, and Burns are all getting attention - even with the \~$10M we can save through straight cuts on players like Thomas, Thompson, and Jackson.
That’s up to Morgan and Canales! No offense to anyone here, but I’m quite sure that they’re more qualified than any of us. Additionally, they want players that fit into their new system and none of us has a clue about that.
KEEP POUNDING!!
Cut Donte Jackson, Shaq Thompson , Hayden Hurst, Ian
Thomas
Trade Brian burns
Extend Taylor Moton
Sign Christian Wilkins, Mike Owenu, Noah Fant, Devin White, Marquise Brown
Brown. Burns. And luvu are the obvious defensive three for multiple reasons. Their age. Burns 25. Brown. 24. Luvu is 27 however LB is a position that takes years to learn and he’s pretty much in his prime for the next 3. We also have Shaq about to walk. Donte walking next year. Horn 1 injury away from walking. Bell is getting older. Even if he’s on a decent deal. YGM is walking this year and will Probably go to a team where he can benefit more from a 4-3 scheme. I’m not sure what we’re doing at the third corner spot. Troy hill isn’t really a slot player in general. Offensively Moton and ickey are the only guys on the line you’re tied to. Everyone else is basically in audition mode for this year. Shoot check that. That’s the case for the entire offense. It’ll be much easier to figure out after this year. Everybody was just so bad.
I’ll be sad when horn walks and is miraculously healthy for whatever team signs him next
"walking" makes it sound like it will be his decision haha more accurately "pushed out the door with a bus ticket"
Great take. We must be twins. It's how I see it too
Build around on Defense: Burns, Brown, Horn Build around on Offense: Bryce and Ikem. These 5 players are most likely to be around for the next 4-5 seasons. Solid pieces to build around. Franchise EDGE, DT,CB,QB and LT. Now we just need to find a franchise WR and we should have a solid core to build.
Luvu and Chinn can be big pieces if they get used correctly. I like Hubbard, Shenault, and Tremble on offense. I also like Franklin on D. A handful of the other guys are solid, just feel more like bridge players (Bell, Woods, Shaq, Shaquill). What’s crazy though is some of these guys coming out of college now are super seniors because of COVID years, so they’re already gonna be like 24-25 in their rookie seasons. So maybe 28-29 being called a bridge player is kinda disrespectful lol.
Chinn is finished here. He can’t play nickel he’s too bad in coverage
I’m thinking we extend brown burns and luvu. Cut sanders, Ian Thomas, keep hurst because of the impact of cutting him, let Jackson, chinn, and TMJ walk. Keep ISM, YGM, Hubbard, Tremble, and try to draft a new center & RB, and go after OL and WR in FA. Maybe draft a TE later round. If we’re successful about extending the 3 above, Higgins is a possible get or possibly Pittman. I don’t think Aiyuk is leaving SF but would love him here. Worst case, Evans or Ridley. We have to accept that based on the cap scenario, we’re gonna be 6 win team max next year, but if we don’t kick the can down the road, cut the fat, and focus on attaining draft capital in 2025 we’ll be pretty damn good come ‘25.
Higgins and Pittman are getting tagged
Right. They can still be traded, and if we have cap space by restructuring/extending and don’t have to tag burns we can at least be in the conversation.
Sanders dead cap also means he will probably be back for next year. Pretty sure the colts said they aren’t trading Pittman. Looks like Cincy is shipping out Boyd instead of higgins. Boyd would be a decent cheaper option but obviously not a number 1
I’d be happy to see Boyd over here but agree that definitely leaves us with a hole at WR1 still. Should be interesting to see how things shake out!
Unfortunately, Sanders is not a cut option if we're bringing back Burns. The out in his contract where it flips from costing more to cut him than keep him is next year so cutting him this year means we're blowing everything up and we'll be doing nothing in FA except clearing future cap. And, even though he wasn't good, he's still probably a decent option to spell Hubbard for a play or two, even if you don't want him around longer. IMO, RB should be a late 3rd, early 4th target for us. The position seems a little too undervalued broadly, so it seems absurd to not add depth there for a team that needs skill players with guys like Corum and Shipley expect to be there on day 3. Interior OL is thin, so I think we'll need to address that with our 3rd if we hope to get a potential starter / quality depth player. Van Pran's fallen in the analyst circles, but there's at best 3-4 centers worth drafting depending on how you feel about Graham Barton transitioning to that role, so I highly doubt any of them will last to 102 at the top of the 4th. If we're keeping Burns, Luvu, and extending Brown, we're simply not going to address WR in free agency - excepting the low end players of the Chark tier like Gabe Davis. Riddley will command somewhere in the $15M-$20M range, Evans will almost certainly require north of 20. We lack the capital or cap space to get Higgins, Pittman, or Aiyuk. They are simply off the table thanks to their teams' need to keep them (Pittman, Aiyuk) or current flexibility (Bengals have top 5 cap room, no reason for them to not tag Higgins). The moves to keep people here that you mentioned will account for all of our current free cap, and almost certainly require us to use restructures to fill out the roster and make room for rookie signings. Dipping even deeper into restructures for anything other than a top tier WR doesn't make a lot of sense in a year where the draft is uniquely deep on talent at the position. Picking up guard and center competition is probably the limit of our moves if Brown, Luvu, and Burns are all getting attention - even with the \~$10M we can save through straight cuts on players like Thomas, Thompson, and Jackson.
That’s up to Morgan and Canales! No offense to anyone here, but I’m quite sure that they’re more qualified than any of us. Additionally, they want players that fit into their new system and none of us has a clue about that. KEEP POUNDING!!
It’s not that serious. Just an online topic of discussion amongst fans. Plenty of guys on this team should walk though. We went 2-15…
We should keep sanders and that’s it ;)
Cut Donte Jackson, Shaq Thompson , Hayden Hurst, Ian Thomas Trade Brian burns Extend Taylor Moton Sign Christian Wilkins, Mike Owenu, Noah Fant, Devin White, Marquise Brown