who is the unnamed DT?

[HenryRules]

I've heard from one source many times that we would have been better off saving money and getting a DT last year. Who is this DT? Sam Adams and Josh Evans are the only two I can think of that were available last year ... Sam Adams wanted too much money and is a cancer as well (I hope we don't sign him if he gets cut) - he works in Oakland though because of Rice, Brown, and others ... not on a young team like ours. Evans was a gamble that worked out for NYJ last year, but when you're up against the cap like we were, I don't think you can afford to gamble - same reason I think Fletcher over Cowart was a good idea.

Was one of these two the guy that was supposed to turn our DL around? If not, who was it? And if so, I'd take Noble in a heartbeat over either one, so I don't see how waiting for this year was a bad thing.

[chernobylwraiths]

What about Grady Jackson who went to New Orleans?

[HenryRules]

Grady Jackson was signed a couple weeks before we got Bledsoe though, and negotiations would have taken place earlier than that, so I don't think Bledsoe's signing is what prevented us from getting him. I also believe that we had cap room after signing Bledsoe to fit Jackson in.

I had forgotten about Jackson though ... he is a good one and would have helped.

[WG]

HR, you have to remember that we were icing some funds b/c negotiations had been going on for a while for Bledsoe. So we could have gotten him. As to the DTs that were available, John Parrella was also available and he was the one that I really wanted here. He was one of the more underrated/good value DTs that we could have had. We also could have had one of many LBs that were out there for relatively cheap.

I remember that there were a plethora of both last year when we did the analysis here. I don't want to go back and rehash that. We have too much to do for this year's FA period.

Some of you guys ask for a lot, but I spend all kinds of time researching stuff for weekly pieces and such. "Extracurricular" stuff like this takes quite a bit of time when I'm no longer particularly interested. I'll see if there's a good site however for last year's FAs to get the players quickly and efficiently w/o much work. If I can find that, then I'll name some other of the FAs. There were several released players as well. But keep in mind that we had almost $6M prior to signing Drew. The FO was holding onto that in hopes of landing him. Remember, many of us were totally frustrated that they didn't move on many of the need players who were out there.

Frankly, I thought Teague proved to be one of the worse signings. He's not great by any stretch, only average, maybe slightly better than average on a good line. But for $2.5M/yr. we could have landed a better pure C if we had known that we would move him. I thought it was obvious since he wasn't exactly the "strong link" on the Bronco line the year prior. He's undersized too at around 285. No way was he gonna effectively play LT for us w/ Cigar Store Indian back there.

[WG]

Found a site:

http://www.redeyesports.com/2002FAPlyrRnks.htm#Defensive%20linemen

Here's some DTs/DEs combined that I liked...

Jackson, Johnson, Parella, Fisk, Gardner (although I thought he was too risky, I would have taken him, he didn't get a huge deal), Brown would have been adequate for a year or two, I liked Martin and Burnett as well. They would have easily been better than what we had, but not in the top tier.

There's a bunch in there. I also wanted Kreutz as our Center. He was $1.5M more than Teague, but he's so much better. Our OL would be perfect next year w/ Kreutz.

Chris Naole is also leaps and bounds better than Teague and he signed for near 20% less than Teague did. He was the guy that I think we should have gone after and have scratched my head ever since trying to figure out why we didn't even make a move. I don't know if how much C he's played, but he's much better than Teague.

The bargains are out there if you don't wait until they're all gone. We waited far too long. Presumably to get Drew. So there's obviously one side of the argument that says it was worth it.

[WG]

La`Roi Glover too...

[BillC]

Let's not forget -


Bledsoe for Johnson was a wash- If we kept RJ the cap hit would have been the same- they both were on a $5 million per year budget.


Adams only was going to sign for a contender. I can just imagine the diatribes wys would be on coming off a 4-12 season with someone else at QB

[WG]

Originally posted by BillC
Let's not forget -


Bledsoe for Johnson was a wash- If we kept RJ the cap hit would have been the same- they both were on a $5 million per year budget.


Adams only was going to sign for a contender. I can just imagine the diatribes wys would be on coming off a 4-12 season with someone else at QB

That's simply not true C.

We were going to cut Rob regardless. As a matter of fact, he was let go long before Drew was even a blip on the radar screen.

Cutting RJ cost us around $3M I think. In any case, it was a sunk cost. We still could have spent the available $6M or so anyway we wanted to. We could easily have signed a DT an DE to squeeze in under that figure last year and still have gotten a QB like Blake for vet min., which is all he signed for anyway if I'm not mistaken. It certainly wasn't for much more and I'm sure he would have signed here for min had it been offered. It would have saved us a 1st rounder as well.

In any case, that's water under the bridge. But signing Drew had absolutely nothing to do w/ RJ's release financially.

[WG]

Here's a better site:

http://nfl.kffl.com/teams/free_agents/2002/all.shtml

This one's excellent! Replete w/ salaries!

[Earthquake Enyart]

Kreutz took less money to stay in Chicago. The fish offered him a huge deal.

[Bert102176]

well you all forgot to mention Micheal Myers the DT the resigned with the Cowboys last year, he may be back up for a free agent this year too not really sure.

[Jeff 311]

i wish we would of got josh evans last year for DT

[Bert102176]

hey Jeff me too dude.