The Official ES 2021 Free Agency Thread / Tracker Fitzpatrick, Curtis Samuel, William Jackson, LB Mayo, C Larsen WR Humphries, CB D. Roberts, KR D. Carter , LT Charles Leno, S Bobby McCain signed

[MisterPinstripe]

Defenses not being able to focus on Terry is going to help us a lot on offense. Cannot fricken wait for the season. 

[Ball Security]

1 hour ago, Skinsinparadise said:

From what I just read the Chiefs basically didn't end up playing him last year

 

 

 

Really, really like this move.  Don’t know if we’ll keep 4 TEs (probably won’t), but this is nice Logan Thomas insurance.

[CommanderInTheRye]

5 minutes ago, Ball Security said:

Really, really like this move.  Don’t know if we’ll keep 4 TEs (probably won’t), but this is nice Logan Thomas insurance.

 

Damn my boy Reyes is going to need to be an absolute demon on teams.

 

His chance of sliding through waivers to the practice squad is minimal and even if he does land there for a few weeks eventually someone will claim him.

[terpfan]

10 minutes ago, TrancesWithWolves said:

 

Damn my boy Reyes is going to need to be an absolute demon on teams.

 

His chance of sliding through waivers to the practice squad is minimal and even if he does land there for a few weeks eventually someone will claim him.

We’ll see how he looks in the offseason and preseason. Just as good a chance he’s a total flop and doesn’t even make the practice squad. All the athleticism in the world doesn’t matter if you can’t play the position. But if he does look like he can play they’ll make room for him as his ceiling is clearly higher than Yelder or RSJ. 

[CommanderInTheRye]

1 hour ago, terpfan said:

We’ll see how he looks in the offseason and preseason. Just as good a chance he’s a total flop and doesn’t even make the practice squad. All the athleticism in the world doesn’t matter if you can’t play the position. But if he does look like he can play they’ll make room for him as his ceiling is clearly higher than Yelder or RSJ. 

 

 

My brain is telling me his chances are between slim and none and slim just had a fatal coronary.

 

But my heart is all in on this Brazilian er Chilean athletic freak oozing with desire but bereft of know how.

 

We shall see.

Edited May 25, 2021 by TrancesWithWolves

[Dark Acre]

2 minutes ago, TrancesWithWolves said:

 

 

My brain is telling me his chances are between slim and none and slim just had a fatal coronary.

 

But my heart is all in on this Brazilian athletic freak oozing with desire but bereft of know how.

 

We shall see.

He speaks Spanish, not Portuguese....

(Chile con carne, not a wax job)

[terpfan]

Haha yeah he’s Chilean not Brazilian. Sea bass and Patagonia. 

Edited May 25, 2021 by terpfan

[CommanderInTheRye]

13 minutes ago, terpfan said:

Haha yeah he’s Chilean not Brazilian. Sea bass and Patagonia. 

 

Oh, my bad!

 

At least I was only 1900 miles off this time. Not the 3,000 mile error I made when I put @DieHard in London.

 

Baby steps.

 

[carex]

1 hour ago, TrancesWithWolves said:

 

Damn my boy Reyes is going to need to be an absolute demon on teams.

 

His chance of sliding through waivers to the practice squad is minimal and even if he does land there for a few weeks eventually someone will claim him.

 

well, the nice thing about the current rules we could keep him on the roster and leave him inactive and just have some tight ends on the PS and activate them for games

[CobraCommander]

I will be shocked if Reyes is on any teams’ 53 man roster at any point this year. Like the signing of Ricky.

[carex]

1 hour ago, Florgon79 said:

I will be shocked if Reyes is on any teams’ 53 man roster at any point this year. Like the signing of Ricky.

 

if a guy has enough potential you do what you have to to develop him

[Dark Acre]

2 hours ago, TrancesWithWolves said:

 

Oh, my bad!

 

At least I was only 1900 miles off this time. Not the 3,000 mile error I made when I put @DieHard in London.

 

Baby steps.

 

To be fair, Canada didn't gain independence from England until, what, 1974? 

[kingdaddy]

6 hours ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

 Not to go over the top with Fitz hype but what the heck.    As someone who has watched his share of Fitz's Miami's games including rewatching 2 of them this off season -- Fitz coupled with the new weapons we got I think will bring a light year improvement to the offense from last season.    Some talk down the team because of the 7-9 record.  But Haskins was 1-5.  He's gone.  When they had just competent QB play they looked a lot better.   6-4 without Haskins (5-1 with Alex) and they probably gave Tampa the biggest scare in the playoffs.   They should have won both games against NY.     Arguably with better Qb play they'd have beaten Seattle and Cleveland.   They lost to the Lions on some crazy long field goal at the end of the game.  

 

The one thing though that concerns me is the schedule.  This defense faces a murderers row of top QBs:  Rodgers, Wilson, J. Allen, Mahomes, Brady, etc.   But overall this might be their best roster since their last SB.    And I am big Rivera guy so I like the coaching, too.  I am jazzed about this season. 

One theme I noticed from last year was how our defensive line wore down teams in the 2nd half allowing us to either stay in or win games by physically beating up opposing offenses. Fitz is gonna take our offense to another level and our defense is gonna be better because of it...not to mention we've added more talent to this defense including getting Ion back. This roster is ready to take off if Fitz or Heiny can jump in and run the offense from the jump. 

[Koolblue13]

2 hours ago, kingdaddy said:

One theme I noticed from last year was how our defensive line wore down teams in the 2nd half allowing us to either stay in or win games by physically beating up opposing offenses. Fitz is gonna take our offense to another level and our defense is gonna be better because of it...not to mention we've added more talent to this defense including getting Ion back. This roster is ready to take off if Fitz or Heiny can jump in and run the offense from the jump. 

We ended up behind at the half and winning games, because of our defensive line rotation wearing teams out and now that our offense should be pretty stinking dynamic, we should be able to really attack relentlessly in the second half, while already having a lead. Should be fun.

 

I'd be interested in seeing the play count for our Dline in the beginning of the third. Seemed like thats when settle and Kerrigan got the bulk of their plays in. 

 

I fully expect to see us with chase, sweat, Allen and Iaon heavy in the fourth. With the addition of McCain, our corners should be playing bump man under a ton late in games too.

 

I'm so excited. 

[Going Commando]

10 hours ago, NickyJ said:

When did Terry say he doesn't want to be here?

 

Let's let Terry make a Probowl first before we anoint him that way.

[Going Commando]

8 hours ago, Skinsinparadise said:

He said what stood out to him was Curtis Samuel.  He was all over the field.  Jet sweeps swing passes, reverses.  And he said he looked good and crazy fast.  He thinks Samuel is going to be a star with this team.  

 

That's not surprising to me.  He was on the cusp of that in Carolina and he's the most talented skill player for us whereas McCaffery would always be option #1 for Carolina.  I figured he'd be the featured player when we signed him, and that the screen/reverse game would become a major part of the offense.  He's an ultra-rich man's version of McKissic and McKissic touched the ball more than anyone else in our offense last year.  Terry and Dyami should be good compliments to him because of their competitiveness as blockers as well as their ability to clear out space in the underneath zones for him and pull those safeties away.  So much of his production comes from those super long developing in-breaking routes where he's slipping behind the underneath zone coverage or sprinting past the man coverage.  And if Gibson learns to block and does a good job with it (run & pass blocking), then you've got real flexibility to motion in and out of two back offenses and not tip the direction of you runs plus also create quality options for RPOs.  Gibson is going to get his snaps limited if he doesn't block well though.

 

The unsung part of Samuel's game that I like is the deep ball threat, and I'd like to see him utilized in this part of the passing game more than he was in Carolina.  He's got a real knack for adjusting to deep throws and for tuning out that closing deep safety and looking the ball in through the contact.  He can make the play in four verts even when the safety keys on him.  He's also a strong little guy with pretty good balance.  He doesn't always get the worst of hard contacts.

 

You know how I loved Rondale Moore.  Samuel is cut from the same cloth and is a largely equivalent talent.  He's truly dynamic.

Edited May 26, 2021 by stevemcqueen1

[Going Commando]

10 hours ago, terpfan said:

Leno is cheaper ($5M compared to $8M). Cosmi is younger (and cheaper). Read the quotes from Rivera in the post directly above this. I don’t think it’s any more complicated than that. For the record, reporters have looked into whether Moses asked for a trade, or was considered a locker room problem by Rivera, and have said neither is true. So I don’t see any reason not to take Rivera’s comments at face value at this point. 

 

I definitely don't think this was about saving money.  When we signed Leno, Rivera's comments were that you can never have enough quality offensive linemen and we have quite a bit unused cap space, plus much dodgier options on the roster to cut heading into the summer.  You don't cut a healthy, quality starting OT on a good deal days before OTAs when you're looking to make the playoffs for no reason.  Something happened between Moses and the team, and though the beat reporters may have tried to figure out what that was, they didn't.  Our beat reporters are not very good and Rivera has had a particularly easy time playing them.  I don't think they can tell when he's lying to them at all.  But it's also not his job to be an open book for them.  They're supposed to be able to figure out for themselves what's actually happening.

 

Given his injury history, Scherff putting off a LTD coming off an All Pro season in a cap crunched year when he was supposedly offered a contract that'd make him the highest paid guard in the league doesn't make sense if the issue is just money.  There is something else going on there too.

[London Kev]

9 hours ago, GothSkinsFan said:

To be fair, Canada didn't gain independence from England until, what, 1974? 

I seem to remember that we gave it up in the early 80s, I could be wrong though.

[bowhunter]

20 minutes ago, London Kev said:

I seem to remember that we gave it up in the early 80s, I could be wrong though.

Someone just unloaded a Canadian Penny on me, thinking I wouldn't notice that it wasn't real currency. The queen from England is still on it. Apparently Canada is still a part of England until Covid blows over

[Chris 44]

7 hours ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

 

That's not surprising to me.  He was on the cusp of that in Carolina and he's the most talented skill player for us whereas McCaffery would always be option #1 for Carolina.  I figured he'd be the featured player when we signed him, and that the screen/reverse game would become a major part of the offense.  He's an ultra-rich man's version of McKissic and McKissic touched the ball more than anyone else in our offense last year.  Terry and Dyami should be good compliments to him because of their competitiveness as blockers as well as their ability to clear out space in the underneath zones for him and pull those safeties away.  So much of his production comes from those super long developing in-breaking routes where he's slipping behind the underneath zone coverage or sprinting past the man coverage.  And if Gibson learns to block and does a good job with it (run & pass blocking), then you've got real flexibility to motion in and out of two back offenses and not tip the direction of you runs plus also create quality options for RPOs.  Gibson is going to get his snaps limited if he doesn't block well though.

 

The unsung part of Samuel's game that I like is the deep ball threat, and I'd like to see him utilized in this part of the passing game more than he was in Carolina.  He's got a real knack for adjusting to deep throws and for tuning out that closing deep safety and looking the ball in through the contact.  He can make the play in four verts even when the safety keys on him.  He's also a strong little guy with pretty good balance.  He doesn't always get the worst of hard contacts.

 

You know how I loved Rondale Moore.  Samuel is cut from the same cloth and is a largely equivalent talent.  He's truly dynamic.

This is going to help Logan Thomas a lot!

[Skinsinparadise]

7 hours ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

 

 

You know how I loved Rondale Moore.  Samuel is cut from the same cloth and is a largely equivalent talent.  He's truly dynamic.

 

Just listening to early reports from people who were at camp.  Seems like its Samuel and Bates who popped in particular.  And Fitz and Heinicke looked sharp supposedly.  The Bates hype has been building.  He should be interesting.  He doesn't have good speed even for that position but as Cooley said (Cooley thinks Bates reminds him of himself) he runs about as fast as he (Cooley) did.   Supposedly he looks really physical, very nice catch radius and his hands are like glue.   

 

Will see if that hype builds.  Sometimes I notice camp hype leads to reality (ala McLaurin) and sometimes it doesn't (see Cam Sims).  I ranked Bates a round lower than where they took him.   I liked him in that sort of third tier group, if I recall I ranked him the highest among that crowd in that tier (over Bushman, Gray, Wells, etc).  But I didn't see him in the tier above group so I wasn't that hyped on him.  Funny enough Logan Paulsen who watched TEs before the draft in a podcast shared he ditto didn't have Bates high on his like list.  But when he watched him deeper after they drafted him, he dug him a lot more. 

 

Back to Samuel.  Yep, agree. As for FA targets, Samuel was one of the key guys I wanted so I was happy to get him.  I recall him during the draft, too.  I was surprised Carolina took him after taking McCaffrey considering while they are different players with different strengths/weaknesses but they bring that similar hybrid talent.

 

As far as Rondale Moore goes, I think Samuel has similarities. I agree  Maybe two differences.  Samuel would likely be the more polished RB.  In the NFL, he has a sick 6.6 YPC.  Rondale is more slippery.  Samuel is more of a straightline speed guy, has some elusiveness, but he accelerates so fast especially in motion that he's one heck of a YAC player.   My fear with Rondale is his zig zag horizontal movement while is a blast to watch will lead to injuries in the NFL just like it has in college.  Ditto for K. Toney. 

 

 

https://www.si.com/college/2016/12/27/curtis-samuel-ohio-state-buckeyes

 

At 5'11" and 197 pounds, Samuel is powerful enough to run between the tackles (7.7 yards per carry) yet elusive enough to line up in the slot and elude a nickel corner (12.6 yards per catch). Buckeyes strength coach Mickey Marotti, who worked under Meyer at Florida, says Samuel's freaky testing numbers—37-inch vertical, 10'6" broad jump, 500-pound squat, 400-pound bench press—are comparable to Harvin's.

Teams are so consumed with stopping Samuel that Michigan State co-defensive coordinator Harlon Barnett nicknamed him Waldo. Before every snap the Spartans were required to ask, "Where's Waldo?" Run a nickel package to shadow Samuel with a defensive back, and Ohio State will use a power-run game to exploit the dearth of defenders in the box. Use an extra linebacker to slow the run, and Samuel will motion out to the slot, drawing that suddenly overmatched linebacker with him. "Couple the mismatches with his athleticism," says Oklahoma assistant defensive coordinator Kerry Cooks, "and he's a nightmare."

Edited May 26, 2021 by Skinsinparadise

[terpfan]

Numbers in on the Leno and McCain contract. I linked the McCain contact earlier in the roster thread but this confirms it. Very low. And the Leno cap hit is lower than the total contract amount reported. So cutting Moses and signing Leno ends up saving almost $4M against the cap. 

[Skinsinparadise]

19 minutes ago, terpfan said:

Numbers in on the Leno and McCain contract. I linked the McCain contact earlier in the roster thread but this confirms it. Very low. And the Leno cap hit is lower than the total contract amount reported. So cutting Moses and signing Leno ends up saving almost $4M against the cap. 

 

Yeah for me the Leno/Moses stuff is a no brainer.   LT > RT.  Leno > Moses.  About 4 million against the cap > About 8 million against the cap.

 

Depth is great but cap management is essential to building a winner.  It's tough to find a backup Qb making 8 million a year let alone a backup RT.    If they paid Moses 8 million a season to ride the bench that would be ridiculous and they'd deserve mockery for it especially considering all the contracts coming up in the future.  Hurney has talked up about the thing he's learned he needs to do better from his days in Carolina is manage the cap.  This is a shrewed cap-roster move.  It's IMO what the big boy clubs are savvy at doing.  

 

Part of the bonus of taking a position early in the draft is to benefit from it financially.  To throw the financial benefit out the window would be foolish.

 

There is a constant subplot about this team about how their young talent will eventually get big paydays and who will they manage to keep?  Them taking the long haul approach to this and building cap room is smart IMO.  

 

Edited May 26, 2021 by Skinsinparadise

[LadySkinsFan]

If I remember correctly, Moses was a pain in that whenever the offense got rolling, he'd have a penalty of some kind like mostly holding, which put us back major yards. It didn't get any better over his years of play. 

 

And did anyone pick him up yet, like Christian was?

[skinny21]

28 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

Yeah for me the Leno/Moses stuff is a no brainer.   LT > RT.  Leno > Moses.  About 4 million against the cap > About 8 million against the cap.

 

Depth is great but cap management is essential to building a winner.  It's tough to find a backup Qb making 8 million a year let alone a backup RT.    If they paid Moses 8 million a season to ride the bench that would be ridiculous and they'd deserve mockery for it especially considering all the contracts coming up in the future.  Hurney has talked up about the thing he's learned he needs to do better from his days in Carolina is manage the cap.  This is a shrewed cap-roster move.  It's IMO what the big boy clubs are savvy at doing.  

 

Part of the bonus of taking a position early in the draft is to benefit from it financially.  To throw the financial benefit out the window would be foolish.

 

There is a constant subplot about this team about how their young talent will eventually get big paydays and who will they manage to keep?  Them taking the long haul approach to this and building cap room is smart IMO.  

 

Although I argued a bit about the timing of releasing Moses (and I could see it both ways), I’m right there with you that it looks like the team is looking long term and really focusing on roster building, youth, and managing the cap and draft in such a way that we can re-sign our own and afford to let guys walk.  

One cool thing for me is that we actually took advantage of the draft depth.  It was a good group of oline in the first 2-3 rounds, and we got a good one.  Wr depth was great and we landed 2 (arguably very good value for both).  And on the flip side, DE and Rb wasn’t a great group and we didn’t force picks there.