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No rhyme nor reason here, just thinking out loud...

--So it says the Rams are willing to deal the #2 pick. No Muppet News Flash: Every team in the league sends out feelers for their 1st round pick, and the higher the pick the more they try to see what the market is for those picks. If they're not shopping the pick they're not doing their jobs.

--Oakland signs Jeff Garcia, lol. Way to send a message to Jamarcus Russell that he's your guy, bringing in a notorious anti-mentoring team wrecker. Just when I think the Raiders get it rolling in the right direction, they pull crap like this. Easily the worst signing of the business season thus far, although it has fresh competition...

--I am stunned at the deal the Bucs gave Winslow, absolutely stunned. That much guaranteed $$ to a guy with his highly tenuous health?!? At least this validates K2 changing agents a couple years ago. In essence, TB spent $36.1M on their second round draft pick, a tight end with a shoulder and knee that are thisclose to saying "No Mas", and a prickly persona to go with it. That contract spells trouble for the Cowboys and any other team with a good TE approaching free agency. Think Jason Witten won't ask for 5yrs/$45M now? Ouch.

--I'm sick of hearing from Bears fans the "Jerry Angelo can't draft anyways" argument. BS. His first round success rate is better than a lot of other teams, and in the Super Bowl year it was the later picks on defense that were the difference: Vasher, Anderson, Manning, Tank, etc.. He took Lance Briggs, Bernard Berrian, and the promising Marcus Harrison with recent 3rd round picks. You're trying way too hard to make this deal into a steal, Bears fans. Enjoy getting Cutler and the potential he brings (I like it more long-term than short-term), but enough already with the "we won't miss those picks" crap I keep hearing on 670 the Score and in some forums.

--Notice how quiet an offseason it's been for most of the truly good teams? Other than the Giants axing Plax, you haven't heard much about the Giants, Steelers, Colts, Patriots...I don't believe that is a coincidence.

--I like pretty much everything the new Lions regime has done, and even with a strong draft I have a hard time seeing them win more than 3-4 games next year. And that's if they get 4 quality+ starters out of the draft. The lack of talent is scary. Actually I look at it backwards in that regard--the guys who started and backed up at so many positions so clearly do not belong in the NFL. I happen to like Matt Millen and I'll defend some of his moves, but that 0-16 was no fluke.

--I'm just calling it now, so nobody gets offended or thinks I'm picking on a team when I do it: If any team drafts a punter or kicker before the 7th round, I'm going to publicly lambaste your GM.

witten's 3 years from free agency, dont think it's that great a concern right now

also, what's the problem with taking a punter or kicker in say the 5th or 6th round? the cowboys went years having a sh*tty kicker and nick folk in the 6th has turned out to be a fantastic move, i think both positions are more important then people let on (not that ive ever really seen your opinions on the topic)

--Notice how quiet an offseason it's been for most of the truly good teams? Other than the Giants axing Plax, you haven't heard much about the Giants, Steelers, Colts, Patriots...I don't believe that is a coincidence.

How much of it is due diligence by these GMs, and how much of it is becuase owners have handcuffed them due to this economy?
And really other than the Redskins, since Snyder is richer than any of us could ever hope to be, and Raiders, since Al Davis has gone mentally insane, who else has been spending exorbitant amounts of money?

Icness wrote:--I'm just calling it now, so nobody gets offended or thinks I'm picking on a team when I do it: If any team drafts a punter or kicker before the 7th round, I'm going to publicly lambaste your GM.

But but... Graham Gano.

I agree with most of these, especially the Bears bit. Even unwanted picks are assets, not to be relinquished for the sake of it.

J.Kim wrote:

--Notice how quiet an offseason it's been for most of the truly good teams? Other than the Giants axing Plax, you haven't heard much about the Giants, Steelers, Colts, Patriots...I don't believe that is a coincidence.

How much of it is due diligence by these GMs, and how much of it is becuase owners have handcuffed them due to this economy?
And really other than the Redskins, since Snyder is richer than any of us could ever hope to be, and Raiders, since Al Davis has gone mentally insane, who else has been spending exorbitant amounts of money?

I'm sure you are onto something there. Times are tight, even for multi-millionaire owners. Good point

studcrackers wrote:witten's 3 years from free agency, dont think it's that great a concern right now

also, what's the problem with taking a punter or kicker in say the 5th or 6th round? the cowboys went years having a sh*tty kicker and nick folk in the 6th has turned out to be a fantastic move, i think both positions are more important then people let on (not that ive ever really seen your opinions on the topic)

You think Jason Witten and his agent are going to sit back and be happy that he's now the 11th highest-paid TE? He's going to make less than Ben Utecht and Daniel Graham over the next two years. That screams "Renegotiation"! At least you've got an owner who will pony up.

I could maybe justify a 6th on a placekicker if the kicking game was truly a mess, but never anything higher. And no punter should ever be drafted. I say that really liking 2 punters in this draft class too (Morstead and Huber).

What about Graham Gano? I haven't ever seen a kicker/punter dominate a bowl game like he did.

Icness wrote:

studcrackers wrote:witten's 3 years from free agency, dont think it's that great a concern right now

also, what's the problem with taking a punter or kicker in say the 5th or 6th round? the cowboys went years having a sh*tty kicker and nick folk in the 6th has turned out to be a fantastic move, i think both positions are more important then people let on (not that ive ever really seen your opinions on the topic)

You think Jason Witten and his agent are going to sit back and be happy that he's now the 11th highest-paid TE? He's going to make less than Ben Utecht and Daniel Graham over the next two years. That screams "Renegotiation"! At least you've got an owner who will pony up.

I could maybe justify a 6th on a placekicker if the kicking game was truly a mess, but never anything higher. And no punter should ever be drafted. I say that really liking 2 punters in this draft class too (Morstead and Huber).

it may scream renegotiation but it's not like he's made a fuss about it yet, he seems like the type of guy who wouldnt say a word about this, at least publicly. if anything it'd be jones who confronts witten about this

and i second graham gano. im not saying you gotta spend a 2nd rounder (like for nugent) but the cowboys for like a 3 year period had complete mediocrity at the K position and it cost them several games

Icness wrote:
--I'm just calling it now, so nobody gets offended or thinks I'm picking on a team when I do it: If any team drafts a punter or kicker before the 7th round, I'm going to publicly lambaste your GM.

SAY WHAT? have you seen the USC punter? the dude can start on any team in the league at any defensive skill position!! dude is 4.5 at least! out reps many lineman.

studcrackers wrote:

Icness wrote:

studcrackers wrote:witten's 3 years from free agency, dont think it's that great a concern right now

also, what's the problem with taking a punter or kicker in say the 5th or 6th round? the cowboys went years having a sh*tty kicker and nick folk in the 6th has turned out to be a fantastic move, i think both positions are more important then people let on (not that ive ever really seen your opinions on the topic)

You think Jason Witten and his agent are going to sit back and be happy that he's now the 11th highest-paid TE? He's going to make less than Ben Utecht and Daniel Graham over the next two years. That screams "Renegotiation"! At least you've got an owner who will pony up.

I could maybe justify a 6th on a placekicker if the kicking game was truly a mess, but never anything higher. And no punter should ever be drafted. I say that really liking 2 punters in this draft class too (Morstead and Huber).

it may scream renegotiation but it's not like he's made a fuss about it yet, he seems like the type of guy who wouldnt say a word about this, at least publicly. if anything it'd be jones who confronts witten about this

and i second graham gano. im not saying you gotta spend a 2nd rounder (like for nugent) but the cowboys for like a 3 year period had complete mediocrity at the K position and it cost them several games

Unless he's the second coming of Ray Guy and Jan Stenerud combined, there's no way someone should be drafting any Kicker or Punter in any of the 7 rounds.

You can always find adequate to good talent off of FA, and Kicking especially depends more so on the long snapper and the holder.

Just look at how many of the kickers in the league were undrafted pros: Akers, Bironas, Carney, Reed, Gould...
List goes on

If you had those drafts to do over, don't you think a 6th for a guy like Akers, Bironas, Carney, Reed, Gould... would be worth it?

deeney0 wrote:If you had those drafts to do over, don't you think a 6th for a guy like Akers, Bironas, Carney, Reed, Gould... would be worth it?

They may be, they may not be, but you're looking at the results and determining a causal relationship that since these players play so well, compared to their drafted positions (in this case, undrafted), that they must be worth spending a late round - 6th or 7th - pick on them.

You gotta remember that they were undrafted. It just means that there's always an abundance of kicking talent available in free agency, and the difference between a drafted kicker and an undrafted kicker is negligible, if not favoring the undrafted kickers (since so many are undrafted in the first place)

Icness wrote:--I'm sick of hearing from Bears fans the "Jerry Angelo can't draft anyways" argument. BS. His first round success rate is better than a lot of other teams, and in the Super Bowl year it was the later picks on defense that were the difference: Vasher, Anderson, Manning, Tank, etc.. He took Lance Briggs, Bernard Berrian, and the promising Marcus Harrison with recent 3rd round picks. You're trying way too hard to make this deal into a steal, Bears fans. Enjoy getting Cutler and the potential he brings (I like it more long-term than short-term), but enough already with the "we won't miss those picks" crap I keep hearing on 670 the Score and in some forums.

For one, no one has said outright that Jerry can't draft at all, rather that his first round picks have been pretty disappointing. No one can argue that David Terrell, Michael Haynes and Cedric Benson weren't huge busts (along with Grossman to an extent). Colombo is decent now but it's not for the Bears. The only offensive 1st round pick Angelo has made that looks to be really good is Greg Olsen with Chris Williams getting an incomplete grade since he was hurt all last year.

...and maybe some people don't understand why nearly every single Bears fan won't miss those picks too much. Most teams have had a franchise QB at some point in the last 70 years but the Bears haven't. Just the chance of us having a potent top 10 level offense at some point in the next few years is about as surreal as the Cubs winning the world series, hence the extreme excitement.

Icness wrote:
--Oakland signs Jeff Garcia, lol. Way to send a message to Jamarcus Russell that he's your guy, bringing in a notorious anti-mentoring team wrecker. Just when I think the Raiders get it rolling in the right direction, they pull crap like this. Easily the worst signing of the business season thus far, although it has fresh competition...

.

Garcia is really that bad of a mentor? I know that he's been signed as a backup his past 3 contracts, and eventually assumed the starting role, but those were due to injury (McNabb) or ineffective QBs (CLE, TB). Is there some sort of inside info you've got? Cmon, you can't leave OAK fans in the dark... the offseason hope is the only thing we ever have going for us...

Winslow's deal makes me glad the Skins took care of Cooley when they did. His contract will look like a bargain compared to what these guys are going to be making.

I think the lack of moves by the good teams indicate that they are taking a "if it aint broke, don't fix it" approach. Any depth issues or need issues could easily be addressed through the draft, which is what good teams do.