2018 off-season thread: some important moves need to be made

[Worm Guts]

It’s starting to look like Drew Brees might actually make it to free agency, although it still seems like a long shot that he’ll switch teams.
It still seems pretty likely to me that Kirk Cousins is our next quarterback.

[hermes]

i'm kind of two minds about brees

- he's too old and we always go after the aging qb, so it would just be a short-term thing

- i just got done saying we should only care about the short-term title window in regards to not worrying about spending too much money on cousins - lets just roll the dice and go for the title

so who knows, seems unlikely he'd leave the saints. also don't know if anyone here still hates the saints/brees (maybe not after the miracle?) how long would a deal for him be anyway?

[Worm Guts]

I'm thinking I prefer Brees, but he is right on that precipice. He's 39 years old, and it seems like 39-40 is right where elite QB's fall off a cliff.
But if we could draft someone and get 2 good years from Drew, I'd feel pretty good about it.

[hermes]

that would be interesting

but man, at some point it would be nice to get a long-term answer at qb

[hermes]

anyway, churn rumor mill churn

but not too long, i'd like to be the first team to get a qb so we at least can say we got the guy we wanted

[Sedale Threatt]

Keenum to Broncos. It’s Cousins or bust.

[Worm Guts]

It's sounding like Cousins may be a done deal.

[Sedale Threatt]

Seems like it. The Cousins era begins.

[hermes]

alright, got the guy we wanted so that's good, and even a couple million short of 30 - so there you go

[hermes]

so what other needs do you think will be addressed in free agency?

[Sedale Threatt]

Offensive line is still our biggest problem spot, IMO. We were much better last year but we're still not very good. Keenum solved a lot of our issues with his pocket awareness, which I don't think Cousins has much of judging from his sack total last season.

Otherwise I'd look at defensive line, specifically tackles -- you can never have enough depth up front -- and, with respect to the fact you can't have a perfect team, I think we can do better than Sendejo at SS.

Somebody to replace McKinnon, who is probably out the door, would be nice, if a luxury. Provided Cook is fully healthy, he and Murray should be a great 1-2 punch. But I liked McKinnon's change of pace.

[hermes]

for the 3rd rb we'll probably draft someone in the mid/late rounds

[Worm Guts]

Bradford got more annually than Keenum, weird, but it gets us a 3rd round comp pick.

[Sedale Threatt]

for the 3rd rb we'll probably draft someone in the mid/late rounds

Yeah, that's probably the wisest course. It's a luxury, not a need.

[Worm Guts]

I think we mainly to upgrade the offensive line and find defensive depth. Obviously some of the older guys on defense like Robison and Newman are going to need to be replaced sooner rather than later. We may be losing Tom Johnson and Shamar Stephen at DT. And of course we need to prepare ourselves next year for when Diggs, Kendricks, Barr and Hunter are free agents.

[Worm Guts]

Man, McKinnon got paid.

[hermes]

good for mckinnon, seems like a lot - maybe they plan on him doing a little of everything

[hermes]

we're trading for trevor siemian? wonder what we gave up, hopefully not a lot

guess with qb settled we can move on to other needs

[hermes]

here are the details from espn

In addition to Siemian, the Broncos also will send a 2018 late-round pick to the Vikings for a selection in the 2019 draft, according to the source.

they also gave us a pick this year? and all that for a pick next year? interesting

[Sedale Threatt]

McKinnon is now the third-highest paid RB in the league by average.

And I think I saw that we are paying Cousins almost three times what the Broncos are Keenum with guaranteed money.

Hope he's worth it.