Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Laz
The physical potential is there for sure.
That's a long way from us being able to assume he can just step outside and being able to man-to-man consistently like Sutton needs.
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No question, but the name of the game in the NFL is change and turnover. It's a cap league and you can't just pay for every player you want to keep.
If there is a cost-effective means of keeping Smith, I'd absolutely do it. However, behind him we have a guy with every physical trait to do the same job Smith is doing. If we simply bury him, we're wasting an asset and in so doing it may cost us someone like Howard, DJ or Berry, guys that we don't have good fallback options for, IMO.
It's a lot like the Marcus Peters situation - sometimes you have to just grab a nut and trust your scouts. I think this may be one of those times.
Truth be told, my problem with letting Smith walk isn't even the edge, it's the slot. Nelson's not going to be shit in this system and if Smith goes, we really do have Peters, Gaines and a bunch of crap. Obviously we could keep Parker at NCB but that's not ideal if we also lose the corner depth we have with Branch and Abdullah. It's just damn hard to rebuild 60% of your secondary in a single off-season.