LB and OL are the easiest positions to fill in free agency because they don't cost much.

The draft is where you go get the high-dollar positions like DE, OT, and WR.

Sorry, but your priorities are just backwards. Drafting an IOL high is a waste of resources unless there's an absolute blue chip prospect there.

Nah, his worst game was against the Raiders. Not that it matters, Clark hasn't been doing much all year.

Hitchens "woke up" about halftime of the first Raiders game and has played pretty well since.

Ugh. I've been grown weary of these dead money hits on our cap.

Aren't we still "paying" like an $8m dead cap hit to Berry?

If there's a guy they like, sure.

But don't fall into the Breeland Speaks trap. "Well, after this point, there's a huge dropoff in talent at that position according to our draft board, so we better trade up and grab this one guy that we're in desperate need of instead of taking even a solid(ish) contributor at any other position.

OL is apparently meh this year outside of the usual handful of 1st round tackles. Maybe one or two interior guys will work their way into that first round as well. And after that point, probably nothing.

We're not going to maintain a dynasty by reaching for need in the early rounds of the draft if those players don't end up being very good.

Yeah, Hitchens and the LBs outside of Neimann seem to be playing pretty well. Unfortunately, they got their shit together at the same time the DL lost it.

I'd rather have a dominant DL and trash LBs than an invisible DL and serviceable LBs so I'm not liking this current setup..

Totally. He might be one of the keys to us being "just good enough" on defense in our playoff run.

Reggie Ragland was that guy last year. Everything kind of just started clicking for him. I was actually kind of hoping he would stay, but he signed with Detroit for chump change (1 year and like $950,000 or something like that).

If Hitchens is going to play decently, his contract is still an albatross, but at least his underperformance isn't exactly hurting the team. It definitely isn't so bad that we can't let him play out the remainder of that deal without taking a cap hit.

I wonder if Frank Clark is getting worn out. Okafor and Taco got hurt. That leaves Clark,Kpass and Danna to play all the snaps for the 2 DE positions. Okafor has come back now but still isn't playing full snaps.

Clark is general playing around 84%+ of the defensive snaps all season long.


Is he tired?

I've got faith the DL will figure its shit out. Jones isn't playing like a monster the way he usually does, but he started out hot this year. I think they'll get him going again.

I know it's not much, but getting Danna back in the DE rotation helps out quite a bit. And same with Okafor. Can't trust him to stay healthy, but whatever he does contribute is usually solid.

Pennel hasn't been as good as he was last year when he's gotten snaps. Saunders is still working through his injury. There's room to grow, and the potential to be pretty damn good is there, but we gotta figure out how to make that happen.

I trust Daly.

There are actually a lot of OL prospects that are going to be high end starters...

You're gonna get
Penei Sewell
Alex Leatherwood
Sam Cosmi
Jalen Mayfield
Wyatt Davis
Christian Darrisaw
Trey Hill
Landon Dickerson
Deonte Brown
Jackson Carman
Walker Little
Cade Mays
Liam Eichenberg
Trey Smith

Are all guys going in the first 2 rounds that should be good starters at worst.

Watching Wylie and Niemann get major snaps every game may be affecting my reasoning.

I look at WR as their strongest position after QB. If they keep Watkins, they don't need another WR at this moment. If Watkins is gone after this season, then it's a different story. I haven't seen enough from Hardman or Robinson to suggest they're consistent #2 receivers.

Regarding the pass rush, I don't see them giving up on Clark that quickly. Maybe after next season as has been suggested. We'll be drafting late in the first round again in 2021. Will there be top notch pass rushers available in those slots?

Also, I wasn't ruling out offensive tackles as possible first round choices.

Thats a normal amount of snaps.

It's incredibly rare for players to take a pay cut and if I'm Clark, I'm probably not taking one, either. Obviously that would be best case scenario, and I'd love for it to happen I just don't think it does.

I think Robinson ends up wherever Bienemy goes, I basically have that as a forgone conclusion. The WR issue we could have going forward is why a part of me wonders if we should kick the tires on Kenny Stills since he got cut.

Really wish we didn't let Ogbah go. But I get it. Never know how a player will come back from a pec injury.