There should be at least 2 major free agent acquisitions and one of them needs to be linebacker. The other area that most needs addressing is the right side of the OL – probably RG – but I’m not sure if there is going to be any high-caliber / high-upside guys available. Beyond that, landing an elite WR like TJ Housh and/or a potential starter/backup veteran QB a la JP Losman would just about make for a perfect 10 in free agency.

In the draft, we should not waste our first round pick on a QB unless it’s Bradford. I’ve seen enough of Matt Stafford to believe he would be huge bust as our first pick. Thus, depending on what we do in free agency, I say our first pick of the draft should probably be either WR (Crabtree), OT (Smith), or CB (Malcoom Jenkins – because he’s awesome and we need to replace Surtain). In the second round, we should probably get the best available rushing DE/OLB (Selvie would be my choice if he’s there) or C (Mack, if he’s there, would be a steal). 3rd round I’d go QB. Beyond that, I’d pretty try to bring additional talent and depth to OL, LB, and S positions.

Here is what I think the coaching situation should look like:

Edwards, HC – finish his contract (one more year) and then re-evaluate after the second year of this bottom-up rebuild. On probation.

Smith, Strength and Conditioning – gone. I have to believe a big part of the reason why we’ve had so many injuries and why never seemed capable of playing a full 4 quarters of football comes down to this issue.

Prieffer, Special Teams – sucks horribly, gone.

Gailey, OC – keeper.

Embree, Tight Ends – keeper.

Gibbs, Dbacks – keeper.

Kumrie, DL – spotty DL performance this year was more a function of youth and lack of LB support than anything else. I still like his knowledge and intensity. Hang on to him.

Cunningham, DC – I’m really on the fence about this one. My gut tells me he’s past his prime but I also have to look at the injury issues and level of talent he had to deal with and ask myself whether anyone could have done better. I’m thinking not and sort of believe that if Gun had the right personnel and a little extra time to teach these kids a few more tricks, that this defense might start to look a lot different. On probation

Curl, QB/Asst HC – I think we can and should do better.

Bicknell, OL – See my comments about Gunther. Same applies here. On probation.

Price, WR – On probation.

This summarizes my philosophy going into the 2009 offseason.