Saving Draft Picks Through Free Agency
Well, we won and I feel so warm and fuzzy inside. Hardly! Man we are a bad team. The Chiefs are just plain bad all around. We need a serious influx of serious skill.
If you have been a fan of this site, you know that the whole entire offseason we will be talking about the draft. Since I don’t follow college football, I can add no real insight. (Seriously if I followed college football and the NFL, I would get absolutely nothing done, that is why I only obsess over the Chiefs and the NFL). So I am not going to talk about the upcoming draft projections and talent. But what I do want to talk about, (yes halfway through the season), is Free Agency: Specifically upcoming free agents at the following positions: OL, TE, DT, LB, FS/SS.
The Chiefs are in bad need of talent at these positions and have little patience to wait for a “draft gem” to develop. Caveat: I know it is early, and some of these guys will never hit the free agent market (tags), but I am including everyone in a contract year.
Here are the upcoming free agents at the OL position:
Jahri Evans, New Orleans Saints (26)
Logan Mankins, New England Patriots (27)
Marcus McNeill, San Diego Chargers (25)
Daryn Colledge, Green Bay Packers (27)
Jared Gaither, Baltimore Ravens (23) – Restricted FA
Winston Justice, Philadelphia Eagles (24)
Kevin Mawae, Tennessee Titans (38)
Chad Clifton, Green Bay Packers (33)
Mike Gandy, Arizona Cardinals (30)
Eugene Amano, Tennessee Titans (27)
David Baas, San Francisco 49ers (27)
Khalif Barnes, Oakland Raiders (27)
Alex Barron, St. Louis Rams (26)
Mike Brisiel, Houston Texans (26)
Jeromey Clary, San Diego Chargers (25) – Restricted FA
Nick Cole, Philadelphia Eagles (25)
Willie Colon, Pittsburgh Steelers (26)
Ryan Cook, Minnesota Vikings (26)
Tyson Clabo, Atlanta Falcons (28)
Harvey Dahl, Atlanta Falcons (28)
Cornell Green, Oakland Raiders (33)
Rex Hadnot, Cleveland Browns (27)
Ben Hamilton, Denver Broncos (32)
Justin Hartwig, Pittsburgh Steelers (30)
Stephon Heyer, Washington Redskins (25) – Restricted FA
Richie Incognito, St. Louis Rams (26)
Jon Jansen, Washington Redskins (33)
Charlie Johnson, Indianapolis Colts (25)
Nick Kaczur, New England Patriots (30)
Chris Kuper, Denver Broncos (26)
Deuce Lutui, Arizona Cardinals (26)
Stephen Neal, New England Patriots (32)
Rudy Niswanger, Kansas City Chiefs (26)
Donald Penn, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (26)
Chester Pitts, Houston Texans (30)
Manuel Ramirez, Detroit Lions (26) – Restricted FA
Rob Sims, Seattle Seahawks (25)
Chris Spencer, Seattle Seahawks (27)
Jason Spitz, Green Bay Packers (26)
Adam Terry, Baltimore Ravens (27)
Jeremy Trueblood, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (26)
Bobbie Williams, Cincinnati Bengals (32)
Marshal Yanda, Baltimore Ravens (24)
Outlook: Good. As you can see, there may be a lot of good free agents at the O-line positions. Any names pop out at you? I see a bunch. I really doubt that Niswanger stays, unless he is content on being a back up Center. Here are a few of the names that I like: Jahri Evans, Logan Mankins, Daryn Colledge, Willie Colon, Deuce Lutui, Jeremy Trueblood, Rob Sims, Chris Spencer, and Jason Spitz. I think all of these players are “gettable”. (Scott Pioli Please Save This List!) What do you think? Can we save a draft pick here?
Here are the upcoming free agents at the TE position:
Owen Daniels, Houston Texans (26)
Tony Scheffler, Denver Broncos (26)
Alge Crumpler, Tennessee Titans (31)
Anthony Fasano, Miami Dolphins (25)
Daniel Fells, St. Louis Rams (25)
Jeff King, Carolina Panthers (26)
David Martin, Miami Dolphins (30)
Randy McMichael, St. Louis Rams (30)
Billy Miller, New Orleans Saints (32)
Leonard Pope, Arizona Cardinals (25)
Bo Scaife, Tennessee Titans (28)
Derek Schouman, Buffalo Bills (24)
Alex Smith, New England Patriots (27)
L.J. Smith, Baltimore Ravens (29)
Matt Spaeth, Pittsburgh Steelers (24)
Ben Watson, New England Patriots (28)
Outlook: Bad. As you can see, we are going to have to draft our TE talent. The free agency pool is limited, and the top names of Owens, Fasano and Scheffler will not be allowed to hit free agency. Matt Spaeth may be worth a look see. Round two to four, maybe?
Here are the upcoming free agents at the DT position:
Vince Wilfork, New England Patriots (27)
Richard Seymour, Oakland Raiders (29)
Casey Hampton, Pittsburgh Steelers (31)
Ryan Pickett, Green Bay Packers (29)
Johnny Jolly, Green Bay Packers (26)
Tony Brown, Tennessee Titans (28)
Kendrick Clancy, New Orleans Saints (31)
Barry Cofield, New York Giants (25)
Jason Ferguson, Miami Dolphins (34)
Aubrayo Franklin, San Francisco 49ers (29)
Kedric Golston, Washington Redskins (26)
Tank Johnson, Cincinnati Bengals (27)
Travis Johnson, San Diego Chargers (27)
Fred Robbins, New York Giants (32)
Clifton Ryan, St. Louis Rams (25)
Tank Tyler, Carolina Panthers (24) – Restricted FA
Outlook: So-so to Bad. Remember, we need a 3-4 nose tackle. Unfortunately Vince Wilfork will be tagged, he is going nowhere. Hampton could be a possibility, but it looks like we are going to have to draft a big strong fast fat guy. Rounds one through three, maybe?
Here are the upcoming free agents at the LB position:
Barrett Ruud, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (26)
Shawne Merriman, San Diego Chargers (25)
Karlos Dansby, Arizona Cardinals (28)
DeMeco Ryans, Houston Texans (25)
Thomas Davis, Carolina Panthers (26)
Kirk Morrison, Oakland Raiders (27)
Thomas Howard, Oakland Raiders (26)
D’Qwell Jackson, Cleveland Browns (25)
Antwan Barnes, Baltimore Ravens (24) – Restricted FA
Bertrand Berry, Arizona Cardinals (34)
Chase Blackburn, New York Giants (26)
Gary Brackett, Indianapolis Colts (29)
Tedy Bruschi, New England Patriots (36)
Keith Bulluck, Tennessee Titans (32)
Brandon Chillar, Green Bay Packers (26)
Danny Clark, New York Giants (32)
Angelo Crowell, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (28)
Keith Ellison, Buffalo Bills (25)
Larry Foote, Detroit Lions (29)
Scott Fujita, New Orleans Saints (30)
Omar Gaither, Philadelphia Eagles (25)
Chris Gocong, Philadelphia Eagles (25)
Clint Ingram, Jacksonville Jaguars (26)
Rashad Jeanty, Cincinnati Bengals (26)
Derrick Johnson, Kansas City Chiefs (26)
Akeem Jordan, Philadelphia Eagles (24) – Restricted FA
Cato June, Houston Texans (29)
Rocky McIntosh, Washington Redskins (26)
Matt Roth, Miami Dolphins (26)
Jason Taylor, Miami Dolphins (35)
Zach Thomas, Kansas City Chiefs (36)
Pisa Tinoisamoa, Chicago Bears (28)
Stephen Tulloch, Tennessee Titans (24)
Mike Vrabel, Kansas City Chiefs (34)
Outlook: Good. There are a couple of good linebackers we may want to bring in from the above list. Merriman anyone? Wouldn’t he love to stick it to AJ Smith twice a year for not extending him? He is a 3-4 linebacker. It takes more than one year to get back to full strength with knee injuries, right? Karlos Dansby, Demarco Ryans (unlikely), Barret Ruud, Thomas Howard, Larry Foote, Omar Gaither, and Rocky McIntosh; we could strike gold here couldn’t we? Can we save a draft pick here?
Here are the upcoming free agents at the FS/SS position:
O.J. Atogwe, St. Louis Rams (28)
Nick Collins, Green Bay Packers (26)
Antoine Bethea, Indianapolis Colts (25)
Darren Sharper, New Orleans Saints (33)
Will Allen, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (27)
Atari Bigby, Green Bay Packers (27)
Tyvon Branch, Oakland Raiders (22)
C.C. Brown, New York Giants (26)
Daniel Bullocks, Detroit Lions (26)
Josh Bullocks, Chicago Bears (26)
Tyrone Carter, Pittsburgh Steelers (33)
Ryan Clark, Pittsburgh Steelers (29)
Hiram Eugene, Oakland Raiders (28)
Roman Harper, New Orleans Saints (26)
Sean Jones, Philadelphia Eagles (27)
Dawan Landry, Baltimore Ravens (26)
Danieal Manning, Chicago Bears (27)
Jarrad Page, Kansas City Chiefs (25)
Brodney Pool, Cleveland Browns (25)
Mark Roman, San Francisco 49ers (32)
Gerald Sensabaugh, Dallas Cowboys (26)
Roy Williams, Cincinnati Bengals (29)
Outlook: So-so. Atogwe, Collins, Bethea, Branch, Landry, could all be possibilities. However, it looks like we will have to dip into the draft. Safeties take a long time to develop (awareness) so we could be in some trouble.
In sum, we will not need to use our top three draft picks on O-lineman if we can pluck a one or two of the free agent offensive lineman that come available. We need to draft the best player available with our “soon to be” top five pick, then a big fat NT, then a good TE, then safety. Two Free agent O-lineman and Two Free agent LBs named above will help save that day in April. What do you think?