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2026 Offseason Thread

rossihunter2 said:
i do think we need to consider that we should not really be looking at C or LB in the 1st round any time soon...
because you lose any benefit of that 5 year contract and you basically just signed a really expensive 2nd round contract

which is ridiculous because if a guy like Sonny Styles is there at 14, we shouldn't be passing on him, but potentially the future contract issues mean you have to
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Or it just means EDC needs to do a better job of locking these guys up before the 5th year happens.
It's easier said than done, but conceptually, I have no idea why Linderbaum wasn't under a long term deal a year ago. Nothing has seemingly changed in the perception of him. It's not like you had to give him another year to figure out whether he was good or not.

The league itself has done pretty much everything they can do to provide incentives to teams to NOT wait until the 5th year option to pay a guy. The 5th year option at every single position isn't a bargain anymore. Even at QB it's not even a bargain.
 
rmcjacket23 said:
Or it just means EDC needs to do a better job of locking these guys up before the 5th year happens.
It's easier said than done, but conceptually, I have no idea why Linderbaum wasn't under a long term deal a year ago. Nothing has seemingly changed in the perception of him. It's not like you had to give him another year to figure out whether he was good or not.

The league itself has done pretty much everything they can do to provide incentives to teams to NOT wait until the 5th year option to pay a guy. The 5th year option at every single position isn't a bargain anymore. Even at QB it's not even a bargain.
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I wonder how much the LJ contract negotiations(or lack of) affected getting Tyler’s extension done last year. Seems if there had been some clarity there it would have made things easier.
 
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rossihunter2 said:
i just think it's bad process if you're paying good players elite money
i understand that it's hard to get good OL, i understand that it's not looking like a great center draft
i understand the way the cap and inflation work...

the difference between top C money and top G money is more than 6m/yr

you pay linderbaum 20m/yr that would still make him a top 7 IOL in the league and completely destroy the creed humphrey deal

but the 80/20 rule starts looming really large if you're going to have to pay him 24m/yr - absolutely destroy the top of the C market for a guy who's a really good player but not an elite one - that just feels like bad process to me

franchise tag is 27m fully guaranteed which is even more ridiculous - that 1 year franchise tag would be the 2nd most fully guaranteed money in a C contract in the league straight away

the OL/LB 5th year option and franchise tag values are so dumb and idk how the NFL hasn't fixed it by now
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I get it, but in theory, that gets compounded by having to pay average players good money. Sure, it’s not quite the same as overpaying at the top of the market, but you still have to invest somewhere and OL is never going to be cheap.

And after watching this OL group last year, it feels hard to just take even more risk.

It’s a tough one.
 
rmcjacket23 said:
Or it just means EDC needs to do a better job of locking these guys up before the 5th year happens.
It's easier said than done, but conceptually, I have no idea why Linderbaum wasn't under a long term deal a year ago. Nothing has seemingly changed in the perception of him. It's not like you had to give him another year to figure out whether he was good or not.

The league itself has done pretty much everything they can do to provide incentives to teams to NOT wait until the 5th year option to pay a guy. The 5th year option at every single position isn't a bargain anymore. Even at QB it's not even a bargain.
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They wanted to but we can thank Lamar for that. They knew they were only going to be able to get 1 of those bigger deals done until they had some movement on Lamar, and Kyle was rightfully the priority there.
 
rmcjacket23 said:
Or it just means EDC needs to do a better job of locking these guys up before the 5th year happens.
It's easier said than done, but conceptually, I have no idea why Linderbaum wasn't under a long term deal a year ago. Nothing has seemingly changed in the perception of him. It's not like you had to give him another year to figure out whether he was good or not.

The league itself has done pretty much everything they can do to provide incentives to teams to NOT wait until the 5th year option to pay a guy. The 5th year option at every single position isn't a bargain anymore. Even at QB it's not even a bargain.
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you're only allowed to extend guys after 3 seasons (the same offseason you have to decide whether you're doing the 5th year option)
and if you're declining it (as you basically have to if you draft a LB or C in R1) - then suddenly the player's only 1 year away from free agency and they can very easily decide to go and test the market if they want to wait

with Linderbaum, did they not make him offers last year? the player has to decide to sign early and not bet on themself
 
rossihunter2 said:
we shouldn't be making decisions out of fear though
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I think it’s fair though since the only two centers that really provided us with consistent stability at a high level were Birk and Lindy. Why chance it because of cost?
 
One year from now... Super Bowl 61 will be played.

Prediction: Ravens win the Super Bowl over the Packers.
 
rossihunter2 said:
you're only allowed to extend guys after 3 seasons (the same offseason you have to decide whether you're doing the 5th year option)
and if you're declining it (as you basically have to if you draft a LB or C in R1) - then suddenly the player's only 1 year away from free agency and they can very easily decide to go and test the market if they want to wait

with Linderbaum, did they not make him offers last year? the player has to decide to sign early and not bet on themself
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I'm aware. But that's the point. They had a full season to sign him before he hit FA. Either he didn't want to, and wants to test FA, or the offer we made him wasn't good enough to get him to sign.

If the argument is because there's uncertainty with Lamar's deal, then so be it.
 
rossihunter2 said:
because of the contract value?
he's (to me) clearly a top 7 player in the class
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Because off ball LBs aren’t important enough. When we’ve been drafting for coverage and have a safety like 14 and Roquan still under contract, and so many high value areas of our team are terribly lacking, just don’t fucking do it.
 
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