I think I have figured out the perfect FA and draft plan for the defense
 

Here it goes.

FA

You sign a top notch FA safety (Thomas, Collins or Amos) for multiple years and a good DT (McCoy, Richardson, Suh, etc.) for a one-year or two-year contract. You can also sign other players on offense and defense on cheap deals.


Draft

1st round: CB

2nd round: ILB and C/G

3rd round: CB


You restructure Houston. You tag Ford. You trade a 2020 2nd round pick for Patrick Peterson or a lower pick for a decent veteran player who has a year or two left on his contract. I guess you could sign instead a FA CB on a one-year deal.

You end up with:

Houston-Nnadi-Jones-Ford

O'Daniel-Hitchens-2nd round LB

Peterson-Collins-Berri-1st round CB (Fuller in the slot)



You have Speaks and Kpassagnon as backup at DE. You have your FA DT rotating with Nnadi/Jones.

With the Hithens contract, I just don't think you can afford paying big dollars to a FA LB. Plus, recent drafts have showed that you can have a good LB late 2nd round/early 3rd round (Anzalone, Carter, Warner, Cunningham, etc.) and those guys are good early.

The linebackers would be the weakest group but I think they can be decent, especially if Hitchens goes back to his Cowboys' form.

The secondary would be a strong group. Even if Berri doesn't play, you have Watts or Murray (I know he is poor) who can play there. You have Ward and a 3rd round pick as backup CBs. I guess that 3rd round pick could be a safety but I would rather get a CB. If Berri doesn't play, Veach needs to find a scrap heap safety like Dorsey did so well.

I think it would be a defense set up for the next two years where you can draft a 1st round DE in 2020 to replace Houston/Ford or something like that.

Fire away! SB here we come.

What do you think?

I think we are wasting Speaks by keeping him on the bench. I'd let Houston walk.

Why are you drafting an ILB to play outside?

Chances are that either Houston or Ford gets injured?

I would only have Speaks starting if Houston doesn't want to restructure.

But Speaks is a big unknown. If this team is to have a strong defense I would like him to be a backup this year. He can be a starter the following year.

They drafted Speaks to play in this base defense. Last year was the year he sat, this year, he's in the ideal situation to start.

You guys need to realize that we have to sign 70 mil+ within the next 2 years

Mahomes - 30 mil
Hill - 21 mil
Chris Jones - 15 mil

That’s 66 mil alone right there.

You need to stop expecting guys like Landon Collins in FA. It’s not happening and you’re just setting yourself up to be letdown.

I like the Peterson idea but feel like Cards will demand more.

I don't want Suh - but I'm okay letting Houston walk, I realize many don't agree w/ that - that's fine. Yeah you won't replace him (even laterally) but you can come close and w/ that free'd $$ address adding another quality starter.

Cap is overrated - when there are ways a team can structure.

You are not playing Houston at a 5 tech sir. I'd expect speaks there and Houston at either the Sam or play him at rush end and trade Ford for a pick and draft a true even front sam backer.

He can start if Houston is released.

I know he was playing out of position in a 3-4 last year but it is not like he has shown much to be a clear starter. I wouldn't feel too much confident having Speaks as a starter next year. He could be good or he could be mediocre.

Is Berri the Quebecois spelling for Berry??

1. Cut Houston, Sorenson, Ragland and Murray.
2. Tag and trade Ford to the Packers for a 2nd round pick in 2019 and a future 2020 pick (4th to 5th range)
3. Sign Vinny Curry to a 2-3 year deal worth about $7 million a season.
4. Trade our 2019 1st round pick and a future 2020 pick (3rd to 4th range) for Jalen Ramsey.

2. Nasir Adderley, S, Delaware
2. Germaine Pratt, LB, N.C. State
2. Connor McGovern, G/C, Penn State
3. Joejuan Williams, CB, Vanderbilt

Speaks - Nnadi - Jones - Curry

Pratt - Hitchens - DOD

Ramsey - Berry - Adderley - Ward

Fuller in the slot.

A 2nd rounder for Peterson ROFLROFL

They can't afford to have yet another 2nd round pick sitting on the bench all year. These guys need to contribute now or they need to be cut.

You on crack?

Here’s the real plan.

1) Sign no “name” FAs. We did that last year.

2) Sign some value vets that fit the 4-3 under.

3) Trade some draft capital for players on rookie deals.

4) Draft more talent.

5) Coach them up.

nope.

id restructure houston instead of tagging ford

Buckweath, I applaude the time and effort you put into this. Much like I applaud the kids at the Special Olympics for running the 100 yard dash in swim flippers.

Most of the season I have heard mostly complaints about Speaks. Is he good or bad? We are a 4/3 defense now We should start using “MLB” again.

Speaks is starting. Houston is the Sam Linebacker.

O’Daniel———Hitchens
—————————————-Houston
Ford—-Jones——Nnadi—-Speaks

You are thinking of a 4-3 defense, when Spags is know for the 4-3 Under. Houston will still rush or drop back, just like how we’ve been using him already.

you have to look at current cap hit which isnt that much but probably along the lines of 6-7 million for those three and a collins for probably be right at 10 million a year. Berrys terrible contract will eventually stop hurting so much. These things can be done. Look what the rams did last year

i knew there was a reason i liked you

That defense will be worse against the run than last years.Every down 3-4 OLB playing every down 4-3 DEs will be abused by NFL Olines. Mahomes can't win the SB with that defense giving up long, time consuming TD drives every possession.

I think Speaks will be fine at DE. Houston will restructure and make him the rush DE. At least he can seal an edge. Tag Ford only if you think you can trade him. You can't cut everyone without taking some pretty harsh cap hits.

Ok, Chicken Little.

Veach has already said Ford will be here next year. So this trading scenario can stop now

:rolleyes:

Yeah I dont get how some fans mention tagging and trading Ford when anyone who has a clue knows it is not happening.

Veach has pretty much said it clearly that they are counting on him to play for this defense next year.

that's not quite what he said. And what he DID say could've just as easily been priming the market.

Ramsey's contract ends after 2019. We'd be trading a first round and other picks for a one year player unless we extend or franchise tag him. Not going to happen with other signings coming up. Top 5 CBs are commanding about $14M -$15M a year right now. Ramsey will probably want more than that. I'm guessing the Chiefs go CB in 1st round, whether they stay put at 29 or move up. Good move if they can get a starter on a rookie contract with a 5th yr option.

Exactly!

i posted this a week or two ago.Tag and trade Ford-receive GB's #30 pick, Roger is 35. They're going all in to get back in the hunt immediately.

Houston, Berry, Sorensen- (Dirty Dan any time, doesn't matter.) June 1 cuts free up: $27.7

2019 cap room: Spotrac estimates $36 million. I've seen $44 and as low as $28 so I'm taking the median.

I re-sign: Sherman, Butker, Allen, Devey, West, Lucas. roughly $11 million total.

FA:
I sign Landon Collins, SS to a 5 year deal at $9.4 per. He'll be 30 when the deal is up.

I sign KJ Wright to a 3 year deal at $7 million per. He's 30, coming off an injury season so that's about right. A leader on field, plays SAM. Seahawks will move on.

I sign Chris Long to a 2 year deal at $3 million per. Veteran stop gap, high leadership quality, still had 7 sacks in 2018.

Draft: Chiefs have #29, #30, #61, #64, #92 in first 3 rounds, no 4th, plus 5, 6, 7.

#29 Jaylon Ferguson, DE/Edge, Lousiana Tech
#30 Deandre Baker, CB, Georgia
#61, Rock Ya-Sin, CB, Temple. Spags likes CB's early and often.
#64 CJ Conrad, TE, Kentucky. Reid gets a new toy with a #2 TE that can actually catch the ball. Hey, he blocks, too! What do you know.
#92 Erik McCoy, OC, Texas A&M. competes with Reiter day 1 to start.
#156, Joe Gaziano, DT, Northwestern. solid pass rusher, high motor guy.
#187 D'Cota Dixon, S, Wisconsin. Ball hawking FS.
#192 Porter Gustin, OLB, USC. Future SAM prospect.

with the June 1 savings, I extend Jones and Hill.

Collins, Jones, and the young guys are the future of the defense. Long and Wright add strong leadership, mentoring the young guys, have been leaders on strong defenses and still have a little left in the tank.
CB-Baker, Fuller, Ya-Sin, Ward (now a killer corps)
at S, Collins, Lucas, Watts, and Dixon is real solid and versatile.
LB corps with Hitchens, O'Daniel and Wright looks good.
D-line, Long rotates with Ferguson at RDE, Jones, Nnadi, Gaziano looks good inside, Speaks/Kpass at LDE is solid.

Added a C and a nice TE for Reid to play with.

And it would all fit under the cap. Most importantly, I didn't do anything to screw the team cap-wise in the future. Reasonable deals and as long as we draft well, we're in the hunt every year.

*I used Spotrac's market estimations for all FA deals.

Chris Long isn’t a FA, for the record.

I'm far more interested to find out what the Rams do in the next several years. If those contracts don't come back to bite them, then, and only then, will I believe that is a good model.

The rams went all-in for one year. KC should have a longer horizon.

I'd read he was expected to be.

We need to bring in Paradis and Collins in FA, imo. I love the Idea of adding Patrick Peterson though. It may cost more than a late second though.

Bottom line is if we tag Ford and keep him we can't do shit in free agency, that means Houston would have to be cut to get his 14 million cap space back.

You can't keep them both.

I'd prefer to not keep either and seek budget FA's elsewhere as short term plugs.

Cut Houston and flip a second for AJ Bouye

Draft Mack Wilson, ILB Alabama

Sign an impact safety like Amos or Earl Thomas

Sign a solid pass rusher/run defender

Yeah let's get rid of two of the 3 players who gave this team a top 5 pass rush last year.

And those who say that would be the first ones complaining about the lack of pass rush next year.

I cant believe how some are taking that pass rush for granted.

If Ford and Houston leave, I guarantee that the passrush will be worse next year and maybe a lot worse.

Ford was great last year. He will be playing for this team next year and I'm just as ecstatic as Veach about that.

It's some seriously optimistic thinking to just pencil in Speaks as a starter when he hasn't done jack on the field yet.

Wishful thinking. You can say "I hope he's as good as we thought and he can start". I agree with that. But saying he's the starter? WHY? Other than that's what you hope for.

You have to assume that your young players improve and become players. It's not possible in the modern NFL to play any other way.

It's not true that Speaks didn't show anything. he showed pretty well as a pass rusher, and decent against the run. he looked bad at coverage, which he won't be asked to do anymore as a DE.

Clark is the Finance chair, he laughs at the cap

Tough to get rid of both IMO when you’re the SB favorite. :shrug:

My thoughts exactly.

Houston absolutely needs to restructure but he is a keeper for one more year IMO.

Ford tagged (and not traded) is a given.

Houston would take a pay cut IMO. I’m just not sure how much.

He’s not gonna get $21M per on the open market. And he has to know that this is his last best chance to win a Super Bowl, in Kansas City where he has worked for that ring for so long.

Plus you don’t have to uproot your family completely if you stay. Idk, maybe wishful thinking on my part.

Exactly right.

It's not wishful thinking, it's an absolute necessity. If he's on the bench again this year, they wasted yet another 2nd round pick. Going to be really hard to win a Super Bowl wasting 2nd round picks every year.

The defense was awful last year. Let's just keep it all the same because they had a good pass rush.

Or better yet, let's not.

I fully expect Ford to be here another year and they'll try to do something with Houston to keep him around.

Keep this in mind when talking about players and fronts. Daly and House both come from backgrounds of shifting and using tons of hybrid looks. We are moving from a stubborn old DC that didn't adapt to guys who are constantly doing those things.

I think while Ford and Houston are most likely to be DE's in this scheme they could also play some LB I think Speaks and Kpass see time and there will honestly be lots of moving around and different looks.

Where the real overhaul is needed is in the secondary and a sideline to sideline MLB.

Great take.

I'd love to Speaks and Kpass have breakout years.

Yeah let's just change just to change and try not to keep the one thing the defense was doing well last year.

They simply can't afford to keep them both the way things are now.

If they tag Ford, they HAVE to do something with Houston.

They can't afford to overhaul anything if they tag Ford and don't do anything with Houston. They can't just keep them both.

That's why you tag and trade Ford. Houston will restructure and can play the run, drop back, or rush. We all saw what Ford did when he was asked to do anything else but pass rush.

And their cap hits won't be that much in years 1, 2 or 3 of the new deals they sign.

They are going to go out and sign a stud safety. Veach's past behavior has dictated future results. He wanted to upgrade safety in season last year and now he has his chance with a player like Collins that played his best under Spags.

People getting up in arms about the cap is hilarious. The cap has been manipulated by countless organizations. How many players have the Saints lost? Packers? If you want a player, there's always a way.

Houston's great games were few and far between last year. There's no way you keep him at the current number and it would take a substantial salary reduction to see him on this roster.

We have a killer new set of defensive coaches, guys.

They can't do the job by themselves, no. We do still need more and better talent. But there WILL be some spots that are currently holes on paper that will be solidified through players already on the roster who stand to really benefit from the new scheme and coaches.

Like, I'm not a homer. Even at his peak in Dallas, Anthony Hitchens wasn't the greatest LB ever. But he did play pretty well, and that's the form I think he'll resemble more than what he was last year. There will be a few players like that, even if they're just depth guys. They'll probably still be depth guys, but their play is going to improve.

That being said, for the love of God draft some defense. And hit on a couple picks where guys can contribute immediately, please.

When I say overhaul this team needs to get a safety and CB, I think the rest can be handled in the draft..maybe even CB can be.

I'll say this though I'd pursue Jason Verrett for a nothing contract see if you can pull something out of him coming off injury.

Meh, I'd rather have an impact safety and a solid DE than Justin Houston

A Ford and Jones pass rush should be enough to generate pressure.

Your logic here requires the contracts to be backloaded. Almost every major QB and WR contract over the last 3 years has been front loaded, I wouldn’t expect this to be any different.

Veach trying to get Earl Thomas last season is a different situation, that’s a one year rental that does not effect the long term cap. Any of the big name DBs in this upcoming FA pool are gonna want long term high guarantee front or center loaded deals.

I hope I’m wrong, but really think a lot of you are setting yourself up for a huge letdown.

That would be a great pick-up. The guy can play - when healthy..

Speaks is sooooo slow it hurts to watch him

Do you think Calais Campbell is slow? Because he runs the same speed as Speaks

Terrell Suggs too

And Tyreek Hill

Nah bro you can not compare those speeds, nope don’t do that.....

Just dont

Was there a $20 million difference in play when Speaks started for Houston for 4 games?

Keep in mind Speaks had 2 sacks in that time with a forced fumble and also would have had another if not for the stupid ass rule that has made players fear hitting the QB bc of penalty.

And yeah Speaks is slow...as a stand up backer covering in space. This guy should have never been doing that.

Speaks was playing completely out of position. They had Kpass playing OLB too at 6'7 290 lbs. That just shows how much sutton left his guys out of position. I expect both of them to have significant improvement. With a new/better DL coach and another offseason in an NFL weight lifting program speaks will be good

I'd agree we should pursue some kind of reduction, but Houston is a more complete player than Ford.

To be fair to Sutton, he didn’t draft 2 4-3 ends to play 3-4 OLB.

Ya, but it's also not fair to speaks and kpass to say they suck bc they were playing out of position. I guess my point is I think the plan all along was to switch to a 43 defense. I think we have more options at DE than it may seem like.

Need more info on this Berri?

Probably save some good money with these moves

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">They can also save around $2M moving on from Eric Murray. I think I&#39;d go that route first.</p>&mdash; Carter Kellogg (@CarterKellogg) <a href="https://twitter.com/CarterKellogg/status/1095893133588684800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 14, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

THis.

Murray should be out, frankly so should Sorenson and Berry. Williams I think has value still. I think they'd like to keep Houston just obviously not at that number.

Personally I think this team should call Minnesota see what the price on Rhodes is, if it's like a 3, I'd do that. Sign Jason Verrett to a cheap deal with incentives, bring in Collins cause he knows the scheme and do what you can to pull Adderly and Bush out of the draft and this defense should be improved greatly.

Yeah, there probably was.

Speaks wasn't good. Sure he picked up a few coverage sacks and was totally out of position at OLB. Theres some hope I guess, but i'm not sure he's ever more than a solid DE at his ceiling.

Houston may or may not be kept, but he's still a really high end player. He just makes a lot of money.

I also think you guys are gonna be a little depressed when they keep a lot of these guys. If they think they're as close as they do apparently, they aren't gonna go rocking the boat too much with a new coaching staff AND 5 or 6 new starters on D.

Secondary needs a huge overhaul, the front 7 needs a better scheme and a guy who can run at MLB.

Been saying it since the beginning. Cutting Murray, Ragland and Sorenson saves us almost $4.5 million. And these are spots that can be easily filled by players already on the roster.