Yeah, I know this is a thread on the draft but I definitely think were in good shape to add some starters via free agency too. Here is a PFF 2024 FA list:
Personally, I have a feeling were going to add some vets for a super bowl run (another super bowl run/!). Guys like Fletcher Cox and Stephon Gilmore come to mind as affordable short-term options where we can also develop behind them. Maybe Slay? Maybe Gilmore will want to play with his bro.
Iād be fine with that. Add one of those guys and add one in the draft. That should be the strategy unless we blow it out with a guy like Wilkins or Robert Hunt. Alas weāre so bad at CB even if we spend a lot for a guy like Snead weāll still need to draft one high
I love that idea actually. We need a R. Mathis (2014) type to step in for a year and draft a good cb. Along with Sutton that might be enough. But the CB we bring has to be Mathis level or better.
I was thinking more Snead (though I know heās unlikely unless Brad changes the way he does things), I also like the idea of Slay, but I wouldnāt have him as more than CB3 or so either.
I think Slay is a better gamble than Gilmore. I think he had a tad more juice left to shed before the athleticism becomes problematic.
Yiadom is my preferred CB free agent. Worst case you get an elite gunner but heās played well on defense the few opportunities that Iāve watched him.
I remember Yiadom standing out at the Senior Bowl but he didnāt really do much at the start of his career and I kinda lost track of him. I remember he was forced into starting real early in Denver.
He will be expensive, but what other options are we really looking at?
Drafting a guy who we hope could be a #1 guy, and probably takes time to develop?
Going the Sutton route where you pay a #2 guy less money, and hope he can be a #1?
I feel like a #1 CB is one of the final missing pieces, and needs to be added this off-season. Other than paying big for one, Iām not sure it can be accomplished.
Yeah. Wasnāt up to snuff early but became a high end gunner. Then finds himself in New Orleans which for whatever reason remains one of the leagueās best CB ecosystems and he starts to flash some as a long physical boundary corner. Honestly heās kind of Moseley like stylistically.
Promising display of strength for his size though (though I know he got the OT off-balance). May be more Von Miller - who was never a liability against the run - than Harold Landry.
It does seem like his long arm move will be an asset.
Hard to imagine him falling far as heās one of the few defenders in this class that if you squint you can picture a star.