SO, some time on my hands, I decided to look at our roster and what the perspectives are.
| player | short term plans (2091,’92) | long term plans (2093+)
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| QB M.Sheldon | Apparently even in his 3rd year cohesion wasn’t sufficient to have him play well enough. I’m not ready to show him the door, but he’s not quite the undisputed QB1. | Stick around as the mentor to a new QB project, unless Bell convinced us to be our new franchise quarterback.
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| QB B.Bell | Too early to give up on him yet, but the future doesn’t look bright. We’ll give him his 3rd camp and pre-season, to prove he’s worth the salary to stick around and get another shot at QB1. | Win the QB1 role or be done. Unless he’s willing to play for less than Farley as our QB2.
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| QB F.Farley | Taking a pay cut was the thing we needed for him to stick around as our QB3. Should be ok if forced in action. | Stick around as our QB2.
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| RB F.Patter | Cap space could be an issue, but should be good enough to play another season as our RB1, unless we . | Hard to tell with RBs
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| RB R.Thongchanh | Cap space is an issue, but if he doesn’t take a ratings reduction, should stick around as our RB2 and possibly as the punt returner and a special teams RB. | Hard to tell with RBs
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| RB A.Ford | Special teams RB | Depends on his demands.
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| FB C.Brosseau | Play for us | Play for us
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| TE C.Gaynor | Develop, will get the time to prove himself. | Develop or get lost. First signs were bad, but you have to wait until after that 3rd camp to draw conclusions.
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| TE R.Crawford | Stick around as a run blocker | Stick around, if the price is right.
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| TE J.Blake | Stick around as a run blocker | Stick around, if the price is right.
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| TE S.Bridges | Mentor Gaynor. | retirement
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| WR T.Bondy | Return to All IHOF quality, that would be swell. | Don’t retire early.
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| WR B.Sandlin | Our WR2 for now, more of a WR3 type, I suspect. | Has to give up some of his cap space, or he’ll be unaffordable as a WR3.
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| WR H.Wilkerson | Special teamer, good enough for a WR3 role. | WR3 role? He’ll have to beat some of the other youngsters.
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| WR S.Messenger | I think he was randomly hit when he became a pure kickoff returner. Hope he’s willing to play for less money. | Depends on his salary demands and whether he picked up fumblitis last pre-season.
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| WR T.Arndt | Special teamer and backup kickoff returner. | If the price is right, he can stay.
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| WR G.Stuckey | Let’s wait and see whether he’s going to live up to his route running potential. | Let’s wait and see after his 3rd camp.
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| WR T.Samuels | Still a project, will be tough to remain patient with him. | Show me something and you can stay.
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| LT N.Hadinger | Take a pay cut and hang around. | The same as the short term.
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| LG M.Szott | Take a pay cut and hang around. | The same as the short term.
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| C B.Pearson | Take a pay cut and hang around. | Don’t retire early.
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| RG A.Watson | Stick around. | Stick around.
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| RT H.Humphrey | Take a pay cut and hang around. | The same as the short term.
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| LT M.Hamilton | Be our backup OT. | Probably elsewhere by lack of willingness to sign a new contract with us.
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| LG M.Silvan | Develop into a serviceable backup OL. | Wait and see.
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| C J.Labbe | Stay as our backup center. | Stick around as our backup.
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| DE A.Russell | Take a pay cut and stay. | I want him to stay, but cap space might become an issue, if he doesn’t retire.
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| DE T.Whiting | Take a pay cut and stay. | I want him to stay, but cap space might become an issue.
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| DE G.Kondovski | Take a pay cut and stay. | I want him to stay, but cap space might become an issue.
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| DE A.Exner | Take a pay cut and stay. | I want him to stay, but cap space might become an issue.
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| DT J.Mojica | Take a pay cut and stay. | I want him to stay, but cap space might become an issue.
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| DT D.Fletcher | Prove he’s the real deal. No wait, he already has done that. | Cap space will be an issue once he starts asking for what he deserves.
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| DT A.Ritt | Sign a new cheap deal. | We’ll see after that cheap deal.
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| DT K.Ackerman | Stick around, be our new DT3. | Stop being unhappy first, we’ll see after that.
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| LB C.Jackson | Take a pay cut and stay. | Take a pay cut and stay.
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| LB B.Brady | Not fully convinced he’s the real thing, but he’ll get another season or two to prove he is. | Wait and see. |
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| LB D.Espino | Took a hit in pre-season, but his contract will force us to keep him for at least another season or two. | The random hit is an issue, but our hands are tied for now.
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| LB M.Iveans | Free agent, unlikely to get a new deal. | See short term.
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| LB A.Palmer | Special teamer. | Would be nice to keep him, but you know the deal.
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| LB B.Rayburn | Restricted free agent, can stay for minimum salary. | Special teamer or elsewhere in the league.
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| CB K.Hitchcock | Take a paycut and stick around as our CB1. | Retired and likely HOF bound.
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| CB J.Richardson | Take a paycut and stick around. | Tough to tell with cornerbacks, they tend to retire early.
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| CB T.Frias | Worth keeping. | Hitchcock won’t be around forever, but Frias isn’t a CB1.
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| CB J.McNeil | Already regretting that I didn’t get to sign him to a new deal. | Hopefully here to stay as a nickel or dime.
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| CB A.Harmon | We’ve got to re-sign this restricted free agent. | Really worth keeping, I think.
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| SS A.Marty | Cohesion is king. Marty our man. | Probably not here anymore.
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| FS R.Newsome | Cohesion is king. Newsome our other man. | Probably not here anymore.
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| SS S.Harper | Candidate #1 to not make the team next season. | If he hangs around, cohesion will make him worth keeping active.
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| SS C.Murray | We’ve got to re-sign this restricted free agent. | Really worth keeping, I think.
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| FS J.Brotzman | We’ve got to re-sign this restricted free agent. | Really worth keeping, I think.
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| P D.Guynes | It’s not all up to himself, if we get a chance to find a better punter, well… | Be good, or be gone?
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| K M.Giles | Stick for another season or 3. | And then we’ll see what his contract demands will be and where we’ll be in terms of cap hell.
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| LS B.Karney | Still here, hopefully. | Even long snappers will retire someday. |
Funny enough, despite this all time worst season, I see very little reason to feel bad about most of the players on roster. I do suspect we need a legitimate WR2 and it's worth looking out for receiving TE options that would be better than Gaynor, but overall, I think this collective isn't really the issue. Cap space will be a thing, big time. And the QB situation won't be solvable without making some other cap saving moves. It'll be an interesting off-season, that's for sure...