Free Agency

[MadCardDisease]

I'm so out of it these days...... When is the deadline to pick up the option on Simmons?

Sometime in May

 

[TheCardFan]

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[Chopper0080]

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That is what the offseason of a loser franchise looks like.

 

[kerouac9]

That is what the offseason of a loser franchise looks like.

Fans: We have to get rid of all the deadwood on the roster and build a young core of talent!

Monti: We're letting two 25-year old starters walk away, but here's Antonio Hamilton for his age 30 season.

 

[QuebecCard]

By the looks of the upcoming 2023 season, we probably won't be that competitive in 2024 either. Unless all our rookies are just home run picks and top free agents suddenly want to come here. Not holding my breath.

A shiny new QB would most likely get support. We are strapped as a franchise cause we have an expensive, oft injured QB who we may not even know is the guy until 2024 at minimum. But then are we extending Hollywood to play with his bro?

Sure, maybe we get 6-9 wins out of him in 2024, but now you aren't gunna get a sweet QB with a top pick, or have to spend a fortune to move up if he doesn't end up working out.

If we get a top pick next draft then it would be foolish to let a QB slide. So what, we keep Kyler for a year with his ~$50 million cap hit and let the rookie take over his inevitable injury, then trade him the following year?

Bite the bullet. 2024 is also toast, we got dead money in 2024 from Hudson and Watt, get clean books in 2025 with a QB on a rookie deal and all young talent.

Ha, ha... the 'dead' money for Watt and Hudson is relative peanuts compared to what the team would have to eat in a KM departure as you first explained it, and then try to imagine the ripple effects.

 

[RON_IN_OC]

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So Jets will now have back to back 2nd round picks...Wonder if they may move one of them to a certain team in the desert for a certain high profile receiver, to pair up with a certain QB from Wisconsin.

 

[MadCardDisease]

Fans: We have to get rid of all the deadwood on the roster and build a young core of talent!

Monti: We're letting two 25-year old starters walk away, but here's Antonio Hamilton for his age 30 season.

Fan: How can you let a 25 year old starter on this team walk?

Monti: Did you watch this team last year?

 

[Goldfield]

That is what the offseason of a loser franchise looks like.

Unfortunately can’t argue that. I’m tired of sucking

 

[QuebecCard]

So Jets will now have back to back 2nd round picks...Wonder if they may move one of them to a certain team in the desert for a certain high profile receiver, to pair up with a certain QB from Wisconsin.

More likely capital going to Green Bay, who is an absolute Cap Hell.

 

[Zalixar]

Ha, ha... the 'dead' money for Watt and Hudson is relative peanuts compared to what the team would have to eat in a KM departure as you first explained it, and then try to imagine the ripple effects.

Sure. But how we going to field a team with major question marks at QB who takes up a huge chunk of the salary? Who on the team now is going to be on the roster in two years?


Do you think Kyler is the guy or no? If so when would you give up on him, another big injury or another mediocre season? Keep going until all hope is lost and get stuck in purgatory? Do you pass on a QB if we get #1/#2 pick next year?

 

[QuebecCard]

Sure. But how we going to field a team with major question marks at QB who takes up a huge chunk of the salary? Who on the team now is going to be on the roster in two years?


Do you think Kyler is the guy or no? If so when would you give up on him, another big injury or another mediocre season? Keep going until all hope is lost? Do you pass on a QB if we get #1/#2 pick?l next year?

Yes, I do until proven wrong. Ergo, the rest of your speculation is lost on me.

 

[kerouac9]

Fan: How can you let a 25 year old starter on this team walk?

Monti: Did you watch this team last year?

You know this is dumb logic. Larry Fitzgerald was on five teams that won five games or fewer.

We're already back to the bad old days where fans are blaming their best players for bad outcomes instead of demanding the front office replace the worst players.

 

[MadCardDisease]

You know this is dumb logic. Larry Fitzgerald was on five teams that won five games or fewer.

We're already back to the bad old days where fans are blaming their best players for bad outcomes instead of demanding the front office replace the worst players.

JJ Watt is to Larry Fitzgerald and like Fitzgerald he is no longer on the team. So the Best Cardinal defender retired this offseason.

The next best players on the Defense last year are still on the team. Budda and Thompson.

So now we are down to maybe the 4th and 5th best players on a defense that was 31st in the league. Even that is debatable. Murphy only gave the Cardinals half of a season last year. I'd place Zaven over him at this point.

So yeah, people are freaking out that maybe the 4th and 5th best players on a defense that finished ranked at the very bottom of the league weren't kept around? I don't get it.

 

[kerouac9]

JJ Watt is to Larry Fitzgerald and like Fitzgerald he is no longer on the team. So the Best Cardinal defender retired this offseason.

The next best players on the Defense last year are still on the team. Budda and Thompson.

So now we are down to maybe the 4th and 5th best players on a defense that was 31st in the league. Even that is debatable. Murphy only gave the Cardinals half of a season last year. I'd place Zaven over him at this point.

So yeah, people are freaking out that maybe the 4th and 5th best players on a defense that finished ranked at the very bottom of the league weren't kept around? I don't get it.

So who do you think are the maybe 4th and 5th best players on the defense right now?

 

[MadCardDisease]

So who do you think are the maybe 4th and 5th best players on the defense right now?

They are not on the roster currently

 

[MadCardDisease]

They are not on the roster currently

I take that back I forgot about Kyzir White but I still think Anderson will be on this roster

1. Budda
2. Thompson
3. Zaven
4. White
5. (TBD Will Anderson)

 

[kerouac9]

I take that back I forgot about Kyzir White but I still think Anderson will be on this roster

1. Budda
2. Thompson
3. Zaven
4. White
5. (TBD Will Anderson)

So you're saying that Cap Space is better than Byron Murphy and Zach Allen.

 

[Stout]

Fan: How can you let a 25 year old starter on this team walk?

Monti: Did you watch this team last year?

Fan: Yeah, Monti, you blind soandso, and we could see they were a few of the good players on a bad team :headdesk:

 

[Stout]

So you're saying that Cap Space is better than Byron Murphy and Zach Allen.

Dude, don't bother. Certain posters have decided the new FO can do no wrong and are blindly approving every decision. Which I get, I guess, because if it were stupid to let those players walk, the hopium would already be trickling away. Man, I wish I could give in to hopium buzz. Alas, I'm too much of a realist.

 

[MadCardDisease]

So you're saying that Cap Space is better than Byron Murphy and Zach Allen.

Nope. $8.75M per year is a good deal for the Vikings with Murphy. However I don't like the 2 year deal with 3 voided years that the Vikings gave Murphy for the Cardinals in a rebuild. What's the point of only signing him for two years during a rebuild. It would need to be a longer term deal to make sense for the Cardinals. With that said I don't think that Murphy signs a 4 year deal that averages only $9M per season with the Cardinals. I'm not sure why Murphy didn't get more play in FA? But it is clear that he is betting on himself with a short term contract.

Also I definitely wouldn't have paid Allen that much money. In a rebuild I'm not overpaying with large contracts for average talent in free agency. $8-9M per year is what I would have been comfortable paying to keep him.

 

[kerouac9]

Dude, don't bother. Certain posters have decided the new FO can do no wrong and are blindly approving every decision. Which I get, I guess, because if it were stupid to let those players walk, the hopium would already be trickling away. Man, I wish I could give in to hopium buzz. Alas, I'm too much of a realist.

It's just so weird that if a move isn't Literally the End of the World it's first No Big Deal and then a couple of days later Actually Good.

There's no argument that the Arizona Cardinals in 2023 are worse than the team that finished 2022. Worse than a 4-13 team! But people are saying "Let's wait until the draft and see what happens!"

The draft was going to happen anyway regardless of what moves the Cards made in free agency. We could have gotten better both through free agency/retaining our better players and through the draft. Who knew such a thing was possible?

 

[MadCardDisease]

Dude, don't bother. Certain posters have decided the new FO can do no wrong and are blindly approving every decision. Which I get, I guess, because if it were stupid to let those players walk, the hopium would already be trickling away. Man, I wish I could give in to hopium buzz. Alas, I'm too much of a realist.

I hate to break it to you but next year is going to be terrible for the Cardinals. They probably will have the first pick in the 2024 draft. You need to take off your rose colored glasses realize that the only thing that the Cardinals are competing for next season is not to be the worst team in the league.

 

[kerouac9]

I hate to break it to you but next year is going to be terrible for the Cardinals. They probably will have the first pick in the 2024 draft. You need to take off your rose colored glasses realize that the only thing that the Cardinals are competing for next season is not to be the worst team in the league.

Accepting this is deeply cynical.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I hate to break it to you but next year is going to be terrible for the Cardinals. They probably will have the first pick in the 2024 draft. You need to take off your rose colored glasses realize that the only thing that the Cardinals are competing for next season is not to be the worst team in the league.

Your inability to realize that the Stout’s of the board know we’re going to be terrible is beyond me at this point. The issue he and others like me have is if we’re truly going to be terrible, go all the way and bite the pain with one bullet wherever you can. Instead, this plan seems like a pointless endeavor to spread the pain over multiple seasons, preemptively shouting ourselves in the crotch with decisions like pushing Watt/Hudson cap hits forward and deciding to hold on to aging, mediocre and one of them majorly injured with an ACL year. All moves which prolong the pain another year for reason whatsoever.

 

[MadCardDisease]

Instead, this plan seems like a pointless endeavor to spread the pain over multiple seasons, preemptively shouting ourselves in the crotch with decisions like pushing Watt/Hudson cap hits forward and deciding to hold on to aging, mediocre and one of them majorly injured with an ACL year. All moves which prolong the pain another year for reason whatsoever.

Prolong the pain for another year? Please!!! The Cards will have $75M in cap space to work with next season and $188M in 2025. I think they will be fine moving forward.

They still have to field a team this season. They still need to sign a couple of dozen players just to fill out their roster before camp.