I don't believe it.

[Mitch]

But Mitch, you can't address every issue with FA's. We addressed some of the problems and hoped that coaching would elimate some of the others. We will never be 100% at every position. No one is. That's why there is such parity in the NFL and thinking about it, who would want it any other way?

BTW, the cap issues you talk about a part of a plan by RG that he's been following for the past 3 years. I don't know whether it's a good plan or not, but at least he has been consistant and followed through. The FO used to change it's strategies on a yearly basis. We now have continuity and sometimes that's just as important. Trying to entice FA's is a lot easier if they see a plan in place and an operation that looks like it knows what it is doing. That' how we got Edge.

40, a team can't add All-Stars at each position, just as you suggest, but it certainly can add players that address a need...when Graves used up $7M of the cap room on Johnson alone, and then failed to add one single blocking TE, or one single pass rushing DE...that's poor accounting and poor managing...it just is.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

40, a team can't add All-Stars at each position, just as you suggest, but it certainly can add players that address a need...when Graves used up $7M of the cap room on Johnson alone, and then failed to add one single blocking TE, or one single pass rushing DE...that's poor accounting and poor managing...it just is.

So true, so true.

 

[Mitch]

I'll grant you that. It just amazes me how the glaring issues change so much from week to week.

Good point about the focus shifting off of the o-line...

Credit Russ Grimm, who is doing one helluva job in AZ...

Did you read Fanboy's camp blog yesterday? He said something very interesting...he said that much of practice was a walk through and that in light of the coach's concerns about lack of intensity in the second half last week, there wasn't much intensity at practice at all...except...Russ Grimm was exhorting his guys and making noise.

This guy's a real pro...and always has been.

 

[Mitch]

Yes but that 3 year plan is push salaries into the current year so you have more room NEXT season to sign FA's. Then next year comes, we sign a few solid FA types and then dump a bunch more future salary into the current year cap so we have more room next year again.

San Francisco in the same division started behind us, with less caproom, and they've managed to sign 4 new starters to their secondary in the last 2 offseasons via FA, Clements, Lewis, Roman and Harris, all of whom appear to be upgrades(one a LARGE upgrade in Clements).

We're never going to get in cap hell under Graves but will we ever be a good team?

This is a GREAT post!!!...

Yes, look what the 49ers have done for their defense...

Our prize defensive free agent last year is now playing for the Saints having been released for nothing in return.

It seems, Russ, that with free agency, Graves always does just enough to make you think the team is getting somewhere, but he always leaves a glaring void that becomes an Achilles heel...such as, this year, not feeling the urgency to add a pass rusher, when, beside Okeafor and occasionally Cooper, there were no pass rushers on the team at all down the stretch last year...and now Okeafor's out and the Cards are in even deeper doo-doo.

You are right...one has to wonder if the Cards can ever win with him making the calls.

 

[40yearfan]

Yes but that 3 year plan is push salaries into the current year so you have more room NEXT season to sign FA's. Then next year comes, we sign a few solid FA types and then dump a bunch more future salary into the current year cap so we have more room next year again.

San Francisco in the same division started behind us, with less caproom, and they've managed to sign 4 new starters to their secondary in the last 2 offseasons via FA, Clements, Lewis, Roman and Harris, all of whom appear to be upgrades(one a LARGE upgrade in Clements).

We're never going to get in cap hell under Graves but will we ever be a good team?

In that same time frame, didn't the Cards also get 4 FA starters? Edge, Johnson, Hood and Gandy. How about all the undrafted FA's that we brought in this year? Some of them have a very good chance of making this team. I don't know what happened to our scouting department, but I do believe our drafting/FA accquistion has improved tremendously.

When trying to build a winning franchise out of losing one, you have to change every facet of that franchise. Sometimes it's a painstaking slow process, especially if the losing has been ingrained into the very fabric of the team. We are in that process. The question is now, how long will it take?

Edit: I forgot, we also got Terelle Smith, FB. and I meant Gandy instead of Brown.

 

[40yearfan]

40, a team can't add All-Stars at each position, just as you suggest, but it certainly can add players that address a need...when Graves used up $7M of the cap room on Johnson alone, and then failed to add one single blocking TE, or one single pass rushing DE...that's poor accounting and poor managing...it just is.

As I said Mitch, you can't address every issue. If it was that easy, every NFL team would be like the Patriots. We addressed CB and OL which everyone agreed was more important than the TE position and hoped that the current crop of TE's would suffice. They still might. I haven't given up on Pope yet and I don't think the coaching staff has either.

 

[Russ Smith]

In that same time frame, didn't the Cards also get 4 FA starters? Edge, Johnson, Hood and Gandy. How about all the undrafted FA's that we brought in this year? Some of them have a very good chance of making this team. I don't know what happened to our scouting department, but I do believe our drafting/FA accquistion has improved tremendously.

When trying to build a winning franchise out of losing one, you have to change every facet of that franchise. Sometimes it's a painstaking slow process, especially if the losing has been ingrained into the very fabric of the team. We are in that process. The question is now, how long will it take?

Edit: I forgot, we also got Terelle Smith, FB. and I meant Gandy instead of Brown.

We did more than that, we have 3 new starters in the secondary this year, Green(started last year then got buried), Holt, and Hood. the problem is overall the secondary looks weak and none of those 3 starters appears to be a significant upgrade.

I'm glad to see Green stepping up but I'm still reluctant to believe he'll ever be more than a inconsistent player. He makes some great plays but makes too many mistakes. Hood I don't know much about but so far his play seems to be about where Phillycardfan said he was as an Eagle, he's not so much taking the job from Rolle as Rolle is handing it to him. I always thought Holt was a pretty good player but I haven't been impressed yet.

Basically for 2-3 years now we've gone into the offseason with the same problems, OL and secondary. Right now I'm drinking the koolaid and believing the OL is going to be better, but I've got very little confidence in the secondary.

 

[az1965]

All this talk about how Whiz is "holding guys accoutable" is premature at best at this point in my mind. Benching Rolle was the easy part. Let's see him bench someone like Berry then I will believe in his tactics. Why? Let's see him bench a player that actually has performed in the past but is currently nonexistent. Rolle hasn't done squat to even be relevant IMO.

Whiz's message may be true, but he has done nothing to deserve all this praise.

Bump...

What do you think about Whiz now after seeing the cuts?

 

[clif]

Bump...

What do you think about Whiz now after seeing the cuts?

even though morey is still on the team.