Your "article" was a blog. That's about as credible as any opinion here. I'm not doing your homework for you. Go Google it. It's common knowledge that Raji would command a high dollar. If you think he'll come back on the cheap then you're not paying attention to FA in the NFL.
That's right. Boyd is a project player. Who knows what he can do? Obviously not as much as Raji. Would he "make the leap" as McMillian did? lol. I'm not saying Raji can't be replaced. But let's face it, draft failures happen all the time. Go look at past drafts, go look at how many failures. Raji is not by any stretch of the imagination a bust. He might not be worth his pick but he's far better than a ton of guys picked 1st or 2nd round to fill that spot since then. Hawk was picked high but he's not a bust. He's just not the player anybody saw at his pick. Still......
What kind of pick would it take, 1st, 2nd, 3rd to find another Hawk or Raji? You don't know and I don't either. It's all a guessing game to some degree. What FA would equal their production? Go look at past drafts adambr, go look. Look at every FA in the last couple of years. It's not as certain as you think. Personally I think people are nearsighted not to recognize the value that Hawk and Raji bring to this team. They don't miss games, they'd be valued for other teams. Don't for a second think that they'd be snatched up in a second in the FA market.
What is Raji worth? I'm just going to take a shot here: 8 million a year.
And here's the final kicker: This just KILLS me!: People here complain TT doesn't fill the roster yet they clamor for jettisoning the roster and get new guys in FA and the draft. Hey - you said he can't/won't do that!?
I never said Raji would come on the cheap, that's exactly the problem. I simply asked you to provide these expert sources saying how rare of a talent Raji. That's not me asking you to do my homework, that's me asking you to provide a credible source to substantiate your claims.
I also never said replacement value is "certain", I simply am saying that our current approach obviously isn't working, so why on earth would you want to keep everything just how it is right now and retain expensive pieces of a broken system?
Don't you think part of the problem with our defense is the fact that we would be spending 9M for Tramon, 8M for Raji, and 9M combined for Hawk and Jones next year? 26M combined for 4 replaceable role players. Thats enough money for 2 stars the caliber of Matthew.
I would like to build this defense around a core of 2 or 3 elite level players, and a group of young potentially high level starters with upside. I realize this is easier said than done, and I realize you can't simply go sign every high level FA. But if you sign the Hawks and Rajis and Jones of the world every time, you won't be able to afford to keep your own elite talent that you develop (Can you imagine if Matthews was still unsigned and we couldn't afford to keep him because of extentions to guys like Hawk and Raji?)
You apparently would prefer to continue to build the defense around overpriced role players, and for the life of me I just can't figure out why.