Free agency mock

RepStar15

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Spikes is my favorite ILB in FA, unfortunately with the money the Bills have, I believe they will keep him in Buffalo.
 
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HardRightEdge

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Vernon Davis has gotten fat, has slowed down, and was never a good blocker.
 
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HardRightEdge

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Spikes is my favorite ILB in FA, unfortunately with the money the Bills have, I believe they will keep him in Buffalo.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. Spikes' snaps steadily declined throughout the season. The last few games they went to nickel almost exclusively, as they did against the Packers, except in goal line/short yardage. Brown and Bradham are 3-down studs, and Alonzo will be coming back off the ACL. The best argument for Spikes sticking is Ryan's pledge to be the league's bullies...I don't think there's a more punishing ILB in the league. Still, with Bradham-Brown-Alonzo he's not looking at many snaps in Buffalo.

In the early part of the season when Spikes was playing regularly, the Bills were giving up low 3's per carry, 2nd. or 3rd. behind Detroit. They finished at 4.1, giving up about 4.5 when Spikes' snaps declined albeit with Buffalo playing 6 in the box nearly every down.

Spikes was made a captain, highly unusual for a guy coming into a vet unit from FA; that says he's a good guy to have in the locker room.

The problem is he runs in the 4.8 - 5.0 range and is a liability in coverage; he's strictly a box player. On the other hand, he could bring a lot of value in about 1/3 of the snaps or against run oriented teams. He's intriguing because he forces opponents to the perimeter and the pass when perhaps they'd prefer to run between the tackles.

Ray Lewis probably couldn't break 5.0 in his final season, and stuck to patrolling the box; dropping 10 yards was about the extent of his range. The Ravens won the Superbowl.

If the price is right, Spikes would be a nice addition.
 
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GoPGo

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I'm sure Vernon Davis would love it in Green Bay with the curling club a couple blocks from Lambeau, but he took a big step back this year. Struggled to get open and dropped a lot of balls. Don't know if he was playing hurt or what, but he wasn't the same.
 

Pokerbrat2000

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IMO TE isn't a position of too much need, at least in the way of signing a pricey FA. I was happy with the progress of Richard Rodgers during the last half of his rookie season. I would like to see how much more he develops in the coming years, nothing but upward progress at his age and experience. Of course, you can never have too many quality TE's but address that in a mid to late round draft choice.
 
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IMO TE isn't a position of too much need, at least in the way of signing a pricey FA. I was happy with the progress of Richard Rodgers during the last half of his rookie season. I would like to see how much more he develops in the coming years, nothing but upward progress at his age and experience. Of course, you can never have too many quality TE's but address that in a mid to late round draft choice.

I expect Richard Rodgers to improve as well and was actually satisfied with his rookie season but don't think he will ever turn into the primary red zone threat this team desperately needs.
 

Poppa San

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You mean that action-packed games with final scores of 11-8 are not exciting?
You are assuming someone can make a free throw to get an odd number. Fortunately we have grown out of that. 13-14 year olds now. Had the league tournament this weekend. Most of our scores were in the mid-upper 20's. The best girls teams hit 40. Boys got into the 50's, usually only in blowouts. 6 min qtrs keep scoring down also. I mean check out some D1 college halftime scores and the kids aren't too far off in almost the same minutes.
 

Carl

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Anyone rememeber Davis in last year's playoff game? In that cold, he did not look like the same player.

Granted it's only one game, but if I were the Packers and were considering Davis, I'd check out the rest of his cold weather games.
 

Vrill

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I'm sure Vernon Davis would love it in Green Bay with the curling club a couple blocks from Lambeau, but he took a big step back this year. Struggled to get open and dropped a lot of balls. Don't know if he was playing hurt or what, but he wasn't the same.

Part of Davis stepping back also could be due to Kap's regression.
 

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The other part was dropping 10% of the passes thrown to him.

To be fair though, Kap took a major step back last season. He tried too hard to be a pocket passer and sucked horribly at it.
 
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Anyone rememeber Davis in last year's playoff game? In that cold, he did not look like the same player.

Granted it's only one game, but if I were the Packers and were considering Davis, I'd check out the rest of his cold weather games.

Davis has played in nine career games with the temperature under 40 degrees. In those games he has 25 receptions for 433 yards and 4 TDs. While the receptions per game are lower than his career average he has more receiving yards anf TDs per game.

The other part was dropping 10% of the passes thrown to him.

Actually he dropped 6 of 32 catchable passes this season for a drop rate of 18.75%. That´s terrible.
 
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Sunshinepacker

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Nobody is saying Davis should be signed to a huge deal. The guy has question marks. It's easy to point out flaws in his game but someone give another option at tight end that's perfect but won't cost much...any guy the packers sign is going to have flaws.
 
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Nobody is saying Davis should be signed to a huge deal. The guy has question marks. It's easy to point out flaws in his game but someone give another option at tight end that's perfect but won't cost much...any guy the packers sign is going to have flaws.

I´d rather continue to play with Richard Rodgers and Quarless instead of bringing in Davis though.
 

Ace

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Nobody is saying Davis should be signed to a huge deal. The guy has question marks. It's easy to point out flaws in his game but someone give another option at tight end that's perfect but won't cost much...any guy the packers sign is going to have flaws.

This says it all, and yet Ted will get blasted for not utilizing free agency.
 

Pokerbrat2000

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I´d rather continue to play with Richard Rodgers and Quarless instead of bringing in Davis though.

totally agree....

Not sure why people are hitting the panic button on TE? Rodgers had a bit of a slow start, but really played pretty well the second half of the season, his ROOKIE season. Yes, we would all like a Gronk on our team, but I don't see a reasonably priced one available. Keep grooming Rodgers. Quarless is serviceable and grab a TE in the middle to late rounds to replace Bostick.
 

Sunshinepacker

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I´d rather continue to play with Richard Rodgers and Quarless instead of bringing in Davis though.

Why? Quarless is what he is, stable but no upside. Rodgers could be an average tight end but his upside is also limited. Davis is a boom or bust guy but if he resurrects his career with an actual quarterback then Davis could again be one of the top five tight ends in the nfl. Do you honestly think Quarless or Rodgers have that upside?
 

Pokerbrat2000

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Vernon Davis's stats his first 3 years in the league weren't blazing, nor were they last year. Give Richard Rodgers a chance to develop, A-Rod seems to have confidence in him as well.
 
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totally agree....

Not sure why people are hitting the panic button on TE? Rodgers had a bit of a slow start, but really played pretty well the second half of the season, his ROOKIE season. Yes, we would all like a Gronk on our team, but I don't see a reasonably priced one available. Keep grooming Rodgers. Quarless is serviceable and grab a TE in the middle to late rounds to replace Bostick.

The Packers have to address the position in the draft or free agency though as there are only three TEs on the roster at the moment. I would be fine with spending another third round pick on one.

Why? Quarless is what he is, stable but no upside. Rodgers could be an average tight end but his upside is also limited. Davis is a boom or bust guy but if he resurrects his career with an actual quarterback then Davis could again be one of the top five tight ends in the nfl. Do you honestly think Quarless or Rodgers have that upside?

I´m fine with improving the position but I don´t want the Packers to sign a 31-year old TE on the downside of his career who was terrible last season.
 

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