<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (TheBeef)</div><div class='quotemain'>The best offseason move has been the same the last few years....thats the Patriots obstaining from free agency for a month while they wait for the cap dollars to dry up around them....then they go in an recruit all the rest of the talent at bargain prices, so when they have injuries, they just plug the next part in....they have the formula, and not many teams are following it, if any...</div> Beef, I know I'm late but I must say it's good to finally see someone else say it. I'm totally against all these crazy contracts going around like the one damien woody got with a 10 mil!!!!! signing bonus. It's depth/Draft not stars that will get you to the promise land. We had three rookies that played a considerable amount of time in key postions (Koppen C ,Wilson FS,Samuel CB) and with out them we probably wouldn't have been able to handle all the injuries. And you can even say we had another three that had some real big contributions in bit roles like (Klecko DT, Warren DT, B. Johnson WR/KR). Though are style tries on a fans confidence in what his team is doing cus you never really know what they are up to unlike most teams.
Beef, As usual you have facts to back up your statements and you are usually correct. Of them players you mentioned of tampa. How many of them players are gonna make the bucs team.. Seriously? We seen this last year as well and half the names we signed here were cut by the 52 man roster spots. Alot of the reasons gruden and allen have done what they did was to free room on our cap. I worte a article on it about allen in this general forum. Deese,stinchcomb,steussie will most likely start for our team. These players help our terrinle offensive line that we have had for years here. As for the others garrett even moore arent safe. Dilger and dudley were resigned once more. Bearsfan, You crack me up, for one galloway as i will remind you isnt our number 1 wr, KEYWORD NUMBER 1 WR. He is here to add speed to our team. Denie it all you want tampa's style is not to lie. i never heard of such non sense. As for brads weak arm its funny cause last i checked brad won us a superbowl. Not bad for a bad arm. Yes we all know tampas d helped our team but tampas d has been there for years we didnt win anything. Bottom line brad helps us wins games, he is our starting qb. Its your opinon that YOU think tampa is not better, i beg to difer since our offensive line is ten times better then it ever was. Something that really hurt tampa's team. I know its hard to beleive that tampa will be back in the middle of all this next season. Since we do get back some key players that helped our team win superbowl. Bottom line is tampa will be back and the bears must sit back and wait there time. Dont hate so much as much as you follow tampa i know deep down in your heart you bleed pewter. A great draft once more to fill our needs for the spot sapp left, we will be back to normal our core of d is still in place. Except we get younger now.
4thnlong, Well you do have lovell smith and thomas jones. Who jones in my opinon will show tampa and the rest of the league why he was taking in the first rd. Best of luck to the bears in the draft and the season freind.
i think thomas jones will show why the cardinals wasted a pick, A-train is the superior back and it was a horrible signing
Question #1:Why is your team signing old men that arent expected to make the team?? The Thrill of wasting cap money??? Question #2:How can you think the Bucs had the best offseason, if you think they are wasting cap funds on signing bonuses for senior citizens that wont make your team? Question #3:How does signing lots of expensive older free agents clear cap money?
Thomas jones adds that explosive burner that chicago has lacked for years. Atrain even from his days at michigan was never really great, out the gate. Anthony thomas is more a back who can come in and make damage with a 2 back system. Something my team couldnt stop when we played them in 2001 i beleive. Dick jauron had james allen and anthony splitting the carrys that year. I beleive it will work for lovie smith. Bearsfan lighten up kid you are way to negative, espcially if has something to do with tampa or a former tampa player lol.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (TheBeef)</div><div class='quotemain'>Question #1:Why is your team signing old men that arent expected to make the team?? The Thrill of wasting cap money??? Question #2:How can you think the Bucs had the best offseason, if you think they are wasting cap funds on signing bonuses for senior citizens that wont make your team? Question #3:How does signing lots of expensive older free agents clear cap money?</div> Number 1. Beef do you understand the salery cap and how it works? First off when you sign a player to a contract in the nfl the contract the player signs IS NOT GUARENTEED. The only thing that is, is the players signing bonus. Ok on to the names you claim we have wasted our money on. Allen has accomplished three important things with his offseason signings. One, he got 11 players under the cap with just $10 million of cap space. More importantly, he used $11 million of bonus money to secure 11 players while Sapp, Johnson and Lynch received $13.75 million in bonuses from their new teams. Allen got 11 players for $2.75 million less in bonuses than his former three players, and he improved the depth on the roster. Here's a closer look: Name Cap space (in millions) Signing bonus (in millions) 1. Joey Galloway 2.0 mill / 0 dollars signing bonus) 2. Todd Steussie 1.4 mil /4 signing bonus) 3. Charlie Garner 1.3 mil / 3.7 singing bonus) 4. Derrick Deese 1.1 mil /2.4 signing bonus) 5. Brian Griese 0.6 /0.4 signing bonus 6. Matt Stinchcomb 0.6 /0.5 signing bonus 7. Jamel White 0.5 / 0.025 sigining bonus 8. Matt O'Dwyer 0.5 /0.025 signing bonus 9. Jason Garrett 0.4 /0 signing bonus 10. Greg Comella 0.4 /0.025 signing bonus 11. Sylvester Morris 0.3 /0 signing bonus 11 players under 10 million on the CAP BEEF. All the players you see with zero's for signing bonuses ARE NOT EVEN GUARENTEED TO MAKE OUR TEAM OR TO BE HERE. Jason garrett will be cut, we carry 3 qbs in our roster and he will not beat out simms,griese or brad. Syvester morris markus knight will cut also. The only players who will remain in tampa will be for a couple years. Deese,stuessie,garner. Of the 20 free agents we signed most of them have less then a million dollars in signing bonus to 0. So the answer to your question is simple. Tampa isnt wasting money of cutting players with 0 bonuses there contracts are not a guarentee without a bonus. Not to knock the phins but they outta take notes on how to reduce there cap with 1 year deals like tampa has. Tampa can still sign a bunch more players like darrell russell for 650 k and the league min for a signing bonus. Last Deese,stinchcomb,odyer,stuessie alone are 10 times better then guys from lasr years line with jenkins,walker,oben. Charlie garner and jamel white are better rbs then pittman and stecker. Greg comella is a hell of a better full back then jamel cook. Griese is a hell of better backup qb then shaun king. Galloway is a upgrade over keyshawn with blazin speed in which we need so bad. Shall i go on beef on to why our team did well in free agency? Our team will be back with a better offense and offensive line. Our defense will back even with the loss of lynch of sapp. Sapp was avg at times all year and has been for 3 years. Lynch looked avg as well tho his leadership will be missed jermaine phillips like lynch said will be a great saftey in this league. So the answer to your question is yes i do beleive we had the best offseason for moves. The second thing Allen accomplished is that he created leverage for the club against three contracts with big salary-cap implications: offensive tackle Roman Oben, fullback Mike Alstott and running back Michael Pittman, all of whom count for just over $5 million of cap space. With Jamel White and Charlie Garner on the roster, Pittman is now expendable. With Todd Steussie, Derrick Deese and Matt O'Dwyer, Oben could go, and with Greg Comella, the Bucs could play without Alstott. The signings have been strategic for cap management and negotiation strength. That may be the most important thing he has accomplished as he forges a new way of doing business in Tampa. Three, instead of pushing off the cap hits until next year, Allen is erasing problems this year by getting out from Lynch, linebacker Dwayne Rudd, and tight ends Roland Williams and Ken Dilger's old contracts before June 1. The Bucs are paying off $4 million in this year's cap in order to have more space in 2005. Some of the recent signings have contracts in place for next year that inflate the cap stress in 2005, but that's another trait of a Bruce Allen-built team. Numbers like $8.5 million for Brian Griese will never become a reality. Allen typically puts a year like that on a deal in order to have the time to negotiate with the agent in that year. In Oakland, Allen would be rumored to be $20 million over the salary cap a week or two before the start of a new fiscal year, and would always be under the cap with room to sign players before free agency started. There's a reason why Allen was the NFL executive of the year in 2003. He knows what he's doing, even if it is an unconventional style. Finally, if you factor in the move he made at punter, you will be even more impressed with the "Allen" plan. He passed on re-signing Tom Tupa, who had a very good year, and replaced him with Josh Bidwell, who is 10 years younger, has kicked in cold Green Bay and has done well. Financially, it was also a great move. Bidwell required a $125,000 bonus, and Tupa got $650,000 from Washington. In the first three years of the punter contract, Tampa will save $1 million of real money Im thru with the debate ive proved my point on to why i beleive tampa improved and had the best free agent signings. We filled our holes and weakness's.
hmm you make some good points by showing those bonuses, the ones with the bigger bonuses are the ones who you said would stay, the only point you were off on is the including the bonus lynch got since he stated he would stay for less. A-train is flat out dominant, he is a powerful runner without game breaking speed. he averages 4 + yards a carry and fumbles once every 110 touches. his average iss consistent and not skewed by 80 yard runs he moves the chains and beats down a defense. the "reason" they got thomas jones was because he can catch the ball better even though his number catching are worse. Bottom line is A-train(who was rookie of the year) will win the job. I have nothing against Thomas JOnes it is just the bears didnt need a back but they always get one and it pisses me off. thomas only split carries with allen at beginnning of rookie year by end he was full on feature back
I do know how the salary cap works....the Bucs dont, but I do....If they did, they wouldnt pony up $10mil in cap signing bonus for a pair of 34 year old tackles and a 32 year old back.....you point to how these deals effect this years cap, but most free agent signings are cap friendy at the beginning....they only become unpleasant in the long term....and when you sign older players to long term deals with big bonuses, as they did with the 3 players they gave the most bonus too, those signings tend to blow up in your face....what happens if Steussie or Deese, or worse, both cant play in 2 years becuase thier bodies break down as all linemans bodies do at the age of 36?? What happens to the left over prorated cap charge from those signing bonuses?? Well, what happens to it, Mr. Capologist??? If you will look closely at what the Dolphins have done in Free agency and what they did via trade, they made thier team much younger and avoided cap penalties in future years....thier signings include moderate ammounts of money for players with their best football ahead of them...they signed 8 players now and the oldest was Terrance Wilkins(29) who didnt get a bonus....the 3 lineman they signed, MacIntosh, StClair, and James are all 27 or 26.....DB's Reggie Howard and Chris Akins are 27 and 26 and are special team standouts who will provide good depth....the 2 trades they Dolphins made were for a 26 year old QB and a 25 year old WR....I want the Dolphins to take note of what Tampa did, so they dont make the same mistake....Bruce Allen should write a book, "How to make your team older and more expensive without making them better", he could include a chapter on how to ruin future salary caps with ridiculous spendings!
And in Anthony Thomas's defense, James Allen had just over 100 carries that season, while the real A-Train(hell yes, that was a jab at Mike "Im Overrated" Alstott), went over 1000 yards, lead the whole league in 4th Quarter production and never fumbled once....Bearsfan was wrong about one of his stats though, A-Train fumbles about once every 132 touches, not every 110....
We are trying to change that now bearsfan.... but antowain had his moments....LIKE SUPERBOWL XXXVIII so you can keep your good running back play. haha I just couldn't help it. Truthfully I have been wishing for a dominent running back in New England for years cus I love watching great running games. Bucs you made so good points and maybe it's not as bad as beef says but its DEFINITELY not as good as you say. Your team did alright but I'd say there are teams who did better.
"good RB play" and "flat out dominant" are two different categorys. I would agree with the good and still disagree with the dominant.
Pats37 nice move a run stuffer for sure. I like the move we did as well. WE signed 27 year old darrell russell who is still capable to be one of the best dt's in the game like he was before he was suspended. I think its a high risk but if he can stay out of trouble we could have a sleeper for 500 k with no Signing bonus. Nice move gruden. Nice move for the patroits now are they gonna move up in the draft with detroit and take stephen jackson for there 2 first ?
Now that is a good signing Bucs....Darrell Russell at that contract is a great signing for the team....its low risk/high reward and hes 27 years old....
