Danchat

The Lance comparison is apt, the Cowboys traded a 4th for his 3rd and 4th year of his contract. It's basically the same situation. Methinks the Wentz move is to make sure Brosmer never sets foot onto the gridiron ever again... but if JJM can't beat him out for the QB2 job, then they may as well ship him off.

Yup, and Epenesa just signed with the Browns for "up to" $5M... geez, he didn't have any market. That's a steal.

Dotson got $7.5M per year (somehow) with the Falcons, Wonnum just signed with the Lions for $6M. Ward can work as a passing down DL, but they need a couple of run stuffers. I am surprised Epenesa is still available but as a bigger edge I'm not sure what his fit is, whether it be like Greenard's role or iDL like Ward would be. Dortch makes a ton of sense as a guy who has chemistry with Kyler and will come for the vet minimum.

Was anybody intentionally tanking last year? The Raiders weren't tanking as they thought they could be alright with Pete Carroll manning the helm, which was delusional but they weren't trying to lose. The rest of the other teams like the Titans were just plain old bad... the Cardinals did sit Kyler Murray after he recovered from the foot injury. There was a recent report saying that if he tried to play through the injury with it fully healing it would make his chances of having a full-blown Lisfranc fracture higher so that's why they sat him out the rest of the year. So you can make the argument with them, but the other teams like the Giants / Browns are either bad, injured to hell and back, or just incompetent.

Good question... looks like Pittman has 1/$24M left on his deal and Waddle in under contract for 3 years for cap hits of $5M, $27M, then $29M. I guess teams really valuable flexibility but yeah, the Steelers got an absolute steal in comparison.

Achane is gonna get every touch on that offense that Willis doesn't run on... gonna be fascinating. Doesn't help that their OL sucked last year. They are probably a lock to draft a WR in Round 1.

Berrios is on the edge of qualifying for the last 10 years which is why I didn't include him, looks like he didn't pitch in the minors in 2016. He was a prospect during the Terry Ryan 2.0 days, but hit his stride in the majors in the Falvine era. It's not that Ryan wasn't a rankable prospect, it's that he mostly a product of Tampa's farm system and not ours. I don't mean to say that the Twins organization doesn't deserve credit in developing him, just that this process happened almost entirely in the majors and didn't happen in our minor leagues / farm system. And yeah, clearly the Rays didn't value him or Strotman because trading both for Cruz was a huge risk for them, even without hindsight that seemed like a lopsided trade in our favor. I was referring to how Petty alone was able to get the team two affordable years of Sonny Gray, essentially cashing in a draft pick for a near top-of-the-line starter was one of the best moves Falvey made. Especially seeing the success rate of his pitching prospects, it was a prudent move. In conclusion, Falvey's pitching staffs in the majors did a good job with what they had. The farm system, however, did not see very many pitching prospects fulfill their "hype" and the Graterol + Petty trades showed that they were better off trading them for MLB players rather than continuing their development. Povich and Hajjar were traded too and while their returns failed, they still commanded a bit of value. Though I should note Povich still may develop into something.

Sure, but after that it's Bailey Ober... and then you move onto relievers. Not really sure how much I consider Ryan part of the "farm" system since he was ready to go almost right away, but that's an argument for another time.

Abel all the way, give him all the MLB exposure that he can handle. Zebby will still get probably around 20 starts in the majors given how often injuries happen.

I would bet one of Tristan Gray or Ryan Kreidler get DFA'd.

There was probably a reason why the Rays gave him up for almost nothing... he gets a spot because we are low on RH relievers, but might not get that much rope.

It's kinda telling that two of the most impactful pitching prospects in the past 10 years in this organization have been Brusdar Graterol and Chase Petty, because we were able to flip them for Maeda and Gray.

On second thought, I wonder if PFR's pressure is a PFF "hurry" which they categorize as a type of pressure. As in the kind that forces the QB to throw the ball.

I don't see much reason to worry about Ryan at this point... Ober is another story.

I've never checked out PFR for pressures, those don't seem right to me. Hargrave was the one complaining about it. What I don't get it is if Flores wants his DL to open up lanes for other players, why did we need to spend so much on Allen/Hargrave vs Phillips/Bullard?

Yup, our CBs rarely got tested last year (only 2,694 yards allowed!) in part because of the blitzes, playing some really bad offenses, and teams focusing on running the ball on us. The difference between 2025 and 2026 the way it stands is interior pressure - Hargrave and Allen disappointed, but they did combine for 70 pressures and 7 sacks and their replacements are not currently on the roster. That's 1400 snaps to fill. The pass rush could take a step back if they plug replacement level players in there.

That and a potential extension for O'Neill that could free up a good $10M+. He has a very large cap hit, if they're going to keep him in 2027 and on then it's best to do an extension now.

Here's the updated depth chart, including all moves made within the last few days. I would take the CB grades with a pound of salt... they greatly benefit CBs who don't have to cover WR1s.

Post June 1st release for Allen. The timing is that the league year just opened. Hence why we're getting news like this now:

Ugh, going with Jones at age 32 to be our starting RB is not a good idea. He missed half the year with injuries last season and even in 2024 he was beaten down by the end of the season and was of no help in the playoffs. That's now 4 players age 30+ they've signed/retained. I was hoping they would start getting younger and sign a couple under-the-radar FAs (how about 25 year old LB Chenal for almost the same deal Eric Wilson got?), but instead they are running back the same team and are convinced they can be SB contenders with only a QB change when this roster has a lot more problems than that. Don't tell me, next they're going to bring back Harrison Smith at age 37...

Looking at the splits, this doesn't seem to be the case. In innings 1-3 he hits .593 OPS with a 34% strikeout rate, innings 4-6 he hits .922 OPS and 7-9 .810 OPS with the strikeout rate below 30%. Oh, and vs starting pitchers it's .737 OPS and 32% K rate, whereas relievers .834 OPS and 24% K rate. Seems like he was at his worst when starters had their best stuff going early in the game.

Good call! I get that, but I buy that the Ravens doctors checked out his knee and were very pessimistic about his chances of holding up and you can't trade 2 1sts for a guy with a questionable future. That's why teams bother to do physicals before finishing a trade, isn't it? But it seems like a lot of teams around the league have lost faith in the Ravens and aren't going to trade with them in the future.

Our lineup today is trash, the best batters out there are Martin and Jeffers (and Wallner if he rebounds). The scary part is that several of these guys are one injury from playing every day in the majors.

This is an annual thing where we go "prospect XYZ should have a legitimate shot to start in the majors this year!"... and then they don't, no matter how good a camp they had. I remember people were claiming Austin Martin was going to make the Opening Day roster in 2022, and then again in 2023. Now he's finally gonna make the team Day 1 and it took until 2026!

Pierre is a smart signing, PFF loved him when he did play for Pittsburgh. He's a career backup who is going to be 30 years old, but does have the backing of Flores (one year overlap with Steelers) and we hired the Steelers DB coach away. He should slot in as CB3 (30-50% of the snaps) with Rodgers and Murphy playing every-down roles. Much better than crossing our fingers on Okudah. Still a lot of work to do at several other positions and a lot of FAs are bolting for new teams. As usual, some big overpays and some sneaky deals - but the Vikings are missing out thanks to their irresponsible 2025 offseason. C, DL, RB, S stand out as needs among others.