Free agency will begin shortly, but I thought I would first go through what I wanted to do with the Cardinals prior to free agency.
I will do this position by position.
QB: Quarterback is obviously a huge need area. Blake is no long term answer and none of the low end backups I had or broguht in are the answer either. The problem is that this QB class is very thin, and I am not interested in blowing my wad on Peyton Manning. I may look to pick someone up to compete with Blake and serve as a better #2, but I am not expecting to spend much time thinking about this position in free agency.
RB: This might be my number one need position, although my needs on this team are many. That said, I have been eyeballing a nice looking running back in the draft that looks like he would be just about appropriate for when my pick comes up. And if for some reason he doesn't fall to me, the RB class is deep enough for me to pick up a solid back in the second round of free agency anyway. So I don't think I will be making any offers to backs here.
FB: Hodgins remains as one of the better fullbacks in the league, so this isn't a priority position. I could use a solid backup, in case Hodgins gets hurt again, but that's something that can wait or maybe picked up in the draft.
WR: I have three young receivers with growing talents in place. Well, okay McAddley will always be mediocre, but still, this is just not a need area, not with all the other places I need to address. At this position, I mostly just need to maybe pick up a fourth receiver, and like the backup fullback spot, it's just not necessary to worry about that stuff until the draft or the second phase of free agency.
C: Starting center is not an issue. Kendall is one of the best in the league. I need a backup, though. I don't know if I would get this backup from free agency or the draft. I will keep my eyes open, but this is, again, not an area I am concentrating my attention.
G: I am fine at one spot with Davis. And Dishman did much better than expected at the other spot. But it is obvious this position is in need of talent and depth. So this is going to get immediate attention from me. My first offer at this position was to Matt Stinchcomb, who seemed to be about the level I was willing to pay without going overboard.
T: This was the biggest need position in the offense, or at least tied with running back. I felt I had serious issues at both tackle spots, although I have some possibilities there. Since I let L.J. Shelton go to free agency, the only tackle who had done anything resembling strong play for me was already gone. So this was a spot for one and maybe even two tackles. I made my first offer here to John Tait, who was at a similar spot at his position as Stinchcomb. I looked at pace and Jones for fun, saw what they were seeking and laughed loudly before closing the contract page.
K: Boivin did well to start but really cooled off after that. I wanted to get more of a lock for this spot, so I tossed out an offer to David Akers, the youngest of the top four kickers available.
P: I let Player walk, and I was as surprised as any9one else when I saw he actually made the list of top punters available in free agency. I want to get a good guy here, but I am willing to wait and see how my other offers look before making an offer to someone here. I know that in the end, I can get a punter fairly easily who will perform at least near as well as most punters in the league.
DE: The game has this as a need area because of the youth of players here, but there's no doubt King and Pace are the future here. And I already have veteran help in place in Vanden Bosch and Wakefield. I didn't see the need to add any big ticket free agents at this spot.
DT: Like Pace and King with DE, I am waiting on Bryant to develop here at one DT spot. I am plenty satisified with Davis at the other tackle spot, as he is porbably my best overall lineman right now (although I think King could pass him up after training vamp). I do need backup help here, sicne I let Ransom go to free agency. But that's not an opening week of free agency need.
ILB: No problems here, of course, with an All-League First Team performer here in McKinnon. That's good because I can't afford the two big names and the smaller guys don't really interest me. When I look at backup Darling's talent, I cringe, and that may be enough for me to seek a better backup. But since Darling performed pretty well in limited time and it's a backup spot, it's not a priority for me.
OLB: Thompson is one of my best defenders and I just signed him to a nice extension. Hayes is one of my up and coming youngsters on the other side. I am pretty happy at these spots, although I am waiting on further development, just like other areas of the defense. Technically, Hayes isn't a natrural weak side linebacker and I might try and get a guy who is better in pass defense there, to at least backup. But as with many other backup positions, this isn't a priority.
CB: This is hands down the top need for me on defense. The hole across from Sarks is a black hole that was further weakened when Barrett and Anderson, both of whom split time at the spot, left via free agency (or so I thought--Anderson was still a restricted free agent at the time). As with Jones and Pace at tackle, the top guys (Vincent, Bailey, Woodson, etc.) are way too much for me. So I aimed for solid guys below them, making initial offers to Dexter McCleon and Ray Buchanan. My intent with Buchana was to eithe rmake hima third corner or my consolation proze if I didn't get the better corner I was looking for.
S: I am perfectly satisfied with my starting safeties, as anyone following along knows. I knew I needed backups, thouygh (not knowing Anderson's situation also impacted here, of course). Since Anderson as the third safety was so ciritical last year, I viewed this backup position as more important thna a lot fo the others, so I actually made an offer to a player here from the beginning. I made an offer to Anthony Dorsett.
CR
Edited to add note: Little did I know as I was writing this very early this morning that it was my 4000th post at FOFC. I just thought I would note it for posterity.
