3 Cut's/Trades People Will Be Surprised By This Offseason

This is just my opinion.

#3 WR Andre Johnson (Houston Texans)
I am not sure how much Andre Johnson has left in the tank. 12 years in the league, all with the Houston Texans, Johnson was quietly looking for a trade or release in the 2014 offseason. I look for Johnson to be shopped early this offseason before likely being released.

#2 WR Brandon Marshall (Chicago Bears)
The 9 year veteran WR had his worst season this season since his rookie year in 2006. The Bears have a similar WR in Alshon Jeffery who is a younger and cheaper version of Marshall. The Bears are old and expensive at the Offensive Skill positions. There are rumors already that the Baltimore Ravens and their new OC Marc Trestman, Marshall's Head Coach the past two seasons at Chicago, have interest in Marshall.

#1 MLB Patrick Willis (San Francisco 49ers)
Willis has spent all 8 years of his All Pro career with the 49ers. But the 49ers have an old roster. And they have drafted at LB very well. Navorro Bowman and Chris Borland are younger and cheaper than Willis. He is also coming off of a major toe injury that caused him to miss most of the season. The 49ers need to free up cap space, and as it goes in the NFL if you can get younger and cheaper without a huge drop off in production, you do it.

This whole notion that the Niners roster is old is just not factual, you should do some research. They have Smith, Osgood and Dawnson who is one of the oldest players in the league which pushes the age avg up, but otherwise they are a young team. Yea, Willis just turned 30, their whole D-Line is young, Linebackers are young, Corners are young, Safety Reid is in his 3rd year and the other Ward just finished his rookie season. Bathea is now 30. We actually have an extremely young team and had a 12 player draft just last year.

http://www.49ers.com/team/roster.html

Bob loblaw":an9gviz2 said:

This whole notion that the Niners roster is old is just not factual, you should do some research. They have Smith, Osgood and Dawnson who is one of the oldest players in the league which pushes the age avg up, but otherwise they are a young team. Yea, Willis just turned 30, their whole D-Line is young, Linebackers are young, Corners are young, Safety Reid is in his 3rd year and the other Ward just finished his rookie season. Bathea is now 30. We actually have an extremely young team and had a 12 player draft just last year.

http://www.49ers.com/team/roster.html

Click to expand...

Gore, Boldin, Davis, Staley, Justin Smith, Ahman Brooks, Willis, Bethea all getting on, so it's not "not factual."

Whether the age's of those players is really an issue is up to 9er fans to debate. But those are some big names getting into their 30s.

Way up for debate, Your reaching real hard to say the roster is old. Like they didnt draft Gore's replacement. TE's can play well into their mid 30's. Alot of young talent waiting in the wings. Have no idea if they will perform well due to the coaching changes, but the team is extremely young and will have drafted 21 new youngsters over these past 2 seasons. More than any team in the NFL.

Bob loblaw":12knggax said:

Way up for debate, Your reaching real hard to say the roster is old. Like they didnt draft Gore's replacement. TE's can play well into their mid 30's. Alot of young talent waiting in the wings. Have no idea if they will perform well due to the coaching changes, but the team is extremely young and will have drafted 21 new youngsters over these past 2 seasons. More than any team in the NFL.

Click to expand...

I am not reaching hard at all. All those players are over 30.

I'm not saying the roster is old. But those are some very significant names on your roster hitting 30+.

Andre Johnson is EXACTLY the type of dude the Hawks should pursue. Can still ball too...he's been dealt some bad QB play of late.

ll.

#1 MLB Patrick Willis (San Francisco 49ers)
Willis has spent all 8 years of his All Pro career with the 49ers. But the 49ers have an old roster. And they have drafted at LB very well. Navorro Bowman and Chris Borland are younger and cheaper than Willis. He is also coming off of a major toe injury that caused him to miss most of the season. The 49ers need to free up cap space, and as it goes in the NFL if you can get younger and cheaper without a huge drop off in production, you do it.

I gues you say "Potato" I say Patoto", line 1 sentence 2. You wrote it, I was just commenting and disagree. Il be very surprised if Willis is released. He is one just one year older than Michael Bennett. Will he be a candidate for release?

Bob loblaw":12uju316 said:

ll.

#1 MLB Patrick Willis (San Francisco 49ers)
Willis has spent all 8 years of his All Pro career with the 49ers. But the 49ers have an old roster. And they have drafted at LB very well. Navorro Bowman and Chris Borland are younger and cheaper than Willis. He is also coming off of a major toe injury that caused him to miss most of the season. The 49ers need to free up cap space, and as it goes in the NFL if you can get younger and cheaper without a huge drop off in production, you do it.

I gues you say "Potato" I say Patoto", line 1 sentence 2. You wrote it, I was just commenting and disagree. Il be very surprised if Willis is released. He is one just one year older than Michael Bennett. Will he be a candidate for release?

Click to expand...

I wrote it?

I just said it was a statement that could be made.

Personally, I don't care about the 9ers and don't want to turn this into a 9er thread. The thread title is "Cuts/Trades People will be Surprised by this Offseason" and the OP clearly indicates its speculative. So your surprise would match his.

I'd add Larry Fitzgerald, Eli Manning (last year of contract, do the Giants still see him as a leader?), Dez Bryant (one or the other Cowboys), Frank Gore (why keep him?), Jordy Nelson (due soon for a big extension. Is it him, or the QB?)

Gore and Bryant are free agents.

49ers do have one of the older rosters in the NFL the last 4 years and it wasnt simply because 3 players were spiking the average up. Theyve done well since last year in going towards a youth movement but that was more out of neccessity than a plan.

It's always funny to see 9er fans go into panic mode. Only they could look at their roster and not understand why everyone else see's them as an againg roster.

Have they drafted young? Of course, you can't really draft old but what 9er fans don't seem to understand is those younger playrs don't make your core players young again. Not that hard for most folks.

Seattle's roster is young because the core guys that determine the success and have all the experience are young. Pretty much the opposite of the 9ers.

I understand why they freak out but it doesn't change reality.

Not really gonna wade into the "49ers are old" argument, but I don't think Pat is going anywhere. Signed long term on team friendly contract. Borland is good, but he ain't Pat.

Toe injury has actually been bothering him for awhile (few years) so finally getting the surgery might make him BETTER, not worse.

Frank is likely gone. Brooks is likely gone. Crabtree is likely gone. Iupati is likely gone. Justin hasn't decided but he might be gone too.

I really don't see them getting rid of another big piece of that locker room unless somebody blows them away with value in a trade...and I just don't see that happening. No way do they release him tho. To many other targets that wouldn't hurt them nearly as much.

If you want to look at possible releases that could surprise, Vernon Davis or Stevie Johnson are far, far more likely. I'd also expect to see them convert Kaps base salary this year to Bonus in order to clear space.

Uncle Si":49p663s8 said:

Bob loblaw":49p663s8 said:

ll.

#1 MLB Patrick Willis (San Francisco 49ers)
Willis has spent all 8 years of his All Pro career with the 49ers. But the 49ers have an old roster. And they have drafted at LB very well. Navorro Bowman and Chris Borland are younger and cheaper than Willis. He is also coming off of a major toe injury that caused him to miss most of the season. The 49ers need to free up cap space, and as it goes in the NFL if you can get younger and cheaper without a huge drop off in production, you do it.

I gues you say "Potato" I say Patoto", line 1 sentence 2. You wrote it, I was just commenting and disagree. Il be very surprised if Willis is released. He is one just one year older than Michael Bennett. Will he be a candidate for release?

Click to expand...

I wrote it?

I just said it was a statement that could be made.

Personally, I don't care about the 9ers and don't want to turn this into a 9er thread. The thread title is "Cuts/Trades People will be Surprised by this Offseason" and the OP clearly indicates its speculative. So your surprise would match his.

I'd add Larry Fitzgerald, Eli Manning (last year of contract, do the Giants still see him as a leader?), Dez Bryant (one or the other Cowboys), Frank Gore (why keep him?), Jordy Nelson (due soon for a big extension. Is it him, or the QB?)

Click to expand...

Didn't Nelson just sign an extension last Summer?

Pandion Haliaetus":2c0g1op0 said:

Gore and Bryant are free agents.

49ers do have one of the older rosters in the NFL the last 4 years and it wasnt simply because 3 players were spiking the average up. Theyve done well since last year in going towards a youth movement but that was more out of neccessity than a plan.

Click to expand...

Well the plan has been to get younger for the last few years which is why they were willing to invest in injured players lower in the draft, but yes...as it is with all teams, it was out of necessity.

As for the players that played and did well...ya, Borland got his shot because Willis and Bowman got hurt, but Lynch played simply because he was better than Brooks.

They've been trying to replace/share the workload with Gore for YEARS taking a RB in every draft for 6 years now (Glen Coffee, Anthony Dixon, Kendall Hunter, LaMichael James, Marcus Lattimore, and Carlos Hyde). I'd expect them to take ANOTHER one THIS year.

Bob loblaw":1q27dykz said:

I gues you say "Potato" I say Patoto", line 1 sentence 2. You wrote it, I was just commenting and disagree. Il be very surprised if Willis is released. He is one just one year older than Michael Bennett. Will he be a candidate for release?

Click to expand...

Do the Seahawks have a younger and cheaper option at DE that played at a level where you would feel comfortable releasing Bennett? I'm not saying Borland is Patrick Willis. But the drop off wasn't noticeable. This could be a case of fans wrapped up in the name rather that the production.

pehawk":2udvisb6 said:

Andre Johnson is EXACTLY the type of dude the Hawks should pursue. Can still ball too...he's been dealt some bad QB play of late.

Click to expand...

Could not agree more with you Pe. He may be expensive, but since Russ' hefty raise won't count against the cap much until '16 (I think), maybe front load $ for Johnson?

Playmaker21":2udvisb6 said:

Do the Seahawks have a younger and cheaper option at DE that played at a level where you would feel comfortable releasing Bennett?.........

Click to expand...

I wouldn't even consider such a move myself.

Playmaker21":16eq801v said:

Do the Seahawks have a younger and cheaper option at DE that played at a level where you would feel comfortable releasing Bennett? I'm not saying Borland is Patrick Willis. But the drop off wasn't noticeable. This could be a case of fans wrapped up in the name rather that the production.

Click to expand...

The problem with the suggestion you're making is that Borland and Willis don't play the same position, and Borland's limitations would make him a horrible, horrible replacement for Willis.

If you were talking about Borland replacing Bowman you'd be more on track.

With Willis it's not "a case of fans wrapped up in the name rather that the production", it's a case of fans not understanding the difference between jack and mike ILBs, and that the position that is harder to play (jack) is also the one that doesn't generate as many stats. When Bowman moved into the starting lineup Willis moved from mike to jack, and as a result Willis' stats went down, and many people somehow convinced themselves that this meant that Bowman was a better ILB than Willis, simply because Bowman is more one-dimensional so they put him in the mike roll.

For the first part of this year they put Willis back in the mike, but then when he went out Borland (who doesn't move well laterally and can't cover) went to the mike roll (where he put up all his stats) and Wilhoite slid over to jack. It's why fans who didn't understand what was going on think that Wilhoite started strong but then "tailed off" (instead, he simply switched positions).

Cutting Willis doesn't make any sense because it would leave the 9ers with two very, very good mike linebackers (Bowman and Borland), and not a good jack backer.

Given it's already been stated that the Bears intend to part ways with Brandon Marshall, I won't be surprised at all when they cut him.

Willis would be a smart cut. He is overpaid for his level of production at this point and he just hasn't been the same dominant player in several years now. Same goes with Andre Johnson.

Hey 9'er idiots. Didn't you get the memo? You're irrelevant now. Please go away. Nobody wants to talk about your dog shit team or porn star coach.

Best regards,

Rickie Foley

All you ever need to do is look at contracts that are too large..dollar wise or cap hit wise.

The most shocking of all could be Darrelle Revis if he refuses to negotiate a team friendly deal.

Bob loblaw":3gk3khvj said:

This whole notion that the Niners roster is old is just not factual, you should do some research. They have Smith, Osgood and Dawnson who is one of the oldest players in the league which pushes the age avg up, but otherwise they are a young team. Yea, Willis just turned 30, their whole D-Line is young, Linebackers are young, Corners are young, Safety Reid is in his 3rd year and the other Ward just finished his rookie season. Bathea is now 30. We actually have an extremely young team and had a 12 player draft just last year.

http://www.49ers.com/team/roster.html

Click to expand...

I think he should have phrased it by saying the niners BEST players are old. The young niner players are nowhere near as good as the old guys were.