The “Mediocre” Class

March 20th, 2015

lovie and lichtIt was a bad year to have an ugly season and emerge with a pile of available salary cap money.

That was the word from one NFL executive.

Joe’s talking about Giants owner John Mara, who wasn’t a fan of this year’s catalog of free agents, per the New York Post. Like the Bucs, Mara had cash to spend and didn’t do much with it.

Heck, the Giants gave a three-year $10.5 million contract to Lovie Smith castoff Jonathan Casillas.

“There were obviously some star players out there, but for the most part I thought it was a mediocre free-agent class,’’ Giants co-owner John Mara told reporters Thursday at the PAL’s William J. Duncan Center in Manhattan. …“And I think a lot of guys got paid more money than maybe they would have in other years because there was a lot of cap room out there. I think the guys who we got will help us, but we still have a long way to go.”

Perhaps this take from outside the streets of Tampa and the Gulf Coast beaches will soothe some Bucs fans.

No, this wasn’t a standout year for free agents, (thought it will be for the teams who picked the right guys.)

The Bucs were in hot pursuit of Trent Cole to replace beastly pass rusher Michael Johnson, but lost that boardroom battle. It could prove to be a franchise-changer, if it affects decisions in the NFL Draft.

14 Responses to “The “Mediocre” Class”

  1. Arealbucsfan Says:

    Winston
    Stephone Anthony
    Jake fisher
    Nate Orchard
    We need to sign Wiz

  2. bucs4lyfe Says:

    Free agent class is always mediocre except for a few big names….it’s players looking to cash in on that one big contract most of them will never get again, if your resigning your core players like good drafting teams do then your spending crazy money in free agency like we have the last few years. mark Dominick tried to build through the draft then go after star players but the only problem is he wasn’t drafting good players.

  3. BrianDorry55 Says:

    Really critical mistake not finding someone to rush the passer in my opinion…seemed like they were hoping for Trent Cole, missed out, and hand no backup plan. They should have went all in for Brandon Graham or Derrick Morgan. I don’t really see what Mayock is talking about…there really isn’t a wealth of pass rushers in this draft…at least no 4-3 edge-rushers with double digit sack potential beyond the 1st round…lots of raw players who might be able to develop into that, but we’re going to be in trouble at defensive end once again in 2015.

  4. Celly Says:

    If that’s the case, we need to go ahead and lock up some of our younger talent NOW rather than later. We have the cap space, so we might as well get it out of the way and not have to worry about it next season.

    Unfortunately, though, the only person I can think of on the team that warrants a raise is Lavonte.

    sigh.

    GoBucs

  5. Buc1987 Says:

    They should put performance incentives in their contracts. They shouldn’t have to, but they should.

  6. MadMax Says:

    Lavonte should def be locked up NOW!!

  7. The Buc Realist Says:

    I don’t know why Everyone is so worried About DE, This time last year we had Adrian Clayborn and Micheal Johnson as starters. The Bucs are light years ahead of where they were last year!!!

  8. ColoradoBuc Says:

    As I remember, the 35 sacks we had with our “pitiful” defensive line was ranked in the mid 20’s – that’s NOT the end of the world.

  9. Buccfan37 Says:

    I’m confident the Bucs will show improvement when the season gets underway. Patch some of these glaring holes through the draft and other added players. This team will easily beat the two win output of last year. I’m reasonably sure of it.

  10. armchairGM Says:

    @ Joe did you make a mistake? The Bucs were in hot pursuit of Trent Cole to replace beastly pass rusher Michael Johnson. Johnson was far from a beast, I guess you meant that Trent Cole is a beast.

  11. Pickgrin Says:

    Assuming there is leftover cap room $ this year – Bucs can front load Lavonte David’s pending big deal (like they did with GMC) and thus keep the yearly payments lower in future years.

    I think a % of any leftover cap space from this year can also be rolled over into next year’s available cap space $.

    We will have a TON of $ next year once the $17M in dead $ we are eating this year for Nicks, Barron, Collins and Johnson comes off the books. ($21M if we release Goldson at any point – if not, Goldson’s $8M salary will likely be gone in 2016 as well).

  12. StPeteBucsFan Says:

    It was a bad year to have an ugly season and emerge with a pile of available salary cap money.

    That’s no surprise. It’s called “Buc Luck”.

  13. Zam Says:

    it seems like free agency is just turning into the overpriced reject pile. Every FA is somebody their original team didn’t want.

    Best to look for teams with really crappy talent-eval decision-making, like the Bucs last year, and take their castoffs because they will probably be good. Penn, Zuttah, Revis… plus others I’m sure I’m forgetting.

  14. BuccaneerBonzai Says:

    Bucs need to go hard after Wiz. He’s the key FA available. He left without a contract, but he still hasn’t signed anywhere. If they can land him, it will help immensely at center.