Jesse

I 100% agree but maybe the tides are turning. Lawler obviously worked out. Bailey showed growth even with the year off, and maybe McKnight can show similarly in year 2. Receivers always come out in year 2 or 3, so maybe we finally have a little pipeline happening.

Harris is interesting. It just flat out sucks that we need to be moving on from Lawler after YEARS of searching for a legit #1 receiver. Now looking at the scrap heap for a diamond in the rough.

They’ve released/are moving on from a lot of their higher paid players. They have tons of room and there aren’t too many more high end options to spend it on. I’m not suggesting it’s going to happen. But they definitely have the cap room and Harris isn’t going to refuse to sign for any team based on rivalries.

Harris isn’t a fan, he’s a player. He’ll sign anywhere who is willing to pay.

They clearly have plans to be players in FA, but are there difference makers left to sign?

That is asinine. who would offer a receiver 260, much less 300?!?? That should be QB numbers. Why the absolute **** are these GMs thinking?

Duke re-signs in Riderville.

I think they were really high paid, too. Might be an attempt to reset their salary cap structure and invest more on the lines like we do.

I really don't know if this is a philosophy change from the Riders to get rid of certain players (attitudes) and contracts, or a mass exodus that is just going to leave a void with not much coming back. They're going to have money to spend, but the only player I hear them linked to is Williams.

They’re definitely setting themselves up to make some moves in FA

FIFO is crude in this case, and perhaps a little disrespectful, but fits the situation too. He can join this team only under very specific conditions, or he no longer fits in our plans. As to not needing to come here, we overpaid him to sign with us like we did any other FA in those days and continued to make him the highest paid RB in the league all these years. He never gave us a discount and I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s not planning on giving us one now.

Absolutely, but showing them respect can't mean continuing to sign them to contracts no matter what. MOS has shown respect to him by staying in communication - but that may not extend to a contract offer.

That surprises me.

Fair.

Charlie Roberts. I agree with the first half but disagree with the second half. Healthy Harris was still our best back. But moving forward health and salary cap % are going to take away some of that value.

I agree with Mike that it's a mismanagement of resources to sign all three when we're trying to reduce spending in certain areas. We have JA. You need to make a decision on Andrew or Brady and have Borsa come in as well.

Ok, man, back away from the cliff.

I'm positive that's what we want to do, but it seems as if Andrew still wants to play and is willing to go elsewhere.

I feel like I've seen it at least a couple of million times myself, so I'm not surprised.

I actually don't LOVE Oliveira. Harris was clearly still ahead of him and I wish Johnny saw the ball more. I'm just taking what Walter said about the salary cap at face value. We have 3 young NIs who could fill the void. Speedflex ( and others) are right when they talk about bad optics and perhaps reflecting on team culture as well. Right now, I think we a have the reputation of doing right by players...do we lose that a little if we let a guy like Harris walk? I feel like I'm entirely alone on this, but I was never a fan of Fred Reid. Too all or nothing. Loved me some Chad Simpson though.

Your Milt take might be fightin' words. But I totally get that argument for Harris. I can just accept that he as a person and the team as an organization may be at two different point. I absolutely still think he has "it". He was without question our most effective back last season. I just worry about his health and would hesitate tying too much of the salary cap his way. Especially since our planned RB budget probably nosedived this season trying to keep the band together.

I might have missed something in the post you quoted, but he didn't make any comparison to Harris, who is obviously a power back+. I don't think I'm as bullish as AH retiring a Bomber as you are. It would be different if he had always being a Bomber, but he's only spent half of his career here. If we need him to take a reduced contract =, but he still wants to be paid as a #1 and go elsewhere, I wish him the best. I'm obviously speculating here, of course.

That's probably part of the problem. We probably are gently nudging him to retire gracefully and maybe come on as a coach, whereas he still wants to play. And perhaps we don't have the budget for that but don't want him to go anywhere else.

Walters said something along the lines of Andrew and O'Shea speaking all the time. But obviously those are not contract talks.

My first thought. I have a buddy who is insistent that Harris is gonna sign for under 100k and we bring back all three (he assumes JA didn't receive any outside interest worth pulling him away).