NFL 2012 Free Agent Class: What Should The Arizona Cardinals Do Part Two. Free Agent Acquisitions.

They aren’t worth it! Big free agent signings hardly ever work out

We should target a lesser WR, Roy Williams, Earl Bennett possibly, that way if Andre is actually becoming who we want him to be, they’ll be expendable. As for LT, Brown has played well the last few games. He’s only given up 2 sacks and 5 hits over the last 3 games. Last week shouldn’t have counted because Wells missed the block. What we really need to target is a Right Tackle. Bell is capable to be both a LT and RT. So i guess we could experiment during the Preseason with Brown at RT and Bell and LT.

Needs to move or go! He has had a couple OK games, but do we want to hang our hat next year on his couple OK games? I don’t. College was a great pick-up and feel we can do the same with a FA OT. Not sure a starting NT is a huge concern but Franklin is a beast. I agree with the absolute need of a legit #2 WR for the short term until we see what our young guys can do. We NEED a #2

Well, you can’t fill all the holes via free agency or all in the draft. So, you need a comb of both to do it-here is what I see for the Cards for their needs: 2 Tackles, A speed WR and a Rush OLB. (of course assuming we resign or franchise Campbell, resign The Hyphen and get back healthy Toler, R. Williams and D.Williams).

Since the Free Agent market for Left Tackles is very weak-I would take one with the first round pick, kid from Iowa would be great, or maybe the kid from Ohio State.
Right tackle-I would go into free agency, both Brown, due to his salary and Keith, due to his constant health and production issues shouldn’t be back next year.
Speed WR-I would go with free agency for this need—either Meecham or Garcon would take the heat off Larry.
OLB pass rusher-I would go after Brooks in SF if possible, or if not, in my scenario, take the best OLB in the 3rd round. (no second round pick this year. )
I don’t think they need to sign another DT. D. Williams or Carter along with another vet will get the job done—Franklin is nice, but he would be very expensive.
Also, may want to draft another SS. I don’t see Rashod Johnson being the answer. They get back a healthy Toler, to go with Peterson and A. J Jefferson, may want to resign Marshall, then the secondary will be solid.
Now, if they can’t get a franchise left tackle in the draft, then go to plan B—probably best player around pick 12-14 would either be the OLB from Alabama or the WR from Notre Dame. Then in this situation, you would have to go Left tackle in free agency.

Martin and Adams maybe better at right, but then that leaves you with a bandaid Tackle in free agency. I don’t see AZ being the highest bidder for the best Left tackle available on the market, which leaves you with probably a has been Steeler left over player. (I don’t see R. Grimm being fired, so your at his mercy again on who is the starter next year.)

Who know’s who get’s cut or resigned/franchised prior to March-but here are some names who will be on the free agency market.

D. Bell -Buffalo
G. Whimper JAC
J. Gaither KC
K. Dunlap PHI
K. Barnes OAK
T. Essex and M. Starks PIT

Doesn’t exactly scream out “great signing by Cards”

Your probably right, if Reiff is off the board by the time the Cards draft, and with Brown being a first round flop and Grimm not trusting younger players on the line, they probably won’t go Left Tackle in first round and most likely go band-aid route. But with C. Upshaw from AL and Burfict from ASU still being on the board at OLB and Floyd WR from Notre Dame still being there, they could get good players at 2 need areas for this team.

Colledge was a bad pickup, hopefully he will improve. This team needs to continue drafting players to start. OT Jonathan Martin may be available when the Cards pick on draft day. If he isn’t then DeCastro may be available. I’ll leave it to Wiz to decide which guy he wants. If this team could actually run the ball better, watch out.

As far as Andre Roberts not striking fear into anyone. Roberts is progressing at a similar pace as Pierre Garcon did after two seasons. That’s with shoddy QB play. The only affordable receiver of that group might be Robert Meachum. Either way, this teams real problem is the poor OL play.

Signing a NT is not going to be cost effective when you consider that Williams and Carter can get the job done with a little tweaking. The D needs to upgrade it’s OLB play and then watch out. Peterson should get better. After struggling a lot this season, he was brilliant against AJ Green…hopefully a sign a things to come.

I think Colledge is fine as a run blocking, needs some work with pass blocking, but with them needing 2 new Off tackles, I don’t see them replacing any of the 3 interior guys. Roberts is a nice 3rd WR, if you add a 2nd WR with speed like a Meecham or Garcon then you have a solid 3 WR corp. They need a WR that defenses can respect to take away the triple coverage on Larry.
If they can get a another pass rusher either draft or A. Brooks in SF, then this D will be special. Acho is going to be a good starter, O’brien coming off the bench is right now his best role, along with Washington, Bradley and Lennon playing inside, they could have a solid LB group

I don’t want Stevie Johnson. He seems like a talented player, but he also seems a bit daft. Garcon seems like a good player to have, though I don’t know if he’ll fit well in Arizona’s system. Manningham and Meacham have been under-used I feel. They might be good fits. We really have to get some consistent play from the QB position more than anything else, I think. I’d love for us to get another Fitzgerald in the draft if we can, but I don’t think it will be likely.

The offensive and defensive lines should be filled through the draft exclusively. These are players who are big and who get hurt constantly. I don’t know that any organization wants to invest a lot of money in a free agent lineman for either side of the ball who’s just going to get hurt. You want a young player on a low salary. If he does well and proves himself, pay the man. Otherwise, stick with what you can find out of college. I sincerely hope we find a better answer than Levi Brown.

We should also draft a safety to fill the void Adrian Wilson will leave here in a year or two. Adrian is a good player, but he’s inching up there in age. So I think this year, the organization should try to find his replacement.

I’m not sure if the organization wants to move on a new kicker because Jay Feely did cost us some games this year, but he also looked a bit more consistent late in the season. I want someone with a big leg who can hit the 50-yarder regularly.

Our needs are OT, LB (both inside & out), and WR.

This is how we do it:

We restructure Brown if he’s willing and keep him at LT. We draft Martin or Rieff in the first round and start them at RT. That already is a huge upgrade and should give up about 45% less sacks then with Kieth on the line.

If Rieff or Martin isn’t available, we take the best LB available. Upshaw, Hightower, or Kuechly. Stewart Bradley isn’t the player they thought he was, expect him to be released eventually. We then sign Bell in FA if we can get him at a good price, or just a stop gap RT that can hold it down till 2013 FA.

WR- We definatly get through FA! This is one of the strongest FA classes for WRs in the last 10 years! I don’t think Garcon fits here. I want another big guy to line up on the outside. I think Reggie Wayne is still a phenomenal receiver and can be had relatively cheap due to his age. He can be an awesome reciever next to Fitz for the next 3 years while we develop some young guys. If not Wayne I say Branch from New England, Colston from New Orleans.

Then we must get the guy who has huge character questions from making him the most perfect prospect possibly ever, but at least he is Burfict.

Our team needs time to gel and learn out system. Look how improved we were halfway through the seasn once everyone knew the system. If you replace too many people and bring in new people we will take a step back. Keep Bradley, he never had a shot to play last year, he needs a chance to start.

New LT first round pick, move Levi to RT with a restructured contract. Interior starters the same. Maybe get a #2 WR in free agency, but thats about it. Draft an OLB, OG, DE/NT, CB for added depth