These are the relevant external FA's we should be interested in. Obviously not all of these guys will hit the market and many of them will be out of our price range but they might as well be included for comparison's sake.
Our own FA's aren't included but I do think we should look to re-sign Anthony Brown, Joe Looney and Jeff Heath on the cheap for depth, Cobb as our slot WR and depending on the new defensive staff's philosophy potentially Quinn or even Collins.
Run-stuffing NT's:
- Michael Pierce
- DJ Reader
- Javon Hargrave
5-T/4-3 DT types:
- Arik Armstead
- Jordan Phillips
- Derek Wolfe
- Michael Brockers
- Jarran Reed
- Quinton Jefferson
- Vernon Butler
- Ronald Blair
- A'Shawn Robinson
- David Onyemata (New Orleans connection to Nolan)
Edge-rusher types:
- Vic Beasley
- Dante Fowler
- Shaquil Barrett
- Shaq Lawson
- Yannick Ngakoue
- Matt Judon
- Bud Dupree
- Markus Golden
- Stephen Weatherly
Safety:
- Vonn Bell (New Orleans connection to Nolan)
- Anthony Harris
- Justin Simmons
- Devin McCourty
- Karl Joseph
Tight End:
Misc: AJ Klein, Phillip Dorsett
My focus would be the DL of course, although it's hard to say what we should do because it's entirely dependent on what the new staff's philosophy is. Assuming they want to switch to a more multiple front that toggles between 3-4/4-3 I'd prioritize one of the run-stuffing NT's since it's obviously a huge need and I don't think any of the three listed above will break into the double digits per year.
Let's say we can get one of them for ~8/year, which is roughly what I was expecting a Collins extension to cost.
After that I'd look at Onyemata, assuming Nolan wants him, since he should be cheap and presumably well-versed in whatever defense Nolan wants to run. Shouldn't cost more than ~4/year.
From there I'd look to spend somewhere in the 14 range on a pass-rusher, whether that is an edge guy like Judon or an interior rusher like Phillips/Armstead. This is roughly what I was expecting a Quinn extension to cost.
Long story short, I think we need to spend whatever money we may have had earmarked for Collins/Quinn on a run-stuffing NT and a pass-rusher of some sort. Look for cheap depth like Onyemata and Klein, and then if you can get a decent deal on a safety (Bell/Harris most likely) or TE explore that as well.
Given our cap situation we should have about ~40-50 million left over even factoring in possible extensions/tags for Dak/Cooper. Throw in deals for Looney/Brown/Heath/Cobb and that comes down to maybe ~30-40.
Go spend some fucking money.
