Chris Mara sent this to my email thought I would share.

To My favorite Pizan,

What a miserable ending to a potentially super season. Like I do every year I will layout the BigBlue Print for our winning season this coming year. Tell me what you think, I value your opinion dearly.

Digging the Trenches.

We can both agree whatever the plan Reese and Coughlin had for Defensive tackle failed terribly. Robbins (more so because of age) is out and Bernard (because of a career change, Magician, he's great at his disappearing act) will be too. Barry is nice bait and we plan to use him as such. We place a 2nd round tender on him and negotiate with any interested team. Leaving Canty and Alford as the only sure returns from this group who as a whole played very poorly this season. With Osi in Coughlin's dog house, we will almost certainly look for a trade partner.

Perfect Timing.

Pierce is out. I doubt he plays again and to be honest it couldn't have happened at a better time. There really isnt a better way to get rid of a team leader who is not the same player he use to be than to blame it on the injury. He's too slow, can't cover, and can't shed a block to save his life. With plenty of choices to choose from we can can find his replacement via the draft. No not McClain. . . No not Brandon Spikes. . . But Sean Weatherspoon out of Missouri. Clark is also packing his bags, we are looking at Sintim, Weatherspoon, and Boley as the starters.

Nothing Major.

Secondary is young and we still believe we have 3 solid CBs. With Kenny Phillips back from injury we only have one hole to fill. Michael Johnson is replaced by (fingers crossed) Roman Harper or Antoine Bethea. Since both are restricted we plan to make offers. If we come up short we like this fella Major Wright from Florida in the middle rounds.

Defense is in store for a much needed overhaul/wake up call. Starters no longer in blue; Osi, Robbins, Clark, Pierce, Michael Johnson, and Bernard if you want to count him. With Cofield on the bubble. Potential Starting Line up: Kiwi, Canty, Alford, Tuck. Sintim, Weatherspoon, Boley. Webster, Ross, Thomas. Phillps, Harper/Bethea.

Oline Shuffle?

Probably not. We like the starters in place. Diehl is staying at LT with Beaty still another year away from starting but providing a nice backup swing tackle and extra blocker on the goal line til then. We have a possible replacement for Seubert though if we can get our hands on Iupati as an immediate upgrade at LG and then a potential replacement for McKenzie at RT.

Spill in aisle 7.

Offense wont see much change with starters. We hope to retain Carr but we see him heading for an opportunity to start elsewhere. Same with Hixon. A potential home run threat at RB like Spiller would be nice but with our starter and top reserve in place, and Brown returning we won't look to spend a lot that way with other glaring needs.


A new Kicker is definite. We are tossing around the idea of offering David Beckum the job.

That about wraps it up, Pizan. As always I will be waiting for your opinion anxiously like a teenage girl waits for Nsync's return.

Nice read Pizan

thanks for posting

Got thinking about CJ Spiller the other day.
I think he might be a good fit actually. Hixon right now is our best return man and if he gets signed elsewhere than Spiller would make sense to come in as a returner his first year.

Also, Bradshaw will be a free agent next season and I doubt we throw big money at Ahmad even if he has an outstanding year. Especially since Jacobs has a big contract already.

Andre Brown and Gartrell Johnson is going to be a nice battle in camp. I don't really know enough about Brown yet other than he wasn't overly impressive in college and looks to have mostly straight line speed.

I think Gartrell Johnson could actually make a good goal line back if given the opportunity. He's built like a rock with a powerful lower body. Not a lot of top end speed but hits the hole hard and has shown some moves to break tackles. Was a good pass catcher in college also.

All this said, I doubt we go after Spiller since we do have bigger needs right now.

Honestly I noticed Gartrell Johnson in Preseason playing for the Chargers. I was surprised when they tried sneaking him on the practice squad. I think he has potential to be a good #2 in this league. I think he is a FA though. We'll have to check if he is under contract.

Pizan wrote:Honestly I noticed Gartrell Johnson in Preseason playing for the Chargers. I was surprised when they tried sneaking him on the practice squad. I think he has potential to be a good #2 in this league. I think he is a FA though. We'll have to check if he is under contract.

If Gatrell is off contract, he will either be a EFA or RFA; either way he is likely to be here