Worried Kwesi has no plan and

They're using up some of that gigantic amount of cap they have next year. Brzezinski is a genius

Some of us wanted them to stop robbing Peter to pay Paul, but at least it is not that egregious this time around. I thought they were going to let Greenard hit for closer to 10M this year, but I get that one to an extent. Van Ginkel and Jones contracts are kind of what I was expecting.

First it appears Kwesi did have a plan as it pertained to Hunter and Cousins as we entered FA and I’m glad to see him be more definitive with his decisions. As another poster noted…. He’s robbed Peter to pay Paul, but he kind of had to based on decisions he made in prior years. I’m not generally a big fan of that unless you are using it to secure high quality long term assets, but the reality is he left himself too many holes to fill with too much dead cap so he really had no choice.
As far as a plan, having one is great, having a good one is better. A lot of the decisions we are making this offseason are really a byproduct of not previously having a well thought out plan….or at least not a good one.

Kwesi’s poor drafts, poor prioritization and poor roster decisions have left the cupboard bare without a lot of ammunition to refill it. The cost to move up for a QB is going to be higher than it should be because every team knows we are desperate.
Not trading Hunter last year hopefully nets us a 3rd in 25 instead of a 1st in 24. That mistake cost us all the draft capital we gave up to get a 2nd 1st. But he did do a good job of getting good value in getting that 2nd 1st so I’ll give him props for that.
Hanging on to guys like Theilen, Kendricks, Smith, Cook a year too long cost us draft pics and cap space and have greatly slowed our rebuild.

People are losing there shit because we’ve been so active in FA, but the reality is he had no choice. We let 7 Starters walk with only 2 (RB/Edge) having any kind of real backup whatsoever under contract entering the offseason. So we HAD no choice but to sign a lot of people. But the reality is Greenard is the closest thing we’ve signed to an above average talent that isn’t on the decline, comes with a ton of injury risk or simply is unproven.

I think given the magnitude of talent that exited the team, I think he targeted mid tier players early that “Could” have more upside if all the cards align. And given the current state of the team…. I don’t totally disagree with that approach. My only criticism is he overpaid several of these guys to make sure he got them and if they don’t pan out (like Davenport) that’s going to hurt.

I’m still highly critical of Kwesi’s moves up to this off-season and frankly think they’ve been awful, but for the first time I at least see him deploying a plan and understand why he’s doing what he’s doing. But I also see some desperation in his moves as well and wonder if he’s a bit in the hot seat.

Anyway… I’m encouraged a bit and I hope he carries that over to the draft, but there are still some things I really question and areas I still think prioritization is off…. But again…. He left so many holes it’s hard to criticize most of the FA moves so far.

All that said, I really like our coaching staff and they may be able to get a lot out of a little and I’m hoping for the best, but we probably have the weakest overall roster in the North right now. We’ll see how the draft goes, but as of today I don’t see us any better than 500. And that’s ok… I think every decision we make right now should be with 25/26 in mind which is why I’m not thrilled we are stealing future cap on players that may not be here if health doesn’t hold up. I’m hoping Kwesi continues to improve and has us back to competing soon!

I have seen multiple outlets state we could have easily gotten a 1st for Hunter at the deadline…a 2nd at worst.

As for the QB issue…I think Kwesi sometimes overestimates what he thinks he brings to the bargaining table. He should have known after talks broke down last year with Kirk that he was either going to have to pay up or cut ties….and if you’re going to cut ties…. You had to pick Levi’s when he fell to us. With the exception of maybe Ridder and DJones…every team looking for a QB was a high prob to be looking for a QB now a year ago. You had to know the market for Kirk would be strong. Hell….it was strong and he was coming off injury.
Even if Levis maybe wasn’t as far along as hoped after you draft him….you don’t appear desperate to the point of being fleeced and if he did pan out you didn’t trade the farm to take him. But you have to have a viable and at least semi believable backup plan when you let a good Vet QB go unless you expect to be drafting high which he had to know was a low probability. you As a GM…. It’s the ONE thing you absolutely can’t do is go into a draft with no viable QB option and needing to trade up to get one. Every team knows they have you by the balls!!

my favorite part was he was frozen with indicision...

I was thinking letting Cousins go freed up cap space. But they restructured him last year to get his cap number down to $20M for '23.

This year, he left them with $28.5 in dead money so actually costs more against the cap than last year!