Core players

With Smitty done, Peppers is forthcoming.

Is Gross the odd man out? I'd think the only way we don't keep him is if Butler pans out big, and immediately.

Gross is reliable and consistent. He's not an elite player, so he shouldn't get elite money, but very mediocre oline players have gotten huge $$.

I don't even understand why he's been mentioned in the same class of 'must keeps' as smitty or peppers, other than need and talent level on our line. Smitty and Peppers are elite in the league; Gross is elite at his position on our roster.

Wharton is also in a contract year, but I think he'll be RFA. Maybe Bridges pops out Wharton.

 

Agree. peppers first then if we have money, which seeing how much $$ average lineman are getting now we won't, we should sign gross long term. pretty sure Wharton will be UFA next year, he would have been RFA this year.

 

If Butler turns out to be our LT of the future then Wharton could be moved to RT and wasn't that the initial projection for him?

Question about Sciullo who I just noticed on our roster about a week ago. I know he has played T in the past and coming out he was highly touted.
What happened to the guy? I haven't found any damning injury info or off the field garbage on him. Does anyone see him in our plans?

 

Really? I don't think so. He's only getting $460k, I think he signed a 4 year rookie deal.

http://www.nflpa.org/Resources/ActivePlayerSearch.aspx?id=35904

Interesting to have both of our starting tackles coming up, though.

 

Gantt said he'd be going NFLEurope but I couldn't find him on any of their rosters.

 

Sciullo that is. Sorry.

 

It’s interesting that after last year our guys have not made T a bigger priority in the off season. Fordham was done and Kadela (sp?) never quite cut it. Thank God we found Bridges once Wharton went down.
I can only guess that they feel Wharton is going to be back to 100% and they are happy with Butler and that would make four solid options for this season including Gross.
Has this team ever ponied up for a Tackle? I bet they won't offer enough to keep Gross here next year and we will be talking about drafting a day one T next year while scouring other teams castoffs for a stopgap until the rook is ready

 

Agree here, and Butler will have to show it now. I do think Gross stays regardless.

agree, and the tackle scarcity is why he'll stay.

along the OL? Not to me. He's not better than Wahle was in 05. We didn't have any exceptional performances in 06, and his certainly wasn't. He's just one of the above average group for us.

UFA.
Bridges is good enough to be a spot starter if we draft a guy, at RT.
If Butler is good enough to start - which I will believe when I see - then Wharton will be offered a kinda crappy stab at a contract.

 

I think they will figure what Gross is worth to us then stand pat with that offer. If we get out bid for his services they will let him walk. It will come down to whether Gross wants to stay here vs a big pay day. Our value of him and the market value may not be the same. ...see Will Witherspoon.
I'd prefer to sign him before all that though.

 

I agree with what others have said here. Gross should get good money but not elite and some team out there will pay elite money. Bridges can be a start for a year while we draft a guy. Can Harwig play tackle?

In any event I think Gross will be gone. Signing Wharton all depends on Butler but I could see us signing Wharton a lot cheaper than Gross and moving him to RT.