Falcons cut Grady Jackson

And Hines Ward, Alan Faneca, Antwaan Randle El, Heath Miller, Casey Hampton, Aaron Smith, Joey Porter, Troy Polamalu, Ben Roethlisberger and a host of other players.

If you do not draft well, you cannot win. Sure you need the odd FA signing or trade (Bettis, Hartings, Farrior), but you must have 2-3 quality starters every draft. If you do not, you will suffer down the road.

The NFL Draft is the most important day of the year with the exception of the game days.

 

Blank should dump himself before even thinking of running Petrino, Dan. After all, it's Blank who fired Mora Jr., and wanted Petrino. Bobby used to be a position(?) coach in the NFL. Besides, Petrino had no clue on how all of this was going to play out during the off-season.

Petrino, methinks, didn't lose this team. The team gave up when Vick was indicted and then plead guilty. They didn't have their "man" behind center leading them. When the Vick deal went down, they had no hope of having a good season, and decided that this year was a wash. They quit on their own.

Hall needs to shut to fuck up. He cost Atlanta a game with his histronics. Hall has also showed me that he lacks the maturity to handle himself in the department of gamemanship, by letting a veteran like Steve Smith bait his gullible ass. Alge Crumpler needs to keep quiet as well. Without Michael Vick, Crumpler would have never gotten the ball thrown to him. He's an average TE at best.

 

Especially now that Leftwich is going to miss a week (at least that's what I read yesterday).

 

I thought Petrino was a Rick McKay choice rather than Blank's guy. I know McKay and Petrino have worked together before.

And I do think Petrino is losing this team, especially the veterans. Heard some comments on the radio about how he has rules on no talking during pre game meals or on team flights. Maybe that kind of stuff works with 18 year old kids, but I can see where guys in their 20s and 30s would find that juvenile and irritating. There's certainly been enough noise coming out of Flowery Branch through the media to indicate there's fire to the smoke of discontent rising.

I won't be surprised if he's back at the collegiate level next year.

 

You need good free agent signings to win a Super Bowl. There is now way you can draft players and keep them all together to develop into a champion. The draft is very important, but if your team gets a reputation of not being a place you want to go as a free agent you end up overspending for sub-par talent. Your top teams end up signing quality players at below market value because players want to win.

 

You are right -- but Atlanta has never been a destination of choice so Petrino's arrival has changed nothing. Players don't want to play for a team that seems to be perpetually stuck in a losing cycle.

 

I'm not so sure that he is right. Can you name one big-money free agent who was an impact player on the Patriots' first championship team? They did most of their best work getting guys like Mike Vrabel, who had been a backup in Pittsburgh and just needed the chance to play.

I'm trying to remember if last year's Colts had much help from free agency. The '05 had a couple of mid-level starters, James Farrior and Jeff Hartings, to show for their free agent work. They had spent on Duce Staley, but he was a bust.

 

Colts really didn't have anybody, except Vinateri.

There were a couple free agent defense guys they signed, but they didn't do much and Indy wound up figuring out how to finally fit Rob Morris (a first round pick) into a starting role.

 

Damn....forgot the kicker. I wonder if the Colts could have won it all last year if they had kept Vander-gack?

 

Colts currently have 22 free agents on their roster, the Patriots have 24, not including Welker and Moss who they got in trades. This isn't just about big free-agent signings, but getting better talent for below market. Having a fractured locker room doesn't help. Does anybody think Petrino will be in Atlanta long enough to succeed (after a few good drafts) if he doesn't go out and get some decent free agents?

 

I'm talking about free agents for whom there was real competition. The Mike Vrabels of the world go where there is opportunity. In fact, guys like that might prefer a bad team because it would give them a much-needed opportunity to shine.

 

But just using big-name free agents is like judging drafts by team's no. 1 pick. Finding the guy who may not have the stats or the profile of a bigger name but might be a better fit for your team is where teams succeed in free agency. And if you can sign him for a low enough contract where you can go out and get another guy, even better. You don't judge a team's draft by stopping after the second round.