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I heard there are a lot of contracts up next year on the defensive side. Who do you think will stay and who will go?

I think performance this year will figure heavily into that, so I'll copout and say "too early to predict".

trents wrote:I heard there are a lot of contracts up next year on the defensive side. Who do you think will stay and who will go?

Not sure where you heard that, but the only significant contract on defense that we have up in 2018 is newly acquired Sheldon Richardson. However, there's a bunch that are up in 2019...both Earl's contract as well as Sherman's is up as is Cliff Avril and Frank Clark, who's still working on his rookie deal, so we'll more than likely negotiate an extension with most of those players.

As far as who stays and who goes, as burrton said, that will depend highly on their performance this season. Obviously Earl's not going anywhere, but all of the others could be moved.

Not sure where you heard that, but the only significant contract on defense that we have up in 2018 is newly acquired Sheldon Richardson. However, there's a bunch that are up in 2019...both Earl's contract as well as Sherman's is up as is Cliff Avril and Frank Clark, who's still working on his rookie deal, so we'll more than likely negotiate an extension with most of those players.

As far as who stays and who goes, as burrton said, that will depend highly on their performance this season. Obviously Earl's not going anywhere, but all of the others could be moved.

+2 me on this. I almost think the Richardson deal could have been worked with the idea we would lose him to FA. McDowell will be back (maybe) and if Richardson leaves in FA we get a compensatory pick which returns some value for the "rental" trade. I do think Earl is the only LOB member they will be committed to keeping a Hawk his whole career. this is most likely Sherman's last season as a Hawk he wanted to be traded and I think this offseason they will be more inclined to take offers they may have refused this offseason

If Richardson works out, we should have enough CAP room to re-sign him next year however there are a lot of contracts up.
In no particular order here are the 2018 UFA's according to Spotrac:

Austin Davis
Paul Richardson
Eddie Lacy
Thomas Rawls (RFA)
JD McKissic (ERFA) ERFA means Exclusive Rights Free Agent
Jimmy Graham
Luke Willson
Luke Joeckel
Oday Aboushi
Matt Tobin
Isiah Battle (ERFA)
Tyrus Thompson (ERFA)
Sheldon Richardson
Marcus Smith
Dion Jordan (RFA)
Garrison Smith (ERFA)
Michael Wilhoite
Terrance Garvin
Dewey McDonald
Bradley McDougald
DeShawn Shead
Justin Coleman (RFA)
Jordan Simone (ERFA)
Blair Walsh
Tyler Ott (ERFA)

We're not going to keep everyone and some of the players listed above will decide to move on, but if the CAP increases as it has the past few years, it should increase by about $10 - $12 million.
In 2019, the LoB will be up for re-negotiation with players like Clark, Avril, KJ Wright, Sherm, ET, and on Offense Tyler Lockett. I expect a push to sign Clark, Wright, and ET next year but I'm not
so sure Sherman will be here considering last years off season happenings.

From that list, I'd like to definitely keep Sheldon.

From there I'd keep one of the TEs - Luke or Jimmy
Garner or wilhoite dpending on which plays best this year and then the rest are all a coin toss for me.

NorthHawk wrote:If Richardson works out, we should have enough CAP room to re-sign him next year however there are a lot of contracts up.
In no particular order here are the 2018 UFA's according to Spotrac:

Austin Davis
Paul Richardson
Eddie Lacy
Thomas Rawls (RFA)
JD McKissic (ERFA) ERFA means Exclusive Rights Free Agent
Jimmy Graham
Luke Willson
Luke Joeckel
Oday Aboushi
Matt Tobin
Isiah Battle (ERFA)
Tyrus Thompson (ERFA)
Sheldon Richardson
Marcus Smith
Dion Jordan (RFA)
Garrison Smith (ERFA)
Michael Wilhoite
Terrance Garvin
Dewey McDonald
Bradley McDougald
DeShawn Shead
Justin Coleman (RFA)
Jordan Simone (ERFA)
Blair Walsh
Tyler Ott (ERFA)

We're not going to keep everyone and some of the players listed above will decide to move on, but if the CAP increases as it has the past few years, it should increase by about $10 - $12 million.
In 2019, the LoB will be up for re-negotiation with players like Clark, Avril, KJ Wright, Sherm, ET, and on Offense Tyler Lockett. I expect a push to sign Clark, Wright, and ET next year but I'm not
so sure Sherman will be here considering last years off season happenings.

I fully expect us to re-negotiate at least a couple of the 2019 contracts next season. Despite his being a pain in the ass, Sherman is playing well this season, so unless he really goes off the deep end, I think we'll bring him back, but he might not be part of the 2018 resigning effort.

As far as the list above goes, there isn't a "must have" player on it. Graham hasn't fulfilled his promise, and he's still not a very good blocker. I really like how Paul Richardson has performed recently. I doubt if Rawls gets an offer. We've seem to have had pretty good luck finding serviceable RB's late in the draft.

ET and Sherman will be the largest contracts I would think if Sherman stays here. KJ will also command a lot of money, too.
I wonder if Earl was seriously considering retirement last year and if he still might when this current deal is done. If so, I hope he told the FO his intentions so they can try to find someone who can replace some of what he brings.

They all will have to take a paycut soon or tell the prima donnas of the NFL to stand the F up! They'll all start feeling the pain when the salary caps start going in the other direction every year due to lack of revenues by the teams or league.

idhawkman wrote:They all will have to take a paycut soon or tell the prima donnas of the NFL to stand the F up! They'll all start feeling the pain when the salary caps start going in the other direction every year due to lack of revenues by the teams or league.

It's still early and there's a big anomaly with the hurricanes, but it looks like that ratings will be down again this season. Attendance is down as well. The Niners move to Santa Clara has been a disaster, the interest in the Rams is lukewarm at best and the Chargers can't even fill a 30,000 seat stadium.