Hawk Cut

[mission]

Big gamble. Hawk could sign with another team.

IMO Barnett is not a suitable replacement due to injury history. Chillar is not an every down backer.

TT is always good at finding linebackers. Bet TT finds another Bishop in the late rounds.

Maybe, but it's also not Madden where you cut a guy and he's instantly on another team with no communication whatsoever. Both of these sides have had plenty of time to talk. No one on the open market is going to offer Hawk 10m but they might do something like 5-6m/y at a price that might be slightly inflated. I'm assuming Hawk wants to stay and I'm taking TT/MM at their word that they want to keep him around. So the idea is for Hawk to find out his current market value and come back at or around that price. So TT saves 3-5m (inc bonuses) and Hawk feels like he's being treated fairly. I just don't see a situation where TT is thinking they're going to work something out and all of a sudden he gets a call that AJ Hawk is now a Cleveland Brown or w/e.

That's in a perfect world of course. Barnett can't play Hawk's position and I don't really like the idea of taking the play-making potential away from Bishop. Seems like we'll definitely draft an ILB prospect this year to keep the pipeline open.

BTW as an aside... I was streaming MKE540 ESPN today in the car and it was like hearing chalk on a chalkboard listening to them talk about this topic. All these callers wanting Barnett to be moved outside, to have Barnett play Hawk's position. That Barnett was, before his knee injury, as good as Brian Urlacher. All this stuff, it was difficult. By the time I got through, they were already going into the Marquette broadcast. =/

[Lurker64]

Oh, I don't think anybody has ever said that Bishop can't play the Buck. He plays big, physical, and aggressive which is what you want out of the position. What you give up going from Hawk to Bishop at the Buck is mostly in terms of experience and quickness/reaction time, but the Buck is the LB in your defense that has the least use for elite athleticism. The thing about reaction time is probably minimized in the transition because while Hawk appears to see things quicker than Bishop, Bishop appears to anticipate better than Hawk. Earlier on in his career, Bishop seemed like he was "guessing" a lot, but as he got more time in the defense it seemed like he spent more time anticipating than guessing.

[mission]

Oh, I don't think anybody has ever said that Bishop can't play the Buck. He plays big, physical, and aggressive which is what you want out of the position. What you give up going from Hawk to Bishop at the Buck is mostly in terms of experience and quickness/reaction time, but the Buck is the LB in your defense that has the least use for elite athleticism. The thing about reaction time is probably minimized in the transition because while Hawk appears to see things quicker than Bishop, Bishop appears to anticipate better than Hawk. Earlier on in his career, Bishop seemed like he was "guessing" a lot, but as he got more time in the defense it seemed like he spent more time anticipating than guessing.

Yeah it's not so much that he can't... it's more of "do we want him to?"

Doesn't fit the Mr. October-January mold.