Bucs to Pursue DE Okafor in FA

I was hoping Saints would get an upgrade in that position.

I’d like to retain Okafor

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I was hoping Saints would get an upgrade in that position.

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The only upgrade over Okafor is Ziggy Ansah. He'll also cost more.

Before Okafor got injured last year...he & Jordan were a top 5 DE duo. Our defense took a step back after Okafor got injured. We went from an above average defense (you could actually make a case that we were a good defense) to an average defense. He was basically a poor man's Cam Jordan. He stopped the run & got to the QB fairly well...just not as often as Cam Jordan did.

I guess you could hit on a high draft pick, but there's no guarantee that the guy will be developed by his rookie year. In 2017, Solomon Thomas & Derek Barnett were really good at the end of the season. They weren't very good at all for the 1st half of the season though.

Okafor was also equal to or better than the #1 overall pick last year...
Myles Garrett (11 games) - 31 tackles, 7 sacks, 1 FF, 1 PBU. Garrett is going to be a monster in a couple years though.
Okafor (9 games, got hurt during the 10th game) - 43 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 2 FF, 4 PBU's.

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If we re-sign Vaccaro, Okafor stays.

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Not if we run out of money. I'd assume that the coaches will make Okafor a bigger priority than Vaccaro anyway.

If I had to choose between Vaccaro & Okafor...I'd go Okafor.

There are only 2 legit 3-down DE's (Okafor & Ansah) in free agency now that Lawrence is staying with the Cowboys. I think Vaccaro is a good player when used correctly, but there are plenty of options to replace our nickel/slot guy.

Just looked at Spotrac. I only found 3 legit options, & I'm not very high on Clayborn either (he got 9.5 sacks in 2017, but 6 of them came against Dallas' backup LT). OVERRATED.

Ezekiel Ansah
Alex Okafor
Adrian Clayborn

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If we re-sign Vaccaro, Okafor stays.

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Did you just make that up?

Kinda like Brees will resign if we sign Landry, like that?

I think Okafor is our best option at DE this offseason.

That being said his injury history should keep his contract ceiling down and i hope the team holds to it.

Yeah apparently they're best friends

Vaccaro was apparently in the coches ear all offseason telling them to bring Okafor in last offseason. They are pretty close, but I don't think either will base their free agency decisions on each others. Might help, but not the deciding factor at all.

Okafor is coming off an achilles injury, for a lineman especially this is not a minor thing. I think an ACL might be easier to come back from, at least you can put a brace on that. If there is a bidding war for Okafor, as this Buc's article would suggest there could be, then we (or another team) could end up overpaying a guy who may never fully come back.

Okafor was a great signing last season, there was a noticeable change for the worse when he went down. The injury could allow us to resign him to another prove it deal similar to the one we did last offseason, but if The Bucs or any other team is willing to sign him to a DE2 level multi year deal, I don't want us to take that risk. Hendrickson didn't look as good as Okafor, but he seems like he could grow into a solid second DE. I'd look hard at the available guys at our first few picks, or see if we could make a move on a guy we really like. DE and LB are our 2 biggest defensive needs IMO.

We definitely need to resign okafor.
There is no one else really and dude balled out last year.

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Not if we run out of money.

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We won't. If we want both we'll find a way to fit both, Brees, Kelemete, and at least 2-3 other bigger FAs.

It's more a question of do the Saints want to keep him long term. When healthy this year (outside the first 2 games being played out of position), and all of last year he was balling. But he has been hurt and had a suspension.

But do you really want to trust PJ as the nickel? Or some 3rd round rookie? Or Moore?