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I keep hearing about Plaxico and the other Wrs that will soon become cap casualties. While the only WR with true #1 capabilities is Jerry Porter of the Oakland Raiders. The past three seasons he has scored 9 TDs twice with a 28 catch 1 td performance sandwiched in between his 9 Td seasons. I do not know what was wrong with him during the 1 TD year but he only played 10 games. I am guessing a nagging hamstring or something to that effect. Now to what I do know, he is 6'2" 220 and even during the few years Oakland had Brown and Rice you could see he was ready to break out. I am not sold on the falcons having to sign another WR but if they are going to spend some money on one then IMO the smartest move would be to go after Porter and not Burress.

Porter would be a smarter choice than Burress. However I don't think either is going to be cheap enough to bring in. I'd also rather have us pursue Mason once he hits the market, rather than Burress.

Looks like Coles may be joining the list of FA WR available this year. He's supposedly offered to pay back part of his signing bonus in order for the 'Skins to release him.

So that makes a potential list of:

Isaac Bruce
Mushin Muhammed
Derrick Mason
Laveranues Coles
Jerry Porter
Plaxico Burress

for us to sign. If our FO wants to act on upgrading the WR unit, it looks like we have plenty of viable options through FA, though all have a different degree of appeal to the team. Plax has never been, and may never be, a #1 WR who can carry a load. Porter supposedly turned down money about on par with what Chad Johnson got last year, so he may be out of our price range. Bruce has been a legit #1 WR, but hasn't had to be as of late so it's a bit of a roll of the dice with him. Muhammed and Mason are our best options of that group, IMO.

Porter would be nice. He's got the speed to do the deep passes when we need to and the size to do the mid-range passing game when we do that. Coles caught 90 passes last year in a very poor Redskins offense. Don't let the low YPC influence a decision about him, as it appears most of his passes were shorter passes aimed at him making the play after the catch, such as quick hitches, screens and plays like that. It's kind of hard to see much success there when there's already defenders crammed around you due to bringing up an extra safety to stop Portis. He's a proven #1 WR who could benefit us, IMO.

The biggest problem is, IMO, that we may not have the money to get any of them.

Coles and Mason are the best of that bunch, the only ones that are true #1 wide receivers. Muhammad and Porter are what I would call good #2 guys. And neither will be worth the money they receive this off-season. Bruce is very good still, but I'm not sure how many good years he has left in him. I think these past few years, he's been "carried" by Holt and Martz's pass-happiness. In a regular offense, he wouldn't be close to as productive or successful as he was in St. Louis even in his weakest season (which was 2003: 69 catches, 14.2 avg, 5 TDs)

The Falcons made the mistake of not getting Coles back in 2003 when they had the chance. They simply used him for greater leverage in acquring Price. Coles was the better player then, and is the better player today. They can make up for it now.

None of tehse guys are going to come cheap, you can guarantee that much. Mason will probably be the cheapest, but you're likely to see at least a $7.5 million signing bonus on all their parts.

Don't be fooled by Muhammad's numbers this year. He's not anywhere close to being as good. It's much like Price in 2002 before we acquired him. Muhammad had 3 bad years in Carolina before this past season, very similar in play to Price's over the past 2 years, and now all of a sudden he's good again? Nope. He's inconsistent, and only produced because the Panthers changed from a running team to a passing team, and Muhammad became the go-to target by default due to Smith's injury. I suspect Muhammad will land in Washington, but he'll never come close to producing and living up to his contract, because he's not a #1 wideout. Prior to this year, I would have said he was a glorified #3 that would not have started in Carolina if they had someone better. Very similar to what I characterize Dez White to be.