It's been a loooong time since I've done one of these things. That's what a complete lack of free agency will do to you.
Anyways, this is part of my ongoing quest to identify a replacement for Tyson Clabo in the event that he tromps off to free agency and doesn't come back to Atlanta. I'm hopeful the Falcons can bring him back, but there's going to be quite a market for a guy coming off a Pro Bowl berth who shares a name with both an insane boxer and a chicken company.
So who to replace him? There's in-house options galore, but there's one free agent who caught my interest immediately. That would be Jared Gaither.
The Baltimore Ravens tackle is not expected to be re-signed by his team, and might strike out into free agency for the first time since being drafted in the 2007 supplemental draft. He's a huge, talented guy who has played quite a few snaps at left tackle for the Ravens since he arrived in Maryland.
Concerns? Gaither has been banged up in his career, including an extremely scary injury that could have left him paralyzed back in October 2009. At 6'9", he's also one of the league's tallest players, if height scares you in a tackle. Really just the injury history, though.
But I look at him and see a kid who is still only 25 years old and could be a solution at right tackle for a very, very long time. For that reason alone, he'd be worth exploring.
But hey, what say you?