BarleyNY

The logical solution would be to hold the cap at its 2020 amount for 2021. Then when the league is back to normal, use some of the revenue increases to effectively pay back what was borrowed.

If the Colts were that bare of talent, then no rookie - not even Luck - comes in and takes them from 2-14 to 11-5 three straight seasons. But let’s just agree to disagree on that Colts team and get on with the Pats. I am not arguing that Belichick couldn’t eek out 6-8 wins with the current team, I’m arguing that he won’t by design. I think it is likely that he sandbags to get his QB. I’m not saying he’d have players throw games or anything. I don’t think he’d do that. I’m talking more about him keeping things very vanilla and not digging into his bag or tricks. I’ve watched him in games against teams the Pats were clearly better than and he did exactly that. He just didn’t want to show anything to future opponents and the Pats still won. Why wouldn’t he do that this season to get his QB and have a chance to win it all again. I don’t think he’s sticking around to go 6-10 or 8-8 or even just make the playoffs. If he wants to do that there were a couple QBs available that could’ve gotten him there.

Completely disagree on the Colts. They averaged just over 12 wins per season from 2002-2010. They did not miss the playoffs once in that time. They won the Super Bowl after the 2006 season and lost it after the 2009. Their worst record was 10-6 in 2002 and 2010. Then in 2011 they plummeted to 2-14 with no real QB to speak of under center before bouncing back to three straight 11-5 seasons behind Luck. 2-14 was on the QB position. The Colts big mistake was canning the people that they had such success with. The team eroded under the new god awful FO that didn’t bring in any talent to replace what was leaving. Then it was just Luck keeping the team afloat - until that terrible OL ruined him. Do you think Belichick wouldn’t take one crappy season to get his QB and a chance at glory again? It would be the exact kind of cold, calculating move he’s been so good at making his whole career. I will be very surprised if he does not go that route.

I honestly expect a Colts style one year tank by BB. Start garbage at QB and keep the play calling vanilla enough to not have much of a chance to win. Finish last and get your QB.

League wide I’d say pretty much every O and D lineman is a risk, especially DTs. Beyond that I’d start my list with Ben Roethlisberger.

I agree. It’ll be interesting to see what and how much comes out. Color me skeptical about Favre. Even if he trusted other people to run his business for him, he never had an independent audit done? This is the type of stuff that is supposed to find.

So no fans at the games then?

Injuries. That makes it 18 of 32 picks that had their option picked up or contract extended.

For the record, Brown/Graham won a total of seven championships. Four in the AAFC and three in the NFL.

They could designate him a post June 1 release NEXT season to spread out his remaining dead cap hit of $10.8M over two seasons instead of one, but that’s it. Or they could come to an injury settlement with him at any time. Washington made what I consider to be as serious of a mistake as imaginable with Smith’s contract structure - and that is separate from any conversation about the amount of money they gave Smith. There are no roster bonuses in later years. Those are clean, easy outs for teams in cases like this. Without that out, there remains a possibility that - even after paying him $71M - Washington will have to come to an injury settlement with Smith next March. I cannot possibly overstate how egregious of a mistake of such a basic element of contract structure this was by Washington. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/washington-redskins/alex-smith-3337/ He would still get this season’s salary due to it being guaranteed for injury.

I don’t think any. The NFLPA could fine them or revoke their license, but I doubt they’re interested in doing that over something like this. The NFL could fine or take picks away from the teams involved.

They can’t until after this season due to injury guarantees in his contract.

That’s definitely one of the problems I see. The other is team using it to circumvent the cap. I think of player like Roethlisberger. He has a crazy amount of dead cap on his contract due to the Steelers creating space by turning his salary into a bonus several times. He was also injured last season. Not so much so that he couldn’t play again, but a rule like what’s proposed here could make it convenient for a team and player to conspire. He walks away and gets paid while the team gets cap space back. There’s just too much grey area for something like this.

That would be really tough to properly implement because teams could use it as a way to circumvent the salary cap. I’m not saying that you have a bad idea, just that I can’t see a good way to do it.

Agreed. When they were talking about hiring Wrex I remember thinking, “Absolute worst case, but realistic, scenario is that Ryan is here just long enough to dismantle our top 5 defense before getting fired.” Hiring Ryan just made no sense to me - and doubly so with his defensive philosophy being the polar opposite of Schwartz’s.

He was one year into his rookie deal with nothing guaranteed left on it so it wasn’t about dumping salary, it was about room on the roster. The Bills had a gone hard at IOL in free agency and had gotten really deep there. There just wasn’t room for everybody. Teller was an odd man out, but still he had value and Beane got it. FWIW the Browns OL Coach, Bill Callahan, said he loves Teller in the Browns predominantly outside zone scheme and expects him to start at RG there this season. It’ll be interesting to see if that actually happens.

I did not advocate for paying Dawkins $22M. Or $18M. I advocated for paying him up to $15M, specifically a 4/$60M contract. Would you have a problem with that?

I agree. I see Dawkins around $15M AAV too. I’m fine with a 4yr/$60M deal for him. He’s a good LT and he’s young. Why create a hole at LT and then have to rely on hitting on an early pick to get back to where we already were? To save some cap space? Besides, hit rates early in the draft are still under 50%, people. People making a comparison with Glenn should remember that Glenn had real injury problems. That’s what seemed to be the problem with committing to him long-term.

Yup. Miami was just dumping the contract. $1.95M fully guaranteed left on it for this season. It goes to Atlanta for a nothing pick.

Just so we’re clear, I agree. But at 33 years old, isn’t that primarily what Addison is here to do - rush the passer? I’m a lot happier with Addison, Hughes, Epenesa AND Murphy at DE than I am with just the first three and basically nobody - which is what some here are advocating for. That was my main point. Also I think we will see more of Murphy in base and run defenses and more of Addison in pass. I’ll stand by all of that.

Sorry. Addison is a pretty good player, but he is not better than Murphy - and that’s the reason he’ll be backing him up this year. I think that is the correct decision and that it will be the one McD makes. It really seems like 2018 is overshadowing last season. I’ll just leave it there.

I disagree. He’s a good DE IMO or at least he was last season. He sucked in 2018. At the time I didn’t like the contract we gave him in 2018 because he was coming off a bad knee injury - and it sure showed that season. But times have changed. He seems like he’s back from the knee and big and $8M is pretty reasonable for a solid starting DE these days. I’m good with the current group and moving on from him next season. What’s your plan at DE once you get rid of him?

I don’t understand why so many people here want to dump Trent Murphy because he’s making $8M this season. To accomplish what? To get a second round rookie on the field and gut our depth at DE? I’m sorry, it’s ridiculous. Or maybe you guys like Addison a lot more than me. To me he is good as depth/rotation, but I don’t want him starting. Nor do I want to count on Epenesa being our starter in year one. Let’s not forget that rookies - especially big ones - tend to wear down as the season wears on. And then there’s the matter that he’s totally unproven in the NFL. I liked the pick too, but why put so many eggs in that basket if we don’t have to?

Depends. Are you talking about a season ending injury in week 1 or a ding that keeps Allen out for 4 games? If I think my starter is capable of winning a SB, then give me the guy that can go .500 with a good team around him. Four games with a good versus garbage QB2 behind center could be the difference between 11-5 and 9-7.

Um, if Tom Brady’s arm worked in NE’s offense the last few seasons then Andy Dalton’s arm can work in that offense. I know there was a ton of other stuff that played into it like presnap reads, audibles for motion to expose defenses and a quick release - and I’m not comparing Dalton to Brady - but if we’re just talking arm strength then Dalton passes the minimum if Brady did. As for Dalton getting cut, that was an obvious move by a notoriously cheap owner. They had been trying to trade him, but no one wanted him with that contract.