BarleyNY

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.

You couldn’t make a trade like that without knowing what AJ Green looks like on the field these days. A healthy and fully functional AJ Green is easily superior to Brown, but are you really getting that? And even if you are, for how much longer?

An odd law for sure. It seems like a 23 year old having sex with a 16 year old should be illegal. It’s not in Florida, but it should be. I mean we’re talking about someone who age-wise should have graduated college and a high school sophomore or junior. That’s pretty messed up.

Looked it up: https://www.kevinkuliklaw.com/what-is-unlawful-sexual-activity-with-a-minor/ It’s consensual sex between someone 24 or older with someone 16 or 17.

I believe they may. But that doesn’t mean they won’t also draft someone. They’d be crazy to put all of their eggs into that basket.

And we’re so totally, absolutely, definitely not drafting a QB to replace Brees next year. No way. Scout’s honor.

Nope, no way. That’s because the dead cap for trading him after this season would be $31.6M. Two more seasons would make it $17.2M. And then under $3M after three more. So unless Rodgers forces a trade they don’t have to be in a hurry to do anything. Rodgers sat for 3 seasons while Favre was the starter and I expect Love to do the same. At minimum it’ll be two, but probably three. I don’t even know that Love will work out at all as a starter in the NFL, but if he does it won’t be replacing Aaron freaking Rodgers next season unless things have really gone off the rails up there in Green Bay.

This might actually be a move to create cap space. The Saints need a little more to sign their meager draft class. I’ll explain. Hill was in the last year of his deal. They can convert some salary to a signing bonus and extend his deal a couple seasons to spread that out. The large numbers might only be due to a pay-me-or-release-me structure. IOW he might not be getting any more money this season but the Saints will be paying him next season if they’re going to keep him. Or he hits free agency and can get what he can there. There’s probably a big roster bonus due or guarantees that kick in within a few days of next season starting.

Regarding using the spread formation. Yes, you absolutely still have the threat of Allen running the ball which pressures the defense. It also makes it much more difficult for the defense to disguise its coverage/blitz. I think we did it so much mainly for that reason - to make it easier for Josh to correctly read the defense. (Daboll should get some credit for this.)

That is correct. Same thing for cap purposes. The only rare exception to that is if a player retires soon after receiving a large singing bonus, then the team may able to recoup some of that signing bonus cash. Really rare situation that requires a team to actually get money back from the player in order for it to come off the cap. The retirement has to be elective, not due to injury. That’s why Wood changed his press conference at the last minute. His agent must’ve told him not to take any chances by making it seem like he was electing to retire. It had to be because he was physically unable to continue playing.

My thoughts exactly Not all that much smaller. Those numbers are based on a salary cap increase from $198.2M to $209M. It might be more than that, but it’s not going to be by much.

I wholeheartedly agree with all of that.