SmokinwithWilly

Tepper is probably going to offer to pay his settlement if he comes here.

Can't hold every team below 7 points.

So first day FA signing for us then.

That's kind of my point. Every year it's said the salary cap hell is going to come. It's been what, 15 years now, and we just keep hearing any day. How many posts are in this topic worrying about if NO gets Watson they are going to dominate us for a decade. It's because we all know that the cap isn't a limitation for NO as much as we wish it was. And if they give up a bunch of picks so continued success is going to be hard, wouldn't that apply here as well? We have Rhule steering the ship right now and his influence over contracts and player acquisition is downright awful. He's a bigger hindrance than anything else.

No disagreement there. But if they don't and have some down time, expect them to let a lot of that dead cap space come off the books.

I didn't say anything about the quality of pickups or FA. All I'm talking about is his ability with cap space. He's kicked the can down the road for over a decade, something that's constantly said isn't possible to do long term. They've been competitive for the most part while all this has been going on. With Peyton retiring, if they have a down year I expect he will do some cap dumping while they rebuild. If not and they get DW, they'll keep kicking the can and everyone will keep saying they can't do that.

Because for well over a decade, every year it's always the Saints are going to be in cap hell and there is no way they can make any moves, and yet they do it every year. You don't have to like the man or the organization to realize he's damn good at his job.

I have more faith that the NO can assemble a competent roster than we can. Loomis is a genius, like it or not, and can do things with the cap we can only dream of. A trade like this won't hurt them as much as it would us.

Yeah. This doesn't even move the needle for me.

Every team is allowed to do it, they just do it better than anyone else. I can't be mad at them for taking advantage of it. It's kind of like BB and some of his trick plays that everyone thought were illegal but weren't. Everyone had the chance, he just actually did it.

He did. Wasted space.

CMC is not netting a 1st. He's played 6 out of the past 33 games. His injuries really have hurt his trade value. 2nd possibly.

As I said before, the Saints are the one team that the cap doesn't seem apply to. Loomis is a genius with maneuvering the cap to make impossible situations work.

I wrote off worrying about New Orleans and the cap a long time ago. Every year it's said they can't do anything because they have no cap room, every year they prove it wrong.

If the Saints truly are all in, does the price tag go up? If it's a bidding war, would we offer 3 1sts, 2 nds, and 3 key players?

If we land Watson, his next extension is going to be massive.

Bet the guy that just paid 500k for Brady's final TD toss ball is a little pissed off.

That changes a few things.

Fans figured out early on he was the best looking LT we had on the roster. Coaches, not so much.

Serious threat to win a Super Bowl or a real threat to get in the playoffs without winning their division is what I was thinking. The division winner gets into the playoffs no matter how terrible their record. It's possible to get in at 5-12. We could have won our division this year with our record if the other teams were bad enough. That's not a playoff contender, that's a division winner. Does it happen often? No, but it does happen. If we were to get into the playoffs in 2022 with a losing record in a really bad NFCS, it would be a one and done because this team isn't good enough and having DW behind a porous OL and a gutted defense won't change that. Backing into the playoffs as the winner of a terrible division doesn't mean you're actually a good team, it just means you were the best of the worst. In '08, the year Brady went on IR, the Patriots missed the playoffs at 11-5 while Cleveland got in at 8-8. Did the real playoff contender go to the playoffs or just a division winner? That's just one of several instances. But if we want to talk about a playoff contender as any team that just wins their division, I still don't think this team wins enough games to beat an average to above average team in our division. 2022 will likely see DW sitting multiple games, leaving either Darnold or PJ to QB this team with Rhule as HC. That's not a winning formula as we have already seen. I figure we're looking at 6 games with DW at QB, after a 10 game suspension from the NFL for making the shield look bad. That makes 2022 a wasted year. 2023 other teams will have had the opportunity to fix some of their issues as well, including pursuing any FA QBs or trading for one, and we're probably going to have Rhule for year 4 and possibly 5, then it's time to negotiate for a new contract for DW. You have to hope at that point he still wants to be in Carolina and doesn't want to go for a shot at rings or just flat out hates it here. And if the Bengals had traded for Burrow instead of drafting him, they wouldn't have drafted Jamarr Chase who was a huge part of their success this season. Would they have had the success they did without Chase? Having a meaningful QB is important, but you have to be able to put pieces around him as well. Our defense won't look the same next year if we trade for DW. Burns and Chinn could both be gone, Reddick, Gilmore and Jackson too. That's a lot to lose on defense. We get Horn back, if he isn't part of the trade. I'm not saying DW isn't a good QB because he is. But I don't think that he alone, with Matt Rhule as HC, behind a porous oline, a gutted defense, and our cap situation is enough to carry this team deep into the playoffs. Other teams in our division will try and get better too. They don't all plan on staying bottom dwellers. Manning was traded to Denver and they were ready to win it all now. So was Brady. So was Stafford. We are not SB contenders right now. The only reason we're contenders to win our division in 2022 is because the other teams are just as bad, for now.

Not what I was thinking when I said that. Probably should have said playoffs contender instead.

No. We may limp in at 7-10, 8-9, or 9-8 but are we really a contender in the playoffs. No.

We want to win but also recognize that 1 player cannot do it all. This is a team sport and if you lack the ability to build the team around the 1 player, you end up with great offensive numbers and a 4-12 record. Or for an even better example, look at Cam. We never built a consistent winner with someone who many on this message board say is a HoF QB. Having a QB is the most important piece but if you lack the ability to build around it, what difference does it make? FAs aren't coming to Carolina to win a SB. I have my doubts the league would even let him after all this mess. This is just an entertainment company and they can influence the outcome of games without consequences. We are going to have to pay people to come here. We are not a Super Bowl contender right now. We're not a playoff contender. Yeah, you've got the one big piece, but you've crippled yourself in every other area required to build around it.

People were saying, including me, can he be worse than Miller? He did lose weight. He said he worked to get himself into better shape for the NFL. If I'm a DC I'm blowing the poo out of the Elfein-Miller holes. Miller acted like he didn't give a poo what happened. There's no place for that. Brown could end up being absolute poo. Do I trust Rhule to be the judge like he has been? I do not. He thought Elfein and Irving were day 1 FAs. He tried to make BC play all over the line even after he had a better showing than Irving in TC and he kept getting bowled over inside. Maybe Campen can fix some of these issues. Maybe not. But there's no point holding roster space for Miller when the best thing he can do for the team is not dress on Sunday.