t96

Yeah I double checked it myself before you did, see above post. There was a point in the offseason where we were by far the most dead cap space this year but Philly and Detroit have since added to their dead cap apparently. Regardless we are by far the lowest in active cap spending

I stand corrected as I just checked to make sure of my numbers, we are technically 3rd in dead cap behind Detroit and Philly, but still $8M more than the 4th highest. Our active cap spending is $125M, which is by far the lowest. Next lowest is Detroit at $135M. We're spending $10M less on our players contributing this year than Detroit who is arguably the worst team in the league. And we're in the playoff mix. That's just crazy to me. The Bucs are spending $50M more on their players than us, that is 40% more. Are they 40% better than us? I'd say no way. Give us $50M to spend on the OL and we're a legit SB contender.

And this is with the most dead cap by a lot, of which most will be coming off the books in the next 1-2 years. We're 3-1 and looking good with an active payroll significantly less than every other good team. The infusion of young talent on this team in the last 2 years is frankly hard to believe.

I'm not making any assumptions, I'm going based off of the recent reports and what Fitterer has said. There is no chance we sign both Donte and Gilmore to huge deals. We'll have to pick between the two, unless Gilmore takes a hometown discount. Fitterer could be blowing smoke but I believe him when he says extending Donte is a priority. We've got a bunch of contracts coming up -- Burns, Reddick, Darnold?, DJ Moore, Donte, etc. Also need to overhaul part of the OL and that may require some spending. It just doesn't make any sense to tie up so much money in CB by paying both Donte and Gilmore $15M+/yr in addition to Henderson and Horn combining for $10M/yr -- yes they're both on rookie deals which are relatively cheap but as top 10 picks, they're not so low that we can ignore them when looking at cap allocation. Also, there's only so much playing time to go around. If we keep Donte for big money, him and Horn would be locked into top 2 roles basically every down players. Nickel CB is a big role too but not every down, Henderson/Bouye can slot in there. CBs after that are merely depth/low-time players and should not have significant cap hits.

You're dreaming man. The way contracts work in the NFL is if you're an above average player at your position when it's time for a new contract you're going to get top 3-5 money at your position, if not become the highest paid. And then a year or two later as the next players at the position get their deals and the cap continues to increase that contract that looks huge initially will be like 10th highest paid at the position and be completely fine. Donte has already earned $15M/year easily. He's been better than Bradberry and is getting his contract 2 years later with a higher cap and James is making $14.5M/yr.

If he plays to his capabilities he'll be demanding a huge contract, maybe even highest paid CB in the league. Maybe he'll come off that a bit and give us a discount due to being home, based on the social media posts from the wife that have been posted around here, but I kinda doubt that. And when he's demanding that big of a contract it really just doesn't fit in our salary cap structure right now and we'll still have Horn, Henderson, Jackson and Bouye at corner. This is a rental to help us continue to compete this year with Horn's injury, and if he plays well we'll get a comp pick higher than what we traded to get him anyways.

Rhule is running the show, ala Belichick, Reid, Carroll, etc. He's one of the few HCs with full roster control. Fitts is great at pulling the strings to help execute Rhule's big picture plans/thoughts, but I think Rhule is ultimately behind the direction this team is going.

Gilmore is $5.8M this year and then a free agent. If he balls out and is looking for a massive deal I really do not see us re-signing him. In which case we would keep Jackson along with the 2 young guys and still be stacked at CB. If we did keep Gilmore past this year then yeah Jackson is unfortunately probably gone. Which would suck as I love the guy's play

"Now we are there for good" Wifey getting Gilmore to sign a bargain hometown discount contract??? 4 years $20M extension incoming

Yeah it's a fair opinion, I just haven't really seen enough of Henderson yet to definitely put him over Bouye right now. Longer term obviously Bouye should be better, but I think against the Cowboys Bouye played better than Henderson. People forget Bouye was an All-Pro just a few years ago.

Yeah I saw him at training camp the year after he retired or maybe it was before the 2015 season, was staying in the same hotel as him I honestly could not believe it was him and that he lost that much weight in that short a period of time. He's a really cool dude and definitely awesome how healthy he is after playing in the NFL for a decade

It's hunting season, pretty sure he's just living it up enjoying the outdoors, fishing, etc. Certainly don't blame him there

The quote from my first post was from when he retired in early 2020, not recent. I haven't seen any teasers or hints about him actually considering returning

I wonder if that Huddler who broke Luke's retirement shortly before it was public is still around. I know he had some connections to Luke and was 100% spot on on that. Wonder if we could get an answer as to if this is a possibility (even if just like 5%) or if we should end the speculation before it even begins.

Yeah very well could be. I just can't help but think about this D with Luke. Carter is the weakest link on D right now and we have the GOAT MLB on our reserve list...

A bit of an exaggeration but still he lost a ton of weight https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/28/the-incredible-shrinking-jordan-gross/

I honestly think Gross at his current 185 pounds would be a better LT than anyone we've had since he retired besides the 1 year of Oher.

Let a man dream! Of course I fully support Luke and if he is truly done and doesn't have the itch to return then good for him. But I do think that quote about his retirement leaves it open a bit especially the "Now is an opportunity to step away with what’s going on here.” That says to me that a decent sized factor in the retirement decision was us going into a rebuild and getting rid of Cam, etc. He may have the itch to return with the team looking much better than expected and especially the defense he'd get to play with.

It depends on the recovery but yeah it's definitely a stretch and especially getting back into game shape. Even once he's full healed with it being a leg injury he'll need another 2-3 weeks at least to get back into game shape. I could see him being fully healthy and in game shape by the playoffs IF the recovery goes very smoothly but definitely not something I would bet on. Safer bet is like you said, we'll see him next year.

Right now I'd say: 1. Horn (hurt) 2. Jackson 3. Gilmore (could easily prove himself to be 1 or 2 and do so very quickly but we just need to see it on the field) 4. Bouye 5. Henderson 4/5 has room to change too

It's gotta be extremely tempting Luke to come back and join this talented D... That last line makes me think a return is possible, even if unlikely. He wants to play and took an opportunity to step away while the team was entering a full rebuild essentially. Well that rebuild has been expedited and if he came back he would step right into the best D he's ever played on.

Jackson has actually been great this year, I think Horn was more impactful and likely still should be upon his return. Gilmore is just yet to be seen but if he plays to the level he's capable of and did 2 years ago then yeah Jackson is our 3rd best CB on the roster (2nd best healthy). That's pretty friggin nuts if you ask me because D Jax is balling out too. Then we have Henderson and AJ Bouye who have some serious pedigree. Just an insane group of CBs, especially compared to what we've trotted out there in the last decade.

look at the source

Reports are also that he's completely healthy and running full speed and that the "quad injury" is more part of his holdout from the Pats. It certainly is pretty interesting that he was holding out for a new deal in NE but open to playing out the year with us. I'll take it though

Rhule deserves credit for the aggressiveness too, he has final roster say.