2011 Offseason, what were we and several other teams thinking?

[panther4life]

OK I'm going to break down the 2015 cap like that site suggests. They bring up that a lot of that money is tied up in the big contracts (CJ, DWill, Beason, TD, Godfrey) and that we'll most likely cut all of them except CJ.

OK so let's assume we cut DWill, Beason, TD, Godfrey and Steve Smith retires. That saves us a total of $30.1 million after dealing with all the dead money hits. Let's assume we re-signed Cam and he's taking up around 20 million.

That leaves us with $97.1 million towards the cap with only 15 players and only five definite starters.

Defense: DLine, we have nothing at DT, CJ and Alexander at DE. Linebacker we've got nothing outside of Kuechly. The secondary doesn't have a single proven starter, only two late round picks, Josh Norman and DJ Campbell.

Offense: Cam, Kalil and Olsen are our only starters. There's not a single starting caliber OT or WR. Silatolu is our only guard that by that point may or may not be considered starter material.

We also need a kicker, (most likely) a punter, and may need a KR/PR or two depending on how Joe Adams turns out.

The cap is suppose to stay around $122 million for 2014 and 2015. The $25 million in cap space that leaves us isn't much more than what it will take to sign our 2013-2015 draft picks and random league minimum guys just to fill out the roster. And again that's AFTER we drop 5 of our biggest contracts.

Well let's hope we draft well.

IF D-Will is cut after this season his 10.2 cap hit for 15 is gone completely and saves us 10.2 million by itself.

CJ will either still be playing at a high level and extend his contract which will lower his cap figure or face being cut which saves 10 million if we cut him at this time of year in 2015. May sound unthinkable now but we could be rolling with Hardy/Alexander or what have you at this point.

Steve Smiths salary is fully guaranteed for 13 and 14 and then after that all bets are off. I personally believe he retires after the 14 season and that saves another 10 million.

Beason will never ever be on our team at a cap hit 11.75 million. When can cut him after the 2014 season and save 7.75 million without doing it as a june 1st cut.

Also Thomas Davis is never going to count 10 million against the cap. 1st possible scenario we cut him and have to draft a replacement but save 7 million. If we keep him and restructure him say we only save 4-5 million, either way he's never seeing 10 million cap hit.

Then of course you can extend the likes of Kalil, Stewart and Olsen at this point to save a few more bucks.

Why assume Cam would take up 20 million in his first year of a new deal? Flacco's cap hit is 6.8 million this year and he just became the highest paid QB in the game.

I just don't see it being that dire of a situation personally.

I am not saying we are set to go on a 2011 Buc, Eagles, Panthers or 2012 Doplhins or Browns spending spree but history says thats never a good position to be in anyway.

[xerxes]

Basically teams expected the cap to rise faster than it has under the new CBA, so they signed a bunch of deals coming off the uncapped years thinking they'd be reasonable when the cap was raised only it hasn't.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2013/02/28/salary-cap-management-restructure-contracts/1954547/

[CRA]

Basically teams expected the cap to rise faster than it has under the new CBA, so they signed a bunch of deals coming off the uncapped years thinking they'd be reasonable when the cap was raised only it hasn't.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2013/02/28/salary-cap-management-restructure-contracts/1954547/

Even if you expected the cap to rise....that doesn't defend what we did

[xerxes]

Even if you expected the cap to rise....that doesn't defend what we did

Yeah I agree. I was just trying to show that GM's weren't completely nuts. They were just betting on a higher cap, and that turned out to be a bad bet. Hence Hurney's current employment status.

[CRA]

Yeah I agree. I was just trying to show that GM's weren't completely nuts. They were just betting on a higher cap, and that turned out to be a bad bet. Hence Hurney's current employment status.

But Hurneu without question didn't call all the shots....JR told Hurney what to do the year prior to the spending spree.

I still think Hurney followed JR's wishes in terms of how nice to treat their own after...

[panther4life]

But Hurneu without question didn't call all the shots....JR told Hurney what to do the year prior to the spending spree.

I still think Hurney followed JR's wishes in terms of how nice to treat their own after...

Exactly.

Another example of JR's meddling:

JR has said himself he called the shot cutting Kasay. I don't believe its much of a stretch for JR to have told Hurney to find the best kicker who can kickoff and kick field goals and do what it takes to get him.

Garret Hartley got 5 yrs/12 million vs the 4 yrs/12 million Mare got in the same offseason. Look at their resume's previous to those contracts.. and of all of sudden in comparison it does not look as bad.

http://www.pro-footb.../marexoli01.htm

http://www.pro-footb.../H/HartGa00.htm

[panfan32]

No Brady really didn't.

Yes he really did. he did this to help keep Welker. Back fired on him.

[2jakefansinva]

Brady's deal is really a 3 year deal worth 40 million, even he probably wont see that money in the last two years of that deal.

form what I understood the deal was guaranteed with 30 mil signing bonus.

[CRA]

Yes he really did. he did this to help keep Welker. Back fired on him.

No he didn't. He got a 30 mill dollar signing bonus and ever dime of the contact practically guaranteed.

It is just playing with numbers. Brady didn't take less