Jerry as GM has control over the CAP, and his issues with 'personnel management' starts with his MO to continually overpay his 'elite' players (in part, due to his ineptitude in negotiating, as all agents are aware of Jerry's 'technique') ......who frequently dont play up to that contract.
Yes you can restructure, but he continually does that, that's the back bone of the three 12-5 seasons.....every team needs to reset and 2024 was our year. All im saying is that we didnt learn anything in 2024 that suggests we should restructure for restructure sake and spend CAP money on a team: with a QB that's coming off a poor 8 games and big injury, an O:line that has so many question marks, no effective running game, struggles to stop any run. AND NEEDS UPGRADING IN ALL ASPECTS.
You cant use Free Agency to solve every problem we have.....the Cap, is the issue, because Jerry wants to be relevant each year and he gives poor top end contracts to players that dont play up to the contract.
But on the cyclical CAP aspect Detroit and Philly are in ALL-IN mode, which both will start struggling in 2027.....the one difference in Roseman is that he isnt afraid to trade away his 'elite' players, nor is he afraid to tank as a result. As said, we've had three 12-5 years, but that teams gone, in part to age: Tyron's gone, Zeke fallen off cliff, Tank good, but doesnt play up to contract.
I don't think we overpay any differently than other teams.
Dak got 60M, which was IMHO slightly above the market rate as salaries hit 55M, and were only going to go up. perhaps he could have done it with 57, but the idiot waited until the last hour, literally to sign the contract. milking the media attention as long as he could. literally. compare that to the eagles with hurts getting 51M, but he signed in early 2023.
brown is making 32M a year, compared to CD who is making 34, but same, brown signed a year earlier.
cooks was making 19.5 M compared to Smith who is at 25M
diggs is making 19.5 compared to eagles slay that's making 14M.
but they also paid their LT, G, and RT, at 22,21,20 respectively.
same with detroit, Goff making 53M, and brown making 30M, their RT at 28, DT at 24. and LT at 20.
so every team is top heavy. every single team has some stars, who are at the top of the market. then there is the rest, you get a whole bunch of players at 7-11M range. which comprise the core of the team around the stars and then there is rookies and JAGs.
the problem is that our core players (7-11M range) have under performed. the combination of the players just doesn't add up as they are not a well put together team as a coach would have liked to do.
and you can restructure, only for so many years. every team has a window. and you do what needs to be done in that window to win it, then you take a big hit for a couple of years, and rebuild again. just see Rams.
Jerry just didn't do what needs to be done for the 12-5 team to take next step. lets call it a reset, so 25 should be a bounce back year, but I doubt if we will. one he will skim on coaching. I mean he literally said, he wants to give a coach an incentive laden contract. you think Ben Johnson would do that? lets say Bilicheck was in the market and he is still good, would billicheck agree to an incentive laden contract? MM was 16th in salary in NFL coaches. Jerry talks about coaches dead money!!!! seriously!!! that's not a GM focused on winning.
and I agree, FA is not the solution. people tend to think we just go sign FAs left and right if we had 50M on the cap. but FA are either older, injured, at the end of their career, and the ones worth it, almost always get resigned by their own team and a few good ones make it to the market and they are over priced.....you can use FA to fill a gap here and there that you missed in the draft, like DT.
and yes, philly and Detroit have to pay the piper, but in the meantime, they are competitive. I think the window is usually 4-5 years for teams that don't have a mahomes or burrows.
