Robster8989
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I'd agree.They don’t.
Cap is always going up and you always kick the can down the line.
Saints have been over for years. Browns are 84 million over next year already.
Not that the cap isn't a real limiting factor, but the cap is exploding right now.
It will be over 300 mil in a few short years.
Dak is on the books for 60 mil next season, so expect them to extend him and open up close to 30 mil in space.
CeeDee is also on the books for his 5th year contract of 18 (as he was a first round pick).
We can play him at that and then have up to 2 years to tag him, or if we give him a deal this offseason, it will actually save cap next year as his first year will likely be less that the 18 he is currently guaranteed. I'd do the deal now, as WR salaries are only going to keep going up and he is the real deal, plus he's young at 24, so the chances he remains productive the length of a 5 year deal are quite high.
CeeDee and Dak alone open up like 35 mil in space, then there are the regular restructure targets like Martin, DLaw, plus new deals that will be able to be restructured next year (like Diggs and Steele and Wilson etc).
Truth be told we could open up over 50 mil if we want pretty easily.
They've actually done a good job with the cap, so while it's true we have a lot coming up, we are in good position to deal with it,
One of the keys is our older players are still productive, so guys like DLaw and Martin still playing at elite levels makes this managable. If those guys had fallen off a cliff we'd have issues (ie, bad contracts).
It's easier to swallow giving a 25 or 26 year old a 5 year deal, as it's likely they remain productive the length of the contract, so you can keep restructuring to open up space, and it's easier to swallow to 'comeuppance". Still need to be careful, but I believe that was the motivation to resigning Diggs (and even Steele).
We really don't have bad contracts. Gallup comes to mind a bit. Cooks is on the books at 10, and he finally seems to be coming on, but Gallup at 13 may not make sense in keeping (assuming Cooks cements the #2 role, and we feel that Tolbert ((and possibly Turpin)) keep coming on).
Steele is certainly a concern, but hopefully that is more related to his injury and he works himself back into a good RT.
I'd expect they do something similar with Tyron to this year, and they could keep the OL in tact (personally I'd go LT in round 1 and keep Tyron for another year but that's just me).
It's a bit of a tightrope walk with the cap, but you have to give the front office credit where it's due, and they have done a solid job of cap management.
As far as free agents, we have some good ones. Biadiaz is interesting. He a good player, but not great. I cringed when they named him to the Pro Bowl last year. He's not a Pro Bowl level player, and his agent likely will use that against us.
Armstrong is a solid player, and I'd consider bringing him back at a middling deal, though it may be time for Williams to play more, and there are always the Fowler type guys out there, who are cheap, plus the draft, so I don't expect s to go too high on keeping Armstrong.
I'd keep Gilmore at the right price as insurance against a slow return by Diggs, plus I think he could play the slot and frankly, in today's NFL, your slot corner is a starter, and I believe currently a weakness with Lewis. (That's where we feel the Diggs injury most IMO, as Bland would be in the slot if Diggs didn;t go down).
Guys like Kearse and Armstrong I'd keep at value deals, but that really depends on them as players. Frankly we have players to replace them if the need arises.