massari":2hoe9gbz said:
Pay Clowney what he wants pls (17m APY), then sign DT Dareus and WR Gordon.
Would be great if they go all in this season by adding Griffen/Mathews with those three too.
Cool idea, but where is the team going to acquire the cap money to do that with? I know you understand why this can’t happen.
At present there Is approximately just $15 million in available cap to acquire additional talent, This is the limit the team is allowed to spend on salaries. Clowney wants $20 million or thereabouts, Dareus will want about $10 million, or more. Gordon will be cheap if he’s even allowed to play, but will be more like $1 million. The team needs about $6 million for in season injury contingency. Griffen has signed with Dallas, and I can’t see Matthews signing for less than $5 million. Adding it up the bad news is more than double the money available, in fact the number is closing in on three times the money available.
Signing those players like this would involve some players being cut, who gets cut? Who redoes their contract so significantly that the team acquires $26 million in additional cap space? The team could massage their cap to fit Clowney if they chose but won’t pay an injury prone player $20 million per season. If they did so Clowney would need to take less this year than he got last year and signing him would screw up the ability to keep Diggs, and CB- Griffin who’s deals are up next season. Adams wants a major contract soon to make his acquisition worth the draft picks traded away.
There are other players I like to see the team acquire as well, but the team isn’t going to pay big money to those players now if the money they want creates a cap nightmare that results in the team being broken up or cap strapped going forward. They will continue to talk to available players and other teams about potential trades for players but only where numbers make sense to long term plan.
Something may get done and could be significant but it will involve some difficult choices. I remain hopeful for some DLine help too, like many others here.