2022 NFL Free Agency

[ChaosTheory]

Too much from you two to quote each point, but I'll try to go in on some of this...

As far as Ballard not building culture here and that preventing guys from coming... That's not the only reason a player wouldn't come here. Like the Allen Robinson example. Hypothetically, if Ballard values him at $40m but is willing to overspend to $45m and the LAR come in a bid the price up to that $45m... then Robinson chooses to go to live in Los Angeles and play for the team that just won the Super Bowl. Is that an indictment on Ballard for the culture not being enough of a draw?

Beyond culture, just money... If you valued a guy at $12m/yr and some other team offers him $15m/yr, what would you do?

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The point of me bringing up re-signing our guys is not to say we shouldn't spend on free agents or that we will re-sign all of our guys. Rookie contracts go along with our QB situation to shows what a knife's edge this cap situation is...

Our league-leading salary cap room doesn't exist if WAS doesn't save us a shitload of money on Wentz. That alone drops us from "salary cap champs" to like bottom-10. Point being that our future (worth a shit) QB will eat up most of this cap that people are itching to spend. Now pay Nelson, Taylor, Kwity (pass-rusher money), etc. and it's not the same picture.

Darius Leonard's cap hit was $8m last year. It's about to be $11m, $20m, $20m, $23m, $20m. Buckner will be similar, Braden Smith will be up there, etc. Money is being spent.

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And who are these teams we're referring to? Which teams are doing it right in free agency?

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by JAFF

Stop that, using facts.

You're the one who's been saying for months now that it's all Monopoly money and teams work around cap issues all of the time, so who cares if Ballard spends too much of Irsay's money. Now you're ok with Ballard hoarding cap space like it goes straight to his bank account b/c we have a few guys we need to re-sign down the road.

If the only way Ballard is capable of re-signing his own draft picks is by hoarding 10s of millions of dollars in cap space every year, then he needs to bring in someone to help him with long term cap management or replace the people on his staff that are currently supposed to help with this. Everything other decent team in the league is able to sign FAs who aren't in the bargain bin and re-sign their own. Why is it so tough for Ballard to do so, especially when he has the most cap space in the league?

[rcubed]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

Kwity and Dayo will hit FA 4 and 3 years down the road.

This is one part that annoys me. I see alot of FAs sign 1-3 year contracts. Why is a future contact 4 years away affecting us signing someone for the next two years?

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

And who are these teams we're referring to? Which teams are doing it right in free agency?

Bengals, Ravens, and Bills off the top of my head are three teams that have apparently done the impossible - be competitive AND try to use free agency to improve. Guess none of them have any good players they need to pay. Apparently don’t plan to draft any either.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by rm1369

Bengals, Ravens, and Bills off the top of my head are three teams that have apparently done the impossible - be competitive AND try to use free agency to improve. Guess none of them have any good players they need to pay. Apparently don’t plan to draft any either.

Here's a couple more:

LAC - Look at how many FAs they've brought in. Don't they realize that Justin Herbert will be a FA in 3 years? No way they'll be able to re-sign him since they decided to spend cap spaced instead of hoard it this year.

LVR - Signed Chandler Jones, traded for Adams and signed him to a huge deal, and now they're trying to extend Carr? Better call up McDickface and tell him that's going to be impossible.

Shit, even the Jagoffs are bringing in FAs. Don't they know that Trevor Lawrence is going to demand a big contract in 4 years as long as he starts playing well against teams other than us? They're the Jagoffs, so it doesn't surprise me that they're screwing this up.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

Here's a couple more:

LAC - Look at how many FAs they've brought in. Don't they realize that Justin Herbert will be a FA in 3 years? No way they'll be able to re-sign him since they decided to spend cap spaced instead of hoard it this year.

LVR - Signed Chandler Jones, traded for Adams and signed him to a huge deal, and now they're trying to extend Carr? Better call up McDickface and tell him that's going to be impossible.

Shit, even the Jagoffs are bringing in FAs. Don't they know that Trevor Lawrence is going to demand a big contract in 4 years as long as he starts playing well against teams other than us? They're the Jagoffs, so it doesn't surprise me that they're screwing this up.

It’s easy - they don’t plan on drafting anyone else good. Problem solved.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

The point of me bringing up re-signing our guys is not to say we shouldn't spend on free agents or that we will re-sign all of our guys. Rookie contracts go along with our QB situation to shows what a knife's edge this cap situation is...

Our league-leading salary cap room doesn't exist if WAS doesn't save us a shitload of money on Wentz. That alone drops us from "salary cap champs" to like bottom-10. Point being that our future (worth a shit) QB will eat up most of this cap that people are itching to spend. Now pay Nelson, Taylor, Kwity (pass-rusher money), etc. and it's not the same picture.

Even if we hadn't been able to trade Wentz we would have been at ~$42M below the cap, which would have been more space than a lot of teams that are being pretty active in FA.

I'm curious too who you think we end up with at QB that will eat up all of our cap space. Since you're thinking they'll have a big cap hit I'm guessing you think it'll be Ryan, Jimmy G, or Mayfield? I would imagine Winston and Mariotta will probably get similar to what Trubisky did. Maybe Winston gets a little more, but not near enough to eat up all of our cap space.

Any QB we'd draft this year or next will be a FA at the earliest in '26, so any FAs picked up this year will probably be off the books before we'd have to pay said QB.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by rcubed

This is one part that annoys me. I see alot of FAs sign 1-3 year contracts. Why is a future contact 4 years away affecting us signing someone for the next two years?

Exactly. It's one thing to say that we need to save some cap space for MPJ and JT, but Kwity and Dayo shouldn't even be in the conversation.

[JAFF]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

You're the one who's been saying for months now that it's all Monopoly money and teams work around cap issues all of the time, so who cares if Ballard spends too much of Irsay's money. Now you're ok with Ballard hoarding cap space like it goes straight to his bank account b/c we have a few guys we need to re-sign down the road.

If the only way Ballard is capable of re-signing his own draft picks is by hoarding 10s of millions of dollars in cap space every year, then he needs to bring in someone to help him with long term cap management or replace the people on his staff that are currently supposed to help with this. Everything other decent team in the league is able to sign FAs who aren't in the bargain bin and re-sign their own. Why is it so tough for Ballard to do so, especially when he has the most cap space in the league?

Sign Mayfield and that great big cap space disappears. So before they can even talk to mayfield, they need to find if a deal is possible.

1. What do the Browns want to make a trade.
2. Will Baker renegotiate a reasonable contract now? If they dont get a restructure with years, incentives , ect. What would be the point.
3. Hoe many picks do the Colts give Up

Thats the short list. Gee whiz, why would you want Ballard to just throw a bucket of money and picks for a guy the Browns want to dump?

I’m for spending money on quality players. This isnt brady or Manning. He’s as big a risk as Wentz.

I can be patient as Ballard tries to make the best deal possible

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by JAFF

Sign Mayfield and that great big cap space disappears. So before they can even talk to mayfield, they need to find if a deal is possible.

1. What do the Browns want to make a trade.
2. Will Baker renegotiate a reasonable contract now? If they dont get a restructure with years, incentives , ect. What would be the point.
3. Hoe many picks do the Colts give Up

Thats the short list. Gee whiz, why would you want Ballard to just throw a bucket of money and picks for a guy the Browns want to dump?

I’m for spending money on quality players. This isnt brady or Manning. He’s as big a risk as Wentz.

I can be patient as Ballard tries to make the best deal possible

I think you're getting confused again Jaff. This is the thread where some of us are bitching that Ballard never brings in any quality FAs. The Baker Mayfield debate is on another thread.

You do make some good points though.