Quote:
Originally Posted by kccrow
Yes, in a sense. It really gives you about $23.55 million to work with to sign free agents if tagging Ford. That's a good sum, at minimum 2 upper echelon free agents and 3 if you wanted but I'd lean towards 2 with a bunch of mid-level guys thrown in.
If the team can cut Berry, then the way I feel about Houston is you approach him and you talk to him about the future. One is, we can cut you right now and you can go see what you can get on the market and maybe you'll make $32m over the next 3 years or maybe you won't. Or, we can take your next 2 seasons and we spread them out over 3. We take the 15.25m you're set to make in 2019 and we make that a signing bonus and we take the 17.00m you're set to make in 2020 and we spread that out over the 3 years as your salary. We'll fully guarantee your 2019 portion of that salary. Houston now makes a guaranteed $20.92m by carving up his old contract (nearly the same as his total cap hit this season) and his cap hits are $16.6m in 2019, 12.75m in 2020, and 10.75m in 2021. He's worth that, in my opinion. That saves 4.5m against the cap in 2019 and 6.25m against the cap in 2020. You'd retain your premier edge player for the next 3 seasons. The savings you'd get between that restructure and Berry being cut is enough to carry a couple of mid-tier free agents.
|
I like your thinking, and really, of the two I'd prefer to keep Houston as he's a better overall football player. BUT the problem is, I think...that Houston is not a linebacker in this 4-3. He's a DE. So is Ford. On top of that, I expect they would both be RDE's. No way you want Houston at SAM he'll be in coverage most of the time. That's a poor use of his skillset. Know what I mean? I also think LDE is not a great spot for him, he's too light to be there. Speaks is built for that.
I'd prefer to do Houston's deal something like you've described, and tag and trade Ford. I don't know if that's what Veach is wanting. I think Houston lined up next to Jones would just crush. I think Ford will get neutralized by just running right at him.