OK, you are GP the GM. Is there any cut-off on Aso? What if he wants $20 mil per year? What if he wants his entire 7 year, $140 mil contract guaranteed? Where would you draw the line if there is any line other than having Aso sign his own check out of McNair's wallet?
I don't know the ins and outs of how to structure and NFL contract when weighed against the team's other roster contracts and how it mingles with the salary cap.
I've tried to click on the links, on this board, and follow the trail down into the rabbit hole (to see how it all works) and I just get more confused by all the clauses and legal mumbo jumbo. I'm not a numbers guy, that's why I hired a GM--To do the numbers.
But I don't think the owner is serious about the serious problems on this team. In his mind, he made the ultimate STEAL by signing Wade Phillips who openly stated that he can work with what he had without doing too much damage to the roster as it currently stands. In Bob's world, the Wade Phillips acquisition will transform this defense and nullify any real need to overhaul the defensive players. We've been signaled what bob's mindset is: Wade Phillips can make things all better, make the boo-boo not hurt anymore.
Can I answer your question directly? Not with any semblance of accuracy as it pertains to how the numbers work. But I can say that the proverbial "line in the sand" should be a very generous amount. Will it be Aso's last contract, therefore a big doozy of an amount as a one-last-ride contract? Maybe it should be. Might as well lock up a gentleman who plays his position very well and let him play AND coach up his fellow secondary players while he's here (a two-for-one idea). What if it's a short contract, loaded up like a keg stuffed with TNT in the cartoons, and therefore you don't have years and years of dead money like the longer contracts designed by Casserly that took us a long time to be rid of? Maybe it would work. I dunno.
All I know is that I think we should have let Owen Daniels walk due to how we always have depth at TE. I don't recall Demeco Ryans' situation--if he's signed already, which I think he did so recently (last season?)-- but I would try and do something to get him off my team's payroll too (that's a nasty injury he sustained, and I think it will negatively affect his speed on the field) and then I'd also go with a LB in round 1 of this year's draft to grab a 3-4 guy for Wade to shape up. Pair him up with Barwin to make a great duo, then you got Cushing in there too.
The premiere, no-hassle "Andre Johnson in CB clothes" guy is out there and all I can think is that somehow the Texans already know that his asking price is too high. And "asking price" is a relative term when it comes to how the NFL teams decide to spend their money.
Bob is an ultra-loyal guy to his current players, which is good. It's the "getting here" part that seems to be the most daunting challenge to any available NFL player who might come here to play.
I'm a Grimes guy, too, but that Steelers defense has been so historically full of depth and talent that I don't know if Ike Taylor is as good as the whole unit that surrounds him. That's why I like Aso and Grimes: Two guys who stand out among their teammates.