How about taking our cap hits now?

We have some overpaid players. Many of which, if we cut them, the cap hit is almost as high or higher than their salary for the year. I don't consider most of these guys to be long term solutions for our team. So, why don't we see what we can get for them - thereby adding draft picks (or players) and fixing out future cap. The drawback is that we will not be able to pay to replace them with anything but rookies or cheap free agents. But, while it really hurts us this year, we would be much better of next year.

This is my short list of players we should consider dealing or cutting.

The "Unfabulous 8"
Name.................2006 Cap Amt./2006 Cap Hit if Cut/Traded
Todd Wade..............$5,172,827/$6,691,308
Gary Walker.............$5,839,493/$7,357,972
Robaire Smith...........$4,797,827/$5,591,308
Morlon Greenwood.....$3,966,160/$5,624,640
Kailee Wong.............$3,171,160/$4,684,460
Jason Babin..............$1,325,670/$2,966,668
Marcus Coleman........$3,041,160/$2,512,320
Kris Brown.................$1,586,160/$1,544,640

That is over 36 mil in accelerated cap hit. But, that means we would have 36 mil MORE over the next 3 years.

And two more that could be trade bait because they have too large of a yearly salary:
Steve McKinney........$4,706,160/$806,160
Zach Wiegert............$4,206,160/$1,412,320

Of that list, Walker and Robaire (and possibly Babin) should have decent trade value. Especially considering that once we take the cap hit for the signing bonus, the team we deal them to gets them at a pretty cheap price.
Wade, Coleman and Greenwood may have some value - but, if not, let them go. Maybe Miami would throw Ricky our way for them.
Brown and Wong should probably be kept.

Walker and Robaire each should net us something decent. Either a 2nd round pick or let us move our picks up a few spots. I would trade the rest for a pack of cigarrettes, and I don't smoke.

I really like the possibilty of dealing with Arizona.

AZ team needs: DT, FS, MLB, CB, TE, OL, RB, QB
Apparently DT, TE and FS are basically empty positions.

Gary Walker to AZ for #44 or Bryant Johnson (would be the #2 WR we need - drafted in 1st round a couple of years ago but is behind Fitz and Boldin)

We could also give them Buchy, Coleman, McKinney and Wade to fill their needs. All we would want is some draft picks and BJohnson.

Xman said:

We have some overpaid players. Many of which, if we cut them, the cap hit is almost as high or higher than their salary for the year. I don't consider most of these guys to be long term solutions for our team. So, why don't we see what we can get for them - thereby adding draft picks (or players) and fixing out future cap. The drawback is that we will not be able to pay to replace them with anything but rookies or cheap free agents. But, while it really hurts us this year, we would be much better of next year.

This is my short list of players we should consider dealing or cutting.

The "Unfabulous 8"
Name.................2006 Cap Amt./2006 Cap Hit if Cut/Traded
Todd Wade..............$5,172,827/$6,691,308
Gary Walker.............$5,839,493/$7,357,972
Robaire Smith...........$4,797,827/$5,591,308
Morlon Greenwood.....$3,966,160/$5,624,640
Kailee Wong.............$3,171,160/$4,684,460
Jason Babin..............$1,325,670/$2,966,668
Marcus Coleman........$3,041,160/$2,512,320
Kris Brown.................$1,586,160/$1,544,640

That is over 36 mil in accelerated cap hit. But, that means we would have 36 mil MORE over the next 3 years.

And two more that could be trade bait because they have too large of a yearly salary:
Steve McKinney........$4,706,160/$806,160
Zach Wiegert............$4,206,160/$1,412,320

Of that list, Walker and Robaire (and possibly Babin) should have decent trade value. Especially considering that once we take the cap hit for the signing bonus, the team we deal them to gets them at a pretty cheap price.
Wade, Coleman and Greenwood may have some value - but, if not, let them go. Maybe Miami would throw Ricky our way for them.
Brown and Wong should probably be kept.

Walker and Robaire each should net us something decent. Either a 2nd round pick or let us move our picks up a few spots. I would trade the rest for a pack of cigarrettes, and I don't smoke.

Click to expand...

I doubt we can afford to get rid of all these guys, find guys to fill their roster spots, and bring in many good players as well. This is what I'd do with these guys:
Todd Wade..............$5,172,827/$6,691,308 - Ask to restructure his deal
Gary Walker.............$5,839,493/$7,357,972 - Ask to restructure his deal
Robaire Smith...........$4,797,827/$5,591,308 - Ask to resturcture his deal
Morlon Greenwood.....$3,966,160/$5,624,640 - I wish we hadn't signed in the first place but he's here.
Kailee Wong.............$3,171,160/$4,684,460 - Somwhat expensive but he's our best LB right now, and it's too much added expense to move him.
Jason Babin..............$1,325,670/$2,966,668 - I wish we hadn't drafted him, esp. for all those picks, but he is here, will be DE next year.
Marcus Coleman........$3,041,160/$2,512,320 - He needs to be cut/traded on principle after that horrendous showing last year.
Kris Brown.................$1,586,160/$1,544,640 - Expensive for a mediocre kicker but cutting him and signing someone else costs more money, so unless someone really good is available he stays.
Steve McKinney........$4,706,160/$806,160 - Demand a contract restructure
Zach Wiegert............$4,206,160/$1,412,320 - Ask to restructure his deal

First, I want to ask how the hell did some of these guys get this kind of money anyways? Now that that's out of the way, I still like Wiegert, he's expensive so you can ask if he will take a bit of a pay cut but I think he is good enough to stick around for one more year. McKinney needs to take a pay cut or he's gone. Right now it saves us $3.9 million against the cap to get rid of him and he would get no money out of it, so we have a lot of leverage against him, not to mention he didn't play well last year anyways, so if he wants to stay he needs to take a big pay cut (at least half of his salary IMO). With the others, it is a little harder to demand a pay cut since it costs us more against the cap to get rid of them. Walker and Payne are towards the end of their careers so you could possibly get them to take a pay cut for the betterment of the team, plus Payne saves us $600k to get rid of unlike Walker that costs us $1.5 million. Robaire would be a little harder to convince, but I think he's a pretty good DT and is pretty young, so I wouldn't move him. Greenwood unfortunately is going to stay, and Wong is our best LB so he should stay as well, you could maybe talk him into a slight salary downgrade. Babin's contract isn't much of an issue, especially since he's moving to DE (the initial choice to draft him wasn't that good, but too late to change that). Todd Wade is expensive too (not sure how he got that contract as a RT) but also costs a lot more to get rid of. We could try to get a salary reduction out of him, but if he doesn't take one I would still prefer him on the bench rather than on the field, and keeping him saves $1.5 million against the cap. At least Walker and Payne are still pretty functional players for us, I don't like Wade being on the field though. Marcus Coleman needs to be cut unless we can get a trade for him (7th rounder if we're lucky), he completely quit on the team last year, we have replaced him with Earl, Brown, and/or a newcomer that will hopefully come in, and it saves us money to ax him. Kris Brown is pretty expensive for a mediocre-at-best kicker, but it doesn't save us any money to cut him and we have to pay someone to replace him, so unless there i a really good one available that is worth the extra money it will cost Brown unfortunately stays.

We really don't need half the players on the list above and if I wasn't strapped money wise I would have released some charged to this year.If we go 43 theres a lot of player we won't need.If we unload to many,Kubiak won't have much to work with turning thing around.

Well, if we keep them this year, then we have the same problem next year. I would rather take the hit now, then next year we could actually sign a few free agents that would be starters.
Even though we would really suck next year (or should), we would be in position to really jump in 2 years.

Xman said:

We have some overpaid players. Many of which, if we cut them, the cap hit is almost as high or higher than their salary for the year. I don't consider most of these guys to be long term solutions for our team. So, why don't we see what we can get for them - thereby adding draft picks (or players) and fixing out future cap. The drawback is that we will not be able to pay to replace them with anything but rookies or cheap free agents. But, while it really hurts us this year, we would be much better of next year.

This is my short list of players we should consider dealing or cutting.

The "Unfabulous 8"
Name.................2006 Cap Amt./2006 Cap Hit if Cut/Traded
Todd Wade..............$5,172,827/$6,691,308
Gary Walker.............$5,839,493/$7,357,972
Robaire Smith...........$4,797,827/$5,591,308
Morlon Greenwood.....$3,966,160/$5,624,640
Kailee Wong.............$3,171,160/$4,684,460
Jason Babin..............$1,325,670/$2,966,668
Marcus Coleman........$3,041,160/$2,512,320
Kris Brown.................$1,586,160/$1,544,640

That is over 36 mil in accelerated cap hit. But, that means we would have 36 mil MORE over the next 3 years.

And two more that could be trade bait because they have too large of a yearly salary:
Steve McKinney........$4,706,160/$806,160
Zach Wiegert............$4,206,160/$1,412,320

Of that list, Walker and Robaire (and possibly Babin) should have decent trade value. Especially considering that once we take the cap hit for the signing bonus, the team we deal them to gets them at a pretty cheap price.
Wade, Coleman and Greenwood may have some value - but, if not, let them go. Maybe Miami would throw Ricky our way for them.
Brown and Wong should probably be kept.

Walker and Robaire each should net us something decent. Either a 2nd round pick or let us move our picks up a few spots. I would trade the rest for a pack of cigarrettes, and I don't smoke.

Click to expand...

I have actually been thinking the same thing myself lately. I would unload McKinney, Wade, Coleman, and probably Payne and/or Walker. I think if there is no cap in 07 we should definitely unload some of our more overpaid players who do not perform.

Xman said:

Well, if we keep them this year, then we have the same problem next year. I would rather take the hit now, then next year we could actually sign a few free agents that would be starters.
Even though we would really suck next year (or should), we would be in position to really jump in 2 years.

Click to expand...

All of these guys will cost less money to cut next year since they will have one more year of their amortized signing bonus off the books, I'll try to look that up and re-post on here how much these guys will cost to cut next year as opposed to this year.

I think we'll cut at least one of them, but it's just a guess.

Out of the list Walker, Wade, McKinney, and Weigert will all need to be restructured or they will likely be let go save Wade due to his hit this year. Marcus Coleman is likely cut, an interesting thing I would look at is a package of McKinney, Coleman, and possibly Payne or Player X plus our 7th to acquire a player or extra 4th rounder. I doubt these guys will command much more than that.

I am not 100% sure and would definately need the resources of a resident capologist to know but I think a good portion of the listed cap casualties could be reduced if they were cut after June 1st.