This isn't taking into consideration the ramifications of the uncapped year in 2010, because I'm not sure how teams are allowed to allocate bonuses/salaries for that year. Im sure there are plenty of rules, so I'm just going to assume its business as normal.
Lets assume that Julius Peppers walks into the Texans FO and says "I want to sign with you guys, but only if you make me the NFLs highest paid defensive player." What would this do to our team?
Inthebullseye.com reports that the Texans are currently ~$38 million and change under the cap (if you include the recent savings of ~9 million from cutting Green/Greenwood). I fully expect us to get rid of Demps and Chris Brown, freeing up just under ~4 million more in cap space. This should bring our total to around ~42 million or so.
The important free agents we have this year are Dunta Robinson (UFA) and Owen Daniels (RFA).
Next year, we will have Chester Pitts, Kevin Walter, Kris Brown, and Demeco Ryans.
We also have to remember that we only have around 40 players actively signed and need money for draft picks. So in reality, while we have a lot of cap space at the moment, our "useable" cap space is probably closer to about 20-25 million.
Now what about Peppers? Last year the Vikings gave Jared Allen a 6 year, 74 million dollar deal with 31 million guaranteed. Allen's cap hit this year was about 12 million dollars. Assuming Peppers wants at least what Allen got plus 5%, that means he is probably targeting a 6 year, 78 million dollar deal with about 33 million in guarantees. That would bring his cap hit to 13 million per season. Signing just Peppers would effectively reduce our useable cap to about half, making it extremely difficult to franchise tag a guy like Dunta Robinson.
Just something to think about
Lets assume that Julius Peppers walks into the Texans FO and says "I want to sign with you guys, but only if you make me the NFLs highest paid defensive player." What would this do to our team?
Inthebullseye.com reports that the Texans are currently ~$38 million and change under the cap (if you include the recent savings of ~9 million from cutting Green/Greenwood). I fully expect us to get rid of Demps and Chris Brown, freeing up just under ~4 million more in cap space. This should bring our total to around ~42 million or so.
The important free agents we have this year are Dunta Robinson (UFA) and Owen Daniels (RFA).
Next year, we will have Chester Pitts, Kevin Walter, Kris Brown, and Demeco Ryans.
We also have to remember that we only have around 40 players actively signed and need money for draft picks. So in reality, while we have a lot of cap space at the moment, our "useable" cap space is probably closer to about 20-25 million.
Now what about Peppers? Last year the Vikings gave Jared Allen a 6 year, 74 million dollar deal with 31 million guaranteed. Allen's cap hit this year was about 12 million dollars. Assuming Peppers wants at least what Allen got plus 5%, that means he is probably targeting a 6 year, 78 million dollar deal with about 33 million in guarantees. That would bring his cap hit to 13 million per season. Signing just Peppers would effectively reduce our useable cap to about half, making it extremely difficult to franchise tag a guy like Dunta Robinson.
Just something to think about