Will Salary Cap problems drive us back down.

[The Medic01]

Next year we could lose impact guys like Duane Brown, Schaub, Barwin. We could lose solid guys like Quin McCain and guys like Butler and Caldwell who could be good O-linemen next year. Losing some of these guys could be disastrous. Do you think the cap will drive us down in a year or two?

 

[amazing80]

Next year we could lose impact guys like Duane Brown, Schaub, Barwin. We could lose solid guys like Quin McCain and guys like Butler and Caldwell who could be good O-linemen next year. Losing some of these guys could be disastrous. Do you think the cap will drive us down in a year or two?

No, I think we will be ok, the best teams face this year in and year out and remain top contenders. We are just in transition from having to over pay free agents to come here to now paying our rookie contract guys, we will balance the budget soon


OMG I sound like the government :kubepalm:

 

[Big Lou]

No, I think we will be ok, the best teams face this year in and year out and remain top contenders. We are just in transition from having to over pay free agents to come here to now paying our rookie contract guys, we will balance the budget soon


OMG I sound like the government :kubepalm:

Very true on both counts IMO!!!

 

[Norg]

next year after we win the Superbowl who will care :P

schaub only has 2 more years here IMO anywayz unless he plays like godlike which ....... yeah

 

[badboy]

Yes we will have cap issues. I see Schaub who is in his last year as a Mario like situation only difference is he will possibly have a chance to play a full season healthy and his age. Schaub with another 4,000+ season especially if he takes team into playoffs will demand attention from QB starved teams. He is earning between $7m-8m and that is a reasonable deal that should allow him to push for a Denver type deal for Manning. Not as high but probably 12-15m. Ok, so what do we do? Sign him? Sure unless like Mario, he demands to see what he can get on open market. Depend on TJ Yates? Only if he starts most if not all games and if Schaub is healthy, how likely is that? So we sign a vet FA? How well did that go this off season for say a WR? Draft one? What QB in this draft will be a starter after one season playing 3rd string? Next draft? Well, hopefully we will draft no higher in 2013 than # 26, right? So who will come out of that draft as a rookie starter to replace a "color me gone" Schaub or who will beat out Yates?

Then there is Connor Barwin who gets say 15+ sacks in his first full time starter role and also his last contract year. Wonder what a healthy OLB (even if he could not also play 4-3 DE) could be offered. Maybe not a $100m 50 guaranteed deal but probably pretty good, right?

Oh no, lions, tigers and bears! Did I forget to mention a starting left tackle in his prime who could be coming off his last year 2012 but second year as a pro bowl type 2nd most important position? Maybe $12m+ per year?

Don't panic quite yet because there is a possible way out. We start by drafting a solid OLB (won't debate which one or what round) that could move into one of the starter roles if Barwin leaves. Note that if we miss, we still have a chance to draft OLB the following draft to plug that role. So replacing Barwin is not as disturbing. Schaub ain't much we can do about but pray for either Schaub to do the "right thing" and re-sign a team friendly deal and or pray that Yates is the real deal and we pick up a project like Lindley for Kubiak to develop.

Leaving ...here is where you step up and make him happy. Wade Phillips has shown what he can do with lesser talented, lower draft picks at OLB. Even a #26 first round Brown took a few years to mature and even some LTs are not successful. Wanna hope you can draft another #26 LT to maybe replace him? WHAHAHAA.

 

[SW H-TOWN]

I think Antonio Smith will be a cap casualty next year. The good news is that if the cap stays flat as some are saying, I stopped trying to figure out the cap a long time ago, I believe a lot of teams will be facing the same problem.

 

[Wolf6151]

I think Antonio Smith, Sean Cody, and Rashad Butler are all prime candidates to be salary cap casualties. Thus the reason I think we take a RT and DT high this year. I think we go DE high in the 2013 draft to replace Smith after giving Mitchell a year to prove himself in 2012. Brown, Barwin, and Quin will be re-signed. Schaub is questionable, he's not really worth more than he's making now 7-8 mil. Schaub getting re-signed really depends on his preformance and health next season.

 

[Scooter]

after all of the speculation on how we could conceivably fit everyone in this year - and then made a huge salary dump - i think the future was our plan. especially with the predicted to be highly escalated cap, i only see two potential problems ... one being schaub asking way too much, and the other being barwin having a huge season. everyone else should fit nicely, and with plenty of cap room to make moves if needed.

even then, schaub's in his 30's and labeled injury prone, he's not going to be getting too much run in free agency and should re-sign for a fair deal. barwin might get some attention, but still wouldnt get much more than a jason babin type deal (5/30ish).

duane brown and brian cushing will be the money makers, and i can only assume that was this year's plan. we had to drop really good talent in order to retain our elite talent. antonio, cody, and a couple other veterans are probably on a "need to draft replacements" list, but i wouldnt be surprised if we tried to keep the roster in tact. every other major player on the squad is signed or can be kept for a good price except for an emerging offensive lineman like butler, but they wouldnt break the bank. i think we're ok.

 

[welsh texan]

I think AJ's contract is going to be a problem with resigning some of these guys. We snuck under the cap by moving his money to future years, which means we've got ~$8m to find for him next off-season, getting rid of Demeco offsets that leaving us with the status quo.

If we end up in a Torry Holt situation with him, it may be better to keep on stockpiling the D for a couple of years and go into a full-blown rebuilding mode on O, setting up a strong line, maintaining our running game, and allowing that, and our strong D to keep us ticking over while we try to find a QB and new receivers.

OTOH, its not like the flat cap affects us any more than other teams, they're all in the same boat, so these guys aren't going to find a competitive market over the next year or two, sure you might find one or two of them lost to an egg's in one basket type team, but for the most part we should have enough options to choose a direction and be successful in it.

The key is drafting, if we were to throw out our current depth chart next season, we'd be likely to make the playoffs in our division, so draft bpa vs future need rather than plugging conceived holes right now, and look for those guys to contribute in year 1 (like Barwin did for instance) and become key players down the line.

Guys I've seen listed in this thread that we could stand to lose if we draft well enough are Quin, McCain, Cody, Caldwell, Butler & Smith, that isn't ideal but we need to focus on having the guys to step in behind.

Its a tough task, and we won't know how exactly how well we've managed it for a couple of years yet.