infantrycak
Hall of Fame
Really? Look at Gaine's answer quoted above - bigger title, more responsibility & family.
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Replacement GM thread
- Thread starter AcresHomesTexan
- Start date
Really? Look at Gaine's answer quoted above - bigger title, more responsibility & family.
badboy
Hall of Fame
Actually, Cushing ($8.8 m cap) has already been replace at inside LB and moved to OLB. Cunningham ($1 m cap) and Cole ($.5 m). Cutting Cush saves $7.5 million. No one has said Clark or Gia should be back. Miller is a question for me as his avg per rush has dropped each year & he dropped from 8 TDs his first 2 seasons to 5 in '16 to only 3 last season. He is not a pile mover or a blocker. He did do well in catching the ball but we should be able to get that much cheaper especially with Watson. The best thing he has is no one else should be on roster..Blue is just as bad a runner though also good at catching. IIRC CnnnD posted no NFL back has returned successfully from Achilles injury so Foreman probably not returning. Tyler Erving from patellar injury?
Jeff Allen? Did he have even one good game? Yeah, he played out of his position..I used that also but man he was putrid for two seasons and I keep thinking his $5 m savings could be added to a contract offer to Andrew Norwell. Yes we need to spend and draft but we have the money and if fortunate can resolve OG, CB and safety in FA. If so, three threes should get us decent olinemen in draft and our 4th and possible three picks in 6th should bring depth.
badboy
Hall of Fame
aahh but the wait staff refills my drink (roster) and gets me more rolls (free agents). She listens to my order (fan opinions and comments) and tries to make me happy. Of course the cook has to put a good meal (wins and good play) in front of me but wait staff is still important to my over all dining experience.
I agree with your assessments of the players, the point is I don't we don't have enough capspace and draft picks to fill the holes we have, much less any new holes we create.
Draft is a crapshoot. Even if they work out they might not be able to contribute right away.
Free agency is the same. We have room for 2 expensive guys or we can go cheaper for more guys.
But remember Allen and Miller were free agent signings just two years ago.
If you cut Allen/Cushing/Get JoJo to accept 3.5 that's about 17mil in cap savings. That alone will get you 2 high level starters when you add in say 5 mil off of the 30 mil already on the cap and you would have 25 mil more to add a couple of more solid starters. Say you added Joyner/Butler in FA and added James/Kline on good but not top contracts.
Then going into rd 3 of the draft trade up to get an OT/OG and the OL should look much better. Good news is you can find a couple of OL starters in Rd. 3, this is a deep OL class.
You still should have some cap room left over to re-sign Clowney. Granted I'm not a cap guy so my numbers could be wrong. But the point is they have plenty of cap room to upgrade the roster.
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badboy
Hall of Fame
Read my last two posts plus I'Cak's in thread about real cap space. You just cannot look at only this year's space. We have about $80 m 2019 & that does not include players that should be gone like Cushing, Jeff Allen, Feidorowicz and Newton.
OG first two seasons $30 m
LCB replacing Joseph $30 m
RCB replacing Johnson $24m
Qb #2 Tyrod Taylor $ 14 m
WR Sammy Watkins $ 8 m
P Shane Lechler $4 m
S M. Gilchrist $10 m total $120 = $40 for '18 & 80 '19
These are just examples as contracts with longer terms could lower these amounts. Also a new deal for Clowney could reduce his 2018 hit of $14 to $2-4 m by bonusing it out and spreading over six years giving another $10-12 for another 'prime' player. Dumping Cushing and Allen gives another $12.5m that could bring a 'prime' or 2-3 'lesser' guys for depth.
I was going from the "real capspace" thread.
He had calculated $30 mil which he says:
"This should be a sufficient amount of cap dollars to sign 2 high level free agents and 2 or 3 mid-tier free agents, or 5+ lower level free agents. "
If you cut Allen and Cushing, then you can get 1 more high level free agent. But then you're also left with 1 more hole at OL or LB.
Or you can try to replace them with 2 mid tier guys, which adds risk, or lower tier guys which will be more of a crapshoot than just keeping them.
And we can't assume we can just sign high tier guys. There aren't many, and other teams will try to sign them too.
On the draft, we can probably expect half the picks not to work out, and even if we draft a good OL or 2, they might not be ready to start right away and may need a few years to become really good. If they are a sure thing, they will probably go in the first round.
I'm not a fan of trading up because again we're just causing more holes by having fewer picks. We are already filling the roster with too many street guys hanging onto being in the league.
But haven't we been front loading contracts? I don't have a problem with moving the cap hits back, but the Texans have not been operating that way. I'm also not sure players would be looking for this kind of contract.
badboy
Hall of Fame
My numbers are front loaded to first two seasons--two $30 m and a $24 m are very significant amounts for a guard and corners.
A fair response.
You should never let the fear of letting Cushing/Allen (2 below avg starters) go because of the holes they will leave. Since there's already depth on the roster at LB Cushing is easily replaceable. You would then have the $$$$ to replace Allen with Norville. (A huge upgrade.) Or spend the $$$$ on guys like James/Kline who would upgrade the OL. (Hypothetically) Give me Norvell.
As far as trading up goes if a guy you think can play LT drops into the 2nd like Dawkins did last yr, use 2019 picks to trade up and get him. I like Rankin alot and if he fell to the 2nd I would trade up and get him in a heartbeat. I also like Cappa from who videos I've seen on him. He is a small school guy but he looks like a young Bahktiari to me. I need to see him against better comp at the Sr. Bowl to get a better feel for how good he is.
infantrycak
Hall of Fame
We have been front loading and that's fine if you don't want/need more players.
But the "true cap" thread is incorrect in its assessment of they can sign 2 top guys or sign 5 low/mid. There's more than one way to skin a cat. And often the players don't care.
For example:
$2 mil 1st year salary.
Pay an $8 mil signing bonus on a 4 year deal. Cap hit year 1 is $4 mil.
Pay an $8 mil roster bonus. Cap hit year 1 is $10 mil.
Same avg contract. Same money in the player's pocket.
So one way is 2 top guys and 1 mid. The other is 1 of the top guys. Same cap space spent.
The Jags did a 1 year delayed front end load on Bouye (signing bonus year 1, roster bonus year 2). His cap hits are $5.5, $21, $14, $14.
So there are options available.
Hopefully Gaine has a good grasp of who is available and at what price. If those guys are ready to sign with Texans then cutting Allen shouldn't be a problem.
I think we should probably address OL through free agency so that they come in and immediately start. Address secondary through draft.
Of course that depends on who is available to draft. I guess we have to abandon taking best player available?
Fair enough, but if we backload then that means less capspace to sign guys in future years.
I've never actually been a fan of "front loading" though. It basically means you sign fewer guys for the upcoming year. So they front loaded DeAndre and then couldn't sign an OL last year, for example.
People call that "team friendly" because "you can cut Brock in 2 years" but in the meantime it means you have less depth.
The question is if you could only sign 3 top tier FA's would you sign a CB/S who are more talent than the OL FA's? Or would you sign Norville and overpay (IMHO) for a guy like James or Glenn?
I take the CB and a S like Joyner (Best S the Texans have had since Quin) and Norville. Then hope to add a couple of OL during the draft and also hope like crazy Davenport improves.) This goes slightly against my trenches 1st philosophy, but the OL talent isn't there in FA this yr. It is there in the draft.
I was thinking OL in FA so that we can protect Watson right away. Rookies may take awhile to develop
But yes I'd prefer what you are saying in a vacuum because we should go for more talent. More talent is better. Will be interesting to see how Gaine approaches it.
This is the conundrum. Talented guys at position of need in FA and develop a young OL.
If Gaine could get Norville in FA and an OT like Dawkins in the draft that would go along way to fixing the OL. It's fairly common to be able to find a starting rookie OG in the 3rd rd.
lol! First time I've ever seen you use Pancakes to support an obviously PC answer.
Smoke and fire on my part, man. Reports from everywhere indicate Gaine was aligned with O'Brien and that got him on the wrong side of Smith. It's just politics. And helps explain why Gaine was really on the ONLY candidate for GM.
infantrycak
Hall of Fame
lol! First time I've ever seen you use Pancakes to support an obviously PC answer.
Didn't use Pancakes. I was referring to the Gaine quotes.
When this discussion began folks were saying the move was lateral. Gaine says that wasn't true.
As for smoke, there's been a whole lot of egg for reporters too.
Anyway, I think it's plausible but don't claim to know.
According to his former boss, Bills GM Brandon Beane: "It's generally a pretty lateral move, but Brian was excited about building this and starting this," Beane told the Bills' web site. "I think partnering with me and Joe was attractive."
This was said in May 2017 when the Bills hired Gaine, so there was no need for polititalk.
Brian can say what he needs to say now, especially with the ghost of Rick Smith still in the building. He's not going to tell the whole truth because it serves no purpose and could undermine his authority with so many people that Smith hired still employed by the Texans.
And yeah, reporters can be wrong, but right now almost all of them are in unison that he was fired by Smith last year. Maybe they all get it from the same source? Perhaps the pro-O'Brien leaker in the building.
lol! First time I've ever seen you use Pancakes to support an obviously PC answer.
Smoke and fire on my part, man. Reports from everywhere indicate Gaine was aligned with O'Brien and that got him on the wrong side of Smith. It's just politics. And helps explain why Gaine was really on the ONLY candidate for GM.
Yep,
According to Cak there was no dysfunction within the Texans org, so it would be impossible for Gaine to get on Ricky's bad side.
CloakNNNdagger
Hall of Fame
On Why the Eagles blocked Joe Douglas from interviewing for the Houston Texans GM job
HOWIE ROSEMAN: "We were during the season. I think that the way the league rules are, that during the season, it's not expected that you'd allow people to interview with other teams. That's the way the rules are written. We're going to abide by the rules that are written.
"Joe's a valuable part of our organization. We love having him in Philadelphia. But, again, during the season we're going to focus on playing."
TAKEAWAY: Douglas' influence over the personnel department has been monumental, as illustrated by leveraging his past relationships with Jeffery, and Jernigan while also serving as a driving force behind identifying and selecting Derek Barnett in the first round of last April's NFL Draft.
In all likelihood, it is going to be a struggle for the Eagles to keep Douglas within the organization long-term, without giving him a promotion in title and a raise, because he is one of the more highly respected and coveted personnel men across the NFL. link
HOWIE ROSEMAN: "We were during the season. I think that the way the league rules are, that during the season, it's not expected that you'd allow people to interview with other teams. That's the way the rules are written. We're going to abide by the rules that are written.
"Joe's a valuable part of our organization. We love having him in Philadelphia. But, again, during the season we're going to focus on playing."
TAKEAWAY: Douglas' influence over the personnel department has been monumental, as illustrated by leveraging his past relationships with Jeffery, and Jernigan while also serving as a driving force behind identifying and selecting Derek Barnett in the first round of last April's NFL Draft.
In all likelihood, it is going to be a struggle for the Eagles to keep Douglas within the organization long-term, without giving him a promotion in title and a raise, because he is one of the more highly respected and coveted personnel men across the NFL. link
Bulls on Parade
2017 Astros: Earn It!
If the Texans really wanted to hire Joe Douglas as GM they could have waited to interview him don't you think? Seems silly for the Eagles excuse to be "we were during the season." Let's face it, The McNairs and Bill O'Brien all had a hard on for Brian Gaine from his time here previously.
I buy the Eagles answer, and speculate that the Texans (or at least the "search" firm) knew the Eagles answer before the question was asked.