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Question About the Cap and Carr

TJFord

Noob
If we did release Carr to draft Young, wouldn't that give us $8 million to spend on a FA offensive lineman? At the moment we are talking about re-signing Carr for $8 million and signing the #1 pick (Bush). If we did not sign Carr and drafted Vince, wouldn't that give us an extra $8 million to sign Bentley and Hutchinson? I figure that either Bush or Young is going to generate some excitement, and if we have that much extra cash to spend, we should be able to make a hell of fa destination. Going this route would give us a much better o-line (Bentley, Hutchinson, Pitts, Wade, McNeil/Justice/Scott) and the superstar playmaker (VY).
 
By getting rid of Carr's and McKinney's contracts we save $11 million. That surely is enough extra cap room to sign one or two of Bentley, Hutchinson, or Neal. We still have all the money we would have had had we drafted Bush and kept Carr to spend on other needs (plus whatever would be left over from the extra $11 million). We draft an OT and OG unless we somehow get two of three FAs I mentioned. If we get one of them you use the second pick on McNeill, Colledge, Trueblood, or Giles if he's there. With one of our thirds, we get Lutui, Joseph, or an OT if Giles was available. The more I think about it, the more sense it seems to make. By drafting Young and releasing Carr, we get a top prosepect and the better line while having $ left over for defensive FAs. That is a real start to turning this team around.
 
TJ, are you playing ball with the Bucs this year?
Man the cap is tricky...so much so the FA stuff is gonna have to be well thought out
 
There are guys that would be better to cut and free up contract room that aren't contributing to the team and/or don't have the potential to really contribute much more (Steve McKinney needs to be cut unless he takes a big pay cut, Marcus Coleman needs to be cut unless we can get a 6th or 7th round pick for him in a trade, Corey Bradford needs to not be resigned, those three for sure). Not resigning Carr will save some cap room but you're losing an QB with four years of NFL experience and who many people think has potential to be a very good QB, especially with Kubiak now running the team. Drafting Vince Young is going to cost us more against the cap than resiging David Carr, and in that case Vince is replacing Carr and not adding anything new to the team (some people argue he's an improvement over Carr, some say he's not an improvement, I don't want to argue that at this point, my point here is that he replaces a player rather than adding another piece to the offense). With drafting Reggie and keeping Carr, you're going to spend a lot of money on Reggie too ($1 less per year than on Vince) but you're adding that playmaker to the offense in addition to what you already have, so releasing Carr and drating Vince would be less expensive but you're exchanging one QB for another rather than adding a big-time playmaker to what's already there.

I really doubt Hutchinson gets release. The Seahawks will have $20-25 million in cap room so there's no reason they can't resign him and Shaun Alexander. LeCharles Bentley sounds like he's leaving the Saints, I would love to get him but it sounds like he wants to return to his home town of Cleveland, but either way we should be $15-20 million under the cap with giving Carr his 3-year extension, (not including signing draft picks and other free agents), but I think we could make Bentley an offer that would interest him and that we could afford, plus releasing McKinney, Coleman, and a few other dead weight people will free up more room.

That said, I am still in the trade-down camp, I think Bush would cost more money than he really adds, we have far more important issues to address, we can attain multiple draft picks and/or veterans for the one pick, and it would save some money to get a guy with a lower pick.

As an FYI, here's a thread we started a while back with cap figures for our guys so you can see how much they are costing to keep or trade/cut.
http://www.houstontexans.com/fan_zone/messageboards/showthread.php?t=16789
 
All good arguments concerning VY, but let me ask you this: Would we be better off with Carr or with the ability to use Carr's salaray to upgrade at other positions? Would we be better off with Bentley (who has professed a desire to play in Texas) up front blocking or would we be better off with Carr behind the same o-line? I just do not commit long term to a guy that has not shown that he is one of the top 5-10 qbs in the league. Signing the guy because he has decent talent is how you turn into a constant also ran.
 
TJFord said:
Would we be better off with Bentley (who has professed a desire to play in Texas) up front blocking or would we be better off with Carr behind the same o-line?


Bentley said on the Jim Rome show ....

"I want to get PAID and I want to play for a WINNER ....

There are also reports that he wants to play in Cleveland .


2-14 is NOT a winner ....

I really DOUBT he would consider the Texans considering these facts. :twocents:
 
Bentley (and Hutch) has been listed as a target for about 12 teams. So, someone is going to overpay. I would like to have him, but not at the price he will command. If we overpay for someone, make it Woodson so we have another lockdown corner (maybe we use Buchy to move one of our picks up a few spots). (then if we trade down, add Huff and that would be an awesome secondary - - Peek would look like he was LT)

There are a shortage of good free agent OL (same goes for WR & TE). Luckily the draft is strong in OL (and TE). So, I would spend my draft on OL and other "best available player" picks (and pray one of those stud OTs or TEs drop to us at 33) - - logic being we have enough holes that we should still fill needs.
 
TJFord said:
All good arguments concerning VY, but let me ask you this: Would we be better off with Carr or with the ability to use Carr's salaray to upgrade at other positions? Would we be better off with Bentley (who has professed a desire to play in Texas) up front blocking or would we be better off with Carr behind the same o-line? I just do not commit long term to a guy that has not shown that he is one of the top 5-10 qbs in the league. Signing the guy because he has decent talent is how you turn into a constant also ran.

If you let Carr go and draft Vince, you're trading Carr's contract for Vince's bigger one, and for a QB that will likely not be ready to play for 2 years, so you're not gaining any money against the cap. I would rather commit 3 years and $24 million for Carr and see if he can fulfill his potential of being a top 10 QB than commit 6 years and $55 million to a college draft pick that has some serious questions about his quarterbacking skills and will need 2 years just to evaluate what kind of QB he has the potential to be.

I hope we can get Bentley, I have not heard him say he'd like to play in Texas, he has said he wants to be paid (probably will get 6 years and $25-28 million), he wants to play for a winner, and he's expressed a desire to return to his hometown Cleveland to play. There is no way we get Steve Hutchinson, I don't think Seattle will let him go since he's a pretty vital part of their OLine and they are projected to have $23-27 million in cap room so they will have money to pay Shaun Alexander and Hutchinson, and if he does leave Seattle I am pretty sure he'll go to a team that is capable of making a Super Bowl run since he just experienced getting to the Super Bowl and losing, so I don't see him coming here anyways. Outside of them and John Abraham if he gets released, there aren't many free agents that would be worth pursuing pending which additional ones get cut by teams like the Jets and Titans that are way over the cap.
 
The biggest issue I have with just letting Carr go, is that you don't get any value for him (except a 2007 compensation pick).
 
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