Originally posted by tankle104:
Originally posted by BOI49er:
I get your point, but no way we can't do this and the advantages are huge. First of all, as I understand it, we are over $35m under the cap now, and the plan is to rotate most of that into next year. Secondly, we would be saving about $12m against what we would be offering him, although we could and would push much of that off into future years. It's not gone. Thirdly, we'd have the flexibility to move on after this season with no dead cap hit on that bonus and guarantees and future years under that contract he'd already have. Fourthly, Aiyuk and not us, would be taking the risk of a performance decline or injury. Fifthly, we would certainly tag him next year, and then make a more informed determination on which way to go. We would know his health and performance and that of the rest of our players including our two rookie WRS, we could still trade him for a draft pick(s) that would be in the current year whereas we can not do that now, and we could still sign him to a long term contract and still push the money back out of the early years starting another year down the road to get more cheap years out of him.
I think this is the Best path from the team perspective, and therefor we should hold firm on our $26m offer. For all the reasons above, and the fact that you don't leave a generational wealth contract on the table, if BA is not as dumb as AB, and I bet he is not, he will take it.
Right now we are over the 2025 by a projected $26M, so that roll over isn't really money we will have. It's meant to cover our expenses. Now the cap could go up a lot again and help give us space but this years salary cap space is mainly meant to help clear up next year to assist in resigning Brock etc.
I agree that it's best for both parties to resign BA and I hope it's in the $27M range. I expect we give him a big signing bonus and spread it out to clear up space for the next few years.
next year we have some key contracts up and need room to keep adding talent in FA. But yes, it's best for BA to secure serious generational wealth this off season and for our salary - I just don't see us keeping him around on the franchise tag, i think we would trade him.
I agree. We would tag him to sign him or trade him, either of which would not result in a big cap hit for 2025. Either way, take his cheap 5th year option first if he really wants to give it to us.