One way to keep UFA Saffold a Ram in 2014..........

[Lesson]

Would they have enough cap room?

 

[Alan]

flv added:
I'm a number-cruncher. I look at what we get for the money and what else we could have done with it.
We're paying Long for what he'll produce in 2013-2015 not what he produced in 2009-2010. If Long plays for 3 years it'll cost us $25¼M. He would need to play at a top 10 OT level for 3 years to justify that. If he only plays for 2 years it costs us $20M. He would need to play at top 5 LT level to justify that. If he retires tomorrow it'll cost us $20M. Hmmm! He's not playing at a ProBowl level so far. If he was Rams fans would be screaming for a ProBowl berth. I wouldn't argue against him being a top 10 OT this year, but he'll have to stay at that level for another 36 games in addition to the 12 he's played to justify that deal. To be a good value deal he'd need to play at a very high level for at least 4 years. With his injury history it's very unlikely. I also factor in what his quality of play achieves. Even if he's the best LT in football, who never concedes a pressure let alone a sack, is it value if we have weak players inside him who concede sacks and pressures almost immediately?
Please don't mistake disliking a contract with disliking a player or underestimating his quality of play. I like Long. I also like Finnegan, but I don't think either were good deals for the Rams.
I thought Saffold was outstanding in his 1st year for the Rams. He was decent/ mediocre/good, delete as applicable, during the last 2 years when he was also beset by injuries. Over the 3 years he's very close to Long's level of performance. Granted he's missed more games. I wouldn't give Saffold the contract that's been given to Long. That's my issue. Saffold is either the best or 2nd best player on our OL. His salary is $800K. If he plays only 4 games at his level he's worth $1M+ to us. That's why i'm not critical of him. If he had Long's contract I would be critical of his production.

I'll grant you that Long's salary won't be a bargain if his play regresses or he loses too many games to injury. That can be said about every contract for every player when any guaranteed money is involved. When I said we signed him cheaply I was assuming he would return to the level of performance he showed when he wasn't suffering from an injury. So far that has turned out to be true.

The same can be said for Saffold's play. He played fairly well at LT his first year and he's playing well now at G. If we are able to sign him to a new contract after the season is over and he gets injured next year then I think you'll be unhappy with whatever contract he has. Me too, but if we sign him to a contract that is below the standard cost for a very good player at his position it will be because of his injury history. Just like Long's contract. That's why we got him on the cheap. That would be why we'd get Saffold on the cheap (possibly). We're taking a chance and hoping he won't continue to get injured all the time but that's no different that signing someone like Jenkins who had a different kind of red flag that caused him to fall in the draft. You weigh the risks and throw the dice.

 

[Yamahopper]

Why pay him 10 mil. when he can be signed long term for 6-7 mil. per on avg.

 

[CGI_Ram]

This is an interesting topic and convo.

Will read tomorrow!

 

[Alan]

I understand what you're saying and why you're saying it. I'm also not saying you're wrong in what you say. What I am saying is that this situation, whether we're talking about Long or Saffold, can be looked at in several different ways that are all logical and reasonable. There are many successful ways to create and maintain a good team. YOu have a different level of risk than I do and I doubt any GM in the NFL agrees with either of us.:wink:

Anyway, I think we got off track here. This thread is about how we can keep Saffold when many think he'll cost us too much. My point is that just like with Jake Long, who if not for his many injuries would have probably been too expensive for us (not to mention I doubt the Phins let him walk), we might be able to re-sign Saffold for less than the going rate for very good Guards because of his own history of injuries.

In other words, I don't think we should give up on keeping Saffold in Horns.

 

[nighttrain]

Would they have enough cap room?

if I read correctly, cap goes up 25 mil next year, so we should have the $
train

 

[CGI_Ram]

Kevin Demoff has done a few smart things with our cap.

In 2013 we paid JL a huge roster bonus ($11M)... Which makes the rest of his contract very palatable. It's stuff like this that keeps us out of cap hell.