River's 2015 Mock 4.0

[jrry32]

It's all good, I certainly didn't expect unanimous support. While I disagree with your take, it's very early to speculate on free agents as we still don't know who might remain available come Mar.10. This mock is about todays potentially available free agents and, imo, how we can better the team thru F/A as well as the draft, including a couple trades, which are also quite speculative. It's all in fun.
When we discuss free agency and the CAP, who expected Denver last season to sign up to spend an estimated $120.mil for DeMarcus Ware, Aqib Talib, TJ Ward & Emmanual Sanders ? My point being, as mentioned earlier, is that Fisher may require a winning season to keep his job, so going all out to fill a few positions that the draft may not cover is not really extraordinary. As I also explained earlier, I believe the Rams can afford these F/A's, especially considering the cuts & extensions described, and the CAP hit is likely set up to affect the team less this season than the following. There will also be room for the Rams in 2016 to create additional CAP space, mostly along the line of the high CLong/Laurinaitis CAP hits.
I will say this, of the 3 Free Agents I have chosen here, Bulaga is the least likely available as GB is in better CAP shape than the other players teams, although even they have several top free agents of their own which they will want to re-sign. As for Josh Gordon, he is damaged goods and imo, overvalued by many fans due to his many issues. If Cleveland wanted to move up from 19 to 10, Gordon, being a 'contract' player in 2015 and not likely to re-sign with the Browns, seems a good candidate to be dangled as a carrot. If it means that much, offer a 2016 conditional lower round pick for games played or yardage gained. jmo.

Denver went all in because they thought they might be able to win a Super Bowl.

With your cuts, we'd have around $19 million in cap room...assuming a salary cap around $140 million. We need around $6 million for draft picks. That means we have $13 million to re-sign all our players and spread between your FAs. I'm sorry man but that's just not possible...unless we're pushing SIGNIFICANT money into the future. Which is a bad idea.

Even if the salary cap jumps up to $145 million...we still would likely not have enough.

 

[Riverumbbq]

Fisher may want to go in for the same reasons, as well as simply wanting to keep his job.

I believe you have underestimated the savings from the cuts and overestimated the first year CAP hit of the 3 free agents. Not sure you included room from a Bradford extension. And yes, i'm including dead money. Also, even for a team which front loads contracts, the first year is often lower than the 2'nd & 3'rd, just look at how Saffold's contract was constructed. At the moment, i'm working on a 2015 overall CAP at $143.mil., including the new TV contract going into effect this next season and the typical increase from overall NFL revenues. I never said it wouldn't be tight, but I believe it's still doable, and that includes the signing of the draft class & the re-signing of our own free agents previously mentioned in my mock.

 

[jrry32]

Fisher may want to go in for the same reasons, as well as simply wanting to keep his job.

I believe you have underestimated the savings from the cuts and overestimated the first year CAP hit of the 3 free agents. Not sure you included room from a Bradford extension. And yes, i'm including dead money. Also, even for a team which front loads contracts, the first year is often lower than the 2'nd & 3'rd, just look at how Saffold's contract was constructed. At the moment, i'm working on a 2015 overall CAP at $143.mil., including the new TV contract going into effect this next season and the typical increase from overall NFL revenues. I never said it wouldn't be tight, but I believe it's still doable, and that includes the signing of the draft class & the re-signing of our own free agents previously mentioned in my mock.

I didn't underestimate the savings from the cuts. My math is dead on.

As I said, I didn't factor in a Bradford restructure...but even on a $143 million cap with Bradford restructuring to lower his cap hit by $3 to $4 million...you're still only working with $19 million to re-sign all our guys and sign the FAs. So, assuming we can bring all our guys back for $7 million...$12 million is still a ridiculously tight squeeze for those three FAs and the two QBs.

I think it's a bad idea to spend that much in FA. You don't want to hamstring your ability to re-sign your own players in the future.

Plus, imo, Iupati is the same type of player that always seems to fail for us.

 

[Riverumbbq]

I didn't underestimate the savings from the cuts. My math is dead on.

As I said, I didn't factor in a Bradford restructure...but even on a $143 million cap with Bradford restructuring to lower his cap hit by $3 to $4 million...you're still only working with $19 million to re-sign all our guys and sign the FAs. So, assuming we can bring all our guys back for $7 million...$12 million is still a ridiculously tight squeeze for those three FAs and the two QBs.

I think it's a bad idea to spend that much in FA. You don't want to hamstring your ability to re-sign your own players in the future.

Plus, imo, Iupati is the same type of player that always seems to fail for us.

A few things here, ... not meaning to belabor the point, but I also see more more savings from a Bradford extension than you. Not your fault, but I failed to mention the savings from cutting Dunbar, that's all on me. As for re-signing our own free agents, my short list only includes Britt, Harkey, Person & McLoud, so yes, $7.mil shouldn't be much of a problem imo.
As for 'hamstringing' future potential Rams free agents from being re-signed, lets look at that :
At present our 2016 CAP position has us at about $89.mil. This includes JLong who could be off the books if cut this season as well as the very high CAP hits belonging to Chris Long, Laurinaitis & Cook. I don't see any of those 3 contracts standing on their own present CAP merits going into the 2016 season, ... cuts or extensions are quite likely to enter into those negotiations. Anyway, 2016 appears well in hand, even with Brockers, Barron & a couple other players coming due. jmo.

By the way, do you have a mock out, or are you just a critic ?

 

[jrry32]

A few things here, ... not meaning to belabor the point, but I also see more more savings from a Bradford extension than you.

What sort of money is Bradford taking in his extension? If it's dropping $3 to $4 million, that means he's dropping down to $9 to $10 million. I don't see Bradford accepting less than $8 million.

Not your fault, but I failed to mention the savings from cutting Dunbar, that's all on me. As for re-signing our own free agents, my short list only includes Britt, Harkey, Person & McLoud, so yes, $7.mil shouldn't be much of a problem imo.

Okay, Dunbar opens up around another million.

As for 'hamstringing' future potential Rams free agents from being re-signed, lets look at that :
At present our 2016 CAP position has us at about $89.mil. This includes JLong who could be off the books if cut this season as well as the very high CAP hits belonging to Chris Long, Laurinaitis & Cook. I don't see any of those 3 contracts standing on their own present CAP merits going into the 2016 season, ... cuts or extensions are quite likely to enter into those negotiations. Anyway, 2016 appears well in hand, even with Brockers, Barron & a couple other players coming due. jmo.

Okay, we open up money by cutting those three...would leave us around $94 million not counting Bradford or any player you re-signed or signed. Who is replacing Long, Laurinaitis, and Cook?

By the way, do you have a mock out, or are you just a critic ?

I have many out. I'll be putting another out tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Riverumbbq]

1) What sort of money is Bradford taking in his extension? If it's dropping $3 to $4 million, that means he's dropping down to $9 to $10 million. I don't see Bradford accepting less than $8 million.


2) Okay, we open up money by cutting those three...would leave us around $94 million not counting Bradford or any player you re-signed or signed. Who is replacing Long, Laurinaitis, and Cook?

1) I actually was figuring $8.mil.

2) Not necessarily cuts, although I can't rule that out, but even considering extensions, that CAP figure gets gets reduced rather substantially from those 3 contracts. In my mock, Laurinaitis' replacement would already be on the team, ... at worst, CLong and Cook could be replaced thru the 2016 draft.