With 130M in salary, and tens of millions in endorsements, I doubt money was the main factor. Even if it were a factor, it's hard to imagine the Cards paying a huge premium - he wasn't overpaid at 14 per.
We're in the bottom 10 of dead cap space in the entire league - if anything, try and dedicate more dead money to actual contributors than the Jordan Phillips of the world!
No, it's not. It's the cost of doing business:
https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space
The Niners have 20M in dead money this year. Are they doing it wrong?
It's the NFL...the margins for any teams success are always going to be small, as it's one of the most competitive leagues top to bottom that exists. If you take the best player away from any team, (especially a historically good player!) it's likely to make an impact.
They sure as hell can - the only reason they'll be considered is that nearly half the league makes the playoffs. If you think the best defensive player of all time doesn't make a difference, I don't know what to tell you.
The year where we had one of the top defenses in the NFL, then fell apart when he went down? Yes.
You're talking about the year where he won comeback player of the year and racked up 12.5 sacks? I can think of a ton of reasons we were unsuccessful in 2022 that had nothing to do with JJ...
I don't have my crystal ball, but the incentive for bottoming out obviously won't be there, so the odds of it happening with an obscenely wealthy owner at the helm seem low.
I don't think you can find anyone on any team that would say they gave up on the season already before their season has begun, so that's not evidence of much. (Although maybe that's why the Cards are throwing out the blanket NDA's these days?) :)
I think the main disappointment is that with...
Meh, not signing Joe Johnson was much worse for me. I can see why they took a swing at Penny, and they didn't give up much to get him. Manning was done, and we had Googs/Uncle Spliffy/Rodney Rogers already, and Garrity didn't turn into anything.
We have a total of 0 proven CB's on the roster...a couple of journeymen vets and some young guys with something to prove, but it's wild that we're going into the season with no above average players at the two most important positions on D. (Edge/Corner) You could probably say the same at LB...
Yeah, I'd be fine with it as well. It would also be somewhat problematic if Connor were to miss significant time, as you'd be completely reliant on a rookie/unproven talent to carry the load. I expect we'll run more than your average team, so a proven pro might be more valuable than a 5th or...
How many targets/catches does Tip have so far in the preseason? I see one catch on one target in the Indy game. If they're planning on 40+ targets for him this year, they've been hiding him well in the preseason. Seems like a good time to be testing out what he can do!
"This team is still a couple of edge rushers short of being able to challenge for above-average status"
"If they can protect Murray and the defense does take a step forward, they could find themselves on the fringes of the wild-card race in the NFC."
So maddening.