We're not at $24m. We're at $22m (and OTC actually says $20m).
I agree on Jones. Chances are he gets restructured, and if not get's traded. So thats $10m.
And Alford too, that's easy enough considering he hasn't played and nobody trusts him not to get injured again. Although personally, I think they will lean on him to take a cut and he will stay just for not much more than the $1.5m dead money he would accrue. But add another $7.5m.
That's $39.5m. Now remove the rookie draft pool you didn't count and it's $34.5m.
The other I don't see the point. There's no net benefit. You cut Kennard you save $4m, but you are going to pay $4m to sign a replacement and add $4m to dead cap in a low cap year. Same with Gilbert, you would pay more for a replacement.
More realistic is that we would have around $35m and have to resign or replace the following players where we have nobody on the roster to replace them at a similar level of production.
Peterson, Fitzgerald, Drake, Peters, Kirkpatrick, Golden, Reddick, Gonzalez, Lee, Arnold, Blackson, Gardeck, Sherfield, Turner. (I'm not counting Sweezy, Beachum or Campbell or we can replace internally)
Plus backups and guys that get snaps in rotation such as Vallejo, Daniels, Hundley, Peterson, Washington, Mauro, Banjo, etc
Let's look at the RFA's and vet min guys first as they are the building blocks of the team. You said earlier they were cheap to resign, but the minimum RFA tender is $2.1m. So not all that cheap. For what it's worth I don't think they tender Gardeck, Sherfield and Arnold. I think they sign them to 3 year deals so they can backload them a little. So let's say those 3 average a cap hit of $1.5m each.
Down to $30m.
Turner they don't tender and resign for vet min. Daniels, Vallejo, Washington, Mauro and Banjo they resign for vet min.
Down to $24.7m.
Blackson and Kirkpatrick I don't see signing for vet min. Both had had starter level snaps, especially Kirkpatrick. Teams will be begging for players like these that won't break the bank. I'm going to say Blackson walks, and they keep Mauro with Lawrence and Fotu coming through. Kirkpatrick resigns for $4m.
Down to $20.7m to resign some combination of or get replacements for P2, Fitz, Drake, Golden, Zane, Lee, Peters and Hundley.
I think Drake and Reddick can be replaced by rookies. There's also a rookie CB in this scenario, but it's 50/50 if they can replace Peterson right away. This is why I think there's a small chance they might keep Alford around on a new very cheap deal.
I don't want Golden on any kind of long term deal at his age with a rookie coming through, so lets say Golden $5m for 1 year. Down to $15.7m.
We need a punter and a kicker. Whoever they may be. Let's be generous and say both are multi year deals that are backloaded and only $2m total cap hit total.
Let's say Peter's doesn't resign, I like the guy but they have Fotu and they have to make tough decisions somewhere. Same with Hundley, they role with only Streveler at backup QB.
Down to $13.7m and still have Fitz and P2 plus at least $5m for injury replacements.
So it's possible, but we have to lose one of Fitz or P2 (Or Fitz has to come back on some super bargain deal) and you have to crazy backload P2's contract on a guy that will be nearly 34 by the end of it.
And all of this is just resigning our own guys and banking on UFA's and low round draft picks to fill the left over roster spots. Certainly no quality UFA's being signed to improve the roster.
All I'm saying is, we ain't going to be getting better next year without a killer draft. We are going to lose some core guys like Peters, P2 or Fitz and we aren't going to be signing any big new names. Most other teams will be going through something similar so it's not all doom.
