Things I Think I’ve Learned

[bankybruce]

Uh, we aren't them. They have really good rosters and a lot of strengths. So, for them to sit on cap space isn't weird. For us, with the holes we have? A whole different ball game, man.

My point is correlation does not equal causation when it comes to the cap. Not once has anyone within the Cardinal said we gave up on the season already. Half the league has over $20 million in space and it is a mix of good and bad teams. Could we suck, sure, but could we make a push for a WC, sure as well. Lets see what happens before already calling the season a lost season.

And for the record, I did say recently that if we did not spend some of that cap to lock up youth long term, I would be disappointed. One down in Fro and a few more to go before I am happy there.

*Fro's numbers are not yet updated in that screen shot. We should be closer to $28-$29 million now.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

Not once has anyone within the Cardinal said we gave up on the season already.

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?)

Half the league has over $20 million in space and it is a mix of good and bad teams. Could we suck, sure, but could we make a push for a WC, sure as well. Lets see what happens before already calling the season a lost season.

I think the main disappointment is that with the available cap space, we could have definitely shored up our biggest weaknesses in a serious way, (without destroying long term flexibility!) and we passed on that.

 

[kerouac9]

Not once has anyone within the Cardinal said we gave up on the season already.

They didn’t say that last year, either. All you have to do is look at the personnel on defense to understand this is not a serious team right now.

 

[bankybruce]

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 the available cap space, we could have definitely shored up our biggest weaknesses in a serious way, (without destroying long term flexibility!) and we passed on that.

Absolutely a disappointment. No doubt there, we are in agreement.

 

[bankybruce]

They didn’t say that last year, either. All you have to do is look at the personnel on defense to understand this is not a serious team right now.

Ok, fair enough.

Not let say we had signed Johnathan Greenard and had just about $10 million is space left over. (He counts $20 million against next year's cap.) Does that change your opinion? If not, then my point remains that the cap number itself doesn't signify we've already given up.

 

[MadCardDisease]

Ok, fair enough.

Not let say we had signed Johnathan Greenard and had just about $10 million is space left over. (He counts $20 million against next year's cap.) Does that change your opinion? If not, then my point remains that the cap number itself doesn't signify we've already given up.

if only we signed Zach Allen last year the Cardinals would have been sitting nicely at about $10-12M in 2024 cap space and had a reliable 5-6 sacks on defense.

 

[bankybruce]

if only we signed Zach Allen last year the Cardinals would have been sitting nicely at about $10-12M in 2024 cap space and had a reliable 5-6 sacks on defense.

But are we that much better? I don't feel that one player moves the needle to being that much better.

 

[CardNots]

Interesting we still have almost 23 million in dead money this year.

The top of the list is Hump, Ertz, Watt and Hudson accounting for 20+ million. 23rd ranked in the league.

Hump 7 million alone.

 

[Garthshort]

$7M is about average (just slightly above) if four players total $23M.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

But are we that much better? I don't feel that one player moves the needle to being that much better.

An aging JJ Watt completely transformed our D, so I think yes, pro-bowl level talent makes everyone around them better.

 

[BACH]

They didn’t say that last year, either. All you have to do is look at the personnel on defense to understand this is not a serious team right now.

I think the Offense will be top 10. Defense.... If it can move from 32 to around 20, then it's a serious team - not top tier, but 2nd tier team.

But depends on how you define serious

 

[CardNots]

An aging JJ Watt completely transformed our D, so I think yes, pro-bowl level talent makes everyone around them better.

and we are still paying out the nose for that transformer

 

[bankybruce]

An aging JJ Watt completely transformed our D, so I think yes, pro-bowl level talent makes everyone around them better.

The JJ Watt that missed more than half the season in his first year or the JJ Watt that played all 16 games when we won 4 total games his second season here?

 

[kerouac9]

I think the Offense will be top 10. Defense.... If it can move from 32 to around 20, then it's a serious team - not top tier, but 2nd tier team.

But depends on how you define serious

Serious means challenging for a division title or better.

Unserious teams hope to sneak into the second wild card spot.

Where do you think we fall?

There were 113 points between the #1 scoring offense last year (Dallas) and the #10 (T-CLE and IND). Maybe we can find the 63 points needed to slip into that latter group, but I don’t know if that means much.

 

[CardNots]

$7M is about average (just slightly above) if four players total $23M.

I guess it will be at least a year to finally remove our foot from Hump’s ass. Maybe longer…

four players total almost 21 of the stated 23 million

 

[kerouac9]

I guess it will be at least a year to finally remove our foot from Hump’s ass. Maybe longer…

four players total almost 21 of the stated 23 million

Hump is already on the books for nearly $7M in dead money next year.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

and we are still paying out the nose for that transformer

Paying out the nose? That's some serious hyperbole...averaging 3.5 per between this year and last.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

The JJ Watt that missed more than half the season in his first year

The year where we had one of the top defenses in the NFL, then fell apart when he went down? Yes.

or the JJ Watt that played all 16 games when we won 4 total games his second season here?

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.

Was Zach Allen a bad player too because he was on that defense? That's the thing about this board - nobody is good enough, and people rationalize all the time why it's best not to sign good players, or in the case of Allen, re-sign him.

With Allen, instead of keeping him around as a piece, now we're stuck spending our FA money on players that are demonstrably worse than him:

Advanced Metric Hints at a Break-Out Year for Broncos Veteran DL

Zach Allen was the Denver Broncos' lone bright spot on the defensive line last year, but what does the future hold?

www.si.com

 

[bankybruce]

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.

Was Zach Allen a bad player too because he was on that defense? That's the thing about this board - nobody is good enough, and people rationalize all the time why it's best not to sign good players, or in the case of Allen, re-sign him.

With Allen, instead of keeping him around as a piece, now we're stuck spending our FA money on players that are demonstrably worse than him:

Advanced Metric Hints at a Break-Out Year for Broncos Veteran DL

Zach Allen was the Denver Broncos' lone bright spot on the defensive line last year, but what does the future hold?

www.si.com

I already agree in this thread about Allen. We should have kept him.

Watt was a phenomenal player, but again, he only played 7 games that year and when we needed him, he went down. We payed over $20 million a year to a player who had major injury issues and are still paying him with dead money. Hes really not a great example.

And who this off season was a Watt type player without the injury history? Was there a single player that could offer that type of impact on defense? The only ones I can think of were franchised or re-signed prior to the start of FA. Jonathan Greenard at $20 million doesn't move the needle, IMHO, enough to make this defense special, especially given hes missed 18 games in 4 years.

I wish we had signed more impact players, but not wasting $20 million on one player isn't an issue for me.

 

[Stout]

I think the Offense will be top 10. Defense.... If it can move from 32 to around 20, then it's a serious team - not top tier, but 2nd tier team.

But depends on how you define serious

Agree completely. I don't think the defense will be that good, especially given recent injuries, but if so, we would be in the hunt for a playoff spot.

 

[CardNots]

Paying out the nose? That's some serious hyperbole...averaging 3.5 per between this year and last.

Paying out 5 million for a player which won’t be on the field is a nose bleed.

I’m tired of paying money to players that aren’t contributing to the team’s success both now or the future.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

Paying out 5 million for a player which won’t be on the field is a nose bleed.

I’m tired of paying money to players that aren’t contributing to the team’s success both now or the future.

No, it's not. It's the cost of doing business:

NFL Salary Cap Space | Over The Cap

NFL salary cap space estimates for all 32 teams

overthecap.com

The Niners have 20M in dead money this year. Are they doing it wrong?

 

[CardNots]

No, it's not. It's the cost of doing business:

NFL Salary Cap Space | Over The Cap

NFL salary cap space estimates for all 32 teams

overthecap.com

The Niners have 20M in dead money this year. Are they doing it wrong?

 

[ASUCHRIS]

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!

 

[CardNots]

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!

Jordan simply fleeced our GM.