Cap Space 2018

[Oldfaithful]

So as I think that this isn't our year bearing some miraculous trade along the offensive line(aka Flacco's dead and so is the running game). I was looking ahead to next year. And I'm already pissed off. Once again, Ozzie's terrible contracts have put us in a terrible position going forward. The Brandon Williams contract is looking like even more of an albatross than it already is.

Good news is: we have one FA in total that I am worried about(Mike Wallace) who shouldn't be too expensive. But damnit, this team is this close to being a championship team.

So here are things I think we could do(these are suggestions as to how we could open up more cap room)

1. Ask Yanda to take a paycut
2. Ask Weddle to take a paycut/extend him beyond this year(would not surprise me if he had a few more quality seasons left in the tank)
3. Cut Brandon Carr(3 mill savings after this year).
4. Ask Jimmy Smith to take a paycut. Otherwise we cut him(we actually can. But I doubt this happens).
5. Ask Flacco to take a paycut(LOL. Good luck with that).
6. Sign CJ Mosley to a backloaded long-term deal(Which I think is stupid to backload contracts but whatever)

Sure, sure. "Manipulating the cap is super easy". But we'd have to pull off at least four of these moves to get another quality free agent for which is something we are DESPERATE for along the offensive side of the ball.

Any other ideas as to what we could do?

 

[Adreme]

First question, why the Ravens desperately need something on the offensive side of the ball? The only positions I can see them wanting to upgrade are TE, RT and possibly Center if whatever they are planning does not work out. WR is set QB is set 3/5 of the OLine is set and while some TE upgrades are nice those will probably come from draft and top tier Olinemen rarely hit FA.

Second question. Why is the Brandon Williams contract considered such a badly made contract. Its a pretty even cap hit over the entire duration of the deal. Its not like the first Flacco contract where it was 6M 14M 14M 28M that sort of forced it into becoming a 3 year deal.

Now to answer your question. They likely negotiate a long term deal with Mosley which has a slightly less than 8M per year cap hit that he will take in year 5 (though what exactly he will command is hard to guess and whether he will give a discount is as well). Carr may be cut. Jimmy wont be cut no matter what, sorry the D is just not the same without him. Flacco has no reason to agree to another renegotiation especially one with a pay cut.

My 3rd question though is why does any of this matter? The team will have around 19M in cap space (more if Suggs retires after this year). SIgning Mosley long term will not change that number so 19M is more than enough to check out the TE RT and C market to see if they are worth looking at.

 

[SepticeyePoe]

There's always the draft to get a good player for cheap.

 

[Boldnpurpblack]

So as I think that this isn't our year bearing some miraculous trade along the offensive line(aka Flacco's dead and so is the running game). I was looking ahead to next year. And I'm already pissed off. Once again, Ozzie's terrible contracts have put us in a terrible position going forward. The Brandon Williams contract is looking like even more of an albatross than it already is.

Good news is: we have one FA in total that I am worried about(Mike Wallace) who shouldn't be too expensive. But damnit, this team is this close to being a championship team.

So here are things I think we could do(these are suggestions as to how we could open up more cap room)

1. Ask Yanda to take a paycut
2. Ask Weddle to take a paycut/extend him beyond this year(would not surprise me if he had a few more quality seasons left in the tank)
3. Cut Brandon Carr(3 mill savings after this year).
4. Ask Jimmy Smith to take a paycut. Otherwise we cut him(we actually can. But I doubt this happens).
5. Ask Flacco to take a paycut(LOL. Good luck with that).
6. Sign CJ Mosley to a backloaded long-term deal(Which I think is stupid to backload contracts but whatever)

Sure, sure. "Manipulating the cap is super easy". But we'd have to pull off at least four of these moves to get another quality free agent for which is something we are DESPERATE for along the offensive side of the ball.

Any other ideas as to what we could do?

Dont we have like $20m+ available? Thats more than we had this year when we were able to add Jefferson, Carr, Woodhead, Maclin, and Boykin and extend BWill.

Plus you consider Tavon should be back, Humphrey (Tim Williams, Bowser, Wormley) all developing another year and potential quality starters or serious impact rotational guys, Perriman a year better, Dixon a year better, hopefully 1 out of Siragusa/Eluemenor develop into the starter at C/RT, plus other young guys already on the roster who maybe havent shown much yet but have potential like Kaufusi, Henry, Urban, Correa, Canady, Jensen, Urschel, Skura, Nembot, Wesley, Smoke, an UDFA always comes out of no where....

No not all of them will work out. But thats a lot of candidates to help not all that many weaknesses.

Plus you bring in a couple more FA's the quality of BWill, Jefferson, Woodhead, Maclin and a capable starter like Carr.... plus a whole draft.... we're in fine shape to improve a team that should be right in the thick of a playoff battle. A team where if the OL is just average and can get the run game to go, Dixon will emerge and this is a playoff team.

Thats a good spot to be in with a team that has few glaring weaknesses, lots of potential youth, and more resources to address holes than we've had in probably 5+ years.

 

[jboy19]

Not feeling great about next years FA market anyway, especially on the OL. Probably more of a draft issue than a FA issue. I've never felt as though the team has struggled with replacing OL, save for a couple rare exceptions (Gradkowski, Cousins, etc.). But I'm liking next year's OT draft class- if the team could sneak away with McGlinchey (Notre Dame) or Connor Williams (Texas), they could have a top-10 line in the NFL.

 

[redrum52]

I think the offense is addressed next off season and OL shouldn't be a problem(drafting). The cap situation is just fine with how the current roster is set up. Also if we can't draft a wr there will be PLENTY available next year because of all the 1 year deals signed. I wouldn't mind the team going RB/TE/OL next year and picking up a guy wr because we all know that's not Ozzie's strength.

 

[rossihunter2]

Why so negative all of a sudden? The oline is a question as is the offence as a whole but we don't know it 100% sucks - plus we'll have a draft next year where we will likely have 4 picks in the first 3 rounds and 20m cap space straight off the bat - I don't see where the problem is given that we don't know what next year's holes are - no matter what happens this year, this team is already in a phenomenal spot for next year

 

[JoeyFlex5]

The ravens have still done a good job building young and cheap talent which allows us to have the quality veterans we need.

We are in a position now to go into next years draft and focus on ONE group, the OL. And OL appears to be a strength of next years class. We have a talented and deep secondary, lb corps, dl, and lots of potential in the pass rush, we have some solid talent at wr, TE, rb, qb, and really only need to address OL and still have the most important position locked down with an elite talent on a rookie deal.

Free agent frenzy was never our game and it's generally worked out well for us. I wasn't happy about bwills deal myself but I get it, there's no better way to ensure defensive dominance than continuing to be maybe the best run defense in the league, it sets the table for every other aspect of your defense to succeed, and a dominant anchoring NT along with a dominant ILB is the best way to make sure you're stopping the run

 

[Sooky]

I know that people think this year's offense will be bad but tbh I think going into the 2014 season I thought our offense was in worse shape. Then Forsett exploded and the team actually had a decently balanced offense. I think having Marty here another year could go either really bad or really well. I don't think we can really judge this team until they take the field too many question marks.

 

[K-Dog]

I can imagine the scene in Ozzies office....

" Yeah hey guys. So I know we agreed to pay you X amount of dollars, but we are changing our minds. We don't think you are worth quite that much. Our bad. Yeah so we are going to pay you a lot less, and we want you to work just as hard and produce just as much.
Yeah. We want to pay you less for the same amout of work. Hows that sound fellas?
Fellas?
Hello ? Guys? "

 

[Willbacker]

I can imagine the scene in Ozzies office....

" Yeah hey guys. So I know we agreed to pay you X amount of dollars, but we are changing our minds. We don't think you are worth quite that much. Our bad. Yeah so we are going to pay you a lot less, and we want you to work just as hard and produce just as much.
Yeah. We want to pay you less for the same amout of work. Hows that sound fellas?
Fellas?
Hello ? Guys? "

Well it depends on who it is and how they perform but guys like Yanda and Jimmy can just say NO!! It's a mean business and I think the players got the bad end of the deal. An agreement should be an agreement. They should put a lot more bonus clauses in the contracts instead of just agreeing to dollars.

 

[Oldfaithful]

Isn't the 20 mil in cap space contingent on how much the salary cap goes up. And I know that historically we aren't big spenders but the past two free agency periods we've acquired two very expensive assets in the secondary with Weddle and Jefferson. If it is because the cap is going to go up, then the other teams get more cap as well. And then we're fucked.

We need to kill next year's draft if we want any shot of a championship at this point.

 

[Rav'n Maniac]

Isn't the 20 mil in cap space contingent on how much the salary cap goes up. And I know that historically we aren't big spenders but the past two free agency periods we've acquired two very expensive assets in the secondary with Weddle and Jefferson. If it is because the cap is going to go up, then the other teams get more cap as well. And then we're fucked.

We need to kill next year's draft if we want any shot of a championship at this point.

No, we have nearly 20m in dead money that most will come off the books in 18'. Cap increase will be in addition to that.

 

[RavensMania]

Isn't the 20 mil in cap space contingent on how much the salary cap goes up. And I know that historically we aren't big spenders but the past two free agency periods we've acquired two very expensive assets in the secondary with Weddle and Jefferson. If it is because the cap is going to go up, then the other teams get more cap as well. And then we're fucked.

We need to kill next year's draft if we want any shot of a championship at this point.

No this one sent true and @Rav'n Maniac beat me to the explanation. We also aren't fucked and Weddle was extremely reasonable.

 

[jboy19]

I'm still not convinced the Ravens can't win the division. Don't get me wrong, I don't really think the Ravens are an amazing, unstoppable team by any means, but really the only competition for the division is the Steelers and look at their dumpster fire offseason.

1. Ben contemplating retirement
2. Bell possibly holding out
3. AB causing distractions
4. Martavis Bryant having issues with Ben
5. Villanueva possibly holding out
6. Relatively unimpressive draft haul
7. Losing the only reliably healthy MLB they've had in the past couple years
8. Half the secondary in danger of the sophomore slump.

Obviously not a guarantee because Pittsburgh has a ton of talent and a good coach, but it's definitely possible that the Steelers struggle this year, especially since its basically a guarantee that Ben will miss a few games and someone important will probably get suspended at some point.

 

[Oldfaithful]

No, we have nearly 20m in dead money that most will come off the books in 18'. Cap increase will be in addition to that.

Ah. This is interesting then. Thanks for educating me.

Now I think with the money next year we could not only get Wallace but go get another key player, maybe go out and get a TE if we don't have a good one on the roster?

 

[JoeyFlex5]

Ah. This is interesting then. Thanks for educating me.

Now I think with the money next year we could not only get Wallace but go get another key player, maybe go out and get a TE if we don't have a good one on the roster?

Or maybe get a goddamn RT or C

 

[Oldfaithful]

Or maybe get a goddamn RT or C

I'd rather go get a center through the draft to be honest. The two most important positions on the offensive line are center and LT. You have two studs at those two positions, your oline is going to be an average one bear minimum. Stanley is a great talent, and hopefully he keeps it up after a phenomenal rookie year. I think that Siragusa is a future starter who could be an above average player. Getting a franchise center from the draft would be beyond huge. That's three good olinemen in three consecutive drafts. That'd be huge since Yanda doesn't have much longer.

I do think that our offensive line is going to get a massive overhaul next offseason. With us possibly signing a big name on the offensive line, and then drafting a bear minimum of two players(one immediate starter and one potential successor for Yanda). I'd be happy with either of the Notre Dame linemen in the draft.

Just get rid of James Hurst and whatever offseason that is is an automatic winning offseason.

 

[JoeyFlex5]

I'd rather go get a center through the draft to be honest. The two most important positions on the offensive line are center and LT. You have two studs at those two positions, your oline is going to be an average one bear minimum. Stanley is a great talent, and hopefully he keeps it up after a phenomenal rookie year. I think that Siragusa is a future starter who could be an above average player. Getting a franchise center from the draft would be beyond huge. That's three good olinemen in three consecutive drafts. That'd be huge since Yanda doesn't have much longer.

I do think that our offensive line is going to get a massive overhaul next offseason. With us possibly signing a big name on the offensive line, and then drafting a bear minimum of two players(one immediate starter and one potential successor for Yanda). I'd be happy with either of the Notre Dame linemen in the draft.

Just get rid of James Hurst and whatever offseason that is is an automatic winning offseason.

I just don't see a ton of talent at center this year, but it's also really early, mason cole is the top of the class and I'm iffy on any center who's built like a LT(Ethan pocic was my one exception and I changed my tune on him when he struggled to get push his last year).

 

[Oldfaithful]

I just don't see a ton of talent at center this year, but it's also really early, mason cole is the top of the class and I'm iffy on any center who's built like a LT(Ethan pocic was my one exception and I changed my tune on him when he struggled to get push his last year).

Well, with regards to next season I could see the Jaguars let Linder walk and let us pick him up(they have a ton of Fa's next offseason). Him or Weston Richburg would be my preferred choices. I could also see us drafting the dude from ND(the tackle, not Nelson) if he fell to us somehow(even though it's unlikely). Would not surprise me in the slightest if we took a RT round one.


I'd rather us just move Lewis to RT at this point and pick up Linder.

Stanley-Siragusa-Linder-Yanda-Lewis.


*trade whole draft to take SaQuon Barkley*.(sarcasm. I'd honestly want us to take Quinten Nelson to potentially be Yanda's replacement).

Boom. Done.