(10-25-2018, 10:45 AM)Kane Wrote:

(10-25-2018, 10:39 AM)Jaguarmeister Wrote: Bortles’ contract in 2019 contains offsets on up to $6.5 million.  It’s quite possible that they move on after this season, but I’d say it would probably be for a rookie rather than a more expensive free agent vet based on the fact that it would still be a decent amount of dead cap to eat even with the offset and a rookie wouldn’t cost much.

I disagreed with Bortles’ extension at the time, but I can at least see what they were thinking in doing it rather than letting him play on the option this year.  He had just come off of a somewhat impressive December and January and helped get them within minutes of the super bowl.  It wasn’t enough of a trend in his performance for me to want to extend him but I can see they were thinking that if that trend did happen to continue, they’d have Bortles locked up at a reasonable amount for the next 3 years during their Super Bowl window and they’d be able to keep most if not all of their other ascending pieces.  They also wrote the contract in a team friendly manner that allows them to part ways as soon as next season.

They made a calculated bet and hedged it with the offset language and their bet appears to have been wrong.  Front offices make mistakes sometimes, even good ones.  Some credit should be given, however, for how the contract was written though.  The front office isn’t inept and Doug Marrone still has a winning record here and 3-4 is the 2nd best start this franchise has had since 2010.  There’s a lot of football left to be played and we’re still very much in control of our own destiny.  Teams that run the ball well and play good defense tend to fare well in the post season.  We’re getting Hyde this week and Fournette back soon after that.  We’re clearly going to attempt to impose our will on the ground going forward.  Let’s see what happens over the next 4 or 5 games and revisit where we are then before proclaiming it needs to be burned to the ground.

They should have just let him play out the option. IF he balled out then you hook him up with a top 5 QB contract. If he didn't (he isn't) then you let him go with no hit to the cap.
Even with the offsets, we'll still have "dead cap" money for a season or two.
Which isn't terrible... as long as we cut some corners and save some dollars elsewhere (likely on the DL)

I agree about him playing on the option.  If he’s cut before next season, though, the dead cap would only be for next year.  It would be somewhere between $10 million and $16.5 million depending on how much Bortles is signed for elsewhere.  There would be no dead cap in 2020.  A rookie playing on a rookie deal
would seem to be the smart plan going forward especially when factoring in Bortles’ dead money.  Given the fact that keeping him next year puts his cap hit at $21 million, I’d say it’s almost a certainty that he either restructures or more likely is cut outright.  Unless he balls out going forward, which doesn’t seem likely.

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