(08-14-2021, 08:15 AM)The Real Marty Wrote:

(08-14-2021, 02:40 AM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote: It was a salary dump and it was stupid, since we are way under the cap anyway and didn't need the cap relief. It also only leaves us with Quarterman as a capable backup at ILB. Not to mention that 5th rounders normally make the roster 81.1% of the time. That drops to 70% for 6th round picks. That is a steep drop off.

It's never too early to start managing your salary cap wisely.   Savings can be carried over from one year to the next.   And in the very near future, we're going to have to give contract extensions to players at the end of their rookie contracts.   So even though we "didn't need the cap relief" (right now), that doesn't mean we ought to pay that kind of salary to a guy who isn't quite worth it and might wind up splitting time with Wilson.  

The Bills traded us Marcel Darius for a conditional 6th round pick.  He was a very good player, but he had a huge contract and he didn't fit their future plans.  I thought they were crazy at the time, but it worked out for them.  They cleared a ton of cap space and used the money elsewhere.   You can't hold onto guys with big contracts if the don't fit your overall plan.

But we currently have tons of cap space. Cap space is not an issue at this point. I agree, once important players start coming up for contract extensions, you have to be very frugal. Especially since I believe Lawrence is gonna command one of those $200+ million contracts in about 3 years. Right now, we are in very good shape though. Right now, we should be worried about getting Lawrence comfortable on the field and that means putting the best team around him on offense and defense. Depth is a big part of that equation. I don't care if Schobert was gonna be the 3rd ILB. You need to keep 4 decent ones in a 3-4 scheme. 

So because the Bills made a blunder getting nearly nothing for Darius, we should repeat their mistake? That makes no sense. They got "hosed" on that deal, which was good for us. I'd rather have depth now, and trade Schobert next year. We probably could've probably gotten more for him after the season as none of his contract would have been fully guaranteed in 2022. That would have been a lot easier for other teams to absorb and there would presumably have been more interest.

---