(01-22-2023, 09:37 AM)rfc17 Wrote:

(01-21-2023, 11:36 PM)TheDuke007 Wrote: I think they do the following:

• Cut Griffin.
  
• Cut either RRH or Jenkins and replace in the draft.
  
• Extend Josh Allen with a large signing bonus but lowering the cap hit in 2023.
  
• Restructure some other contracts as needed.
  
• Let Jawaan Taylor walk in free agency and receive a comp draft pick in 2024.
  
• Sign Engram to a multi-year contract with a large signing bonus but a fairly low cap hit in 2023.
  
• Try to sign Key, if possible, and as many of the Jags other free agents as the cap allows.
  
• Sign minimal free agents from other teams.  Maybe a couple of role players or depth but no major signings.
  
• Use the draft to upgrade the roster.
  

Agree with most of this.  Griffin is obvious. Saves us around $13M in cap hit.  I could see Chaisson being a cap hit as well.  Hate to give up on a guy with untapped talent but he saves us around $3M.  Would be surprised if they don't restructure Christian Kirk's deal (unless there is some rule around his contract I dont understand).  But he has a huge base salary that I'm assuming would be allowed to be converted to a bonus and then spread over the next three years.  I think they save near $10M on this years cap.  And I would say it's a near guarantee he'll be here in 2023 and 2024.  And if something happened where we decided to let him go after the 2024 season with one year left on his deal, we'd still get a ton of cap savings that offseason if we did it.  Again unless there is something I dont understand about his specific contract, he seems like an obvious candidate to have a contract restructuring.  I also think the same is true of Cam Robinson's deal.  Not quite as much as Kirk but if my math is right I think they can get over $7M of savings by doing the same.  You do those 4 things I just mentioned and you've saved near $35M right there.  I think you could also adjust Olukon and Fatukasi.  We have a ton of room in 2024 so we can afford to move cap there.  And it gets even bigger if we cut Scherrf after the 2023 season.  He is a HUGE cap savings after 2023.  

I do think they try to do everything they can to bring back Engram.  And I also think they'll try to extend Josh Allen which will bring some additional savings.

Not sure about Taylor.  Arguably our best offensive lineman this year.  But is he a one year wonder?  Was he just playing for a contract?  With Walker Little showing he can be better at LT than RT, if Cam can hold up on the right side, I'd feel pretty solid about without Taylor.  Big risk though is now depth is a major concern.  Would have to find a cheap vet free agent or address it somewhere high in the draft.

One difference is I'm not sure RRH and Jenkins can't both be back.  Looks like Jenkins' deal could be adjusted to move a little more of the cap into next year.  And we may not need to touch RRH's deal or extend him.

I mentioned cutting Griffin and extending Allen but didn't go into detail about who I would restructure.  I agree that Christian Kirk is clearly the best candidate.  He has the second highest base salary next year.  He's still young, playing well and a player that I would want to see finish his contract with the Jaguars.  I don't particularly like many of the other options with the Jaguars highest priced players.

Despite having the highest and fourth highest base salaries in 2023, I don't like the ideas of restructuring Cam Robinson or Brandon Scherff by converting salary into signing bonus.  I think they are both overpaid and restructuring will extend their time here.  If it were up to me, they would play out their 2023 season and then are cut.  Doing so would save approximately $17 million for Robinson and $16 million for Scherff.  That's a total of $33 million off the salary cap in 2024.  The remaining dead cap will roll off the following year for another $10 million or a total of $43 million savings compared to 2023.  That's a ton of money that we can use elsewhere including a Trevor extension.  Guards are a non-premium position and aren't hard to find.  As far as tackle, we have Little who can play left tackle, so we only would need a right tackle.  While not "easy", right tackles can also be found.  We can use a first round draft pick on it if needed.

Despite having the 3rd highest base salary, I don't like the idea of restructuring Oluokun.  It's not that I don't like him, I do.  It's that we drafted linebackers with a first round pick and an early third round pick.  What if they develop and turn into quality starters?  I would like to keep the flexibility to either keep or move on from Oluokun in future years based upon how our other linebackers perform.

Griffin has the fifth highest salary.  I think there's a consensus that he's cut.

Calvin Ridley has the sixth highest salary.  However, I don't see the team extending him until after the 2023 season.  We'll want to see how he plays first.

Darious Williams is seventh.  I don't like the idea of extending a player who will turn 30 before next season starts.  However, I could see him as a candidate to push money from 2023 into 2024 if needed.  

Josh Allen is eighth.  As stated previously, I would extend him and lower his 2023 cap hit.

Those are all of the players with over $10 million in base salary.  I won't go into detail on the others.  Fatukasi is a possible candidate for restructure.  Jenkins, RRH and Agnew are all in the final year of their contracts, so we can't simply restructure, we would need to extend.  Agnew seems like the best candidate of the three.  You could add one more year to Jenkins or RRH, but I don't like the idea of extending them long term.  I like Zay Jones, but unfortunately, I'm sure other teams do too.  I think his price has gone up.  With Christian Kirk and likely a Ridley extension, the Jaguars will have a lot of salary cap tied up at the receiver position in future years.  As such, we could push some of Zay's salary from 2023 to 2024, but I don't see him getting extended beyond his current contract.

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