(01-25-2023, 10:47 PM)TheDuke007 Wrote: I think the chance of resigning Jawaan Taylor is low.  Cam Robinson costs us more to cut (or trade) than to keep.  As such, Cam will be back.  Little is still on a rookie deal and has played well.  He will be back.  You have to remember our situation.  We're over the salary cap.  When you're over the cap, you are asking yourself "who can we cut/not resign and still have a starter on the roster?"  Hello?  The answer is offensive tackle.  Why cut a starter or two at other positions where we don't have a replacement when we could simply let Jawaan walk and still have starting caliber tackles?  If the team does resign Taylor, it will be through some major backloading of contracts and I don't think that's wise.  We're already going to have to do it a little bit to get under the cap and to sign Engram and some other existing players.  Doing it to a larger degree isn't good for the team's long term success.  

As such, Robinson and Little are our tackles in 2023.  Ideally, it would be nice if we could find a player in the upcoming draft that could plug and play as our starting left guard in 2023 and then be our right tackle of the future in 2024 and beyond.  Cam Robinson will be cut after the 2023 season with Little moving to left for the 2024 season.

There's no problem with backloading contracts for guys you expect to play them out. In the case of Taylor you can afford to go out 4 years because at his age you expect him to be here for all of them. Our strategy during the Caldwell years was to front load so you could get rid of guys after year 2 and I don't think we use that model for resigning our own players, only as a hedge against veteran guys you're bringing in. It's why we have such high 1st and 2nd year cap figures for last year's FA class, Baalke kept that model for incoming guys, but I don't see it being used for homegrown players that you already know. Dead money is the problem and that only happens if you get rid of the player. I don't see that happening with Taylor if we go long on the deal.

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