GM Blueprint

I'd like you guys to put on your GM hat and just say what kind of moves you'd like to see your team do like free agent signings,who to cut and who to tender and what you'd like to see during the draft(this should be a seperate thread later)

http://football.calsci.com/FreeAgency.html

If you guys need descriptions of the diffrence between ERFAs,RFAs or UFAs just check the link up above.

All ERFAs just sign them. I'm sure most teams do this anyway.

The Ravens right now have 12.5 mil in dead cap money 2nd in the league behind believe it or not the Detroit Lions who have 17.2 mil. (wtf Matt). We could pass the Lions tho if we cut Ngata(7.5 mil more. )

Already cut- Chris Canty(DE) and Jacoby Jones(WR/KR).

On the RFAs I'd 2nd rd tender both Justin Tucker(K) and Will Hill(Saf). The rest I'd let test the market.

QB- I'd look for a cheap vet, try Wenning out(6th rd last year) and sign an undrafted FA for backup battles

RB- Resign Forsett to a 3yr contract and look for a RB in the 1st 3 rds. If Forsett leaves maybe look to Reggie Bush for pass situations and maybe sign Steven Jackson to a 1 yr deal. At least do one. Gotta have some kind of veteran.

WR- Gotta let one-trick pony Torrey Smith go even tho it pains me and Jacoby already gone we're seriously lacking a deep threat. Gotta draft a WR in the 1st 2 rds or I'm getting on the hotline to Ozzie unless we sign a guy like Vincent Jackson. Hold on I got to wipe the slobber out of my mouth.
We're pretty set with SSS,Marlon Brown, Campanaro and Aiken to fill out the rest of the slots.

TE- Shoo I don't know even where to start here. Gilmore is the only sure thing to come back and even tho I think he can be pretty good he's still more known as a blocker. Pitta????? We won't find out until summer whether he can return or not after a 2nd surgery on that hip and I'd let Owen Daniels go to Denver if he wants but I'd only sign him to a 1 yr mil contract. I'd look for a released veteran and also draft one.

OL- Status quo. Maybe let Gino Gradkowski go. He has an escalator in his rookie contract that'll pay him 1.6 mil which is an awful lot for a backup but he has experience. I would also extend Yanda's contract. I want him to retire a Raven.We're pretty strong here.

DL- Extend Ngata but it seems like he's being quite the bitch but again I'd like to see him retire a Raven. If not we'd have to cut him which would save us 8.5 mil against the cap. If he leaves I'd try to get a veteran FA like Kendall Langford or Darnell Dockett. The rest of the DLine is solid even with the loss of Canty. Draft a DLineman late. For some reason we're good at finding these guys later in the draft.

LB- Straight up we're good at ILB but at OLB even tho we have Suggs and Doom we're getting old and McPhee is gonna go the highest bidder so we have depth problems there and I really like Bud Dupree in the 1st rd of this years draft. We also need to draft one in the middle rds if we don't get one in the 1st.

DB- Getting Will Hill back is critical and we need Webb to take a opaycut or be cut. I'm talking at least 3 mil and I'd like to see him move to FS. I've been spoiled with Rod Woodson and Ed Reed. lol.
Jimmy returns as the shutdown CB and I'd like to see if Melvin can develop more. Miles a safety has already been resigned but needs to be either a backup and keep playing that mean SpTeams. We need help so I'd like to see 2 picks here and veteran FA. I'd also give Matt Elam a chance to do something. Right now he's been a big disappointment.

SpT- Keep the same 3. Kicker,punter and long snappa.

Just real quick with the draft I'm looking at Bud Dupree(OLB),Marcus Peters(CB who has had some problems) or Jalen Strong(WR) in the 1st.

Balt let me know if this is a good blueprint or whether you'd do something diffrent and I know you Jet fans got a major decision on your hands with that 6th pick. Mariotta? Or go with Geno. Lions are you resigning Suh or going in a diffrent direction. Bengals. You gonna spend some money dammit. Panthers. Patriots. What!!! What!!!!!

Despierta amigos. Hope I didn't put you to sleep with the long post but that is my blueprint.

Cool, Lets see.

Cuts
Already Released
RB Deangelo Williams (June 1st Cut)
OT Byron Bell

Resign
DT Dwan Edwards
DT Colin Cole
OLB Chase Blackburn
ATH Joe Webb

QB - We good here. Try to extend Cam before next season. Derek Anderson is still under contract. Resign Joe Webb, he literally did everything for us. QB, WR, Punt Protect, Kick off.

RB - Releasing Deangelo for cash is a good move for us. Love the guy tho. Jonathan Stewart should be able to carry the load barring injury of course. Fozzy Whitaker should be a good spell for him. Looking for us to draft another back in the draft.

WR - Receiving Core will likely look different against next year. Benjamin should be working hard this off season to improve, he's already a special talent. I think we'll pick up a couple receivers this off season in both free agency and the draft. We're praying for Randall Cobb down here in Carolina. Shit maybe Maclin. Also I want us to pick up Cecil Shorts, that guy is solid, take a look at Stevie Johnson as well, San Francisco ruined him. Have the recieving core looking like Benjamin - Cobb - Shorts in the slot.

TE - Pro Bowler in Olsen. Draft a youngin to back him up.

OL - Blow it all up. Nah, Ryan Kalil at center is consistently good, he couldn't do it by himself last year tho. We got good interior linemen now (Andrew Norwell and Trai Turner, Both Rookies), they really came along at the end of the season. We signed a solid RT as well and he played really well but I think he's a backup at best. Upgrade the tackle spots. We're looking at Michael Oher but ehhhhh i dont know. He may just need a fresh start. Nothing can be worse than what we had last year. How much does Doug Free want?

DL - They're saying Hardy is gone. Our D Line played well without him but I think we need another piece. Charles Johnson is aging, but he's still getting the job done. Our D Tackles are amazing with Star Lotuleiei and Kawann Short starting and Colin Cole and Dwan Edwards the vets backing them up. We have young edge rushers as well in Kony Ealy. Good players but Raw. Want us to look at Jabaal Sheard.

LB - Amazing group here. Kuechly and Thomas Davis hold it down but we need on more. Chase Blackburn started before a season ending injury so who knows how he returns. AJ Klein is the youngin he started after him, good player but also suffered a season ending injury. Then came in Adarious Glanton, Undrafted Rook who played really well for his status, but undersized, can we trust him? Look for us to sign someone here, i'm looking at Bruce Carter, and Justin Durant.

CB - Good young group here who came into their own last year. Josh Norman proved he was a shutdown corner. Excited to see what he brings next year. On the other side we had Bene Benisomething a rookie. He played extremely well. He's supposed to be our nickle corner but I wouldn't be mad if we kept him on the outside seeing how well he played. I'm looking for a nickle signing here, and maybe a vet. Darius Butler?

Safety - Eh Group. We have a good rookie in Tre Boston who played really well. Everyone else..scrap. Roman Harper, too old, too slow. Thomas Decoud, cya you buns. Hello Devin McCourty? Marcus Gilchrist? Stevie Brown? Bernard Pollard low key out there, wouldn't mind that head hunter lurking in the seconder.

Special Teamers - Keep em.
Quick look at the roster
ATH - Joe Webb
QB - Cam Newton, Derek Anderson
RB - Jonathan Stewart, Fozzy Whitaker, Rookie
FB - Mike Tolbert, Richie Brockle
WR1 - Kelvin Benjamin, Cecil Shorts(?), Jericcho Cotchery
WR2 - Randall Cobb(?), Philly Brown
TE - Greg Olsen, Rookie
LT - Rookie/Vet
LG - Andrew Norwell
C - Ryan Kalil
RG - Trai Turner
RT- Rookie/Vet

DE- Charles Johnson, Mario Addison
DT - Star Lotuleiei, Colin Cole
DT - Kawann Short, Dwan Edwards
DE - Kony Ealy, Vet
OLB - Thomas Davis
MLB - Luke Kuechly
OLB - Rookie/Vet?, Aj Klein
CB - Josh Norman
CB - Bene Benwikere
CB - Darius Butle (?)
S - Tre Boston
S - Vet?

Hmm, I'll do this tomorrow when I have more time.

But the Lions have that much dead money because of 3 players.
Suh (like $9 Million)
Bush, which was like $1.5
And Chris Houston, who got cut last year after signing a big 5 year deal, that's like another $5 million

After this year we'll have tons of cap space

@S. If you can get Pollard do it!!! He might get ya a 15 yd penalty after a 3rd down stop for waxing somebody but I truly believe messages are being sent. Oher. Ehhhh. He's a false start waiting to happen and he's a below average blocker imo but he'll show up for work everyday.

@ Matt. I went over to overthecap.com and while Houston is counting 3.9 mil and Bush 3.5 mil its actually Suh for some reason counting 9.7 mil in dead money. I'm scratching my head on that one since Suh is a UFA. What kind of contract was he given??

Willbacker wrote:@S. If you can get Pollard do it!!! He might get ya a 15 yd penalty after a 3rd down stop for waxing somebody but I truly believe messages are being sent. Oher. Ehhhh. He's a false start waiting to happen and he's a below average blocker imo but he'll show up for work everyday.

@ Matt. I went over to overthecap.com and while Houston is counting 3.9 mil and Bush 3.5 mil its actually Suh for some reason counting 9.7 mil in dead money. I'm scratching my head on that one since Suh is a UFA. What kind of contract was he given??

they gave him a bunch of bonus money and the way the NFL cap works, you can now make money count for next year or the previous year and borrow up to 3 mill against a future cap year

EPICxPENGUIN69 wrote:

Willbacker wrote:@S. If you can get Pollard do it!!! He might get ya a 15 yd penalty after a 3rd down stop for waxing somebody but I truly believe messages are being sent. Oher. Ehhhh. He's a false start waiting to happen and he's a below average blocker imo but he'll show up for work everyday.

@ Matt. I went over to overthecap.com and while Houston is counting 3.9 mil and Bush 3.5 mil its actually Suh for some reason counting 9.7 mil in dead money. I'm scratching my head on that one since Suh is a UFA. What kind of contract was he given??

they gave him a bunch of bonus money and the way the NFL cap works, you can now make money count for next year or the previous year and borrow up to 3 mill against a future cap year

Hmmmmm. Have to look into that more but I have heard something like that before. Anyways thats some serious debt.

How bout them Jets. Riding the Geno train?

Willbacker wrote:

EPICxPENGUIN69 wrote:

Willbacker wrote:@S. If you can get Pollard do it!!! He might get ya a 15 yd penalty after a 3rd down stop for waxing somebody but I truly believe messages are being sent. Oher. Ehhhh. He's a false start waiting to happen and he's a below average blocker imo but he'll show up for work everyday.

@ Matt. I went over to overthecap.com and while Houston is counting 3.9 mil and Bush 3.5 mil its actually Suh for some reason counting 9.7 mil in dead money. I'm scratching my head on that one since Suh is a UFA. What kind of contract was he given??

they gave him a bunch of bonus money and the way the NFL cap works, you can now make money count for next year or the previous year and borrow up to 3 mill against a future cap year

Hmmmmm. Have to look into that more but I have heard something like that before. Anyways thats some serious debt.

How bout them Jets. Riding the Geno train?

I'm not giving up on Geno for a few reasons
1. I watched his whole career in college, I know what he is
2. He is young
3. Andrew Luck isn't walking through that door anytime soon
4. Who has he had?
5. Mark Sanchez syndrome
6. Fuck the media, they hate everyone, even manning and brady

The jets get caught up in choices that fans/media want, not the choices they need to make. Geno is going into his 3rd year. Hopefully, he'll have some weapons, a little bit more blocking, a new coach, new system, maybe something clicks and he plays well. I'm not expecting 4000+ and 30+ tds. But I'd like to see 3000 yards, 20-25 Tds and less than 16 ints, a completion % around 65%. If he doesn't meet those, or at least come close, then you look to move on.

Willbacker wrote:@S. If you can get Pollard do it!!! He might get ya a 15 yd penalty after a 3rd down stop for waxing somebody but I truly believe messages are being sent. Oher. Ehhhh. He's a false start waiting to happen and he's a below average blocker imo but he'll show up for work everyday.

@ Matt. I went over to overthecap.com and while Houston is counting 3.9 mil and Bush 3.5 mil its actually Suh for some reason counting 9.7 mil in dead money. I'm scratching my head on that one since Suh is a UFA. What kind of contract was he given??

Exactly its kind of like when we signed Mike Mitchell, same thing, but Pollard is a better player imo or at least he was with you guys. I think that player can be reborn especially behind our front 7

Willbacker wrote:@S. If you can get Pollard do it!!! He might get ya a 15 yd penalty after a 3rd down stop for waxing somebody but I truly believe messages are being sent. Oher. Ehhhh. He's a false start waiting to happen and he's a below average blocker imo but he'll show up for work everyday.

@ Matt. I went over to overthecap.com and while Houston is counting 3.9 mil and Bush 3.5 mil its actually Suh for some reason counting 9.7 mil in dead money. I'm scratching my head on that one since Suh is a UFA. What kind of contract was he given??

It's because of all the restructurings they did with Suh in previous years. They restructured his deal to turn his base salary into signing bonuses.

Base salary: Goes against the cap.
Signing Bonus: Can be spread out over 5 years after the initial deal, (or something like that )

So while the Lions created cap space in the past by converting Suhs base salary into signing bonuses they created this problem where it's impossible to franchise tag him because it would result in an absurd $36 million cap hit.

His whole contract basically turned into getting the veterans minimum, but got like a $50 million signing bonus.

@Epic. Its possible you guys could make a play for Foles and more stuff if Mariotta falls to the 6th spot. Depends on who the better fit is for Gaileys offense and I really don't know.

@S. Pollards way better than Mitchell. Mitchell didn't play too well for the Steelers last year. I've never been more pissed than when the Ravens let Pollard go. Elam's been a horrible replacement.

@Matt. Sounds like Suh is not in the blueprint. Kinda sucks. And here I thought I had all the salary crap figgered out...............

Fuck foles, he is good but in terms of ability, I'd rather take Smith. Foles had 1 good year (9 games), and mariotta isn't an NFL Qb, I don't want a gimick at QB, I want a dude who is a proven NFL route combo passer.

Willbacker wrote:@Epic. Its possible you guys could make a play for Foles and more stuff if Mariotta falls to the 6th spot. Depends on who the better fit is for Gaileys offense and I really don't know.

@S. Pollards way better than Mitchell. Mitchell didn't play too well for the Steelers last year. I've never been more pissed than when the Ravens let Pollard go. Elam's been a horrible replacement.

@Matt. Sounds like Suh is not in the blueprint. Kinda sucks. And here I thought I had all the salary crap figgered out...............

It's not to difficult if you know the basics.
Here's an example
Andrew Luck signs a 5 year $100 million deal.
Signing Bonus of $35 Million
Year 1: Base Salary $10Million, His cap hit would be $15
Year 2: Base Salary $12 Million cap hit of $17
Year 3: Base Salary $20 Million cap hit of $25
Year 4: Base Salary $15 Million cap hit of $20
Year 5: Base Salary $8 Million cap hit of $13

Now if he were to be cut at any time during the contract, that extra $5 million per year would still go against the cap.

But say in year 3, to reduce their cap, they restructure his contract.
So instead of making 20 Million in base, he reduces it to the veteran minimum. (For argument and difficulty sake, let's say it's $2 million) and convert the remaining to a signing bonus.

Year 3s cap hit of $25 million would be reduced to about $13 million, ($2 million in base, $5 million from original bonus, $6 million for restructuring bonus.) So you free up $12 million cap space.

But when you do that.
Year 4 cap hit would increase from $20 to $26 million
Year 5 would increase from $13 to $19 million.

And if Luck were to be cut after year 4, he would still count $11 million against the cap.

*At least that's my understanding of how it works, I'm about 90% positive that this is exactly how it goes.*

@Matt. Yeah I understand that when you restructure your base salary is converted to a signing bonus which is good for both since the player pockets the signing bonus while the team gets cap relief and that the signing bonus is spread out over the remaining years of the contract but the Lions spread it out into a free agent year which I never knew you could even do and why thats even legal. Thats what blew my mind.

Willbacker wrote:@Matt. Yeah I understand that when you restructure your base salary is converted to a signing bonus which is good for both since the player pockets the signing bonus while the team gets cap relief and that the signing bonus is spread out over the remaining years of the contract but the Lions spread it out into a free agent year which I never knew you could even do and why thats even legal. Thats what blew my mind.

Ahhh, I understand now, it might have something to do with Suh voiding the final year of his contract

Lions:

Free Agents:
-Dan Orlovsky QB
-Jeremy Ross WR ( )
-Lance Moore WR
-Mike Iupati G 
-Matt Prater K
-Kendall Langford DT
-Nick Fairley DT
-Samson Satele C
-Rashean Mathis CB
-Patrick Robinson CB

Most of these guys are resigning or could be got at/close to vetterans minimum. The 2 most expensive players will be Iupati and Fairley.


1. Arik Armstead DL Oregon
2. P.J. Williams CB FSU
3. Jay Ajayi RB Boise State/ Michael Bennett Ohio
4. Jeremey Langford RB Michigan State/ Justin Cox CB Mississippi State
5. Shaquille Mason G Georgia Tech


I'm only doing the first 5 rounds. And I tried to draft players that would be available when I would be picking.