Hobson’s annual disappointment cap article

[leonardfan40]

(03-16-2022, 02:23 PM)ochocincos Wrote: "BUT IF YOU RESTRUCTURE, THAT MEANS MORE DEAD MONEY DOWN THE ROAD! NOW YOU'RE HANDCUFFED INTO KEEPING SOMEONE OR PAYING THEM TO NOT PLAY!" - Mike Brown, probably

That’s actually accurate. The saints are digging themselves into a hole years into the future so they can keep the same non playoff team they had last year with a new coach. They dug themselves into this hole over the last few years going all in before Brees retired which was reasonable and I’d say smart, but what they are doing now isn’t.

You can restructure to make cap space now but you are literally pushing that money into future years and will end up paying guys millions of dollars that aren’t on your team or haven’t been for years. This isn’t the type of situation the bengals should consider at this time. When Burrow has a year or two before he retires and is eating $100 mil in cap space by himself? Sure, F it and go for one or two last SB’s. Gonna suck after he leaves anyway, but you have to deal with it at some point. This year? Makes no sense to hurt our future teams that will have a cap crunch even without dead money when we can improve our team drastically without restructures. You have to pick your spots and we are not in that spot now.

Saints have $30 mil in dead cap this year and that will increase in future years because of what they are doing. They HAVE to get under the cap, but it really doesn’t make much sense to do it completely this way. They lost their HC, have no decent QB and are still making cap moves like they’re trying to push for one more SB before their elite QB retires. They are going to have to suck for a few years because of this. Makes more sense to cut guys and deal with the dead cap space now than kick it down the road and be mediocre at best this year. Then find yourself in the same or worse position next year.

One other note: the bengals are sort of doing this these last few years, just not with panic restructures. Reiff last year with the void year and it sounds like maybe Collins this offseason with a possible void year. Same thing, just well thought out and planned for ahead of time. They are picking their spots, one here one there and doing it up front and planned out.