JoeyBs contract comes first

[casear2727]

(05-23-2023, 01:07 PM)Isaac Curtis: The Real #85 Wrote: Well, almost. 

Mixon is as good as gone, and we save a smidge over $10 mil from him. Jonah's $12.5 comes off. That is $22.5+ mil. Boyd's $10.3 comes off the books, that is $33 mil, or thereabouts in savings. 

Burrow's 5th year option is $29.5 mil (compared to $11.5 this year). That is +$18 mil baked in. An extension will also need the signing bonus pro-rated in. So Burrow will likely add +$25 mil next year (before the extension kicks in the following year). Tee makes around $4 mil this year. His extension will kick in next year, IDK what contract kung fu we can do, but the cap hit is gonna be $15-$20 mil. Say $19, that is a +$15, and we are uo to +$40 mil next year for those two guys alone. 

Now, the cap itself will likely go up. Say $10-$15 mil, some of that will get eaten by baked in raises to other guys. Brown gets a bump next year, +$6 mil to cap hit. Say $5 mil or so is excess. We are still down $2 mil. $40 to $38. 

Hendrickson makes $17.5 with $2.5 dead cap. We could save $15 mil by letting him go. But premier pass rushers are hard to find. I would not count 9n him going, especially if he has a strong year (or Murphy does not). Ditto with Boyd (& Jones/Iosivas). 

There are lots of other guys that are up next year (Reader, $15.5, Awuzie $7.9) or we could save a chunk by letting go (Collins $7 mil, Hilton $6.45, BJ Hill $7 mil, Karras $6.4, Hubbard $6.1). I am all for keeping DJ, but 2 of those guys roughly equal Hendrickson. 

The benefit of Burrow's cap hit jumping so much in 2024 ($35 million-ish) is that with a good, creative contract structure, the jump in 2025 will not be as much. 

Boyd + Mixon + Jonah & Hendrickson = $47 mil or so in savings. That is enough. Likely for Wilson, too. But I am not sure it is those specific 4. Mixon & Jonah, yes. But I could see a combo of others instead of Hendrickson and/or Boyd. 

The truth of the matter is that it will be 2026 at the soonest, and likely 2027 before the AAV of all three (Burrow, Tee and Chase) hit in the same year.  The salary cap will continue to rise, especially these next two seasons.