03-14-2023, 01:53 PM
(03-14-2023, 01:46 PM)Isaac Curtis: The Real #85 Wrote: 1) FA isn't over yet.
2) For the first time in the Burrow era, we really have to worry about the cap. Guys are coming off first contracts (with us) and rookie deals. We have big money extensions on the horizon for Higgins (2024), Logan Wilson (2024), Burrow (2025), and Chase (2026). Guys we sign now to 3 year deals will overlap with ALL those extensions. Paying player X may lose you player Y. We have to prioritize guys. Before, we could just pay people. Now, we cannot.
3) Most people with half a brain got this going into FA. Everyone knew Bates was gone. No surprise there. Most expected Pratt to leave, but he stayed! And most expected Bell to stay, and he left. I don't get how swapping one for the other (and keeping the younger, better olayer at that) makes this such a disaster.
4) Though I think Bell was worth the money Carolina paid, I think we have done a good job prioritizing the right positions. QB, WR, and OT on offense and DE, CB, and DT on D are the most valuable positions. We have 12 guys on the team making $6 mil or more a year. 10 of them play those positions: Burrow, Chase, Boyd, Williams, Collins, Hendrickson, Hubbard, Awuzie, Reader, & BJ Hill. 2 do not: Cappa (OG) & Mixon (RB).
We paid our safeties $20 mil last year (or close to it). Bates & Bell will be $23 mil this year. We just did not want to invest that type of money at the position. Bates would have been the highest paid player on the team. And Bell is signing his 3rd contract. Something I think we are wary of after the end of the Marvin era.
Great post ICTR85.
Actually keeping Pratt and losing Bell and Bates money could free up some dough for things to happen we cannot imagine. That was a
damn good deal for Pratt considering what Edmunds got paid who is just a bit better and actually not as good of a tackler.
