Gotta Keep Building through FA

[TJHoushmandzadeh's Shiny Shoes]

(10-06-2020, 12:40 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: I think you can add Dunlap to this list.

He's due 13.5 million next year, and would carry no dead weight if he were released.

I know many on here like him, but there is no way he's worth that amount.  If he were to be released he'd be lucky to see half of this amount on the open market.  So matter how much some say that like him, why would you pay a guy over twice his worth.  (Fwiw. I honestly think he would struggle to see 5 mil per in free agency in 2021.)


I think you can take his savings and put a very healthy chunk of it towards Hubbard and/or Lawson.

I agree that Dunlap wouldn't fetch anywhere near that amount on the open market but I feel like it will cost a similar amount to replace him.

It's like Dre Kirkpatrick last year. He was set to earn $11m from memory. Everyone agreed that he wasn't worth that much but it cost $14m a year to replace him (plus nearly $3m in dead money) and the jury is out as to whether Trae Waynes is actually an upgrade.

Now that's not an argument not to make the change - Waynes is hopefully a better scheme fit and likely we'd be replacing Dunlap with someone better suited to a 3-4 front - but rather an argument that it is not necessarily a saving once you've factored in the cost of replacement. DEs aren't cheap.

Maybe the best option is to sign someone on a one year prove it deal (like Mackensie Alexander) whilst drafting a potential long term successor.

What is holding them back though is the lack of draft capital to draft that long term successor. There are so many spots they'd like to address in the draft. The rebuild started with changing QB but due to the front office's mismanagement they are attempting to rebuild with just 14 picks over 2 years. No compensatory picks, no picks acquired for veterans no longer part of the plans. Eifert, Dalton, Ross, Price and now probably Green, Dunlop and Atkins - 5 first rounders, a franchise record sack holder and a future Hall of Famer and will they end up with so much as a 5th round compensatory pick for the lot? Instead they have at least two holes on the O-line, probably the same again on the D-line and CB and only 3-4 picks to fill all those holes and draft for the future.

This is the window to make the most of Burrow's rookie contract and due to a lack of planning ahead they are going to waste it.