rmcjacket23

They are RBs, and past their prime RBs at that.

I'd look at it this way... Dareus is probably one of the three best defensive lineman in all of football, and he has a cap number under $10M. He is the definition of untouchable in my opinion...

Correct, I am new. I probably should have asked more questions before I joined...

Collusion. And I pretty much agree with that sentiment, since I think owners should be allowed to manage their teams as they see fit (basically just like fantasy football). The only long-term problem is that when owners of teams see that trades like that are being made, in my experience, it lowers the overall integrity and "realism" with the league itself, and eventually, it just dies off on its own.

That would undoubtedly apply to at least 50% of the trades made (and that's being conservative).

I'm not sure that matters... I'm not the commish, so I have no say, but if I were, I'm not giving somebody the benefit of the doubt of a very unrealistic trade based on the fact that you might flip that player later for somebody else. I would think the commish's would be looking at a trade at the exact face value of it...

Am I the only one thinking that most of the teams making these trades are almost guaranteed to end up worse than they were before they started?

Not that I'm disagreeing with the general sentiment regarding the decision, but honestly speaking, how many of the decisions (and especially trades) that go on in this league are done almost exclusively based on fan logic vs real (FO) logic?

Not even close to a realistic one...

I don't think most people questioned it from the Panthers side... I think people were questioning it from the Vikings side...

ERFA. Will almost certainly be retained.

He said regardless of age, not regardless of cost...

I agree. But Deangelo Williams isn't a fit anywhere. I was more or less mentioning the difference between trading for a guy like him and just picking him up in FA, which was inevitable.

You mean giving up a potential future LT on a cheap deal for an incredibly aging RB who was likely to be cut anyway isn't a good idea? LOL.

Some have suggested that. They would save just under $4M in cap space by cutting him, but mostly due to the fact that Gase is the new OC and he and Marshall never got along in Denver to begin with. I personally am not buying that he will be cut... I think he stays for one more season.

We will be unlikely to address many of our needs in FA... we simply don't and probably won't have the cap space to do so.

Obviously, just one of many deals that of course never even remotely happens or gets talked about in real life. But it is a fantasy game, so it is what it is.

Dolphins players available for trade: Mike Wallace Dannell Ellerbe Brian Hartline Randy Starks Brandon Gibson

Cap savings on Wallace is only $2.5M in 2015, with $9.6M in dead money. I'm guessing you were using Spotrac for your initial analysis, but that cite is wrong in regards to Wallace's cap amount. Of his $9.85M salary for 2015, $3M of that is guaranteed. I don't expect the Dolphins to release him this offseason, though its possible.

I do agree with this... there might not be an option. From the 2016 perspective, the Ravens would hold more leverage then if the status quo remains. So at that point, the Ravens basically could decide whether to extend at a significant discount (probably ideal) or cut. I don't think cutting outright is a really great option this season, and Webb still has the leverage in paycut negotiations. While I don't think it will happen, I can see Webb playing at his current cap number being a possibility IF the Ravens are actually interested in him staying for a long time and they are able to work out some cap space in other areas, such as cutting/extending Ngata and/or Yanda.

True, but particularly when it comes to interior O-line, we have a history of successfully drafting and developing players there. Given that, its sort of hard to justify paying top dollar to positions where we can probably find or develop suitable replacements. I would think positions where we are notoriously weak at drafting and developing, such as QB (until Joe), WR, and probably Corner are spots where we should consider spending larger chunks of our money. I mean lets be honest with ourselves... positions like RB, linebacker, D-line for the most part, and interior O-line are positions this team has had no issue drafting and developing players historically, and that's unlikely to change. I'm not saying we let generational players like Ray or possibly Mosley (a bit early for this) walk after their first contract, but its the precise reason why guys like Ellerbe, Kruger, Art Jones, etc. aren't amongst our highest priority resigns, even though they were quality players for us.

Well I certainly don't think its clear-cut... I think there's plenty of question marks. In 2015 alone, you're going to have about $20M in cap space tied up between Yanda, Monroe, and Zuttah, with Monroe and Zuttah on the books for $13M in space in 2016. If we're talking about locking up Yanda and KO in back to back seasons, you could have a $20-25M offensive line (excluding Wagner), which in my opinion, is a bit on the high side. And heck, Wagner would need a new deal after 2016 too, so you've potentially got three offensive lineman looking for decent sized contracts in the next three seasons, and they are essentially unarguably our three best lineman also. If I were a betting man, I'd say at least one of them isn't around long term, and KO makes the most sense to me as that guy.

Merge topics...

Here's my take... 1. Suggs isn't going anywhere for the next two seasons... he's basically locked in through 2016. Cutting him in 2016 would save us a whopping $100K against the cap, with $6.6M in dead money. We could ask him to take a paycut, but he's really not making that much that season anyway ($4.5M), and he has no incentive to agree, because he knows the franchise won't cut him over $100K. Even as a backup, he's worth way more than that. Frankly, the way his contract is designed, he basically is going to play here until he retires. Even in 2017, we save less than $2M against the cap by cutting him. Bottom line... he's here a minimum of two more years, and quite possibly three. 2. You really can't restructure Joe's contract... he needs to accept an extension. Given how well he's been playing recently, he may not even accept an extension for equal or less. You've got an annually increasing salary cap, an even greater dependency on QBs in the league, and you'll have guys like Wilson and Luck (who arguably have lesser credentials) making upwards of $25M a season potentially. 3. If Yanda gets extended this offseason, it will likely be costly. Offensive lineman can play longer than a lot of players in this league, and he's probably got at least 2-3 quality years of play left in him at a minimum. He's coming off an All-Pro campaign, and he made $6.5M on average on his previous deal. He could easily get that again from us or from somebody else, and I would think the floor with him would be about $5M a year, which is substantial for a guard. 4. KO is an interesting case. Conventional wisdom says we would try to keep him, but if you're signing Yanda this season or next, can you afford to pay two guards elite guard money in back to back seasons? Historically, the answer is no, because we saw this a few years ago with Yanda/Grubbs. Grubbs was arguably better than KO is at that time, and we signed Yanda and let him walk. That potentially certainly looms for KO, considering that they probably do like Urschel and the fact that the franchise has a proven track record of drafting and developing quality interior lineman in the mid to late rounds of the draft.

Which, under the veteran minimum, he almost certainly would be. Vet minimum for Richardson in 2014 would have been $570K, which means it could realistically be $600K this season. Ravens had about 15-20 players under the Rule of 51 last season that had a cap hit of $600K or less.