When will we know?

I expect everyone to stay, even Crossman, which will inevitably drive me batshit insane.

Peppers. Maybe Wahle, Kemoeatu, Foster, and Lucas.

Morgan, Carr, maybe Foster. Some changes will be necessary just to be able to sign a full roster, but as I've been saying for months, a lot of the pricier contracts don't become cut-friendly until '09.

Perhaps of making the playoffs at 9-7. Tampa Bay and New Orleans aren't suddenly going to become unsurpassable juggernauts, but I don't see enough roster or front office changes to produce a dramatically different product than the one we saw this year. This will continue to be a flawed team that sometimes looks teasingly good and other times disgustingly bad.

 

The thought of Crossman keeping his job makes my blood boil. We're dead last in return yardage, and we've had the worst return units over the last two years. That's unacceptable.

 

FWI I think the real reason why JR has not talk to the media yet .Because he has not made up his mind.

 

I could certaily see that, though maybe some of them will be under the guise of an extension.

a lot of which should be rookie contracts.

yeah, in some situations we don't gain anything or lose a little. That's some of the risk/reward with signing players, like Thomas Davis for instance, early. You don't pay him like you do Morgan or Witherspoon, but you still have to have an accelerated cap figure.

Smith only has 2 years remaining? He just signed an extension a year or two ago. Certainly think we could as well live without Bridges as much as anything. Jenkins is a place to help out, but his constant media feeding and instability does give me pause to save, what, $2 mil? Davis might be a smart re-up, don't know where he is for cap 2008. Don't think it'll save a ton. But I could see them adding a year onto one of the others, at a realistic price.

One thing working into the equation amongst FAs is that if Rucker is coming back, he can sign for the vet minimum exemption for 10 year vets. I don't think going and getting a guy necessarily forces us to not bring back Rucker.

that's hard to say. Lucas seems to be the easiest to move, assuming you can do something with his cap figure next year to go with it. He's the most critical and, regardless of the other two, hardest to replace. Either way the 3 year guys are less of a concern than the two.


BTW, great post.

 

Steve is under contract throught 2012. He does, however, have a $10 million cap hit in 2008 which includes a $6 million roster bonus. Perhaps we can 'convert' that to a Signing Bonus and save a little there.

 

probably can, yes. I didn't know that was there, that's a $4.8 mil difference.

 

there are some rules about how often you can renegotiate i believe...but i dont know what the limitations are. His cap number looks to be somewhat manageable over the next few years so it won't be that big of a deal to push some of this year's cap number to later years IMO.