Our Free Agent signings

Jesse James - 7 catches in 6 games
22+ million for 4 years

Mike Daniels - 3 games, 2 tackles
8.1 million for 1 year

Trey Flowers - 22 tackles, 1 sack
90 million for 5 years

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Trey will never “live up” to that contract, even when he’s at his best. Flowers is a quality football player but this type of player doesn’t cost $90M. He’s similar to Jason Jones, who I was a huge fan of.

I’m surprised at the lack of targets for Jesse. However, it does make some sense when you go back and look at what Bevel has done with TEs in the past. I don’t understand the logic in letting Toilolo go to sign Jesse James up for a bigger contract.

I didn’t expect Mike Daniels to play until mid season. It’s a one year deal and I’d rather try to use it with someone like Daniels vs just having it sitting around.

Justin Coleman and Amendola have been good signings.

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I said it when we signed Daniels, if he only plays the 2nd half of the season, then he’s one of the worst signings in Detroit history @ 8.1 million for 8 games. Aaron Donald makes 22+ million for 16 games, 1.4 million a year. Mike Daniels makes over 1 million per game for 8 games?!

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If he contributes at a high level, I think half a season is plenty. The money was literally just sitting there unused and we’ve got plenty more sitting there doing nothing. I would rather take a stab at a potentially dominant player than just sit on our hands counting our dollars we saved. I definitely am not asking for anyone else to feel that way.

I agree Wes - heck even if he only played the last few games if he made an impact then he might be worth it because it really is a no loss deal. If they had to cut players to get the cap space to sign him or if they failed to sign another player because of the contract then I would not. But he is basically a no risk signing. If he produces great. If not it did not impact anything but Martha’s wallet.

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FYI: Flowers is rated the #2 best run stopping DE in the league per PFF this season.

I’m obviously disappointed in his sack total and lack of pressures. In his defense, Flowers was coming off a major injury and Patrica is only rushing 3 on the majority of plays. That’s obviously not working. They should give him some help and rush 4 while blitzing more. When was the last time we saw a safety blitz?

Not ripping on snags AT ALL… just my opinion, if you list fa signings shouldn’t all be included not just the underperforming ones?

No team in history hits on all fa signings. Hell the raiders gave up multiple picks for AB and many here STILL give mayock love.
I wanted flowers and was glad to get him, not as high anymore but he can still prove worth.
Daniel’s I always thought was an injury risk so not surprised where we are with him.
James is more a fault imo of the coaching staff. He performs when the shot is his, at just don’t give him many. This needs to change.
Coleman has been as elite as any in the league
Danny A has been a good #3

If we had all this money just sitting around, then why didn’t we get some more help for our run game? or another WR? Had to be someone that could have actually helped us…and played more than half the season.

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I focused on the bad signings.

Fair enough my friend

The fact that we have money sitting around is not debatable. As we sit here RIGHT NOW we’ve got nearly $20M in cap space. For the most part I agree with your position and your side of the signing is the “correct” side. I just happen to feel a little different.

I have no idea why they chose to sit on the money. Maybe they thought the roster was good enough not to warrant any moderate to high priced free agents. Maybe Martha said don’t spend anymore. Maybe they want to roll it over for next year. A lot of possible reasons. The jury is out as to whether it was a good decision or not.

Isn’t there a limit to how much they can roll over to the next year?

This was from 2015, not sure if it is still the same.

4. You’d be smart to roll cash over

Between 2013 and 2017, teams are required by the CBA to spend at least 89 percent of the cap. Some years, they can fall short of that number, so long as they make up for it later. That’s why they’re given the ability to “roll over” unused cap space from year to year.

And the reality is that if you have a massive surplus right now, you’d be smart to save some of your money in order to create extra cap space for 2016 and 2017. Usually that’s because you’re presumably rebuilding. Among the five teams that rolled over more than $10 million this year (the Jags, Browns, Eagles, Jets and Titans), all but the Eagles are doing exactly that.

The notion that might be tough for impatient fans to swallow is that it’s prudent to save cap space for when you’ve become competitive with the players you’re currently grooming, a) to add reinforcements and b) to re-sign said groomed players.

Every team except the St. Louis Rams rolled some money over this year, and most will do it again headed into 2016. It’s the kind of thing that’ll help the Colts when it comes time to pay Andrew Luck big bucks, or the Miami Dolphins with Ryan Tannehill.

Only those six teams cited at the top have more cap space than the Cincinnati Bengals, but they’ll keep money in the coffers as they prepare for a massive in-house free-agent class of 2016 that is slated to include A.J. Green, Leon Hall, Andrew Whitworth, Andre Smith, Reggie Nelson, Robert Geathers, Dre Kirkpatrick, Adam Jones, Mohamed Sanu and Kevin Zeitler.

So don’t expect your cap-rich team to spend every dime it has. Based on the four points we just reviewed, it’s probably safe to look at your team’s estimated cap surplus entering 2015 and subtract $15 million-$25 million in order to arrive at the dollar figure it’ll look to spend on outside free agents.

Of course, there’s room for creativity, but that only levels the playing field…

Starting with the 2013 season, each team was required to spend a minimum of 88.8% of the cap in cash on player compensation,[8] and 90% in future years starting 2014. However, the floor is based on total cash spent over each of two four-year periods, the first running from 2013–2016 and the second from 2017–2020. A team can be under the floor in one or more seasons in a cycle without violating the CBA, as long as its total spending during the four-year period reaches the required percentage of the cap.

Put another way, the Lions can roll over any unused salary cap with no limitations on any given year, provided that they spend at least 90% of the salary cap for 2017 through 2020 combined as a 4-year total.