I’ve got the Lions with about a whopping $1m dollars left in functional cap space based on what we know and what we can reasonably expect (draft picks, practice squad & money for in-season moves/rollover - though I think I’m being fair with my numbers). This doesn’t count Teddy/Bartch contracts, which I would expect at least Teddy’s to affect the Top 51 calculation. Obviously, they could carry considerably less than $15m for in-season moves, but that’s been pretty unlike them since Brad has been GM.
Will be interesting to see what happens when/if Gibbs/Jack/Sam/Branch sign extensions this offseason, since a proration of their signing bonuses would hit the cap this year, too.
As far as roster is concerned, everything looks like we mostly have guys at positions, except for WILL. Possibly Clark could play there? Be he’s primarily been a MIKE and ST guy since he’s been in the league. You can move some of the DBs/WRs/OL/DL around, too, but they’re all pretty interchangeable. The only glaring hole to me is a guy who can play the WILL like we’ve asked the WILL to play the in this defense. I don’t think we have that player on the roster yet.
I also think for now you could probably put Rodrigo and Clark both in at WILL. Those are the types of guys we tend to like using there, MIKEs who can cover, what that word “cover” possibly being a little more theoretically. But he that’s how it was for AA early in his career too, he really improved.
Yeah, I think there’s some variance that you can do with a lot of positions where you want to slot particular guys in. I could see Rodrigo or Clark playing time at the WILL, but man does that make me uncomfy lol
Me too, but remember AA used to make us uncomfortable there as well. Our preference makes me uncomfortable, but it’s pretty clearly a core philosophy of Dan’s to stop the run.
We only have $1 million, even with the Goff restructure? I thought that was supposed to open up a significant chunk. But then again, I don’t dive into this stuff, so I may just be wrong…
Yep. It did open up $32m. Without it, the Lions would be -7.3m in the hole and non-compliant with the cap (well, technically they wouldn’t be, they just wouldn’t have been able to sign some of the FAs that they did)…without taking anything else like draft picks, PS salaries, or in-season money for spending.
The issue is that when people typically look at cap space available before FA, they don’t take things like draft picks salaries adjustments (some of these contracts will replace others on the Top 51/53), practice squad, or the money saved for in-season moves (which is usually around 20m for the Lions under Holmes). That accounts for nearly $24m in my projections with a modest $15m projection for in-season spending/rollover this year. It also doesn’t account for possible proration from signing bonuses for any Gibbs/Jack/LaPorta/Branch extensions.
People just see that they have X amount in cap space available on random site X, without taking into account how much of that is already earmarked for spending elsewhere. Because technically, yeah, the Lions are actually 25 million or so under the cap at this moment, but most of that is already earmarked to be spent.
Yeah, I don’t see many more roster additions outside of the draft unless we make corresponding moves to reduce cap. I think the Lions are basically done except for some very minimal bottom of the roster stuff. But, we do have 9 picks to address some of the needs on the roster. But I also think that the Lions are comfortable with guys like Borom and Wonnum starting at those positions if ends up working like that.
The thing is though, most rosters have “Wonnum-sized” holes in their rosters going into the season. No one is strong everywhere, everyone wishes they could add more talent/depth at certain spots, but the system doesn’t allow it. You have to skimp somewhere, and the key is to get that decision on where you skimp right. They did a pretty good job of it until last year.
It’s actually kind of crazy that the Goff contract completely off-sets the way it does.
Goff Restructure 32m vs 7m (what we’d be in the whole without it) + 4m (Draft) + 5m (PS) + 15 (in-season) = 31m.
Which makes me think Brad knew exactly what he was doing when he freed up only 32m when he could’ve freed up a lot more. And that I would expect that the LIons have spent all they want to in FA. Sure things could change, but I think they’ve done exactly what they’ve wnanted to do so far.
Yes but he has been a huge net advantage for us. No drafter is perfect they all make mistakes. Schneider went through six year of mistakes in Seattle, somehow didn’t get fired, and is now on a run of 3 elite ones. You won’t always hit. Brad has one subpar draft and one average one - both of which still have time to change the narrative - and people are acting like he can’t do it any more. After 3 straight awesome drafts. And don’t forget the guys in the last two drafts don’t get nearly as many starting reps. They’re going to take longer to hit just inherently.
Also the reason that the roster has all the studs on it that it does. You win some, you lose some. I think Brad has won more than he’s lost. No GM bats 1.000.
And I say that, absolutely hating some of Brad’s picks. But there aren’t many other GMs out there right now I’d rather have drafting for us come April.
)