Question About Possible Cap Purge In Two Years

[PurpleRulz]

What about long snapper? I could do that.

I see your point as far as punter is concerned. They have to be amongst the players with the greatest longevity in football. Think of it. It does not matter if you are 20 or 45; if you can kick a football well and with accuracy, you will have a job, somewhere.

[Gabrosin]

We're all very worked up about the thought of a salary cap purge, but I don't believe it will nearly resemble what everyone fears.

1. The new CBA has pushed the salary cap quite a bit higher. This gives us some breathing room. Although players will now expect more money, it means that older contracts won't hurt as much.

2. I expect Ogden and Ray Lewis to rework their deals rather than be released to seek employment elsewhere. Both are beginning to slow down; both have committed their whole professional career to our team; and both have a championship ring. I would expect Ogden to restructure before seeking a release to play for another team; the only question is whether he would decide to retire instead of taking a pay cut. Ray might seek to go elsewhere, but I think that's mostly talk. However, his salary demands might make it unreasonable to keep him, considering the wear on his body. Hopefully he will be content with a reasonable contract, and we can give him one more extension to keep him here for the last few years of his career. If we wind up cutting him at age 34-35 and he heads for another team (a la Junior Seau) before retiring, it won't be a huge loss. But if we wind up cutting him after this season or next, I think it would be a waste. His presence is still a huge POSITIVE factor on this team, on the field and in the locker room.

3. I honestly believe the odd man out might be Terrell Suggs. Now, I felt that about Chris McAlister too, and his deal got done, so it wouldn't shock me if they managed to keep Suggs, but I wouldn't expect us to get rid of guys like Adalius Thomas and Kelly Gregg to hold onto him. The franchise tag awaits.

4. I can't see us getting rid of Mason or McNair without doing our best to restructure and keep them. McNair, perhaps, if he truly can't stay healthy, but then I would expect retirement from him. If he has a great season this year and takes us to the playoffs, you can bet we'll try to hang onto him for as long as we feel he'll keep us competitive. Mason's contract seems very reasonable for a #1 wide receiver and even if Clayton emerges into a productive player I wouldn't expect us to dump Mason as a luxury. I believe he'll be the sort of receiver that ages well (Jimmy Smith, Joe Horn, Marvin Harrison, and others fall into this category).

5. I don't expect Trevor Pryce to be here for more than one or two years. He was brought in to help us win right now, and whether he does or not, he'll be completely washed up pretty soon. This is a McCrary/Boulware situation, and young pass rushers will always be out there for us to draft.

6. Mike Flynn cannot possibly be around much longer, and sad as it is to say, I expect about the same from Mulitalo. We're trying to get younger on the offensive line, and I think Mulitalo will become a luxury for us, one we can't afford. Flynn is just a continued disaster, and I hope it doesn't torpedo our season.

7. I honestly don't know what will happen with Jamal Lewis. There's no way he'll eat up that much of our cap that year without restructuring. He's definitely the sort of player we could keep for a few more years by restructuring, assuming he returns to superstar form, but that might only push off the pain for a couple seasons. On the other hand, if he doesn't produce this year, he'll be gone and we'll be drafting his replacement, or even looking to Musa Smith, a guy who we haven't seen much of yet. Mike Anderson's contract is very reasonable, I don't see why we'd release him, unless he knew he couldn't crack our starting lineup and insisted on going elsewhere.

One way or another, we'll manage to keep a lot of the talent on this team together without devastating our cap situation. There are an awful lot of players who deserve decent money, but I'm counting on our front office to have learned the right lessons from our last purge... this time around we won't be in bad shape.

(PS: can we get that guy over there to stop mooning me? Yeah, you. I'm talking about you. What, was this guy paddled too much as a pledge, or is that supposed to be him literally pulling his skin down? Either way, it's pretty creepy. No wonder the gray dude keeps freaking out. And another thing, is it supposed to be ironic that this guy is mooning our flag, or is it just a coincidence? Can we change that to the French flag, maybe? Or the toothless inbred. Or Randy Moss. Color me .)

[AZRAVEN]

I would really hate to see AD leave, he can do so many things. If it came down to it as much as I would hate it I would rather lose Suggs than AD. If Ray doesn't get more money I think he will want to move on, JO will retire ~ he seems about ready to do that now. Before camp I would have put Mule in that mindset also but he seems to be rejuvinated this season. McNair's status will depend on how bad a beating he takes in the next couple years IMO ~ if we can keep him on his feet he may be able to hang on awhile longer. Mason could surprise, look at how long Rice played.