As we think about wants/not wants in 2016 draft and free agency, one should at least take a peek at 2017. In the draft we must be thinking DL, OLB, OL and RB later, but not too much later. In general I like the idea of signing one stud FA as opposed to 2-3 mediocre guys; but given all the holes in the 2017 roster, the only position that this makes sense is for a stud DLman that replaces Guion’s salary; we may need to sign 2-3 guys for modest 2-3 yr deals to fill the holes in the 2017 roster like the 2 year deals for James Jones, Starks and Neal of years past. And I think this shows there are far more important positions to fill rather than TE and ILB.
Currently, for 2017, we have 28 players under contract for about 123M here they are [Kinda scary]:
Daniels, Guion [3M savings if cut]
Mathews [11M cap savings if cut], Ryan
Shields, Dix, Burnett, Randell, Rollins, Gunter, Goodson
Linsley, Bulaga, Taylor [2.4m savings if cut]
R.Rodgers, Backman
Nelson. Cobb, Adams, Monty, Abby, Janis, Johnson
Ripkowski
Rodgers, Hundley, Williams
Available to be added to this will be:
9 2016 draft picks: $7.5M
3 RFA: Pennell, Elliot, Banjo: $5.5M w/ lowest tender
13 ERFA: about $6.2M
Ringo 450
Thomas 480
Lavato 442.5
Walker 480
Henry 525
Vujonovich 450
Crockett 480
Rotherram 450
R. Daniel 442.5
Williams 450
Bradford 525
McByde 450
Campbell 525
Total 53 guys $142.2M
If cap is 160M; Ted Thompson will have 6M roll over giving us about 166M to spend. We need 2M to sign 2017 draft class [drafting #32, of course]; $7M rollover into 2017 and R.Rodgers, Adams and Linsley will get a playing time raise costing about $2.5M. We’ll have about $12.3M to spend on FAs and extensions.