:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/3798441/20121122_jla_aa8_761.0.jpg)
After last night's debacle, I was thinking about who on the team I would keep after the season, and there aren't a whole lot of players I'd like to stay. Here's a list of our free agents...
| Unrestricted Free Agents | Restricted Free Agents | Exclusive Rights |
|
Yeremiah Bell Mike DeVito Nick Folk Shonn Greene Dustin Keller LaRon Landry Brandon Moore Chaz Schilens Matt Slauson Bryan Thomas |
Jeff Cumberland Austin Howard Joshua Mauga Tanner Purdum |
Dennis Landolt Isaiah Trufant |
Of these players, I would bring back Folk, Landry, Schilens, Cumberland, Howard, and Purdum. I would bring back Keller as well, depending on the price. It would have to be relatively low.
Considering the salary cap, which I outlined in an earlier article, and which you can read more about here, I would cut (or try to trade) or let the following players at the end of the season go. I've included the savings of the players I have information for.
- T Jason Smith - $12,000,000
- LB Calvin Pace - $8,560,000
- LB Bart Scott - $7,150,000
- DT Sione Pouha - $3,833,332
- S Eric Smith - $3,000,000
- QB Tim Tebow - $1,531,875
- LB Garrett McIntyre - $563,120
- LB Nick Bellore - $555,000
- G Caleb Schlauderaff - $555,000
- WR Clyde Gates - $555,000
- G Hayworth Hicks - $480,000
- WR Royce Adams - $402,210 - Total Savings - $38,630,537
- FB Lex Hilliard
- CB Darrin Walls
- TE Dedrick Epps
- LB Josh Mauga
- LB D.J. Bryant
- RB John Griffin
- DT Matt Hardison
- WR Royce Pollard
This would leave us with 29 players on the active roster, if my math is correct (an admittedly questionable assumption). I'm not including from Epps to Pollard on the list, as those players are either on injured reserve or the practice squad. Clearly, I want to clean house. This is for a few reasons. The first is to send across the message of accountability for your play. If you can't play the game, you can't be on the team. The second is to try and get rid of the bloated, horrible albatross contracts that Mike Tannenbaum has weighted the team down with. We're going to be severely limited when it comes to the cap due to some of these absurd contracts.
The biggest fundamental issue with our team is that there is a dearth of talent, from the elderly players whose skills have faded with time to the younger players that were were either over-drafted or not drafted, for good reason. It's time to cut ties with those talentless players or the ones tying us down with huge contracts. In essence, there aren't very many on this team that I'd like to keep around. I want to start fresh. And that includes not only the front office and a good number of the coaching staff, but the roster as well.
Who are some of the players you'd like to keep going into next year?