2014 salary cap....and the money we have

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Monkeydad

We're going to have to settle for some stop-gaps. We have more holes than money despite the huge influx of cap space.

I would say that much differently. The amount of cap space we'll have is near endless. The problem is there won't be enough impact players available who fit our system, so Bruce will do the smart thing and find stopgaps instead of overcomitting to players who don't fit.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

I would say that much differently. The amount of cap space we'll have is near endless. The problem is there won't be enough impact players available who fit our system, so Bruce will do the smart thing and find stopgaps instead of overcomitting to players who don't fit.

This is pretty much the whole idea behind free agency. You can count on one hand the amount of available talent that can:

1) improve the roster
2) do so without costing a contract that will look bad in the future

So the team may have 14 spots where improvement is needed, but if you can get five or six reasonably priced players (reasonable is relative, you can give big bucks for a great talent) to come in and plug holes, you've done well. And you still have 7-8 holes.

The good news is that there are zero teams who will enter next season with no holes (even Seattle is going to have some issues on the OL), so the goal of the offseason isn't to fill all the holes. It's to take a situation that's bad (we have too many weaknesses) and add players who can help. Level the playing field a bit, so that when you draft/develop your stars: Griffin/Williams/Morris/Orakpo etc, the veterans on the team are competent enough to handle their assignments.

[KI Skins Fan]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

This is pretty much the whole idea behind free agency. You can count on one hand the amount of available talent that can:

1) improve the roster
2) do so without costing a contract that will look bad in the future

So the team may have 14 spots where improvement is needed, but if you can get five or six reasonably priced players (reasonable is relative, you can give big bucks for a great talent) to come in and plug holes, you've done well. And you still have 7-8 holes.

The good news is that there are zero teams who will enter next season with no holes (even Seattle is going to have some issues on the OL), so the goal of the offseason isn't to fill all the holes. It's to take a situation that's bad (we have too many weaknesses) and add players who can help. Level the playing field a bit, so that when you draft/develop your stars: Griffin/Williams/Morris/Orakpo etc, the veterans on the team are competent enough to handle their assignments.

I think what you wrote is a pretty darn good description of what we fans can expect FA to do for our team. Good job!