WFT's Off-Season Thread

[Scalper]

Originally Posted by Pervis_Griffith

If it were me, I would keep Allen and Payne ... extending Allen now, and Payne the year after that.

When Sweat is coming up on his last year, plus the one year option (so two years left), then I would trade Sweat.

Then obviously pay Young whatever he's worth. Keep him here for the duration.

The edge players cost more ... and it seems like you could replace Sweat a little easier, especially if your interior is still superior.


But this would keep this line intact for as long as possible, and then trading a high value asset without diminishing the line too much.

The model is the Niners who had too many DL guys to resign, and traded one DL for a 1st. That would be the smart play, but doubt anyone gives that much. Long term, I'll take bookend pass rushers over two stud interior guys. Good edge rushers are MUCH harder to find that interior DL. By way of example, with Kerrigan gone, we have two solid edge rushers, Sweat and Young, if either gets hurt, nothing substantial behind them. We have Allen, Payne, Io, and Settle at DT, though Io only here through 2022.

The progression kind of sucks for us. Taking Kerrigan #16 in 2011 makes sense. Allen at #17 makes sense in 2017. You know have stud DE with stud DT. Payne at #13 in 2018 is also not absurd, he was rated top-10 and fell, and could play NT. By 2019, you know Kerrigan isn't performing high level consistently all season because of age, and you're going to let him walk after 2020 most probably. So you see a guy you like who fell, Sweat, and trade up for him. Now after 2020 you have two stud DTs and an outside edge rusher, not absurd to keep all three long term, with no inkling you're going to implode, end up with #2 pick and shot at generational Edge in Young.

My priority is Young, Sweat, Payne, Allen. I just think Payne is more of a physical freak and better at clogging the middle than Allen. I mean, what are the contracts long-term when the salary cap is back up to say $200M?

Top DTs present make $20M, and I don't think Allen or Payne are quite as good as Donald etc. Allen especially. Top DEs make $25M. These prices will be higher in few years, but even at present-value bargains, we'd be talking $90M for four starters on DL. No way. Sweat still work in progress, but have to make long-term decision soon on the group in aggregate. Even keeping three of them may not be possible. Average DL spending at present $30M, highest is Eagles $77M, with other elite DL teams spending $40-$55M and about 20% - 30% of cap. Chiefs, Bills, Niners, Rams among them, teams made deep playoff runs last few years. To keep even 3 of the guys would probably require almost a third of our salary cap.

I'll take the edge rushers every time, but the risk is that you let Allen walk and then Sweat never realizes his potential. I like having Sweat Young with Payne between them essentially playing nose or close to it, and then plug a Settle, an Io, or a later round pick with hustle in, versus having two stud DTs and nothing on edge. Edge players MUCH harder to find.

The obvious question also is do you just let Allen play out rookie deal and walk, or can you trade him for 2nd? If you can't, just take the 3rd comp year after? The other thing is you could, but we won't, resign Allen and have a huge cap hit first year and then make him affordable years after, but this disincentivizes future production.