Listen I love Jake but when he made the starter for the Pro Bowl last year when he was on injured reserve I really laughed my rear end of. Its seems perception IS reality now. As I said, look at his body of work in the pre season, its no more impressive then most of the LTs in the NFL. I just call em like I see em. If Ireland was smart, franchise him if he plays well. I am sure Jake can live on around 12 million a year in 2013 and live pretty decent. So far this year ? Solely IMO, he has not played good enough to throw Joe Thomas money at him, not even close.
Right, but the author never made a case for why clearing cap space this year is preferable to keeping cap space clear for future years.
He doesnt have to. He simply questioned how we could have such a poor accumulation of talent and not have much in the way of available cap. He then went on to say that allocating 20% of your cap to two player (Long and Dansby) who arent Qb's and one of whom hasnt really lived up to his deal (Dansby) is killing us and hes correct about that as well even though Dansby has been good but not worth the contract he got. The author then proceeded to explain the breakdown by position of how we spent our cap space and pointed out that its very similar to how the Jets spent theres which isnt really a winning formula. He wasnt really wrong about anything. He could have went more in depth about some points but nothing he said was really off base that Id have to take issue with it. He pointed out that we have a lack of playmakers (we do), that we spend a lot of money at positions that are secondary and we are missing the boat at safety, TE and WR (if you look at his chart of how our cap money was spent, and that we have a lot of dead cap.
Well using the pro bowl as a measuring stick is crazy in the first place since the voters for that usually miss the boat. As for your last two points, franchising him or throwing Joe Thomas money at him...thats what I was questioning. Even if he does play well is it wise to spend huge money on a LT when team like the NYG, Pats (the last few years, not early when Light was making Pro Bowl after pro Bowl) Ravens, Steelers and GB are able to sustain success with decent not great OL's?
Right, and the easy answer is that the team hasn't renegotiated any contracts to create money in the short-term at the expense of the long-term. Right, but he never explains the dynamics of why two players account for 20%. How much is the structure of Dansby's contract responsible for the % of cap space he's responsible for? All the author did was point out obvious facts, but he provides no context for why they have occurred and what they mean for the future.
None of that makes him incorrect about what he said, it just means the article wasnt as in depth as you would like it to be.
Don't think it was the basis of his article...he focused on a singular topic. I prefer that than seeing him "guess" what we will do in the future. I for one don't mind how Ireland is handling the Jake Long situation, extending him now would mean making him the highest paid LT in football. He's using the option to franchise him very well IMO. Only way it backfires is if Reggie Bush plays out of his mind.
It might not make him incorrect, it does make a lot of his points stand on shaky ground. I read the article and it seemed like it was someone who was looking at numbers and not knowing what he was talking about.
He could have done more to validate the arguments but someone of your or stringers intelligence already knows the arguments on both sides. Its all a question of whether we agree or disagree with the basis of the article.
He said that the salary cap was mismanaged when he failed to establish what the criteria for success is.
One can assume that it assuredly is NOT a low on talent roster with another bad season is the criteria. Kind of goes without saying that fielding a bad football team 4 years into your job is a bad thing.
I disagree with the article. A lot of things he points out as "bad" things I see as good things. Especially the part of not having a 2015 roster and having Reggie Bush as a runningback.
I agree with all you said. Proof to everyone that a good team does not need a LT that costs a Bazzillion dollars. First off, NY Giants, superbowl, their Oline has nobodly close to Jakes salary. Next, Green Bay. Not bad teams eh ? the following have the lowest sack percentage in 2010 and nobody on this list makes Jake Money. New Orleans, Atlanta, Houston the list goes on and on. The day of LTs getting a bazzillion dollars, IMO, is a thing of the past. Two highest paid LTs are Joe Thomas and Jake Long. Compare them to the players from the teams listed above and its pretty clear. You ahve to be an idiot to sign a LT to a 50 or 60 million dollar contract.
We also have a total of 29 ufa and rfa that either have to be paid or replaced and paid. We don't have a QB other than Ryan signed after this season If anyone pays Smith 8 million per year they qualify for disability because their insane
