Dolphins are expected to make a "huge push" to sign G/C Jason Brown http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/2009/02/diner-morning-news-16/
Well let the spending begin! They must really be sold on Brown if they are willing to invest 25% of their cap on the oline. Or perhaps they feel the uncapped era is comming, collect young proven talent now. Either way, if we land Brown, great, if not we'll still be good.
I think Satele could be a starter at RG depending on what happens with Thomas. They could fight it out in TC.
Yea I agree we dont need to lose our minds over this guy. Yes I would be excited if we sign him but I dont want to throw a ton of money at him we still go other postions to improve. I hope we land him.
I would love to bring Brown to the Dolphins, but that percentage of the cap allocated to the Offensive Line seems abnormally high. I'd be interested to see what that percentage is for other organizations around the league. With all that said, I'd prefer the more cost effective approach of bringing in one of Boomer's guys via the draft:
I believe that the 25% estimate is high. My guesstimate is that the actual salary cap % for the OL would be about 18%. It's still high but not unworkably so.
CK in another thread pointed out its around 25% and worked out the known numbers and est. about 7 million for Brown.
I'm not too concerned about the percentage tied up in the OL, Long, Carey and Brown would be here long term, while Smiley could be replaced two or three years down the road through the draft with a younger and cheaper option. Maybe sooner if he suffers another injury. When you have a chance to acquire a young player like Brown at such a crucial position, you do it.
If they do sign Brown I'd much rather they entertain trade offers for Satele. He may make a good RG but to me it would be a waste. He would be an excellent fit on quite a few teams. As a RG I think he's a tad small. Put him next to a mammouth LT, and he might make a very good LG but I don't see him on the right... I just think he's a Center who can play Center I guess.
Very exciting news and typical Parcells / Sparano / Ireland philosophy. Invest in the big guys and they will make the skill players better. I'm very excited about getting Jason Brown in Miami. His youth (only 25) and power style of play are a perfect fit!
Looking like my feelings on Satele being seen more highly by Sparano and crew then rumors have let on are looking to be false. Well if they are that set against Satele then something must be up. Either this size issue is really a problem or his recovery isn't looking so promising. Either way, if we bring this Brown in we know we've upgraded and that's all we can hope for. Just wondering how on earth were going to fill all these defensive spots with all that cap in the OL.
I saw that and he figured the per year salary cap #s by taking the total contract value and dividing by the term. That # is substantially higher than the actual cap #. The actual salary cap hit should be closer to the 18% I stated earlier.
I'm high on Satele too, but still see Brown as too good to pass on. Signing him improves us so I'm all for it, and it gives us a young guy that should be around a long time. Also, what if the staff knows that Smiley or Thomas may not be back full strength, or that Satele might be better than one of them on at OG? I think what you posted still is right on. People forget how cheap Satele's contract is. Keeping him is no burden and our FO / staff value lineman on both sides of the ball.
The thing with getting Brown is that it saves us from drafting a Center or OL with one of out first few picks. We can use those picks to get a WR, OLB and CB now.
Yeah I thought I had read the cap figure would be around 123 mil. If so then 25% of that would be 30.75 mil.
You win games in the trenches... Investing in the offensive (defensive too...) line is the smartest thing we can do. After years of having an abysmal offensive line and the damage it's caused, I'm thrilled. Even this season, it was obvious how badly the interior line hurt this team. Aside from the game in NE this year, we didn't run over anyone. We didn't play power football. Hell, how many 3rd and shorts did we miss? Our best play became a FB dive in those situations. We couldn't impose our will on anyone in those situations. With a division that includes Wilfork, Jenkins, and Stroud, fixing the interior is a wise move.
Right, and my estimate of the actual salary cap figure with the addition Brown would be about $23 million or 18.7% of $123 million.
Like I said in the "Club Level",If we sign Brown we'll have the highest paid offensive line in the league. Having that kind of loot poured into our line means I want to hear "anyone can rush for 1,800 yards behind that line" everytime someone talks about one of our running backs. Anything less than 2,000 yards in team rushing should be considered under achieving and anytime we run the ball less than 30 times in game should be considered horrible mismanagement of resources.
Rafael, here's an a anlysis I did awhile ago. I have updated the numbers to reflect Carey's new contract. I tried to change wording wherver it needed to be updated for new information (since I origially wrote this last August). Please excuse any out-dated statements I forgot to change. By the way, I think it makes sense to look at the long-term outlook of salary cap allocation by using an average yearly salary instead of just 2009 figures. The reality is, all these salaries are structured to go up, so even if the % is lower at the outset, it's not reflective of the contractual commitment the organization is locked into for future years with thisline. I want to reflect the long term effect of these contracts.
The counter argument is, if Brown wants a king's ransom, why not get a much cheaper center from the deepest draft class of talented Centers in over a decade??
Just talking about getting him and setting the bar that high for our run game says how great a signing it would be, IMO. With the way are interior OL was last year, that wasn't even a realistic expectation. I would do whatever we have to to get him. He's the FA player I want most.
Well if there is not Salary Cap next year why does it matter what we pay him? I think he would help more than any rookie center. Besides we already know what he can do in the NFL and if the Dolphins pay him than they think he is worth it. We also would get to choose someone else with a high pick rather than overbid for that position in FA on a player not close that that caliber of a Jason Brown (In a Different position)
I think the trifecta proved what a difference improving the trenches can go last year but also saw the area's that still needed to be upgraded in the playoff game. The strength of a good offensive line can overshadow the lack of talent on the offense or shore-up the lack of a phenom at wideout is what I'm trying to say. Also make your RB's look really good! Imagine Ronnie with a line that could consistently get him to the second level? I'm seeing 5 yards a carry!
This would be so sick. Our O-Line would be killer. Plus this would take care of a huge need and give us flexibility come draft day. If we sign him and Resigned YB........... Look at LB, S, WR in the 1st 2 rounds.... Maualuga, Delmas, Robiske
even if we get Brown, it would be a great idea to draft mack, from what I read besides being a Huge monster 6'5 he can play all positions of the o-line and he wouldn't cost us that much. (whats the rate for a center at the 25th pick? )anything happens with Brown you still have the Mack truck to anchor it.
Should be noted that NE doesn't run the ball well. Their idea of running the ball is a quick pass to Welker. I'm not saying it isn't effective. I'm saying that unless you plan to mirror that scheme I think 6.4% is an aberration, I think 12% is a solid target.
Thanks, the page had flipped and I missed your post. I actually disagree about using averages because that ignores the fact that the cap goes up each year as well. Unless you have contracts with huge salary jumps the salaries aren't going to outpace the cap. The huge back loading of contracts that used to occur seems to have fallen out of favor. So if you use 2009 salary #s and compare them the 2009 cap you should be fairly consistent in your percentages from year to year. So for 2009, I have Carey at about $4.5 - $5 mill. not $7 mill. and I believe Long is somewhere below $9 mill. not $11 mill. that's $4.5 mill. less than the avg. If we can sign Brown for about that we end up back at the 18% number. I'm not certain that I'd prefer that to just drafting Mack, but i believe that's the right way to estimate the cap %.
Wes Welker, as a WR or RB has no Superbowl rings. The Pats teams that actually won rings could run the ball quite effectively.
Along that same line of logic, Miami also ran the ball well with Csonka and Morris. But what does that have to do with this discussion? Regardless... After researching NE (as a team) actually ranked 6 in the NFL in rushing. Who knew by watching their games? I hate NE and therefore am loathsome to give them credit for anything, but with such an underpaid Offensive line they did well. However, I'd be interested in offensive line price tags for atlanta, carolina, baltimore and minnesota. The Colts were ranked 31st, as any Addai owner could attest to last season in FFB. 1 NY Giants 2 Atlanta 3 Carolina 4 Baltimore 5 Minnesota 6 New England 7 Tennessee 8 Washington 9 NY Jets 10 Oakland 11 Miami
I was just pointing out that the Pats with Welker have been successful in winning regular-season games, but have collected no rings.
lol... yeah, the averages are a bit of a cop-out on my part. You know how much work it'd be to calculate this out for each year? Finding those year-by-year salary figures are damned near impossible! lol. That said, most contracts are already structured to escalate year over year. Now, while the salary cap has tended to rise by approximately 6% annually, most contracts go up by MORE than 6% in each successive year. So, if we did the analysis year by year, what you would find is that the O-line salary percentage of cap might start low, like 17%, but in the 2011, 2012 we could be looking at 25%-30%. And THAT'S the long term corner I feel we'd be painting ourselves into. It won;t show in 2009, but as all these big contracts mature, it'll really put the squeeze on us for resignings and Free Agent signings at skill positions. So, yes, it'd be a more accurate method for 2009, but if you are doing it that way, you have to look at what these contracts will do to our cap structure in two, three, four and five years from now too. THAT'S when it becomes increasingly toxic.
That and they throw a ton of dump passes and screens to Faulk. I have a feeling they'll have a better run game this season with Faulk, Morris, Jordan, and probably a draft pick. Nobody cares about Maroney so I left him out of that equation.