Here is what I'm thinking (and I've already been slowly chipping away at my big mock offseason):
1.) Restructure Harrison Smith- he's not prime Harrison anymore but he's also not hurting us. As I said a few days ago, Smith is the Eric Weddle type that will be able to play well into his 30's at a solid level. He also had a pretty decent year and was disgustingly misused. That saves us about $8 million.
2.) Restructure Brian O'Neill- I dont have a problem pushing his cap down the line because I think he still has a lot of good years left in him.
3.) Release Eric Kendricks- just too slow and cant stay with guys. This saves us $9.5 million with only $1.9 in dead cap.
4.) Release Zadarius Smith- looked like a great signing early but his injuries showed up again and only piled up 0.5 sacks in the 2nd half of the season. This saves us $13.6 million with $3.3 in dead cap.
5.) Release Adam Thielen- not a good way to go by this one. Restructuring pushes his massive cap down the road and he's not much of a help to us anymore. This saves us $6.4 million but we soak $13.5 in dead money. Again, his contract is easily the toughest to navigate because there is no easy way around it. Maybe someone can help me here.
6.) Release Jordan Hicks- easy move, too slow, too old. Saves us $5 million with $1.5 in dead cap.
7.) Release CJ Ham- I dont see the value here when we rarely use him. If we want a fullback, I feel like it's easy for them to find at a much cheaper rate. Saves us $3 million and only $750k in dead cap.
8.) Release Chris Reed- we didnt really use him and it saves us $2.5 million with only $250k in dead cap.
9.) Release Ross Blacklock- Tonga proved to be the better option here anyways. Saves us $1.7 million with zero dead cap.
....all of this puts us at $37.1 in cap space.
Now couple things....
1.) What do we do with Dalvin Cook? I say trade him. He definitely carries value and I think we could fetch a 4th for him. Played 17 games with no injury hiccups and went for 1,000 yards. Highest his value will ever be. If we trade him that gives us another $7.9 in cap space with $6 million in dead cap. Do we re-sign Mattison here or look elsewhere. I'm leaning towards a 1-2 punch with Mattison and Chandler. This doesnt force us to waste a draft pick on a RB or dip into a very weak FA pool.
2.) Definitely extend Hockenson which could free up some space.
3.) Resign big name veterans like Patrick Peterson who had a resurgence this year and is only asking for 1 year deals and Dalvin Tomlinson who still brings a lot of value to the DL.
4.) I say you also re-sign Bradbury. He had a resurgence in this offense as well and graded out as the #10 center in the NFL. Was 7th (I believe) in run blocking and 17th in pass blocking (which isnt great but way higher than he's ever been before). I dont think he will cost anything crazy.
5.) I would almost say extend Danielle as well. Not sure if we will go back to a 4-3 or not but for this guy to also be embarrassingly misused and in a scheme he's never played before, he was still a stud, especially later on after he got comfortable in a 3-4.
In the end, these moves can give us over $40-$50 million in cap space before resigning any of our guys like Peterson, Tomlinson, etc. This still leaves us some valuable veterans on defense like Danielle, Tomlinson, Phillips, Harry, Peterson, etc. without really collapsing this entire roster and all it's veterans. This is an absolute crap ton of contractual moves but I think it needs to be done. I trust Kwesi to figure out this cap situation with Bryzinski.
....Again, this is a mini-mock offseason preview I'll be doing. But plenty, plenty more to come
