This is a guest post by Curtis Allen…
We recently discussed the 2024 Calendar for the Seahawks and it illuminated several critical dates and decision points the team will have to make as they navigate the roster through new leadership.
To better grasp what choices the team has before them – and the ultimate impact of those choices this year and into 2025 – we need to overlay the potential roster moves onto that calendar and match it to the salary cap situation the team is facing on a big-picture-level view. There are more critical decisions the team will have to make this year than in any recent season.
First, a brief review of how the team arrived at the point they are at. The team is currently over the cap, with $5 million of room they need to scrape together to get under before March 13. The team has some intriguing young talent on the roster in some key places but needs to refocus on adding talent and continuity in the trenches. A long-term plan at the quarterback position is also quickly becoming necessary.
At the moment, those opportunities are hindered because the team has $75 million in cap space committed in 2024 to Jamal Adams, Quandre Diggs and Tyler Lockett – players with their best years behind them – and that is such a heavy number due to restructuring those three players last year to create space. The team pushed nearly $20 million on those three players’ contracts into future years and spent that space in an attempt to tip the scales in their favor.
They have a $31 million cap number for quarterback Geno Smith and clearly are evaluating whether they want to address the position this offseason.
Also, they traded away a precious second-round pick for Leonard Williams, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in March.
It is obvious they were extremely aggressive in 2023, pushing all their chips to the center of the table.
The credit card bill now due in 2024 is pretty daunting.
Just to illustrate the path not taken, around this time last year we proposed our own aggressive plan that went in the opposite direction: moving on from the safeties, drafting a quarterback and clearing the decks for a more calculated spend on trench talent. In hindsight, that plan would have been preferable to what the Seahawks did and might not have resulted in a dramatically worse record. There is a considerable downside though: it might not have spurred the regime change that has gotten a tired fanbase so rejuvenated.
Back to reality. The work the Seahawks have to do is considerable. The way they attack this off-season will tell us a lot about John Schneider’s personal team-building philosophy as he steps out from behind a large shadow. Particularly in regards to planning ahead. The team has always strived to have one foot in the present and one in the future. But the last few years, the foot in the present has been the far heavier of the two and the future has suffered as a result.
So instead of just one main plan like we proposed last year, we are going to look at two plans — each with their own goals and philosophies. One with an eye to sustaining roster stability and consistency and one with a more aggressive approach that focuses on long-term success.
Why two plans? This is to bring to light the options available to the team. It is less about a black and white choosing of ‘Option A’ or ‘Option B’ and more about realizing the potential benefits and costs of decisions they make. I would fully expect the Seahawks to blend some of the choices from each option and forge a path of their own.
But first, we have to set a baseline and build a framework to work off of.
Establishing the Base Concept
As our calendar piece showed, there are key dates that are hard deadlines, both from the NFL and from the contracts the team currently has on the books. We need to visualize those dates and the cap room and other decisions that need to be made in order to grasp what is at stake.
To that end, we have included approximate cap numbers for tendering the Restricted and Exclusive Rights Free Agents, their draft picks and also a standard chunk of cap room for Practice Squad players. This gives us an idea of how much cap room the team will need to cover these eventualities but also when that room is needed, which is almost as important.
We also inserted some moves that need to be made in both plans. It will serve to highlight the more specific moves to each plan that are proposed.
A little housekeeping note: these numbers are not cast in iron. Even the dates are a bit flexible.
I pulled the numbers that are available and adjusted them to make sure only the top 51 players counted against the cap. There may be some injury settlement money coming for Adams and Mone and some incentives that have not been made public but those comes later and can be addressed on the cap by making a couple of simpler moves.
As for the dates? The Seahawks could announce an agreement with say Leonard Williams and not officially file the paperwork until March 15 in order to be compliant on March 13. But they would still have to make a corresponding move around that time to stay under the cap. Once the 2024 league year starts, you cannot go over the 2024 cap (but you can go over the next year cap all you like. Just ask the Saints).
Before we talk about the moves we put in, look at the Cap Room column. It is not pretty. The team starts out under water, hits the New League Year deadline of March 13 under water (which cannot happen) and barely gets above water at the end of the year after covering the basic costs.
It gets worse. Look at 2025’s cap number after these basic moves have been made. That $5.8 million number is not awful but neither is it a light at the end of a dark tunnel. Keep 2025 in mind as we work through our plans. It is critical, not just to maintain flexibility but to have some room to start paying their star draft picks as their rookie contracts expire.
The moves
Let’s start with the elephant in the room. The safeties.
We have long talked about how their contracts and lack of field-tilting play have affected the team as a whole. It is time to move on. It is not a grudge. Jamal Adams cannot stay healthy. He has ended the last three seasons on Injured Reserve. He has attacked his rehab with vigor and been a warrior trying to get back but proceeding with an almost $27 million cap hit in 2024 is absolutely untenable.
Quandre Diggs is a luxury the team cannot afford. Personally, I would love to see what a ball hawking safety like Diggs can do in Mike Macdonald’s defense. Unfortunately, the Seahawks would have to cap over $21 million for the privilege. Approaching him and asking him to cut down his $11 million salary to a number that fits their budget would likely be seen as insulting – that is how bad their cap situation is. It is best to shake hands, thank him for his time in Seattle and give him a chance to get a leg up on the market.
Keep in mind, the Seahawks bank over $27 million in cap room on these two cuts and still are scraping hard to keep their roster staffed. Times are that tough.
If that is the case, why is Leonard Williams on this list with a healthy number?
The Seahawks have been backed into a bit of a corner in two ways: First, trading a high pick for a player and cap room (that cap room was ‘spent’ in 2023) and only keeping him for ten games and letting him walk away is a bridge too far. Second, they badly need to keep investing in the trenches and Williams is that rare unicorn lineman that can fit in a 3-4, a 4-3 or some exotic package that Macdonald dreams up.
The 30-year-old Williams gets the contract Javon Hargrave got last year at 30: A four-year $81 million deal with a $23 million signing bonus. I structured it less aggressively than San Francisco, taking $9 million in 2024 and $15 million in 2025.
Bryan Mone is an obvious cut. The Seahawks carried him and his $3.675 million cap hit on Injured Reserve last year and they are too thin to afford him.
Nick Bellore has been everybody’s favorite cut in pieces like this for years. Why now then? Same reasons. A pure Special Teams player is something this team cannot afford. I also suspect Bellore was a Pete Carroll and Larry Izzo favorite (and rightfully so) and both of those coaches are gone.
I would class Drew Lock as an important, if not critical, player to retain. It is clear the Seahawks want to look at their options at the position and Lock is a player with a profile that John Schneider appreciates. It is notable that Mike Macdonald mentioned Lock in his introductory press conference, despite Lock being a free agent. There is no way that Lock’s contract status escaped Macdonald’s notice.
Lock is down in this plan for a two-year $15 million contract with a $6 million signing bonus. Before you drop your teeth, let me explain.
Quarterback is a very expensive position and the Seahawks are in a transition period. They need options with Geno Smith, the draft and to not be left in the cold if neither of those options produce.
Signing Lock gives them a familiar face who the team knows. He also would appear to fit not only Schneider’s profile but also Ryan Grubb’s offense, even if they do end up drafting someone this year. A $6 million bonus signifies that importance and gives him more up-front money than he has made in the last two seasons combined.
Here is where the contract is a bit inflated: it includes $5 million worth of incentives. If Lock reaches those incentives in 2024, they will not hit the cap until 2025, as he did not play much in 2023 and the incentives will be classed NLTBE (Not Likely to Be Earned).
If he does, his cap hit is a manageable $11 million for 2025 and the team has a ‘good problem’ on their hands. If they have drafted a quarterback this year who is ready to go in 2025, they can flip Lock to a needy team for a draft pick and toast to their smart planning. If he doesn’t, a cap hit of $6 million for a backup quarterback in 2025 is not an extravagance.
In the meantime, if they miss out on a quarterback or want to roll with Lock for another stretch, they can extend him with a contract structured not unlike Geno Smith’s current deal, with rewards, incentives and outs.
It is a contract well worth taking on in my opinion.
The tenders
Michael Jackson has been a good find for the Seahawks and tendering him at the $2.8 million Right of First Refusal level demonstrates how they value him. 2023 was a bit of a roller-coaster year for him. He had stretches where he was their best outside corner and stretches where he struggled to stay on the field.
The Seahawks can tender him and keep him on the roster and head into the rest of the offseason with security at cornerback, with Jackson, Woolen, Witherspoon, Tre Brown and Coby Bryant on the roster.
There is value in a defensive coach not having to rebuild every defensive position in one offseason. The team has work to do at safety, linebacker and defensive line. One challenge at a time.
If they discover more appealing options or simply decide to move on, they can rescind the tender and regain the cap room like they did with Ryan Neal last offseason.
Darrell Taylor is a real quandary. In three seasons, he has very good counting stats: 21.5 sacks, 57 pressures, five forced fumbles and 21 tackles for loss. He has done that despite never playing 50% of the defensive snaps. That is an efficiency not a lot of ends can claim.
And then there’s the flipside. He cannot get on the field more because the Seahawks do not trust him in non-pass rush situations. He has been atrocious in run defense, both in setting the edge and otherwise minding his gaps. Mainly because he seems solely focused on the quarterback to the exclusion of a vital chunk of his other duties.
He does not justify his second-round tender of $4.6 million at this point. But the Right of First Refusal at $2.8 million is a solid option. Leaning towards having an expendable player that can provide pass rush and seeing if the new coaching staff can reach him and round him out is a gamble I am comfortable with. An inside linebacker, a guard or a fourth wide receiver with the same profile? Probably would not tender. But pass rushers are a commodity you must have and a lottery ticket with little risk is one that can be justified. Again, they can pull the tender any time and move on without consequence if they decide.
Jake Curhan and Myles Adams are easy choices, as they have snaps of NFL experience in the trenches and will cost about $140-150k more than the lowest-salaried players on the team. Curhan is no superstar but every team needs a versatile plug and play option and seeing if the new administration can coach him up just a little more is worth keeping him on.
Patrick O’Connell is only being tendered because the Seahawks badly need depth at the linebacker spot. If he makes the roster out of camp, he will be the lowest-salaried player on the team and in the end not count anything against the cap.
There is our baseline roster and cap situation. It is not a complete picture by any means. What it does accomplish is it gets the roster to a starting point, while mostly cleaning up the salary cap and making sure a couple of key pieces stay in Seattle.
At this point, the team has a glaring hole at inside linebacker, needs more interior offensive line and tight end depth and a safety prospect would not hurt.
Yet not only are they out of room, they need to generate over $4 million in room before March 13 to get under the cap.
As for the draft? Yes, they could go young at the positions of need and plug them in as starters. That is an option. However, at some point they have to start thinking about investing in a quarterback to develop. Taking one in the top three rounds would really limit their options to get a 17-game starter at more than one position, let alone find four or five.
They have work to do.
We put together two plans of action.
One that honors a desire for some roster continuity and is less risky. When utilized properly by the new coaching staff and supplemented by a draft as good as 2022 or 2023, the team will be competitive in 2024 while not absolutely shredding the future cap. This plan counts on the stars on the roster to be stars while the newer players are adequate.
The other expresses a more aggressive approach. Cuts are plentiful and dead cap money is collected like it is going out of style. It is not a total teardown and rebuild by any means. Just more of a reshaping of the roster closer in line with a newer vision, while promoting competition and having more of a ‘build around your stars’ aesthetic to it.
Both plans generate the cap space needed to comply on March 13 and both end the year with a cap space surplus. Both plans also generated about $15 million cap dollars to spend in free agency but as you will see, one is a bit limited, the other has options galore.
We will build on the base chart by adding the appropriate moves for each (highlighted in green).
The Continuity Plan
As you can see, this plan incorporates the base moves and simply adds some restructures to pick up some more spending money.
D.K. Metcalf’s $13 million 2024 salary is restructured to a signing bonus. They gain $5.937 million of cap room this year and push the same amount to 2025.
Why would we advocate that move, when it grows Metcalf’s 2025 cap number to over $35 million? For a wide receiver? When the team is dealing with the ramifications of restructures right now?
Two reasons: One, 2025 is the last year of his current contract and the Seahawks can extend him and reclaim about $10-12 million of cap room. Two, Metcalf is exactly the kind of player you restructure. Young, productive and has his best years ahead of him still. Not older players who have been frequently injured and unproductive.
The Seahawks also commit to Geno Smith for 2024 in this plan as well. They restructure his $12.7 million salary and $9.6 million roster bonus and pick up $10.545 million this year and push that amount into 2025. In fact, if the Seahawks are dedicated to this idea, it would be beneficial to convert both and pay them out before March 13, so they have more free cap room when the feeding frenzy begins instead of waiting until the official March 18 date.
How do we justify buying on the credit card with this move? The team feels that Geno Smith will rebound in 2024 and with some willpower can convince themselves that eating about $19 million of dead cap in 2025 isn’t much worse than eating $17.4 million this year. They put off the inevitable parting of ways for a season and give Smith a properly coached defense and an offensive line (hopefully) free of major injury to work with and see if he rebounds to his nearly-70% completion, 30-touchdown form.
If and when the Seahawks draft a quarterback, that means they will carry three on the roster in 2024 with Drew Lock already signed. Is that a good use of resources? Yes, it is fine. The Seahawks started out 2012 with Tarvaris Jackson, Matt Flynn and that third-round quarterback from Wisconsin on the roster. It worked out just fine.
Why not move on from Tyler Lockett and Dre’mont Jones to save some cap room?
Lockett has an almost $27 million cap hit this year and that is not pretty. However, he has still been very productive. In 2023, two things happened that make people think he is in decline: He dropped a couple of very key catches and his deeper catches fell significantly. One of those things is not his fault. Geno Smith and the offense drew back to a quicker, shorter passing scheme on the whole and nobody was affected more than Lockett. His targets, catches and first downs all stayed consistent with his career norms but his total yards and touchdowns declined.
This is more a feeling than a logical point: Lockett has consistently accepted the Seahawks’ overtures to extend his contract early instead of waiting out the market and getting more money. While simultaneously being extremely productive.
As a consequence, in the last five or so seasons he was one of the best values in the Wide Receiver market. If I had to pick one Seahawks player on the roster to keep with an enormous boondoggle of a number, it would be Lockett. I wonder if the team feels the same way.
As for Jones, unless a team comes through with a fabulous trade offer, there is not much to be gained from moving on from him until 2025. I’ll also repeat what I said above about Darrell Taylor: they need pass rushers. Moving on from Jones would not net much. Let’s give him a season with a new defensive staff and see what he can do.
Before we talk about the $15 million spent on the market, scan down to the bottom and look at where we end up in this plan. There is less than a $3 million cap surplus left over and with all those moves, they end up $9 million over the cap in 2025.
They would be starting over 2025 just like this year – under water. They could extend D.K. Metcalf, cut Geno Smith and Tyler Lockett but that would pick up about $40 million of room and put them at about $30 million under the cap. There are other levers they could pull to get room but they come with a price.
That is not all that bad. However, it does limit how aggressive they can be in free agency in 2024. Just one really good player contract aggressively structured to get a low 2024 number would take half of that cap room and hammer their free spending ability in 2025.
Therefore, the $15 million in free agency they spend this year in this plan to get veteran linebackers, a tight end and some offensive line help to complete the team would be best served on players whose total contract will not require a large and long commitment.
Again, that is not bad. Shopping in the bargain aisle with our new leadership team might be a fruitful exercise.
My fascination with this plan is this: it would be very intriguing to see what this new leadership group can do with essentially the same group from 2023. The results from a change in the culture, the attitude, the intelligence as well as the adaptation to the NFL would be fascinating.
Seeing players like Devon Witherspoon, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Boye Mafe, Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet taking a big step forward while Geno Smith, Leonard Williams, Tyler Lockett and D.K. Metcalf do not have to carry the team with just their skill would be appointment watching.
But it is a safer option. Now, let’s look at the riskier but potentially more rewarding choice.
The Aggressive Plan
This plan is aggressive alright. Quandre Diggs, Jamal Adams, Will Dissly, Geno Smith and Tyler Lockett are all asked to come into the VMAC and please bring their playbooks.
A way to think of this plan is ‘anyone we do not anticipate being on the roster in 2025 will not be on the roster for 2024’.
It is not an easy thing to do but skip to the bottom and have a look at the results. They end the season with over an $11 million cap surplus and go into next year with $65 million to spend.
This is the new administration putting their stamp on this organization.
Four of the five players cut will not be effective players when this new leadership group hits its stride and begins to seriously contend.
Jamal Adams has been released before June 1. That means the team eats his entire dead cap this year and realizes lesser savings now. It does open almost $28 million of room for next year.
How can they afford to ‘only’ pick up $6 million in a tough cap year? They stack some other transactions to get room.
Will Dissly is cut. He is another player that it could be reasoned was on the team and so well compensated due to Pete Carroll. He was a blocking Tight End and Special Teams stalwart. Dissly had a career-low 17 catches in 2023, or one catch per game. That is not enough to justify a $10 million cap hit.
With so much savings before the March deadline, the Seahawks can make some moves to set themselves up for an active free agency period.
Extending Julian Love on something similar to Grant Delpit’s three-year, $36 million contract establishes some continuity after making two big cuts at the position and gives the Seahawks a little more cap room. Love is known for his versatility. He can play nickel, in the box or in deep centerfield. Mike Macdonald used his safeties in a ‘mix and match’ manner in Baltimore to great success. Love becomes the new face of the safety group.
Colby Parkinson is a potential buy-low bargain that could be a winning investment. A two-year $10 million contract gives him some security and familiarity. The team gets a player whose blocking has greatly improved and can use his length and hands to be a real weapon. This contract gives him a chance to hit the market again before he is 27 with (hopefully) some much improved numbers.
We see the other side of the coin for Tyler Lockett. He is just too expensive to keep. There is a possibility of the Seahawks trading him away. His age 32 and 33 seasons at $15.3 million each year (about the #19-22 WR average salary) could intrigue some teams. The organization would likely approach him if a team made a firm offer and get his consent, as a show of respect for all his years of being a model NFL player. But also, given his service, they might just choose to cut him and let him make the choice of where he plays next.
Why trade Geno Smith? It could be for any number of reasons: his cap hit is tripling this year, the team feels he has reached his peak as a quarterback, or perhaps it is a combination of those things. Is Geno Smith better than Drew Lock right now, today? Yes, most certainly.
Is he so much better than Lock you can justify having him on the roster at $31 million over Lock’s paltry $4 million? Much tougher to say. That is why John Schneider makes the big bucks. But rationally, it is very persuasive. Particularly if you weigh 2025 and beyond more heavily than the present.
There is one more intriguing reason to trade him: Smith could net a decent draft pick at a time when the Seahawks do not have a second-round pick. That extra pick could be used on a long-term solution at the quarterback position or to just fortify the trenches.
How good could the pick be? We will discuss that in a moment.
Let us round out the discussion on the aggressive plan results first.
That $15 million to spend on free agents is far more powerful than the $15 million in the consistency plan. Why? It is backed up by the $11 million surplus and the $65 million in cap room available in 2025. They could aggressively structure a contract to fit nicely on the cap in 2024 and have a healthy hit in 2025 because they have to room to operate.
Furthermore, investing in young, talented, proven players at critical positions could be a force multiplier that makes younger, less experienced teammates better. And having those types of players could give you options in 2025-2027 if you want to rework their contract to fit another piece in. You know those players will be around and producing well in future seasons, justifying the gamble.
They have all kinds of options with that kind of flexibility.
Taking two or three big shots in free agency could be on the table. All of the sudden, possibilities like bringing in a top Guard and a top Defensive Tackle and surrounding them with young, talented draft picks could be a real opportunity.
They have buying power they could use to talk someone like Noah Fant into an extremely reasonable contract to reestablish value after a career-low year.
Or they could try something different. Save their cap, see what they have on the roster in the draft and fill holes in 2025.
A combination of options could work. Things happen in late summer and fall that could really benefit an opportunistic team with cap room. John Schneider has excelled in that area, acquiring impact players Carlos Dunlap and Jadeveon Clowney for very little in trade.
The benefit of this plan is this team could simultaneously get younger, free up a lot of cap room and gel as a team in 2024 and be ready to take a big step forward in 2025. It is very tempting to consider.
The downside? If the team does not draft well and/or Mike Macdonald cannot get his team on the same page without the benefit of an MVP-level talent on offense like Lamar Jackson, the team’s grip on perpetual 8-11 win seasons and playing meaningful football in December could slip.
Trading Geno Smith
In my calendar piece, I posited that the Seahawks may not have much leverage in a trade negotiation if a team wants to acquire Geno Smith. That five-day period between the league year starting and that roster bonus due date hitting does apply some pressure to be sure.
But as I was working on the aggressive plan, two things occurred to me that in the right circumstances, could swing the leverage back to a more neutral position in negotiations and return the Seahawks a decent pick in trade.
The first is this: leverage might be a bit overrated when you are specifically discussing the quarterback trade market.
To wit: In 2019, Calais Campbell was ready to move on from Jacksonville. His time had run its course and the worst kept secret in the NFL was he was available. He liked Baltimore and the Ravens traded a fifth-round pick for Campbell. In the four seasons since, he’s been a beloved locker room leader, played 60-65% of his team’s snaps, had 17.5 sacks and went to a Pro Bowl.
While last year, San Francisco was ready to move on from Trey Lance. He had been an absolute bust for the Niners. He had only started four games, was a 55% passer and struggled to grasp Kyle Shanahan’s play concepts.
The Cowboys traded a fourth-round pick for him, knowing that not only would he not play at all for them in 2023 (Cooper Rush was the #2 in Dallas) but also that Rush has a contract for 2024 as well and Lance has guaranteed money on his 2024 contract.
I understand those two trades are far from apples to apples. But I wanted to illustrate the gulf between quarterbacks and the rest of the position groups in terms of trade value.
Let me share one that is more germane to Geno Smith.
Matt Ryan was traded in 2022 to the Colts for a third-round pick, #82 overall in the draft.
The Falcons had almost no leverage in this trade to negotiate with. They had been deep in negotiations with the Texans on a Deshaun Watson trade and when the Browns made their huge offer (another team bidding hugely to acquire a quarterback I might add), the Falcons could not mend fences with Ryan. He requested a trade and reports said that he ‘picked’ the Colts. And what’s more, he had a big chunk of contract left to pay.
They still landed a third-round pick.
Matt Ryan’s stat line for 17 games of the 2021 season (age 36): 67% completion rate, 90.4 QB Rating, 233 yards per game, 20 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and 40 sacks. $50 million in contract guarantees for 2022-23.
Have a look at this:
Geno Smith’s line adjusted for 17 games last year (his age 33): 64.7% completion rate, 92.1 QB rating, 242 yards per game, 23 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, and 35 sacks. $12.7 million in contract guarantees for 2024-25.
It is eerie how close they are. True, Ryan has an MVP trophy and a Super Bowl appearance on his resume but the last few years he had struggled to keep Atlanta competitive.
I am not saying the Seahawks are guaranteed to land a third-round pick for Geno Smith in a trade. You could argue the Colts were desperate, having gone through Philip Rivers and Carson Wentz. That they felt Ryan was the final piece of the puzzle. You could point to the fact that Ryan and the Colts had an awful season and parted ways after one year.
But we all know the quarterback position demands a premium.
The second point is this: cap space itself can be leveraged in trade negotiations. I referred in the calendar piece to the fact that the Seahawks could explore taking on some cap in exchange for a better pick in trade, just like the Giants did when trading Leonard Williams to Seattle.
In my aggressive plan above, the Seahawks have created enough cap space to spend some of it eating some of Geno Smith’s salary or roster bonus in a trade.
It is obvious why a team would consider this scenario, just as it was for the Seahawks when Williams came in. They want a top player but do not have the cap resources to pay his salary. They offer their draft stock as currency to complete a trade where they got to have their player and not pay him much at all.
And further on that, Smith’s contract is very attractive even as it is. There is no guaranteed money in 2025 right now. If the acquiring team really wanted to make some hay, they could convert whatever is left of Smith’s contract that the Seahawks do not absorb into a bonus and have a very solid veteran playing on the cap number of a depth linebacker. That could be an attractive proposition.
Who might need a quarterback and are not flush with cap space? Who might be able to talk themselves into trading for a stopgap solution to run with the veterans they have whose clock is ticking a bit?
Pittsburgh. Las Vegas. Atlanta. Maybe even New England.
Maybe the Denver Broncos. Actually, scratch that. Denver might not even take Seattle’s call.
I am not arguing that the Seahawks are going to break the bank in a Geno Smith trade. I am just reasoning out a scenario.
If John Schneider can box clever with his roster and cap space, there just might be an opportunity to score a good pick in trade and advance his team’s aspirations even further. And more quickly.
Concluding Thought
When a team has little cap room to start with and has traded away their second-most prized draft asset, there is an easy tendency to sigh and reckon the team’s hands are tied this year and we will just have to wait until next year to get excited about a more ambitious plan.
I hope I have given you some options to think about and consider.
What do you think? Which plan would you choose if you were forced to? Which elements of the plan would you modify? Let me know in the comments section.
Thank you for reading.
