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Originally Posted by feel wrath
Yes and no re Brady. I mean you could create a scenario where they pay Jimmy a big bonus at the end of the next offseason and then he sits behind Brady for 2018 as well. Brady's cap hit isn't huge for 18 iirc and a big bonus could spread Jimmy over 5 -6 years. Not saying it's likely but if you really thought he was the answer for another decade then you could make it work
But if BB is planning on riding off into the sunset whenever Brady retires then he maximises short term value now, whether 'short term' is 1,2 or 3 years
Brady's cap hit for 2018 is currently $22m with a dead cap hit of $14m. I don't see how they pay Jimmy market value on a deal to be the backup in the beginning of the contract, when other teams with more cap room would be paying him to be the starter immediately.
& I understand your argument on BB, I just don't think a) he is planning on riding off & b) I don't think he would operate that way even if he was.
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Originally Posted by Namath12
so 49ers have zero quarterbacks on roster?
Correct.
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Originally Posted by Alpha Fish
my hot take: Brady plays 3 more seasons
That's probably close to the over/under, so not that hot of a take.
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Originally Posted by Kneel B4 Zod
not super sure about that. he has played a ton of football for a 28 year old and has had nagging injuries every year. maybe they don't want to commit to him long term for megabucks, but he has no obvious replacement and projects to be very valuable this coming year. paying a high amount for one year could be a hedge where they pay a known entity a lot, but give themselves time to draft and prepare other LB's to take over. plus they seem to have the cap room for it.
I guess I don't really know what you're not sure about. They already announced they weren't tagging him. He's also only 26 (turns 27 in 11 days). I know we went back & forth in the Pats thread about whether they
should or not.
Having the cap room, & wanting to allocate that much of the cap room to Hightower are two different things.
I've already seen reports today that Chris Long is leaving & people want to pay Mingo a lot of $$$ for some reason. I think they're going to keep doing their buy low thing on guys who don't impact the compensatory pick calculation, letting guys go who don't take slightly below market or who they don't consider to be integral parts of the team, & keep playing the long term game.
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Originally Posted by Onlydo2days
I think Hightower is just gone. He isn't being tagged and I don't see the McCourty situation happening again because teams are too flush with cash. Someone will pay him far more than NE is willing to.
BB historically been much better at finding LB's than DB's so letting him go and paying Butler makes sense. Especially since you can get Butler slightly below market since he is a RFA.
As far as Jimmy, I think he's gone and it is just posturing. I think they expect Brady to play 3 more years with Scarnecchia back and how the OL performed this year.
I mostly agree with everything here, except I think there's some chance Hightower comes back depending on his priorities and the Patriots interest. Also agree they should/will pay Butler. & I mostly agree they will trade him, but there is some chance they won't, & if they don't, it's because they really want him to take over for Brady in 2018 I think, or think it's a very good possibility.