Originally posted by NYniner85:
Originally posted by Giedi:
Agree that certain players - you can back load their deals. I'd do that for the QB position and sooner or later Bosa and the DE/Pass rush position. If you can lock those two positions down, you can play for the playoffs every year. I'm sure there are other foundational players like the Left tackel or a top flight defensive back - that also fit that role.
Having said that - like you said, Bellicheat's let go some good talent, and has gotten compensation for them one way or another. It come down, I think, to how you want to win in this day and age of a pass happy NFL. If it was back in the old 3 yards and a cloud of dust offense days, I'm pretty sure the RB's would be back loaded. Not today.
I think Kyle can let go some *good* talent (which means the front office and the coaches have to be as good a talent evaluators as the Patriots) if they are to achieve the same level of success. I think they have the makings of that - they've had success in the 5th and later rounds, and have had good success finding undrafteds, on offense, and apparently now on defense.
That bodes well for maintaining a playoff caliber team in the age of the Salary Cap. I'll probably think more about this and also do a bit of research on this - more in the offseason (hopefully after our 6th lombardi) 
It's gonna come down to how much someone like AA is gonna cost. It was the same with Flowers in NE. Dude wasn't worth $90M ($54M guaranteed), so they let him walk.
If you can get AA on say a Sheldon Richardson type deal (3 yrs $37M) that's a home run signing IMO. He's still super young and could get another contract like Sheldon has been doing. I also think he wants to stay in this area.
Buck already is on the books for like $15M this upcoming season, so his contract isn't gonna change much as far as cap space goes in 2020. His deal will be big, but he's also a dude (like JG) that you can restructure down the road because he's been so reliable. There will be some LT flexibility.
Kittle will be the highest paid TE in football, the great thing is TE's don't get paid a ton compared to other positions. His deal should be backloaded similar to Kelce's.
I'd look at Djax for a comparable WR contract for Sanders. 3yrs $27M it would more a 2 yr deal that SF can get out of.
Like I said before new CBA will probably lead to a higher cap number as well
Dee Ford's injury I think precludes him from getting back loaded.
Now that we got the Dee Ford thread issue out of the way...
From a cap standpoint, I think you backload the QB (obviously) and his go to reciever - the TE (Kittle obviously). The TE from an offensive standpoint affects the run and the pass, so having a dominant TE really makes an OK offense good, and a good offense - borderline great. ShanaLynch has proven that they can get OL and RB's from the FootballMart discount store, and draft/trade for good to all pro WR's. So, I think, from an offensive cap point of view, if ShanaLYnch leans on Kyle's particular offensive genius talent evaluation - I think offensively they can replicate what New England has done with Brady - from a cap stanpoint. Even if Jimmy doesn't discount his services and doesn't go with any backloading.
It's a passing league, and if you look at New England, you can see their main defensive scheme is almost a linebacker-centric one, which was (I think) Bellicheats forte' back in the New York Giant's days. I.e. they seem to operate a 2-5-4 defense (with almost 5 linebackers in their nickel) as their predominant alignment. Whereas the 49er defense seems to go with no DT's (but 4 DE's) 3 big safety/linebacker hybrids and four DB's for their predominant nickel alignment. I'm exaggerating a little bit, but what I'm getting to is that both teams focus on stopping the pass vs the run. (which on a side note - Kyle's run game is almost going in the opposite of the NFL trend and going back to the run).
From a capanomics standpoint, I can see them just continue to invest high draft capital in a lot of DE's, continue to get young fast free agent linenbackers (and mid to low round LB draftees and free agents). They seem to be able to also draft good DB's late and were able to get good free agent DB's like Richard from the free agency market.
In other words - I think where the cap is going to spent on is going to be defense. I can see the DE's taking up a good chunk of the cap and draft capital. QB would be second, and the rest of the team following those two areas. Just my two cents as I look into this a bit more.
So in a sense, I agree with you, I think they have a shot at retaining AA. (I'm looking at AA and Buckner as more DE's than DT"s - from a pass defense standpoint because they are undersized DT's if they were to be in a traditional 3-4 defense, Bosa and Ford could be tweener hybrid DE/Linebackers too, again when compared to players in an old traditional 3-4)
[ Edited by Giedi on Nov 9, 2019 at 9:42 AM ]
Between strong and free safety, I'd put him at strong safety (a la Ronnie lott) because of his speed deficiency. I think he can replicate John Lynch's role as one of the great strong safety's ever to play the game in that Buccaneer Tampa two defense.
