Wanted to take a look at our cap space this offseason, what we can do to free up more and what we can realistically do with that money in free agency. According to Overthecap our effective cap space after signing our rookie class is 26mil so that's the number we're starting with.

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Also please note I'm just a guy avoiding doing his actual job, the cost to sign/re-sign players is mostly just estimations from what I read online I'm sure I'm off on them at least a bit. Also I'm not taking scheme fit into account when looking at these free agents. If anyone has any input on scheme fits or cost I'd love to hear about it though I just am not going that deep on this.

Creating Space

While I'm sure the professionals can pull some magic to create space the basics are cutting, trading, and restructures. We'll look at the moves that are likely and the ones that are maybes.

1. I'm fairly certain Tunsil will get restructured and extended, his cap hit this year is massive and I don't think we want to lose him. My understanding is an extension this year would likely save us about 10mil
2. Releasing Maybin and Britt. They were both absolute non factors this year for different reasons and cutting them saves a combined 5mil.

As for the maybes

1. Cut Kirksey to save 5 mil. I think we should do this and go after a free agent linebacker. He's not terrible but he's clearly a stopgap and we should seriously look at replacing him.
2. Cut Murray to save 4 mil. Murray had a decent year back there. Personally I think we should keep him unless we're shooting for a high profile safety in free agency.
3. Cut Cann to save 4mil. Much like Murray he had a decent year at RG and I'm against cutting him unless we're gonna go for a guard in free agency.

You'll note I'm leaving out Cooks. If we trade him we save 10mil this year. I think he probably does get traded but I do think there's a chance we try and keep him after the DeMeco hiring. However even if we trade him we may have to keep some of his salary which would cut savings. I'm trying to make this like a worst case thing so I'm keeping those 10mil in savings out of this.

If we make all of these moves including the Cooks trade we end up with about 64mil in cap space. My best guess is some of these moves don't happen and we end up with 45-50mil.

Re-signing our FA's

First thing to look at is who we want to keep. Here's our notable free agents this year and what it would cost to re-sign them in my opinion. Players like Rasheem Green who I don't think have even a chance at coming back I have left off.

1. Obo Okoronkwo 4-5mil
2. Tavierre Thomas 2mil
3. Jon Weeks 1.5mil
4. Chris Moore 1.5mil
5. Tremon Smith 1mil
6. Jordan Akins 1.5mil

Out of this group I imagine we try and keep Obo, Moore, and Thomas, and maybe Weeks or Akins. I'd be surprised if we spent any more than 8-9 mil on re-signings so we'll call it 9 mil.

The Open Market

Okay this will be the meat of it as it's the most interesting part. Here I want to take a look at where our needs are, what the open market has available for us and what moves we may make. We'll start with needs, obviously we have a lot of these but I'll divide them into Tier 1 needs and tier 2

Tier 1

1. QB
2. Center
3. WR
4. Interior Dline
5. Edge Rusher
6. Off ball linebacker (this one is kinda between tier 1 and 2 for me but I'll put it in tier 1)

Tier 2

1. TE
2. Guard
3. RB2
4. Safety

Now we'll look at where the free agent market is strong and where it isn't as well as what the cost may be for these players.

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Note: I'm assuming we aren't gonna go the vet QB route so not even looking at QB's here

Center – I think this free agent center class is alright. The big names are Connor McGovern from the Jets, Ethan Pocic from Cleveland, and Garret Bradbury from the Vikings. All decent players but nothing standout. They would all be big upgrades over what we had last year and they are all gonna cost in the 7-8.5mil per year range. Personally this is the position where I think we 100% need to make a move in free agency. Sure draft a center or a guard on day 2 as depth and an eventual replacement but let's give our new QB a solid, proven, experienced center.

WR – Fairly weak WR class IMO. Big names are Jakobi Myers (17mil per year), Juju (12-13per year), and Michael Thomas (12-13 per year). I wouldn't touch Thomas, he's a great player but he's getting up there in age and just cannot stay healthy recently. Best target here IMO would be Juju, he's cheaper than Myers, a good player, and he's still really young. Personally though I'd avoid free agency at WR and just take JSN or Addison in the 1st or maybe Josh Downs in the second. If we are set on a proven talent at WR for the new QB that's fine but I think you either keep Cooks or explore trading for someone.

Interior Dline – This is a nice class for interior defenders and boy do we need help there. Big names are Javon Hargrave (19-21mil), Daron Payne (21-23 per year), Dalvin Tomlinson (12-13 per year), and Zach Allen(13-14 per year). Personally I'm a fan of the cheaper options. Hargrave and Payne are great and I wouldn't be upset if we went for them but this free agency for me is about quantity over singular big splashes. Allen or Tomlinson leaves us with an extra 7-8mil in space. Basically in free agency I'd prefer two medium splashes over one big splash just because of how many holes this roster has. Look for the stars in the draft and fill in the holes in free agency would be my philosophy.

Edge Rusher- This is a really bad Edge rusher class. Really the three names to look at are Omenihu(8-9 per year), Marcus Davenport (13mil), and Clowney (8mil). Marcus Davenport is a good player but he just can't stay healthy. Clowney is a good run stopper and Omenihu is a good pass rusher but neither is good against both. Don't think they're worth the money if we are able to re-sign Okoronkwo for 4-5mil. The edge rusher class is very deep this draft I think we could be looking to fill this need at 12 or 33.

Off ball LB – This is a position where I would absolutely love us to make a move. Big targets here would probably be Lavonte David (12-13 mil), David Long (14-15mil), and Tremaine Edmunds (15-16 per year). Lavonte David is just an excellent player who excels in coverage and while he's in his 30's that does make him cheaper. This would be the guy to go for on a 2-3 year deal as an experienced QB of the defense to mentor Harris and anchor a young defense. David Long and Edmunds are both great as well but they're more expensive and younger. You probably put these guys on longer deals and I'd be happy to have either one of them here.

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I won't go into it with each of the tier 2 needs but some players to watch there are safety Jessie Bates (16-17 per year), TE Dalton Schultz (15-16 per year), Tony Pollard RB (11-12mil), and Guard Ben Powers (10mil per year). All would be very helpful to the team at spots of need.

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Like I said above after our rookie class and re-signing our own free agents we'll likely have anywhere from 35-50mil in space to work with depending on what we do with Cooks. I'd love to hear y'alls thoughts on what we should do with that money.

Personally I'd love to see us get a center at 7mil or so, Lavonte David for 13mil, and Dalvin Tomlinson at 13mil and have the rest left over for whatever smaller signings we need to fill out the roster. We need to do most of our building in the draft but a veteran center is imperative to protecting our new QB. On defense a new DT and middle linebacker really stiffens up the middle of the defense for DeMeco and gives us a great veteran presence with Lavonte David as our "QB of the Defense".