Is McNair worth $10 million?

Right 2004..

I quoted the fiqures wrong. The 27.5M a year package would be for 2006. Yes he only counted $7.1M against the cap in 2005.

Still the point is the same. Even if we signed him for $10M we save $17M from his current contract. My guess is that he will play for $8-9M which is reasonable for a player with his credentials. We can save another $6M by letting olson go and we would save some on henry's contract if they can come to terms. We don't gain much by letting hopkins go so the issue would be to reneg his $10M contract or retirement.

Off topic i know but i wonder what you guys think of this idea. Dump olson, sign hartwig but also sign bentley the FA center from the saints. We get an upgrade at center and hartwig plays olson's guard spot. Hartwig is probably a better guard than center anyway and his versatility is nice to have.

 

Releasing Hoppy will save 3.5 mil which isn't chump change. I'd let him walk. I'd also let Lamont Thompson walk saving 1.3 mil. I'd let Henry hit the open market and then have him come crawling back to sign a vet minimum deal. With the number of guys that look to be hitting the market and with him being 1 strike away from a full yr suspension I just don't see Henry signing anything for much more than the vet min.

In terms of Hartwig, what makes you think that he would be a better guard? The one time he really struggles is when he has a guy playing right on his nose against 3-4 defenses. He just plays too high and gets shoved into the backfield. I think it would be very easy to replace hartwig and not miss his production/leadership.

 

The 27.5M figure for 2006 is arrived at by pro-rating the 50M out over the next four years. It won't happen.

The 10M new money this year is 9M base + 1M to terminate the contract. The remaining SB amoritization would have to be added to that to get his cap number for 2006.

His agent, Bus Cook, wants some additional unspecified money this year above the 10M if the contract is extended/restructured beyond 2006.

The options are:
1. Cut him and save about 13M off the 27M
2. Pay the 9M +1M and allow his contract to expire and have a cap # of about 23M in 2006.
3. Do a new deal and push part of the 9M + any new money into the future in the form of a signing bonus. That allows us to reduce his current cap number but creates the very real potential for future dead money when the team should be more competitive, depending on the structure of the deal.

 

Hartwig at guard...

Why would he struggle more at guard than at center? Makes no sense to me. He was a decent backup guard before the forced move to center. At guard he is blocking the same people most of the time. Actually at guard he would pull more and get angle blocks on inside linebackers.

What would be easier, snapping the ball and then having to block a 320 lb guy, or simply blocking a 320 lb guy?


I don't know how anyone can make a broad brush arguement against signing this guy. He has been our starting center for 3 straight years. He certainly wouldn't cost us that much money. Everyone assumes that olson will be gone, many assume that hopkins will be gone. So who is going to play on the inside in 2006? Bell? No he may have to play right tackle. Our 2 rookie o-lineman didn't see any action at all this season so i don't know how much we can count on either of those 2 guys. Stewart worked some at guard in camp but he is 6'7. How many 6'7 guards are there?

 

Only when we play 3-4 teams does Hartwig have to snap and block a 320 Lb NT. In 4-3 his nose is usually clean and he helps combo block a DT or has to slide to cut off the DT if the guard pulls. I'm just tired of seeing him getting shoved into the backfield and blowing up the run play. Is he the worst center in the league? No. But does he deserve a contract that is much more than the minimum? I don't think so. If Reese can get him for near the minimum then I'm fine with keeping him. I don't think that Rosenhaus will advise him to sign a low ball contract and that is why I think he hits the FA market. I think he will find that he is not a hot commodity and might come back to the Titans for less than he wants. I just don't want to see us spending any sort of money on a marginal guy who I think we have a replacement for already in Amano and who I know we could easily draft a guy better.

I expect Stewart to contribute in 2006. Why shouldn't he be able to. Bell did great his rookie yr and he was picked later in the draft. If you look at the guys who were picked around Stewart in this past draft they almost all played a bunch for their teams this yr and did well. So Stewart should be able to contribute.

 

I agree with TitanJeff. The vets on the OL proved they could not get it done. When CAP convenient dump them all and bench them in the meantime.