How much is too much money?

[macbranson]

How much money are you guys paying for top players? My LE, Greg Hardy, has a ton of sacks (22 as of week 13) and he is in the last year of his contract. I have Charles Johnson on the Right side with a $72 million contract and a bunch of other guys with big contracts, Jon Beason, DeAngelo Williams, Thomas Davis, Jonathan Stewart, etc. Honestly, I could just put anyone at LE and I know they would get a ton of sacks because that's the way the game is. But, realistically, a record-breaking defensive end would get a ridiculous amount of money. He would probably be the highest paid defensive player in the league. But, I can't have two defensive ends with huge contracts and he's only demanding like $30 million which is a bargain. I want to pay him some sort of amount that would be justifiable but not overkill. I'm thinking maybe $55 million? I really don't wanna have over $130 million invested in the defensive end position alone. I was looking around and there are only two teams, the Bills and Cardinals, that have over $100 million invested in defensive ends. It just seems like a bad idea.

[Sdrawkcab321]

What's the penalty for cutting Charles Johnson ? I'd probably do that first. U can find a similar replacement for him at a fraction of the price. But it depends on what hardys ratings are. I don't hand out contacts based on stats.

[macbranson]

Charles Johnson's contract is huge. He's getting $72 million over six years with $30 million guaranteed. Cutting him would give me a $20 million cap penalty. No way I'm absorbing that. Johnson is rated 90 in my scheme and rated a 97 in general. He has 7 sacks and a safety as of week 13. He's pretty good and is on pace to put up double digit sacks. I don't want to release him or trade him as he's a very good player and the cap penalty would be ridiculous. I'm definitely going to free up some cap space by getting rid of Thomas Davis who's going to be putting $8.5 million against my salary cap but he's not even starting anymore. I'm gonna get rid of one or both of my running backs. D. Williams is having a great season, but he's gonna be 31 and is gonna be putting $9 million against the cap. Stewart barely touches the ball and will be putting $5 million against the cap. I'm not too concerned about the cap space, because I'm going to free up a lot. I'm just wondering how much I should pay him. I would have the best defensive end tandem in the league and they really do anchor my defense. Especially with my weak secondary.

******question: my left tackle is in the last season of his contract, but he's not available to re-sign during the season. Will I be able to sign him at the end of the season or is he going to retire or something ? He's 33, so I figure maybe he's just going to retire and I can't re-sign him.

[Sdrawkcab321]

What I would probably cut or trade hardy then. Move Johnson to the other side where he will be even more effective then hardy was. Use your xp to get the LT retirement package. This till make it less of a chance that your LT will retire. But if he's in the last year of his deal you just have to wait and see if comes back or not. He might not be interested in resigning

[roll2tide]

No way I'd pay that(72M) for any player ever. You can draft a scrub, level him up and sign him to a reasonable 4-6 year deal after that. Trade him in the final year for anything. It's so cheap to upgrade young players I try to never keep guys beyond 28-30 years old and no actual NFL players beyond 28 unless they're cheap. Actual players tend to want too much $$$, imo, without the attributes to make it worth it.

Also..just my opinion....but OVR is a worthless number in this game. Never base anything off of OVR.

[tfctillidie]

Why would you pay him 55M when he's asking for 30M?

[macbranson]

Because it's almost like there's something wrong with the game. A player of that caliber would definitely want more than $30 million for 5 years. Hell, in real life Greg Hardy turned down, what $26 million? And he doesn't have 22 sacks. Just trying to manage my team like its a real NFL team. That's why I'm not just gonna let him leave during free agency and stick any old player in his position and level them up.

[live to die54]

Quote: Originally Posted by macbranson

Because it's almost like there's something wrong with the game. A player of that caliber would definitely want more than $30 million for 5 years. Hell, in real life Greg Hardy turned down, what $26 million? And he doesn't have 22 sacks. Just trying to manage my team like its a real NFL team. That's why I'm not just gonna let him leave during free agency and stick any old player in his position and level them up.

i get what you are saying but depending on traits youve bought for the player and for your coach could make him wanna take less to stay on the team. obviously you said he turned down 26M but theres also been players that either reduced their contract to stay or went with a lesser contract to stay. in FA is when the top DE's get their money and for those players to reach that point the team offered them something like 30M for 5 years in the resign stage just before the FA stage.

the resign stage is where the player gets a contract that makes sense, the FA stage is when players get overpaid cuz teams get caught in a bidding war.

sorry for rabbling, not even sure if what i said makes sense but just trying to point out the other side of things