Throughout these threads, people are arguing that EDS is this liability and needs to be replaced. I don't understand this take. Someone on a thread posted that profootballreference (or something like that) rated him as the 8th best center. Regardless if he's the 8th best or more middle of the pack, I thought either bears out what I saw. He seemed to be a very serviceable player that wasn't a liability. And we have to remember, this was his first season starting. He's a young player that is only getting better. And perhaps just as important, Rodgers seems to trust him. To me, resigning him should be one of our priorities because he probably won't cost too much and he's a good center that should only get better with time and experience. Of course, this is contingent upon him being available for a fair price, which I think we can get him for.
It's the idea that re-signing him should be some kind of priority, which would imply paying a market rate which would probably in the neighborhood of $3.0 - $3.5 mil per year.
Our cap commitments to the top 51 guys already under contract for 2014 are $108 mil. That's without signing
anybody...any of our own FA's, any other FA, any draftee.
On Dec. 11, the league announced a $126 mil preliminary cap projection for 2014.
Here's the basic math:
Projected cap: $126 mil (preliminary)
Current committments: - 109 mil (per overthecap.com)
Cap carryover: +10 mil (per Joel Corey, cbssports.com)
Draftees: -3 mil (my estimate of the net cost of replacing minimum salary guys)
In-season reserve: -5 mil (my estimate of the minimum for IR replacements; that's the amount the Pack carried in 2012)
Net available: =19 mil net for all free agent signings
That might sound like a lot, but if one values some combination of the other 19 FAs it isn't. For example, Shields, Quarless, Flynn, James Jones, Pickett and Lattimore or Francois would take up that $19 mil. That's just an example and not an endorsement...pick your own names. And this does not include any market FAs.
Further, should we be keeping some additional cap in reserve for carryover to 2015? It's one thing to say we're working with $136 mil in cap; it's another to take a major drop in cap space the next year without any carryover.
The roster of 2015 FAs are as follows: Barclay (restricted), Boykin (restricted),
Bulaga, Bush,
Cobb, DuJuan Harris, House,
Nelson, Richardson (restricted), Ryan Taylor, Tolzien, Van Roten (restricted),
Tramon Williams.
I find more value in the 2015 FA group (and a lot of $ associated with Nelson and Cobb) than this year's, including our entire WR corp if Jones is not resigned. In this light, Jones may be more of a priority this year than initially meets the eye as insurance against a 2015 Nelson loss to FA. Otherwise, we'd need to go high in the draft for a WR this year to have him ready for 2015 when there are more pressing needs on D.
I had thought we could pick up a chunk of cap space this year (around $7 mil) by releasing T. Williams, but then the son of a gun started playing like a Pro Bowler again the last 3-4 weeks.
In this light, focusing on a guy who is at best an average center seems out of proportion to the overall set of issues.