Elvis said

I'd love to trade down into the late 1st, but I don't think we're getting an additional 1st to do that this year. Not enough in demand players at the top I fear. But we could for sure get an additional 2nd and 3rd this year and maybe a 2nd next year. Not only because it helps us get more players, but it also help us with the cap this year and next. Let use the Texans as an example.



Per the rookie wage scale on spotrac, our #9 pick costs $4,433,163 in the first year. Their #25 costs $2,761,337, #58 costs $1,296,909, and #89 costs $1,097,668. That gives us three new players for only $722,751 more than the one player we'd get at #9.

Depending on position, that would allow us to replace some players that make more money. Let's look at DT. Nathan Shepherd is on the last year of his contract. His cap number is $7 million this year with a dead cap of $4 million next year due to void years. We could cut Shepherd, draft a DT in the 3rd to replace him at a slightly lower cap number for 2025 and clear his dead money for 2026.

Jaxson Dart at #40 or #58 would cost nearly the same as we'd save by cutting Carr and would work nearly the same as with Shepherd.

These are the kinds of moves we need to make now to ensure the next coach has a fighting chance to build a good team by year 3. We're not going to be able to be good and get the cap straight at the same time, it's time to start widdling away at it with moves like these. Yes, we WILL have to do some trickery with some older players contracts to get under the cap for 2025. There is no free lunch here. But this is the way forward for a quick rebuild. More day 2 picks in exchange for our higher day 1 pick.

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