Farnchising Tru was just plain silly in my opinion. Let this sink in for you. His cap hit is bigger than Von Miller's is for the Broncos, and he's not even close to that kind of player. For that matter, Quinn's is almost the exact same as Von Millers, and he hasn't been the kind of wrecking force for that kind of money either being injured all the time. How you navigate the cap is where good teams win before they ever step on the field. New England, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Denver etc all are very good at identifying the guys to pay and guys to let go.
Look at Pittsburghs cap. All of their top guys in cap numbers are team difference makers. And even with Timmons being their best defensive player they will cut him this year or sign him to a lesser deal to resign guys like Bell, and will still continue molding young players in their "system". Shazier, Bud Dupree, etc are all on their rookie contracts. When guys get too big for their britches they let them walk and get the next man up: Mike Wallace Lamar Woodley (remember him?) etc.
An even more sickening comparison is look at how adept the Cowboys have become with their salary cap management.
13,952,000 was the number for a franchised CB to pay Tru (or...9.29% of the cap)
18,470,000 = ??????????? (or...12.1% of the cap)
That last number is the COMBINED cap hit for the ENTIRE Dallas Cowboys starting offensive line for 2016. What's even crazier is now that the mass of their cap hog (Romo) being cut will net them 5 more million, even after absorbing his dead space cap hit for 2017....and that leaves a huge amount of money to resign guys or get help in FA. That, right there, is how you create a winning roster (think I threw up typing that).
