re: Eye to the Future: Looking at the 2014 Cap(pre-rookie signings)/Detail Intense

I mocked up a potential 2014 depth chart, but going with all the info from the first few posts I can see possible huge holes at these spots:
Speed Receiver
Left Tackle
Right Tackle
Right Defensive End
One or both Outside Linebacker
Starting Corner
Free Safety
Strong Safety

These will depend on if the young guys fill their roles or not. That means:
Morgan, Stills(or one of the many others) WR
Armstead, Harris, Jones T
Hicks, Johnson, Walker DE
Galette, Wilson, Butler, Broughton, C. Thomas, R. Johnson, Shipman OLB
White, Sweeting CB
Abdul-Quddus, Vaccaro S

For vets to bring back we may need:
Smith, Brown, Strief T
Coleman, Smith, Richardson DE
Jenkins, Leonhard S

Possible cuts creating holes:
Greer, Robinson CB
Harper S

Should things take a turn for the worse we could need a tight end and center also. Tight end less so because we have Watson, but at center we have no proven guys.

Personally I think realistically the biggest holes may be one of the tackle and one of the safety spots.

I think someone will step up as a speed receiver, at least one of the tackle spots will be claimed by a young guy, defensive end will be filled in, at least 2 guys will step up at outside linebacker, we won't cut both Greer and Robinson(if we cut either), and Vaccaro will fill one of the safety spots.

It's very realistic that Jenkins and Harper may not be here next year, and that's the main reason I think they went safety in the first. We could have been looking at no true starting safeties(however bad they have been, it could be worse) in 2014 instead of one potential guy.

I'm still hopeful for IAQ to keep developing but I don't think his upside is very high. I think he could be a decent starter if all goes well.

I think one of the young guys will claim the right tackle spot, if not this year than next year. I'm iffy on whether we can fill the left tackle spot and that could continue into next season.

Dead money isn't only signing bonus. It's signing bonus plus still owed guarantees. This is where many of the "professional" writers mess up when talking about the cap. It's why people thought it'd be easy to cut Harper and Greer.

I've definitely thought about the possibility of losing Butler after this year, but it's sort of a win/win given the other option of him likely only taking a 1year deal without that clause.

If he plays great and hits those targets to opt out, that means he helped us win games. The other guys will have had a year in the system at that point and should be able to step in.

If he doesn't start or plays poorly we keep him for another year cheap as depth and that means the other guys beat him out or are likely playing better.

Third possibility he could play well but not well enough to hit his targets so we got a pretty good player for two years.

On Graham, I think they'll do everything in reason to keep him. Franchising him might be a bit much, but we can give him something like a backloaded six year deal that doesn't really kick in big until the fourth year. That should be far enough ahead to help us plan for other guys.

And yes spotrac is a bit off on some guys with guarantees. Most of it is accurate though aside from some guys dead money.