quote:
Whoever wants a shot at starting and believes in themselves enough to take a 3 million dollar one year deal with incentives tied to team success with them starting can get the job.

And who is that exactly? Dalton is a free agent and signed last year to be the backup. He’s not signing a 1 year 3 million dollar deal to be the starter. I couldn’t believe it, but I read somewhere it would take a 2-year deal with an AAV between 10-15 million to re-sign Dalton. That sounds crazy, but not any more crazy than thinking Dalton signs a 1-year 3 million dollar deal to be the starter.

One thing nobody seems to mention is that Carr turns 32 in March. Dalton turns 36 in October. That’s a big difference in a vacuum, but Carr has always had a much better arm, is taller (leverage) and will age much better than Dalton whose noodle arm is only getting weaker. Barring injury, of course.

And I’m not sure the market is going to be as high for Carr as some—including himself—might think. The teams most desperate for a QB have high draft picks and are probably gonna go down that route. Save maybe for the Jets. However, Moscona had a Raiders guy on a couple weeks ago talking about Carr. He really liked him personally, but said he was kind of sensitive. Not necessarily in a bad way, but that he probably wouldn’t want to play in the bright lights of New York. He might prefer playing in a small market like New Orleans. Add to that his relationship with DA (guy said they still talk every week), and he might prefer New Orleans over any other suitor, assuming the price is right for him. Just because the Saints and Raiders agreed to a potential trade compensation doesn’t mean they are beholden to make it. I think they leverage his relationship with DA, bring him in and “wow” him with the Saints winning culture (relative to the disfunction of the Raiders organization he’s played under his entire career), lay out a plan on how they will use him, agree on a deal, convince him that not having to give up a draft pick for him help get him another weapon in an early round, and most importantly make him feel wanted and convince him we think he’s the missing piece to win the weak South and make a playoff run, and hope that’s enough for him to veto any trade and choose to sign with us after forcing the Raiders’ hand to cut him. If another team swoops in and makes a better pitch, move on to plan B.

Also, people thinking DA is the one making this call are crazy. He doesn’t have the political capital to make big personnel decisions on ANY side of the ball, especially an expensive QB on the side he has nothing to do with. At most he can vouch for him, but the money is going to have to make sense for Loomis, and the player is gonna have to make sense to Ireland. Ireland—whom I think we all really like as a talent evaluator and trust his scouting department—doesn’t just evaluate college guys coming in. Though I’m sure he did a thorough eval when Carr came out. He’s been watching tape on Carr for years and had a good idea of what kind of player we would be getting. So I think DA, Loomis, Ireland, and Gayle are all gonna have to sign off before offering him a big deal.

And 40 per is ridiculous, but I’m less concerned about an AAV in the 30s as I am the guaranteed money and ability to get out of his deal after a few years if it doesn’t work out. And it might not. But I think we owe it to Cam, Demario, Ram, and even DA to give it a shot. We can think long-term because we’re gonna be fans for the rest of our lives. These guys live year to year. And there’s a really small difference between 7-10 and 10-7 in the NFL today. Hit on some mid or even late round guys that can contribute immediately, get some good injury luck, force a few more turnovers, take advantage of a weak division and schedule, get hot at the right time, and anything can happen. I’m all for keeping the window open, slight as it may seem, until it’s absolutely closed shut. And I don’t think we’re quite there yet. May be this time next year, but not quite time to raise the white flag just yet imo.

And I’m not married to Carr. A guy like Brisette is interesting for the right price and ability to add a few more pieces. And I’m open to Hooker, too. I don’t understand how the age thing is seen as such a negative when in the same breath, people are clamoring for a cheaper guy on a rookie deal. If I want a starter on a rookie deal to be able to add pieces, give me the mature guy who’ll be 25-30 in his physical and mental prime on that deal, not a 21-26 year old kid. If the argument is he’s not gonna be a 15-year-starter, well no shite. 99.999999999999999% that 21-year-old won’t be either.

Last thing: that Penning injury really sucked cock. He needed the off-season reps more than anybody on the team. May force us to go OL earlier in the draft than we’d have liked to. I know Taysom came back ready to go, but he’s a freak athlete, system vet, and about 100 pounds lighter. shite.