Originally Posted by BigCatDaddy (Post 11112425)

It looks more and more like his downfall was Cassel and inability to get a decent head coach.

Originally Posted by WhiteWhale (Post 11112568)

Pioli's downfall was his ego, and both of these are examples of it. He couldn't admit failure with Cassel, and his ego wouldn't allow head coaches to coach... he just wanted them to be a proxy for Pioli. He's the only GM I can remember (outside of Al Davis, who was FAR more accomplished than Pioli ever will be) that dictated scheme on both offense and defense and forced his coaches to work within his tiny bubble of experience.

Originally Posted by J Diddy (Post 11112582)

I'm not a knee jerk fanatic as some on here are. I won't grab the pitch fork at the first sign of trouble nor will I immediatly fellate him when he does something good.

I'm more of an attaboy or not good guy.

That being said, I believe he gets an attaboy here.

Originally Posted by SNR (Post 11112786)

Stuff Pioli gets credit for:
-Charles contract
-The 2011 trade down that got us Houston
-Hudson, Bailey, and Poe
-Keeping the front office stairwells clean of candy wrappers

Stuff Pioli was handed on a silver platter:
-**** ton of cap room
-All those dudes from the 2008 draft as well as DJ, Bowe, Hali, Colquitt, and Tony Gonzalez's corpse worth a 2nd round pick
-The Eric Berry and Justin Houston picks (I think even Carl could have made those picks)

Stuff Pioli screwed up:
-Everything, including not knowing a QB from his own asshole and being the hated scourge of every possible head coaching candidate in the country

Originally Posted by Hoover (Post 11113025)

LOL whatever. He's 25. These are they guys you keep.

Originally Posted by kccrow (Post 11113242)

I keep telling you but you keep not listening about the cap increase... The Chiefs already have just over 135 million tied up next year in top 51 contracts before this move and before the Sherman move. The cap increases from 133 to 140 million next year. 140 - 135 = 5. They an rollover about 4.5 from this year. In the other thread they have 9.1 million with the cap rollover. They need, probably, at least 8 of that to sign the draft class.

That leaves you with the pool you described plus about 1 million. Justin Houston, if retained is easily going to cost near the upper echelon of pass rush contracts, which means about 14 million cap hit, on average per year. We'll see how that shakes, but it would have to be awful friendly to the Chiefs in 2015 and escalate to rather enormous numbers thereafter to hit what he'll command. So if you are intent on re-signing Houston, that ate up your pool.

That leaves you with Hali to do anything else of note, which would also include re-signing Hudson, who will probably command somewhere in the 4.5 to 7 million per range.

Even if you do all that, you have to re-sign some of the other 17 free agents the Chiefs have out there, most notably you'll need to re-sign about 10 of them. Even if they average out at league minimums, you're going to need around 9 million in space to do that.

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501 (Post 11113295)

I don't care about the exact number of the cap increase. $5M. $10M. It doesn't matter. Between the cap increase, Hali restructure or cut, and lots of veterans with expendable contracts, the Chiefs have plenty of wiggle room.

The more important point is you keep pointing to Houston's $14M cap figure as if that's what you have to pay him. You don't have to. Same with Berry. You can easily significantly reduce their year 1 cap figure by delaying a roster bonus. Again, these are things I wouldn't have done this year, but in 2015 there's PLENTY of opportunities for creative contract structuring.

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501 (Post 11113341)

By the way....
Alex Smith is getting paid $4.6M this year.

That tells you what you need to know. The Chiefs should have no problem keeping their guys on this team.

Originally Posted by Chief Roundup (Post 11113362)

Not sure why his number matters this year other than maybe a little rollover, but his number next season is $15.6M. Any rollover from him is more than ate right back up in his own increase.

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501 (Post 11113370)

I'm only pointing to Alex Smith as an example that it's easy to set up a contract with a low year 1 cap hit. There's no reason why Justin Houston should cost $14M in year 1, no matter how big his contract.

Originally Posted by 505 Chief (Post 11113373)

I wonder if that was sticking point to the deal?

Originally Posted by 505 Chief (Post 11113373)

I wonder if that was sticking point to the deal?

Originally Posted by Chief Roundup (Post 11113393)

I could certainly see where a team would not really want to give 20 +/- million and a significant salary to one player in the same season. That could be a lot of cash being payed to just one player in a single year.