The whole key is Revis. Need to get his extension done as soon as the season is over. If not before. That affects "EVERY" other decision on the defensive side of the ball. Would he take 5/80?? With half of it guaranteed?? You could make the yearly salaries, 4,6,8,10 and 12. First year cap hit would be 12. We'd save 13m right there and that would be more than enough to sign McCourty and Chung. Your whole secondary is back.
If Revis can be extended and lower his cap hit to about $12M for 2015, the $13 savings would cover the like 2015 cap hits for re-signing McCourty, Chung, Ayers, Branch and Casillas and probably leave about $3M left over. We'd have the whole defense back (with a healthy Mayo and Jones), and that's without addressing possible restructurings to Mayo, Arrington, etc.
Mayo's gotta bring his salary down from 6.2 next year. I'd cut Amendola and HooMan. That should be enough to bring; Slater, Vereen and Gostkowski back.
VW was awesome against Denver and Indy. Would be hard to cut him if he finishes healthy. He's earned his contract and shown he's worth keeping another year. I'd draft his eventual replacement real early though. Prob 1st rounder.
Draft a de(2), lb(4) and DB(6or7) to go with that DT and there's your defense. I'd move Ryan to safety and see how that goes. May not even have to draft a db if our current players finish the season healthy.
If Wilfork keeps up his current level of play he probably buys another year. This draft is loaded with athletic big DTs who are more than just space eaters - Malcolm Brown, Eddie Goldman, Danny Sheldon, Ellis McCarthy, Carl Davis, possibly Jordan Phillips. Draft one of those guys and train them behind VW for a year, just as the Pats had Keith Traylor in 2004.
Wilson is going into a contract year and I assume he's gone after 2015 at the latest. Cutting him saves $1M, which could take care of re-signing Casillas. I'd love to draft a replacement like Jaquiski Tartt or Durrell Eskridge. But it's a minor item.
My 2015 dream defense would presumably look something like this:
- DT and "big DE": Vince Wilfork, Dominique Easley, Alan Branch, Chris Jones, Sealver Siliga, rookie
- DE and DE/OLB: Chandler Jones, Rob Ninkovich, Akeem Ayers, rookie, Zach Moore, Michael Buchanan (Hightower and Collins could also play that role)
- LB: Jerod Mayo, Dont'a Hightower, Jamie Collins, Jonathan Casillas, James Morris (Ayers and Ninkovich could also get some snaps at LB)
- S: Devin McCourty, Pat Chung, rookie, Nate Ebner, Duron Harmon/Don Jones
- CB: Darrelle Revis, Brandon Browner, Logan Ryan, Kyle Arrington, Alfonzo Dennard, Malcolm Butler
That's 28 players. Injuries and competition will sort things out.
