Texas Vike wrote: ↑Sun Aug 27, 2023 10:02 am
The TE position groups is super complicated with Hock's contract situation and Muse who is on the bubble and has showed a lot of talent. He belongs on an NFL roster, but we have Oliver and Mundt. We're kind of stacked at TE, honestly. Is Hock really THAT much of an upgrade to warrant the contract he wants? I don't have a definitive, fully formed opinion on that. It's a difficult question to answer.
It is tricky, but it's also a question KAM should be able to at least match up a general roadmap given how much of the cap KOC and he want to allocate to each side of the ball and the relatively importance of the positions to the scheme on each side of the ball. How important is the tight end position to the success of the scheme? That should set a max cap percentage KAM would be willing to shell out for any player at the position no matter how special an individual player might be. And then in that context how special is TJ compared to other players?
The general NFL market at any given position can also help set that max cap guideline for top-end talent. If the top TE is making, say, $10 million per season on average, and the average cap hit for the 10 most highly paid TE's in the league is, say, $7 million, then a max cap value for the position could reasonably be between $7-10 million per year if you have a very good, but let's say not an amazing, TE you either want to acquire or retain.
The last question a GM has to ask is does it ever make sense to set the market at a position? I would say it does if you have the consensus best player at a given position and that player is entering the prime of his career. JJ, for example, will probably merit a market-setting contract at the WR position.
Is TJ that kind of player at the TE position? Even if he were that kind of player, how many such market-setting players can any NFL team afford to have on one side of the ball, or on the team overall? Every dollar of cap that goes into one guy's pocket is a dollar of cap that can't be spent elsewhere, and the reindeer games GM's play with future cap dollars can come back to bite hard later if things don't work out as hoped, so this is as much an art as a science.
Personally, I don't see TJ as a market setter at the TE position, and I don't see the TE position as particularly critical to the overall success of KOC's offense. KOC seems to like to use his TE's to help block and be safety valves. He does send them downfield on midrange routes on occasion and they do get some opportunities to make plays down the field.
