Is Aaron Curry worth $5.7 million of cap room to you?

This thread is based on a couple of unwritten premises:

-The Raiders have to manage a lot of salary to get under the cap in 2012. They have two weeks.
-A lot of the players on their roster on long term deals cannot be cut for significant cap gain.
-Aaron Curry is not one of those players. He is due a $5.7 million base salary in 2012.

You'll all have to forgive my ignorance if I've missed a large part of something under the new CBA that makes what I'm about to write irrelevant, but:

Curry has 3 accrued seasons in the NFL. Normally, players who have had two teams give up on them before they play out their rookie deal are busts. Aaron Curry isn't a bust in that sense of the term. He'd be a cap casualty, and the only reason that guys who are top four picks in the draft aren't ever cap casualties in the first three years is because the team that signs them invested a huge bonus in them, and can't afford to just eat the cap hit unless they have zero use to the team. And like, claiming JaMarcus Russell's contract would have been the most insane thing ever.

Curry doesn't have zero use though, and he has no cap hit for the Raiders, who got him in a trade with the Seahawks.

He'll hit waivers instead of unrestricted free agency if he is released. The Redskins sit pretty close to the top of the waiver wire. If claimed, he costs just the base salary of $5.7 million for one year, and then is eligible to be an unrestricted free agent in 2013.

Would you claim Aaron Curry if the Raiders put him on waivers?

With the right coaching maybe he could turn into a ILB, but that's to much $$$ for a maybe IMO.

Nope. The price for Curry is too high. IMO see if he passes through waivers and then consider signing him.

Absolutely not at that price tag. IN fact, I'm willing to be good money he goes unclaimed with that type of salary.

Not at all

Let him go through waivers. Unlikely anyone would claim him for that much.

tough to pay that price when he's a questionable fit for us. Like NYCskin said, maybe he could be a ILB.

Let's look at another scenario, what if Orakpo is traded, could Curry adapt as a pass rushing OLB?

Wasn't Curry suppose to be the safest pick in the draft?

Curry is an uber talented LB, he speed rivals that of a young London Fletcher in many respects he's more talented then Fletcher.

Signing Curry provided they re-sign Fletcher first provides Curry the chance to learn directly from Fletcher.
And IF London could flip the switch that's been holding Curry back we could have found a viable replacement at ILB that we know is looming.

But, I would still be willing to gamble that he clears waivers.
Its the only way the gamble on Curry is worth it in my eyes.

If you claim him and then rework his deal you can still get the $5.7 M down to a lower figure this year. You'd only do this if you felt he was worthy of a long term deal. You'd have to talk through his contract demands if released from the Raiders.

So not at the $5.7 M number, but there's no reason you're stuck with that number.

In fact, there's no reason the Raiders are stuck with that number. They can rework Curry's contract to get the $5.7 M down lower. Not sure if they'd be able to get under the cap that way, but I don't see why not. If they've got lots of young players who they can't cut, they at least should be able to rework contracts.