For all you D Hall lovers

[BigHairedAristocrat]

If we dont pay Hall the money he wants now, we will be left with three choices:

1) Pay Hall significantly more money later on.
2) Let Hall walk and pay someone of lesser talent money comparable to what Hall wants now.
3) Let Hall walk and don't do anything of consequence (sign long-term starter) to replace him.

For those of you who are fans of option 3, consider this. Failing to lock up a high quality starter to a long-term contract means financially:

1) Keeping Springs around for atleast one more year at 8.5M
2) Signing some sort of veteran FA with starting experience to a modest contract - lets go conservative (less than what smoot got) and say 3M/year for atleast 2 years (this year and atleast one other year as a 2010 draft pick adjusts to the NFL game) for a total of 6M
3) Use a High draft pick in 2010 on a "long-term" solution at CB. Dominique Rogers-Cromartie, the 16th overall pick last year signed a 6 year, 16M contract with 9M garaunteed. Assuming a 10% increase in salaries annually, and that we drafted someone a corner in the same slot in 2010 (ballpark figure, i know) and we'd be looking at paying someone about 20M with 11M garaunteed to essentially fill the role vacated by Hall this year.

In the end, letting Hall go means spending 25M in garaunteed money in contracts over the next two years to have a less effective solution at the CB position. In the end, we're left with a young draft pick who may or may not turn out to be a good player, and may or may not end up having personal problems WORSE than the problems that Hall has, by all appearances, put behind him.

The notion that we should not push hard to sign Hall before the start of free agency is incredibly short-sighted. Its the kind of thinking that has consistently handicapped this franchise in recent years. Consider just one example:

Dockery got more money than he ever expected once he hit free agency. He was asking us to pay him well more than we wanted to, but it still was less than what he eventually got. In the end, where would we be now if we had just paid him before he hit FA? Well, we would not have needed to trade a 4th round draft picks to the Jets for Pete Kendall, we would not have had to use an additional 3rd round pick on Rinehart in 2008, and we would not be looking for a guard now. Yes, letting Dock walk cost us (as of now) THREE mid-range draft picks that could have been used to build depth and address other postions. While it would have cost some money to keep him, we wouldnt have had to pay Kendall, Rinehart, or whoever eventually starts at RG for us long-term. When you add up all those contracts and include inflation, it undoubtably would not be that much less than what it would have cost to keep Dock, especially if we replace him by a marquee free agent this year or a high draft pick in the coming years.

The same prinicples apply to other starting caliber free agents we've let walk in recent years like Antionio Pierce and Ryan Clark. Well managed NFL teams know that most of the time, in the long-run, its cheaper to keep your own young, home-grown stars than it is to let them walk. youre almost always going to pay less to keep your own guy (hometown discount) than you are to find a comparable FA replacement elsewhere. Cornerback is one of the premier positions in the NFL. look at how often corners get franchised - its because teams know their value and they want to get a long-term deal signed with the player because they know its cheaper and better for the team in the long run.

If the skins wait and dont push to get something done now, theyre fools. complete fools.