BakoSaint

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profoo...on-pierre-paul

Marshon Lattimore is going to the IR. Pierre Paul is being elevated to take his spot.

With the way I know Mickey Loomis thinks, I wonder if the whole Jason Pierre Paul signing was a PR thing. JPP was signed after Lattimore was hurt. But Pierre Paul was put on the practice squad, creating excitement for him to be elevated given his past fame at a younger age. Then ML waited several days for the sting of Michael Thomas going to the IR to fade and speculation about JPP's elevation to simmer, and then he sends Lattimore to the IR and elevates JPP at the same time to soften the blow. It just makes me wonder, was all this PR-first PR-mastery by Loomis? Would he put two stars on the IR at the same time if they were both clearly hurt? Do we actually feel JPP can still contribute, or was his entire signing a ploy to soften the blow of the news that Lattimore is going to the IR?

Speaking of Lattimore, he is hitting that 6-9 year veteran window where most star cornerbacks production often falls off a cliff. He's been good this year but not great. He has begun to be injury prone though, which is often what happens before production falls off a cliff. I am not saying to sound all the alarm bells yet, but I think we should try to avoid restructuring his contract to push dead money into the future. It is very historically possible he won't be very good in 2025. If we restructure his contract this offseason we may push the dead cap to cut him in the 2025 offseason to $32.5 million. If we hand onto him in 2025 by restructuring him again in the 2025 offseason we may face a similar dead cap to move on during the 2026 offseason, about $32 million I believe. It might be smart to just pay his full base salary in 2024 and see how it goes, so the cap hit to cut him or the leverage to ask him to take a pay cut are more in our favor if he continues to be injury prone and decline in 2024. This would also give us some flexibility to see a financial benefit if we decide to trade him, which is something good teams very frequently do with aging corners. I get that Lattimore is only 27, but unfortunately thats not especially young for an NFL corner, it's an unforgiving position.