Originally Posted by papz (Post 520448)

How many LB'ers do you envision us keeping? If we keep 7, something is going to have to give. If we keep 8, his chances go up slightly... but I still don't see him making the team imo. My preference is to keep an extra lineman on either side of the ball or a secondary guy who excels on special teams than the extra linebacker. So if Haralson makes the team, for me, I just don't see it. But if we do go that route and keep an extra LB, I don't see Rufus helping us much out this year as opposed to some of the other LB's that are on the bubble. This isn't me knocking Rufus at all, I just don't feel he's ready to contribute which is why the PS imo, is the most logical scenario for both sides.

Originally Posted by papz (Post 520448)

How many LB'ers do you envision us keeping? If we keep 7, something is going to have to give. If we keep 8, his chances go up slightly... but I still don't see him making the team imo. My preference is to keep an extra lineman on either side of the ball or a secondary guy who excels on special teams than the extra linebacker. So if Haralson makes the team, for me, I just don't see it. But if we do go that route and keep an extra LB, I don't see Rufus helping us much out this year as opposed to some of the other LB's that are on the bubble. This isn't me knocking Rufus at all, I just don't feel he's ready to contribute which is why the PS imo, is the most logical scenario for both sides.

Originally Posted by Seer1 (Post 520441)

Hahaha! All these great comments then :"Vikings suck" comes up. WTF?

Originally Posted by Saintswrath (Post 520452)

If he returns to 2012 or even earlier form we may have actually inadvertently upgraded that position, this dude is a BEAST from the highlights and stats i've read and seen..
If he's even halfway there he's basically a faster Will Smith at best.

Originally Posted by Danno (Post 520451)

In a 3-4 I can see us keeping 9, especially since it appears to be our weak spot. And LB's are typically very good ST'ers.

Here's my take so far...
ILB - David Hawthorne
ILB - Ramon Humber
ILB - Curtis Lofton
ILB - Kevin Reddick (or Jonathan Vilma if healthy)
OLB - Junior Galette
OLB - Rufus Johnson
OLB - Eric Martin (or Baraka Atkins, can't decide yet)
OLB - Parys Haralson
OLB - Martez Wilson

Originally Posted by Saintswrath (Post 520457)

Probably same amount he's been getting paid, the pay usually transfers over unless player is at their final contract year then he can negotiate terms.
His pay with San Francisco was 2.4Mil

Originally Posted by RaginCajun83 (Post 520450)

As much as I think he is a genius, Will's contract was one of Loomis' dumber moments. FO should have cut/traded him before the big money years hit. Since they didn't, we got this situation on our hands

Originally Posted by TheOak (Post 520470)

There are three separate costs associated with Will Smiths contract.

His base didnt explode until 2011.

Then there is the 2m roster bonus every year.

His dead money hit hasn't been below 7M since 2009 which is the year he had 13 sacks.

So by the time he was not preforming to his contract value it was too expensive to cut him due to Dead Money..

So in reality it has been cheaper to keep him and swallow the cap hit than to suffer the dead money escalation.

Reference
Will Smith Contracts, Salaries, Cap Hits, & Transactions

It was bad from the start but no one knew he wouldn't live up to expectations until it was too late.