NFL Notes: Cap Situations, Browns, Texans, & Titans

Cap Situations

Field Yates of ESPN (Insider) takes a look at some NFL teams who will need to make some roster moves to create some cap space.

• Dolphins: Yates suggests Miami restructure DT Ndamukong Suh‘s contract by converting his $23.485 million base salary for 2016 into a signing bonus and in turn reducing his cap figure by close to $18 million. Another option for Miami is to cut DE Quinton Coples, which would net them $7.751 million in cap space.
• Bills: The obvious move for the Bills, according to Yates, would be to cut veteran DE/OLB Mario Williams.
• Patriots: Yates mentions that they’ll need to address players like LB Dont’a Hightower, LB Jamie Collins, DE Chandler Jones and CB Malcolm Butler at some point. Cap casualties for New England could include: LB Jerod Mayo, WR Danny Amendola, TE Scott Chandler and OT Marcus Cannon.
• Saints: Yates mentions that dead money will be an issue for New Orleans in 2016 as they’re already over $22 million. Yates mentions that the Saints will probably try to sign QB Drew Brees to an extension at some point to reduce his staggering cap figure of $30 million.

Browns

• Mary Kay Cabot reports that the Browns have promoted former director of football research Ken Kovash to help Andrew Berry run their scouting department.

Texans

• Texans owner Bob McNair said of the team’s quarterback situation: “We don’t need a superstar there, but it needs to be reliable play that won’t take anything away from us.” (Aaron Wilson)
• McNair added: “There are a number of quarterbacks out there, college quarterbacks. I think we have a good chance at getting one of them.” (Aaron Wilson)
• McNair also said that have to do a better job of getting their run game going next year: “We need to get our running game going again. We’ll be working on those things.” (Aaron Wilson)

Titans

John Glennon of the Tennessean takes a look at five players who could be cap casualties for the Titans this offseason.

• According to Glennon, it’s hard to imagine DE Ropati Pitoitua returning for the 2016 season.
• Glennon mentions that Titans coach Mike Mularkey clearly thinks highly of RB Dexter McCluster, but he still wonders if he’s worth bringing back.
• Veteran WR Harry Douglas could be retained given that the Titans are currently thin at receiver and they hired his former WRs coach Terry Robiskie.
• One interesting name is CB Jason McCourty, as they would pick up a good amount of cap savings by releasing him. However, Glennon can’t see them making this move.
• Another player to watch is veteran TE Anthony Fasano. Glennon mentions that if Craig Stevens returns, they could move on from Fasano and pick up $2.63 million in cap space.