For the Arizona Cardinals, tough moves are going to have to be made.
They’ll have to make some cuts that are uncomfortable and maybe don’t make a ton of sense.
Of course, that’s what happens when you are up against the cap coming off an average season.
There are three cuts that are highly unlikely, would be tough to stomach for fans, but would instantly help the Cardinals in the way of cap space. Yet, it may also make a hole in the lineup.
Here are the three cuts.
- Deone Bucannon - Cap Relief: $8,718,000. Cutting Bucannon has been bandied about quite a bit on these boards and from a strategic standpoint, I’m not sure how much sense it makes. However, from a pure cap savings standpoint, there may not be a more attractive player to cut. Bucannon is the green dot player for the Cardinals, much is going to be expected of him, but has he ever played up to what his salary will be?
- Phil Dawson - Cap Relief: $3,500,000. Much like cutting Bucannon, Dawson’s last few games and steadiness at the end of the season makes me wonder if they’d be willing to turnover the kicking position. The one thing that worries me, did having to kick off hurt Dawson last year and if so, can you afford to pay a kick off specialist just to keep Dawson?
- Josh Mauro - Cap Relief: $3,300,000. Mauro may be the most realistic of these three in that he’s not a starter and if the Cardinals begin to transition to a 4-3, I’m not sure where he fits. Maybe he’s the backup to Golden, but at his cost? It doesn’t make sense.
There’s about $800,000 of dead money between Dawson and Mauro, but that’s nearly as much money saved as cutting everyone’s assumed cuts of Jared Veldheer, Mike Iupati and Tyrann Mathieu, there’s about a $3 million difference.
The bigger difference? Finding players to replace Bucannon, Dawson and Mauro will be significantly cheaper than finding replacements for Iupati and Veldheer.
Although it’s unlikely to happen, it’s interesting to see the juxtaposition.