Taking on bad salaries for draft picks

[apbohannon]

I'm in a 10-team RSO league with the roster below, and the salary cap is $155.5 . The situation is someone signed Jimmy Graham to a terrible contract ($20.5 - 2016 and $21.73 - 2017). I have $26 remaining for this year and can cut Graham so only half of the remaining contact will count against me this year and next.

Is it worth taking on that bad of a contract and trading away Dwayne Allen in return for either a 2017 1st and 2nd OR both 2017 & 2018 1sts? Considering next years rookie class and I will have all rookies signed cheap for 4 years.

Any advice is appreciated.

Matthew Stafford
Antonio Brown
Jarvis Landry
Julian Edelman
Mark Ingram
Devonta Freeman
Rob Gronkowski
Travis Kelce
Josh Gordon
Bilal Powell
John Brown
Philip Rivers
Justin Forsett
Karlos Williams
Terrance West
Tyler Lockett
Allen Hurns
Eric Decker
Dwayne Allen
Rob Kelley
Paxton Lynch
Will Fuller
Tyler Ervin

[SanDiegoGuy]

My philosophy is to always put and keep myself in a good CAP space situation so I can take advantage of bargains and be in such a good position in next season's draft that I can afford to overbid on a top stud player for a year to secure my chances of winning the championship. An example is this:

Last season I went for building a low priced team of rookies, injured players, bargain draft acquisitions, even if I knew some wouldn't even come into play all season. Our league is structured where you can keep any player at his original price for a 2nd year, and then $5, $10, $15 increase per season if signed for years 3, 4, or 5. Some of my lineup in year 1 of our league in a 12 team league with $200 Cap for 20 players per team -
Jordy Nelson - $16 (injured)
Kevin White - $1 (injured)
David Johnson - $4 (rookie)
Tyler Lockett - $1 (rookie)
Jeremy Maclin - $6
Golden Tate - $8
Carlos Hyde $25
Greg Olson - $11
Gary Barnidge - $5
Ben Rothlisberger - $11

We can keep up to 10 players if we want. So as you can see, I already had a decent starting team for this 2nd season and plenty of CAP space to splurge on a couple studs to fill in my starters and bench. Thus, in this week's draft I acquired the best QB in Rogers for $40 and then in a bidding war for the rookie Elliot which I won for $63. Now, that was a ridiculous price to pay for 1 RB and totally against my drafting philosophy, except that I put myself in a position to do that being super conservative and far sighted last season. Now I have a starting lineup for this season of:

QB - Rogers
RB - D. Johnson
RB - Elliot
WR - Jordy Nelson
WR - Golden Tate
WR - Jeremy Maclin
TE - Olsen
Flex - Hyde, Gore, White, Lockett, Crowell, or Moncrief (who I got in trade this week for Blount, both were $1 players in this year's draft)
Other Bench Players - QBs Stafford & Prescott, Sanu, and Morris as a handcuff for Elliot

Have some great trading bait players who I will use to try and immediately get Jimmy Graham to back up Olsen and Chris Johnson as a handcuff for David Johnson.

Not only did my drafting for the long term last season set me up well to out bid for Rogers and Elliot this season, but by luck of the way the season played out, I won our league last season even though I did not draft with that intention. I feel my team is much stronger this season. It still will take luck to repeat as champion.

[Goirish374]

I...can cut Graham so only half of the remaining contact will count against me this year and next.

is that true?

i believe that once the free agency auction is completed, you are "in season" and anyone who is on a multiyear deal has their salary for the current season guaranteed.

you might want to double check so you don't get stuck with Graham's whole contract on your 2016 cap (2017 would be half).

although...you could stash him on IR and get it reduced by half.