Colliders Make Cuts

BATAVIA, IL

The Batavia Colliders parted ways with four veterans today. Two defensive stalwarts and two mercurial wide receivers will find themselves in the free agent auction.

When the league and the players’ union reached a collective bargaining agreement on the salary cap, each team was given two “amnesty” moves to cancel contracts. As a linebacker with a salary over $30 this year, Patrick Willis had a giant target on his back. On the offensive side, wide receiver Jon Baldwin got nixed in a move that lets GM Josh Hammond off the hook for his knee-jerk free agent acquisition of Baldwin following his one good game. No cap penalties were incurred for cutting these two.

GM Hammond was willing to take the cap hit on two other players, however. Wide receiver Braylon Edwards finds himself without an NFL team. He was scheduled to make a paltry $1.27 this year, but team officials indicated that they see no upside in Edwards…they’d rather take a $1 flyer on a rookie wide receiver. (Ed. note:  “flyer” can be spelled two ways.  At first I had “flier” but that looked weird. Turns out that both are okay.)

Also without a job is head-stomping defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. Suh was scheduled to make over $16 this season, or about $10 over the market value. The Colliders didn’t mind paying top-dollar for Suh two years ago when he was the number one defensive tackle, but his paltry production no longer justified his exorbitant salary.

“To be honest with you,” Hammond said, “the writing was on the wall when [Suh] was replaced in the starting lineup last year. We will allocate the savings to other, more important positions.”

The cost-cutting moves have freed up about $50 in cap space.  The Colliders have three picks in the first round of the draft, so they can use the money to invest in their rookie talent.

© 2012, Josh Hammond. All rights reserved.