Trade Diggs?

No doubt.  But I was just comparing Diggs to Harris.  From strictly a cap perspective, if we released or traded Diggs, Thielen and Rudolph (yes, all three) it would free up around $13M of 2020 space.  That is about what it would cost us to tag Harris.  Translation: Diggs, Thielen and Rudy aren't going anywhere because of cap space.  Kirk also isn't going anywhere both because of his no-trade clause but more importantly he's the first QB we've had in years who has put together back to back years of high level performance without an exploding knee.

There will be decisions that have to be made to fit within the cap.  Rhodes is gone.  Even with a Joseph pay cut, it may be either Reiff or Joseph.  I'll keep Reiff.  Do we keep Mac or Waynes or Harris?  I would like Harris, but CB is usually more highly valued.  It all fits because that's how Rick and Brez engineered it.  With the departure of Rhodes and Reiff/Joseph, we'll gain about $20M in space.  If we extend Kirk, we'll gain about another $10M in space.  We need about $8M (eventually) for the rookie pool.  That leaves about $22M in walking around money to go shopping:

Griff resign:  $8M
Harris extension:  $10M
Waynes extension:  $10M
Mac extension:  $8M
FA OL:  $8M

All just made up numbers to serve as an example.  I could do two of those and then look to the draft or our younger backups to fill in the blanks.  Personally, I'm going with Harris and Waynes and focusing on OL, DL and CB in the draft (in that order).

I have little confidence that we can come close to replacing Diggs at a fraction of the cost.  Yes, I agree, the experts are all saying this is a deep WR class.  I can't help but think back just two short years when all the experts agreed we had the best QB class in a long time.  Those top four, can't miss guys?  One is on his second team and not starting.  One has "seen ghosts out there."  The third is regressing and the fourth is reminding me more of Bobby Douglass every game I watch (i.e. he could throw the ball through the wall of a barn.....if he could hit the barn  ).  The only guy who is really excelling is the one the experts (and a lot of the teams) projected as a WR.

Maybe they only missed it by one year.  Of course even then, the experts all said Trubisky when they should have been saying Mahomes and Watson.  I'll believe it when the rookie shows up and produces.  Up until that point, it's just a shot in the dark.  I like Diggs.  I'll take Diggs over a shot in the dark thank you.  

(bonus Bears reference for JABF - who has waaay too long of a username)

Change is scary! Let’s run it all back again. It worked so well in 2010.

It's $5.5M, not $14M. The rest is unrecoverable sunk cost (unless he just decides to give us back $9M of his bonus money.. )

We need one less pick if we still have our top playmaker at WR.  What am I missing here?? 

btw: @theleviathan , thanks for engaging in such a civil discussion/debate on this.  It's a nice change to just exchange opinions with a respected forum member without some idiot newbie calling me a moron.  

You had better stick a on that or I'm telling Funkytown.

the team isn't losing an additional 9 mil if they trade diggs. That money is gone either way. Gaining 5.5 mil in cap space and the ability to get a couple draft picks for a guy who doesn't want to be here is exactly why diggs will get traded imo