Nicks Alarm Bells Ringing
August 13th, 2013
“Carl, if it makes your toe feel better, I’ll allow half-inch-in-diameter rigatoni during Wednesday lunches, and I’ll approve a cream sauce.”
It’s a conversation Bucs fans across the Bay area are having this morning; the unsettling state of Carl Nick’s surgically-repaired yet painful toe could take him from Pro Bowler to benchwarmer.
Yes, the Myron Lewis euphoria has worn off. Today on The Sports Page, on WDAE-AM 620, hosts Tom Jones and Ronnie Lane debate the issue and woven into the discussion is audio of Nicks talking about his injury in solemn tones. Lane sums up the fear well at the end, “What are we payin’ for playa?” (Click below to listen.)
August 13th, 2013 at 9:21 am
As I said in an older post, Nicks will be with the Bucs this year….MAYBE next year. It’s time to start the plan of moving on. The Bucs will not keep paying him to not play – that’s too much money and bad business sense.
Carimi, you just got a bump up the depth chart.
August 13th, 2013 at 9:23 am
I think he needs some game action (not much) before the season starts. Lets just hope that the pain for him is more nagging than intolerable.
Many players play very well through pain. Last year for Nicks it wasn’t just pain, it was avoiding serious further injury.
August 13th, 2013 at 9:24 am
Oh….I forgot….”Toe on the line, Carl….toe on the line”!!!
August 13th, 2013 at 9:30 am
When do we finish paying his guaranteed money on his recently restructured contract? That will most likely be about the same time we move on from him.
August 13th, 2013 at 9:35 am
I think he’ll be ok. He did say he’s confident he’ll be ready to go on game day. Even at 75%, Carl’s better than Gabe Carimi at 150%.
August 13th, 2013 at 9:43 am
But how good is he when he is on the bench or DL???? thats the problem and a very likely scenario.
August 13th, 2013 at 9:59 am
Cut that bad boy off and get a prosthetic, id do it if you paid me that kind of money
August 13th, 2013 at 10:10 am
Calm down folks he’ll be fine, and he’ll maul our way to the division title
August 13th, 2013 at 10:13 am
Quit freaking out already… players play with pain all the damn time. Lets see how the big guy does then we can start jumping to conclusions.
I cant see how he will remain the highest paid guard in the league if he cant be a consistent player. Luckily, our backups got some time last yr and the addition of Carimi will be supremely important to shore up the line if need be. Not worried.
August 13th, 2013 at 11:05 am
There’s nothing I read about this injury that says it can’t be surgically repaired
and the athlete return to his or her activities. It’s usually a 3-4 month recovery and with Carl it’s just going to be playing through some pain. The risk of further injury to the toe after surgery is minimal. It’s just managing the pain and I think they’ll do that just fine.
August 13th, 2013 at 11:11 am
Best pain management is to maul the other opposite toe. That way it will feel normal to this “beastly” man.
August 13th, 2013 at 11:36 am
I dunno if you guy’s know how the salary cap work’s? Nick’s is uncuttable for many many year’s. He got 30M garanteed, split over 5 year’s is roughly 6M per. So after this season if he’s cut it would be a 8M dead money cap hit. The 18M garanteed still left minus his 10M salary=8M dead money. We can’t free up any money next year cutting Penn,Josheph,Goldson,Keonen. The only option’s we have to free up cash for next year. Extend McCoy to pay him the very little in 2014,15 then boatload’s after that. Extend Freeman so he makes very little in 2014,15. Or trade or release Revis, With no gauranteed money this is the Buc’s emergency plan. Even if you trade guy’s you still have to pay the dead money. We still have Benn costing us 1M in dead money and Price $500,000. Sportrac is a good cap site. Take a look at the Oakland situation. They are fielding a team with only 70M of cap. They released a bunch of dead money. So 50M of there cap is payed just to clean the slate for next year. They will be horrible but next year they will have 60M to spend. Jet’s should of done the same thing.
August 13th, 2013 at 11:49 am
The big guy is just going to have to take his pain and put it on the opposing team. this season is crucial for him. if he proves he can handle the pain and still be good then we keep him, but if the pain proves to much for him to handle then we find ourselves another LG. we are just going to have to take a wait and see approach.
August 13th, 2013 at 1:01 pm
Wait, i’m so wrong with my number’s. I give up oh how to decipher the salary cap. When you look at the 2014 cap number’s Nick’s,Penn and Josphef all could be released with NO deadmoney. While a smaller player contract like Barron’s occur a 11M and change deadmoney hit. I thought the bonus (deadmoney) had to be distrubuted equally over the number of year’s in the contract. But I guess it can be front loaded (Nick’s,Penn and Josphf) or backloaded like Barron. Somebody please clarify
August 13th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
I have no worries when it comes to the salary cap. Thats one area Dom is great at. We need to be more concerned with who we want to keep instead of how we want to keep them.
August 13th, 2013 at 7:40 pm
@76buc76….
you are correct that the bonus money is distributed over the course of the whole contract, but remember, Dom’s big thing is NOT giving out big signing bonuses….
August 13th, 2013 at 7:45 pm
Honestly, I can see both Joseph and Nicks being cut this year. Why? Both are highly paid Gs in the league, yet both suffered grewsome injuries. A torn Patella for Joseph? Sorry, I just don’t see him being the same.
Nicks? This toe injury will probably nag him, but I see his year being less problemsome. I think OG is easier to replace. While I don’t see both Joseph and Nicks getting the boot, I see Joseph being cut. I just don’t see him returning from a worse tear than ACL injury.
I was laughing at all the potential rumors of Penn being an off-season cap casualty next year. The dude is a top 10 LT who is durable and consistent and isn’t being paid a ridiculous salary (I think 6 mil per). I’d cut Joseph because Penn has been more reliable and consistent.
I like Mark Dominik but some times, I don’t understand his methods. He won’t spend money (when it’s veteran minimum money aka cheap) on quality/proven depth. He’s really banking on unproven guys and rookies to fill the CB oppositte Revis, Clayborn(Although I love his motor, but has no insurance behind him) Bowers-same as clayborn, and Spence. They have noboday who can spell McCoy at DT. Even the best DT in the league in Atkins didn’t play nearly enough snaps as McCoy. He was kept fresh at times and spelled.