Atogwe Desicion

So folks it looks like the Rams have less than 2 months to make a decision on Atogwe. On Feb. 6 the rams owe him a 8 million dollar bonus as well as another 3.5 in may. The question is do you think the Rams will bring him back at 11.5 mil? I say they should keep him because he is such a big part of our defense as a leader and because of his football intelligence. The thing that scares me is the current labor deal issues. Do the Rams decide not to pay him because we might not have football next year. What do you guys think?

We should pay him. This isn't even a question. Unless of course you want to drop the guy who QBs just won't throw at anymore.

yeah no question... bring em back

Of all the options, the most probable is him renegotiation a new contract that doesn't give him that bonus. I doubt they get rid of him, but the Rams don't seem like they're gonna pay that.

I love oj, and the rams need to bring him back. But hes not worth 11.5 mill so that does need to be restructered, as teams DO throw at him. That said a James Butler/Darian Stewart, Craig Dahl tandom is scary. Not in a good way.

We need OJ, Who else is going to lay the juice on opponents!?

What seriously? We dont have our OJ haters coming out and posting yet on here saying he is overrated or we can do better like we did last year? That's Pitiful!agree we need to restructure his deal but he is worth every bit of 7mill. that he was asking for last year and should be what a 4 year deal>?
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I was questioning why the bonus would be paid on February 6th, so I did some research and I'm seeing all different dates on when his bonus is to be paid, though they're all in February. That's possibly important, because I think that even though the season is over, putting the bonus in February is an excellent sneaky move by our front office.

By having it in February, the front office has plenty of time after the season to determine what they want to do with him. However, at the same time, because the league year would still be 2010, the bonus would count against the 2010 "cap", in the event that 2011 has a cap. As such, if 2011 is capped and we pay the bonus, it gets sucked into the capless year, but essentially is payment for the future, invisible to the cap.

Now, onto what we should do, pay the bonus or not. He'll turn 30 in June, so he's starting onto the backside of his career. We'll be paying him $11.5 million for this season, and then only $16 million for the next three combined. So, if we pay the bonus, we should keep him for the rest of the contract, as he'll be a good value at his salaries going forward. He'll be 33 at the end of his contract.

This year, OJ played well, with his usual 73 tackles, 9 pass defenses(2nd highest in his career), 2 sacks(career high), 3 INTs, and 2 FF's(5 total, same as last year, but he had at least 8 combined in previous 3 years).

And so, the question is, will he be worth over $11 million next year, and will he be worth $27 million over the next 4? After thinking this over, I have to think, yes, he will be. As Spags keeps growing his defensive line, the secondary should benefit and OJ should be able to take advantage of some hurried throws. Atogwe is certainly an above average safety, and I'd much rather roll with the known commodity than try to bring someone new in. We're not an established team yet, to where we can promote the next guy up, we need to keep our star players, and that starts with OJ. He'll only be 33 at the time his contract ends, and he doesn't have a history of injuries, just the bad one in 2009. Pay the man and hope he plays well for the next 4 years.

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Originally Posted by Alec22

I love oj, and the rams need to bring him back. But hes not worth 11.5 mill so that does need to be restructered, as teams DO throw at him. That said a James Butler/Darian Stewart, Craig Dahl tandom is scary. Not in a good way.

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Honestly, he is not worth 11.5 mil as he is a huge liability against the pass & still misses tackles in space. However if we do keep him I would like to see us consider moving him to SS and find a FS (who is a ball hawk) in FA or via the draft. The problem w/ that is that there aren't too many Ed Reeds or Eric Berry's out there.

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Originally Posted by ManofGod

Honestly, he is not worth 11.5 mil as he is a huge liability against the pass & still misses tackles in space. However if we do keep him I would like to see us consider moving him to SS and find a FS (who is a ball hawk) in FA or via the draft. The problem w/ that is that there aren't too many Ed Reeds or Eric Berry's out there.

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He is worth that much if we keep him his whole contract and move him to SS? That's crazy talk!!! Let's just move Bradford to FS then because he is tall and lanky.....sheesh. OJ is a top tier FS and is the best ballhawk I might add at his position and/or secondary I in the league since when? 2004?2005? PwnT...

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Originally Posted by ManofGod

Honestly, he is not worth 11.5 mil as he is a huge liability against the pass & still misses tackles in space. However if we do keep him I would like to see us consider moving him to SS and find a FS (who is a ball hawk) in FA or via the draft. The problem w/ that is that there aren't too many Ed Reeds or Eric Berry's out there.

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What!?!?

Where and how, sir?

As far as I'm concerned, he's the best DB we've had since Aneas Williams and he has earned his pay. Like it or not, he's a huge part of what we do defensively, and I don't think that subtracting a crucial piece of our defensive puzzle would do anybody any good next season.