You can't start a discussion about the Falcons and their cornerbacks without someone calling for Dunta Robinson to be cut. The discussion usually goes something like this.
"The Falcons should cut Dunta Robinson and sign Brent Grimes. Dunta's useless and he makes too much money."
Folks, it won't happen. No matter how hard you pray and how many times you clean your plate of vegetables, the Football Gods will remain indifferent to your desperate pleas. Dunta Robinson will be an Atlanta Falcon in 2012. Take it to the bank.
Why? As I see it, there's three good reasons.
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It's cost-prohibitive to cut him. Everyone who advocates for cutting Dunta fixates on his $6 million cap number for 2012. Surely they could put that number to better use?
That ignores this simple fact: You cannot save that much by cutting him. In fact, a full $5 million of that salary is guaranteed. If you set him loose, you now have an extra $1 million and $5 million worth of dead cap space you can't do anything with. That's completely useless, and since the Falcons still view Dunta as a starter, they're not about to do that. -
Brent Grimes may not be back. I love Brent Grimes. If it's at all feasible to do so, I'd love for the Falcons to lock him up. But I still believe he'll ultimately walk away.
If that happens, you can't cut Dunta. Doing so would leave you with three cornerbacks on the roster, none of whom has started a full slate of 16 games in his career. The Falcons would suddenly have little-to-no experience and not enough money to go out and land a big fish like Carlos Rogers, if they'd even be interested. -
Dunta will probably be better in 2012. I view this as a make-or-break year for Dunta, who Pro Football Focus trashed for his performance in 2011. If he can't perform well this season, the Falcons will probably look at getting themselves out from under the remaining years of his contract in 2013.
But there's reason to believe he will be better. A physical corner who likes to hit, Dunta's much better-suited for tight coverage, and Mike Nolan seems likely to bring that back to Atlanta.
So that's my reasoning. What's your take?