Report: Team-by-team salary cap space

[JoeSixPat]

Scout.com: Salary Cap space...

I'm not sure how trustworth "Draft Sharks" is as a source - but here's an interesting summary of where teams are, where they can free money etc.

The things that jumped out at me is that even if the Patriots do need to reserve nearly $15 million for Cassel they can technically restructure enough contracts to be able to make some major free agent moves, though I'm not sure how quickly those deals can get done.

Looks like relatively few teams would be precluded from fitting Cassel in on their cap as well, with perhaps a few exceptions like the Jets - who would never get Cassel anyway.

Looks like Pioli and McDaniels have plenty to go shopping with

 

[DarrylS]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

Jets 7 million over.. nice.

 

[nashvillepatsfan]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

WWWWOOOOWWWWW


32. New York Jets -- $7m over – Whew, last year they doled out over $100 million in guaranteed dollars. Those bonuses are pro-rated out over the next 4-5 years so they’re going to be in and out of cap jail for a while. Laveranues Coles counts $7m and they need him to accept a pay cut, which he won’t.



Coles? Wasnt he the guy who was making alot of noise early last season? I can't see him taking a pay cut to help out the jets' dumb front office. BUT, they can feel free to cut him, and he can sign with the Pats,,,,,cheap
Maybe he's ready for a ring. I think Tommy would let Coles play. Now there's a scary threesome at WR.......and yes, im aware that it would never happen. I'm just in a dreamy mood tonight.

 

[mayoclinic]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

Very instructive. It also gives an idea as to who could be players for Matt Cassel, whether in FA or via trade if we (hopefully) franchise him:

- Tampa Bay - $42M under and in desperate need of a young QB to build around but wanting to be competitive right away. Sounds perfect.

- Kansas City - $33M under. Tyler Thigpen probably isn't the long term answer. Pioli knows Cassel and drafted him.

- Detroit - $26M under and in desperate need of everything, with multiple 1st round picks.

Less likely options (purely from a cap space perspective) include:

- Chicago - $19M under leaves a bit less room than the other options, though QB stability is probably their biggest need.

- Minnesota - $20M under. Same as Chicago.

Very unlikely options from a cap space perspective include:

- Carolina - $9M under with Peppers and Gross FAs doesn't make it seem likely that they have room to pay big money to a CB. On the other hand, if they cut Delhomme to free up his cap space then they need a QB badly.

- St. Louis - only $8M under with lots of needs. The more people they cut, the more holes they have have to fill.

 

[Miguel]

13. New England -- $21m under – This figure doesn’t count the (gulp) $14.8m one-year tender for Matt Cassel. If they tag Cassel they’ll have $28 million cap dollars tied up in 2 quarterbacks. However, they can make it work. DE Richard Seymour, OT Matt Light, WR Randy Moss, LB Adalius Thomas, and DE Jarvis Green have a combined $65m in cap charges – if 3 or 4 of those guys restructure it frees up $15m easily.

1.) The franchise tag figure is $14.651 million. They got the $14.8 million from ProFootballTalk.Com which had to include LTBE incentives in their calculation.
2.) If Cassel is tagged the Pats will have $29,277,720 tied up in 2 quarterbacks.
3.) DE Richard Seymour, OT Matt Light, WR Randy Moss, LB Adalius Thomas, and DE Jarvis Green have a combined $37,621,390 in cap charges. Over $16 million is prorated signing bonus proration which can not be reduced.
4.) making the $15 million in cap savings likely.

 

[mgteich]

Miguel, please correct my mistakes and misunderstandings.

I don't think it is LIKELY that $15M of cap room will be freed up by restructures. While I would favor extending all these players, I don't think it is likely. Each is in a different situation. $5M seems possible, but not $15M.

GREEN
Green is a big question mark. First, is $2.3M 2009 bonus guaranteed? If not, he is likely to be gone before March 1, for a cap savings of $4.8M less the 2009 cap cost of replacement. I like Green, but I can't see us giving him $4.8M of new money for 2009, and I can't see him voluntarily reducing his salary without the benefit of chacking out other teams.

If the 2009 bonus is indeed guaranteed, then the bonus couldn't be spread, could it? A re-write with a $10M bonus for a three year extension would give us $2.5M addition cap for the new bonus plus his new salary (what is the new minimum?). Since his current salary is $2.5M, this would be an increase to the cap.

SEYMOUR
I think I would need examples to see how his cap number would be reduced. His salary is only $3.685M. A four year re-write with a $16M bonus and a $1M 2009 salary would increase the cap by over $1M.

MOSS
I can see that be restructuring Moss through the end of his contract, $2.7M of cap room can be saved, more if he is extended long-term.

LIGHT
Yes, $1.6M could be saved with a restructure and more with an extension.

THOMAS
I can't see how restructuring his $1.9M salary helps much. The savings is there, but the savings is less than $1M.

BOTTOM LINE
If we call it $700K, the $5M cap money can be achieved with the restructures of Moss, Light and Thomas if they will cooperate. Seymour and Green are different situations entirely since they would be extended rather than restructured.

13. New England --
3.) DE Richard Seymour, OT Matt Light, WR Randy Moss, LB Adalius Thomas, and DE Jarvis Green have a combined $37,621,390 in cap charges. Over $16 million is prorated signing bonus proration which can not be reduced.
4.) making the $15 million in cap savings likely.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

32. New York Jets -- $7m over – Whew, last year they doled out over $100 million in guaranteed dollars. Those bonuses are pro-rated out over the next 4-5 years so they’re going to be in and out of cap jail for a while. Laveranues Coles counts $7m and they need him to accept a pay cut, which he won’t.

This is but one reason why I'm hoping the salary cap stays.

 

[Mangold74]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

WWWWOOOOWWWWW


32. New York Jets -- $7m over – Whew, last year they doled out over $100 million in guaranteed dollars. Those bonuses are pro-rated out over the next 4-5 years so they’re going to be in and out of cap jail for a while. Laveranues Coles counts $7m and they need him to accept a pay cut, which he won’t.



Coles? Wasnt he the guy who was making alot of noise early last season? I can't see him taking a pay cut to help out the jets' dumb front office. BUT, they can feel free to cut him, and he can sign with the Pats,,,,,cheap
Maybe he's ready for a ring. I think Tommy would let Coles play. Now there's a scary threesome at WR.......and yes, im aware that it would never happen. I'm just in a dreamy mood tonight.

Coles contract is guareenteed this year so the chance of him playing for the Pats is zero. Not that I would mind since he's pretty much washed up. If the Jets cut him they would they have to pay him $7 million plus take the cap hit. Not going to happen. He's a cry baby and thats how he got the last two years of his contract guareenteed. I'm fairly certainly they would have cut him or traded him this off season.

As far as the Jets being over the salary cap, it's correct today but in the next 3 weeks Tannenbaum will give the Jets about 20-25 million in cap room for 2009. If Favre retires or is cut that's a cap saving of $13 million this year. If they cut David Barrett that's another $3 million in savings. Now the interesting part. The Jets have $35 million in roster bonuses coming up. If they convert those $35 million to signing bonuses as I'm sure they planned to do from the start they should be able to clear off another $20 million in cap space. If they cut Shaun Ellis, Chris Baker and David Bowens they would get another $10 million in cap relief.

Basically they have plenty of cap flexibility. Look for Calvin Pace, Kris Jenkins, Brandon Moore, Kerry Rhodes and a few others to make the roster bonus conversation.

 

[Rob0729]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

WWWWOOOOWWWWW


32. New York Jets -- $7m over – Whew, last year they doled out over $100 million in guaranteed dollars. Those bonuses are pro-rated out over the next 4-5 years so they’re going to be in and out of cap jail for a while. Laveranues Coles counts $7m and they need him to accept a pay cut, which he won’t.



Coles? Wasnt he the guy who was making alot of noise early last season? I can't see him taking a pay cut to help out the jets' dumb front office. BUT, they can feel free to cut him, and he can sign with the Pats,,,,,cheap
Maybe he's ready for a ring. I think Tommy would let Coles play. Now there's a scary threesome at WR.......and yes, im aware that it would never happen. I'm just in a dreamy mood tonight.

Why would Coles take a pay cut. The Jets just guaranteed the remained of his contract to shut up last offseason. They are stuck with him because cutting him would not save them a dime since he is guaranteed every penny of his 2009 contract.

BTW, the Jets' version of Miguel has them at $14.6 million over, not $7 million. I don't know if the Jets' version of Miguel is on top of things as Miguel is though. If this guy is right, cutting Favre won't even get them under the cap. That is pretty bad when they would probably need to hire a veteran replacement for Favre (even a Jeff Garcia type is going to have a $3-4 million cap hit for one year).

New York Jets Salary Cap

 

[Miguel]

4.) making the $15 million in cap savings likely.

I meant unlikely.

 

[Miguel]

Miguel, please correct my mistakes and misunderstandings.

I don't think it is LIKELY that $15M of cap room will be freed up by restructures. .

I meant unlikely.

I was pointing out the mistakes in the report.

 

[Rob0729]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

Coles contract is guareenteed this year so the chance of him playing for the Pats is zero. Not that I would mind since he's pretty much washed up. If the Jets cut him they would they have to pay him $7 million plus take the cap hit. Not going to happen. He's a cry baby and thats how he got the last two years of his contract guareenteed. I'm fairly certainly they would have cut him or traded him this off season.

As far as the Jets being over the salary cap, it's correct today but in the next 3 weeks Tannenbaum will give the Jets about 20-25 million in cap room for 2009. If Favre retires or is cut that's a cap saving of $13 million this year. If they cut David Barrett that's another $3 million in savings. Now the interesting part. The Jets have $35 million in roster bonuses coming up. If they convert those $35 million to signing bonuses as I'm sure they planned to do from the start they should be able to clear off another $20 million in cap space. If they cut Shaun Ellis, Chris Baker and David Bowens they would get another $10 million in cap relief.

Basically they have plenty of cap flexibility. Look for Calvin Pace, Kris Jenkins, Brandon Moore, Kerry Rhodes and a few others to make the roster bonus conversation.

I don't think they will free up as much as you say. Because I don't think this number is correct, I tend to believe the Jetscap site more of being $14.6 million under the cap. I doubt the Jets will free up between $40-45 million of cap space as you sugguest. I'm sure they can cutdown a large chunk, but I don't know if it will be that high.

Besides, cutting at least Ellis would require the Jets to spend about the same amount of money to replace him or go with a rookie at that position.

 

[CanadianPat'sFan]

13. New England -- $21m under – This figure doesn’t count the (gulp) $14.8m one-year tender for Matt Cassel. If they tag Cassel they’ll have $28 million cap dollars tied up in 2 quarterbacks. However, they can make it work. DE Richard Seymour, OT Matt Light, WR Randy Moss, LB Adalius Thomas, and DE Jarvis Green have a combined $65m in cap charges – if 3 or 4 of those guys restructure it frees up $15m easily.

1.) The franchise tag figure is $14.651 million. They got the $14.8 million from ProFootballTalk.Com which had to include LTBE incentives in their calculation.
2.) If Cassel is tagged the Pats will have $29,277,720 tied up in 2 quarterbacks.
3.) DE Richard Seymour, OT Matt Light, WR Randy Moss, LB Adalius Thomas, and DE Jarvis Green have a combined $37,621,390 in cap charges. Over $16 million is prorated signing bonus proration which can not be reduced.
4.) making the $15 million in cap savings likely.

Great points I really do not think they did their homework on NE situation. First of all to go to 3-5 of our star players and as them to restructure??? Maybe 2 or 3 guys (Green, Light or even Mike V as we have discussed). The best way to free up 15 million in cap space is to Trade Cassel after franchising him then maybe restructure a couple of guys and we should be fine with cap space. Two things that jumped out at me is the Card's and the Titians with so much cap space and they were great teams this year......how does Arizona not extend Boldin???

 

[Mangold74]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

I don't think they will free up as much as you say. Because I don't think this number is correct, I tend to believe the Jetscap site more of being $14.6 million under the cap. I doubt the Jets will free up between $40-45 million of cap space as you sugguest. I'm sure they can cutdown a large chunk, but I don't know if it will be that high.

Besides, cutting at least Ellis would require the Jets to spend about the same amount of money to replace him or go with a rookie at that position.

Well I see 5 players due $33 million in roster bonuses. That $33 million can be easily converted to signing bonuses. Prorate that over the years remaining on those contracts and it comes out to around $7-8 million cap charge this year. That's a savings in 2009 of $25 million plus $13 million for Favre and $4 million for Barrett. I'm getting this information from New York Jets Salary Cap

 

[DaBruinz]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

Coles contract is guareenteed this year so the chance of him playing for the Pats is zero. Not that I would mind since he's pretty much washed up. If the Jets cut him they would they have to pay him $7 million plus take the cap hit. Not going to happen. He's a cry baby and thats how he got the last two years of his contract guareenteed. I'm fairly certainly they would have cut him or traded him this off season.

As far as the Jets being over the salary cap, it's correct today but in the next 3 weeks Tannenbaum will give the Jets about 20-25 million in cap room for 2009. If Favre retires or is cut that's a cap saving of $13 million this year. If they cut David Barrett that's another $3 million in savings. Now the interesting part. The Jets have $35 million in roster bonuses coming up. If they convert those $35 million to signing bonuses as I'm sure they planned to do from the start they should be able to clear off another $20 million in cap space. If they cut Shaun Ellis, Chris Baker and David Bowens they would get another $10 million in cap relief.

Basically they have plenty of cap flexibility. Look for Calvin Pace, Kris Jenkins, Brandon Moore, Kerry Rhodes and a few others to make the roster bonus conversation.

A few things.

1) Don't be so sure that they can clear $20 million in cap space by changing the roster bonuses to signing bonuses. This is the last year of the cap, techinically, and there are some pretty harsh rules on how far out you can push money now. I think you are limited to next year and that's it. If that is the case, you'd save 17.5 million. But then you'd have the 17.5 for next year in dead money.

2) Kris Jenkins, Calvin Pace and Kerry Rhodes just signed new contracts this past year. Its highly unlikely that there is much, if anything they can do to get cap savings there.

3) You mention Farve, Ellis, Baker, and Bowens as potential cuts where you can save money. However, you mention nothing about the dead money that would be created by cutting them. You also don't mention anything about what it does to the Jets in terms of actually being able to field a team.

Forgive me if I think you are overly optimisitic about how much flexibility the Jets really have.

 

[DaBruinz]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

Well I see 5 players due $33 million in roster bonuses. That $33 million can be easily converted to signing bonuses. Prorate that over the years remaining on those contracts and it comes out to around $7-8 million cap charge this year. That's a savings in 2009 of $25 million plus $13 million for Favre and $4 million for Barrett. I'm getting this information from New York Jets Salary Cap

The problem is that with the salary cap technically ending at the end of the season, I don't believe you can prorate the roster bonuses over the length of the contract. I think you can only pro-rate it over the length of time remaining in the CBA. Miguel can better inform us on that.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

Well I see 5 players due $33 million in roster bonuses. That $33 million can be easily converted to signing bonuses. Prorate that over the years remaining on those contracts and it comes out to around $7-8 million cap charge this year. That's a savings in 2009 of $25 million plus $13 million for Favre and $4 million for Barrett. I'm getting this information from New York Jets Salary Cap

There's one danger, though--contract extensions in the last capped year have to follow the same rules as new contracts (e.g., the rule about salaries not increasing more than 30% from year to year).

So there might be some interesting unintended consequences in so doing.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

A few things.

1) Don't be so sure that they can clear $20 million in cap space by changing the roster bonuses to signing bonuses. This is the last year of the cap, techinically, and there are some pretty harsh rules on how far out you can push money now. I think you are limited to next year and that's it. If that is the case, you'd save 17.5 million. But then you'd have the 17.5 for next year in dead money.

2) Kris Jenkins, Calvin Pace and Kerry Rhodes just signed new contracts this past year. Its highly unlikely that there is much, if anything they can do to get cap savings there.

3) You mention Farve, Ellis, Baker, and Bowens as potential cuts where you can save money. However, you mention nothing about the dead money that would be created by cutting them. You also don't mention anything about what it does to the Jets in terms of actually being able to field a team.

Forgive me if I think you are overly optimisitic about how much flexibility the Jets really have.

Unfortunately, Favre's $13M is pure salary, so there's no dead space for cutting him (although there is that gray area about him ending up with the Vikings).

The problem is that with the salary cap technically ending at the end of the season, I don't believe you can prorate the roster bonuses over the length of the contract. I think you can only pro-rate it over the length of time remaining in the CBA. Miguel can better inform us on that.

It's the length of the deal, or five years (instead of six), whichever is less.

 

[Mangold74]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

A few things.

1) Don't be so sure that they can clear $20 million in cap space by changing the roster bonuses to signing bonuses. This is the last year of the cap, techinically, and there are some pretty harsh rules on how far out you can push money now. I think you are limited to next year and that's it. If that is the case, you'd save 17.5 million. But then you'd have the 17.5 for next year in dead money.

2) Kris Jenkins, Calvin Pace and Kerry Rhodes just signed new contracts this past year. Its highly unlikely that there is much, if anything they can do to get cap savings there.

3) You mention Farve, Ellis, Baker, and Bowens as potential cuts where you can save money. However, you mention nothing about the dead money that would be created by cutting them. You also don't mention anything about what it does to the Jets in terms of actually being able to field a team.

Forgive me if I think you are overly optimisitic about how much flexibility the Jets really have.

1) I'm trying to find out the rules as well with restructuring contracts. I believe you can still do it but not all of it and there are specific rules. I was wrong in saying you can restructure the entire roster bonus.

2) Rhodes and Pace both have $9 million roster bonuses coming up. I'm fairly certain Tannenbaum always planned to restructed those two.

3) Favre has a salary of $13 million. He never recieved any bonus money from the Jets and he can be cut without creating any dead. As far as Baker, Ellis and Bowens those numbers are including the dead money being factored in.

 

[Rob0729]

Re: Report: Team by Team Salary Cap space

Well I see 5 players due $33 million in roster bonuses. That $33 million can be easily converted to signing bonuses. Prorate that over the years remaining on those contracts and it comes out to around $7-8 million cap charge this year. That's a savings in 2009 of $25 million plus $13 million for Favre and $4 million for Barrett. I'm getting this information from New York Jets Salary Cap

Don't forget Jenkins, Revis, and Moore only have 4 years left on their contracts. So that will increase the amortization each year.