Since the State of the Union address was this past week, and I got a request to do an article on the Redskins, I figured I'd put one together on a Friday instead of going out and having a social life.
Washington is an extremely interesting and exciting team. Their Zone Blocking scheme was run to perfection last year with Alfred Morris and Robert Griffin III, but just how safe is this team from potential cap issues? Due to the penalty levied on the club by commissioner Roger Goodell, the Redskins are currently over the salary cap by just over $3 million. Let's take a look at their free agents first to get an idea of who they're in danger of losing and who they HAVE to make room for.
QB
Rex Grossman
RB
Darrel Young
WR
Brandon Banks
TE
Chris Cooley
Logan Paulson
Fred Davis
OT
Jordan Black
Tyler Polumbus
OG
Kory Lichtensteiger
C
Nick Sundberg
DT/DE
Chris Baker
Kentwan Balmer
Kendrick Golston
LB
Rob Jackson
Bryan Kehl
Chris Wilson
CB
Cedric Griffin
S
Tanard Jackson
Madieu Williams
P
Sav Rocca
Together, that's 97 starts walking out the door. I'd say the biggest ones close to leaving are Kory Lichtensteiger, Tyler Polumbus, Fred Davis, Madieu Williams, and Rob Jackson. So how do the Redskins keep those guys?
1) Cut DeAngelo Hall.
Hall is due to make $7,500,000 this year base with a $500,000 workout bonus. Josh Wilson played well last season and they have some young guys who can step in. There's also a wealth of CB help in the draft this year with possibly 3 CBs going in the 1st round. Unfortunately, the Redskins traded away their 1st rounder to get RGIII, so they'll have to wait until the second round to grab one. It's a risk to start a rookie at CB, but with the vet talent Washington has, it can be done.
This leaves Washington with roughly $5 million. They'll be able to get their rookies under contract, but what about the 5 guys up there? None of them are STARS, so they won't command a huge contract. What other cap wiggling can the Redskins do?
2) Cut Santana Moss
Santana is due a base salary of $4,150,00 with a signing bonus of $1,667,000 and a roster bonus of $350,000. Cutting him will save the Redskins an additional $4,500,000.
Now the Redskins are left with $9,000,000 in cap room. What else can they do?
3) Restructure Trent Williams
As it stands right now, he's counted as about $8,000,000 against the cap. If the redskins can get him to a 5 year, $50,000,000 deal with $15,000,000 guaranteed, they can cut his base salary down to $2,000,000, pay him the $500,000 he's owed from guaranteed money along with $3,000,000 in new signing bonus money. His cap hit would be about $5,500,000, a savings of $2,500,000.
I got Washington into the green by $11,500,000...what would you guys do as GM??
Friday, February 15, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Giants Cap Woes
The Jets aren't the only local team with salary cap woes. The New York Giants are in deep trouble right now too. Today, the Giants sit at about $2.5 million under the cap, but just a few days ago they had to make some big personnel decisions. So why were the Giants in this position to begin with?
Let's start with dead money. When players are signed to a contract, their signing bonus becomes prorated over the length of their deal, up to 5 years. The signing bonus money is paid up front to the player when they sign the deal. Since the money is paid in full to the player, the signing bonus figure counts regardless of whether or not the player is with the team. Thus, if you cut a player, any money left in the prorated signing bonus gets accelerated to the current cap figure. Before cutting Ahmad Bradshaw, Chris Canty, and Michael Boley, the dead cap for the Giants was actually extremely minimal:
Add in the 3 players who were cut recently:
So now, we can add up the Giants current cap figures with current contracts, add in the dead money, and subtract the $1,000,000 salary cap rollover and we can determine exactly how much money they have to play with:
Total Contracts: $113,574,892
+Total Dead Money: $6,771,306
$120,346,198
Total Cap Hit: $120,346,198
-Total Cap Rollover: $1,000,000
$119,346,198
Net Cap Hit: $119,346,198
-NFL Salary Cap: $121,500,000
$2,153,802
So there we go folks, the Giants currently have just $2,153,802 left in total cap space. Now lets go into why Bradshaw, Canty, and Boley had to go:
Let's start by posting each person's 2013 contract figures and then subtracting their dead money from what their cap hit in 2013 would have been to get a net cap hit figure:
Ahmad Bradshaw:
Base Salary: $3,750,000
Signing Bonus: $1,250,000
Workout Bonus: $250,000
Total Cap Hit: $5,250,000
Net Cap Hit: $2,750,000
Chris Canty:
Base Salary: $6,250,000
Signing Bonus: $1,700,000
Workout Bonus: $250,000
Total Cap Hit: $8,200,000
Net Cap Hit: $6,500,000
Michael Boley:
Base Salary: $4,250,000
Signing Bonus: $1,400,000
Total Cap Hit: $5,650,000
Net Cap Hit: $4,250,000
So in total by cutting those 3 guys, the Giants saved a total of $13,500,000. It's amazing how they're still just $2,153,802 under cap. They're going to be in BIG trouble if they don't make more room. Why? Here's a list of players the Giants are losing to free agency this year...
Brian Witherspoon
Osi Umenyiora
Lawrence Tynes
Justin Tryon
Justin Trattou
Adrian Tracy
Ryan Torain
Keith Rivers
Kenny Phillips
Kregg Lumpkin
Sean Locklear
Domenik Hixon
Victor Cruz
Jim Cordle
David Carr
Stevie Brown
Andre Brown
Kevin Boothe
Chase Blackburn
Rocky Bernard
Martellus Bennett
Travis Beckum
William Beatty
Ramses Barden
As good as the Giants have been at finding players, I'm not sure how the Giants will get themselves out of this mess. A lot of those players are reserve guys, but there are also big names like Osi, Cruz, Tynes, Blackburn, Bennett, Phillips, Brown, Bernard, and Beatty. David Wilson is the only RB left on the roster, they have no serviceable TE on the roster, and the WRs are going to be gutted. Just Ruben Randle and Hakeem "Always Hurt" Nicks left.
Unfortunately, I believe this is going to be a rough rebuilding year for the Giants. The typically level-headed Giants front staff seemingly went all-in trying to get a couple more championships. Unfortunately, it seems like this team is going to be in pretty rough shape.
Let's start with dead money. When players are signed to a contract, their signing bonus becomes prorated over the length of their deal, up to 5 years. The signing bonus money is paid up front to the player when they sign the deal. Since the money is paid in full to the player, the signing bonus figure counts regardless of whether or not the player is with the team. Thus, if you cut a player, any money left in the prorated signing bonus gets accelerated to the current cap figure. Before cutting Ahmad Bradshaw, Chris Canty, and Michael Boley, the dead cap for the Giants was actually extremely minimal:
- Osi Umenyiora-$1,000,000
- Greg Jones-$100,132
- Matt McCants-$66,174
- Martin Parker-$5,000
Add in the 3 players who were cut recently:
- Ahmad Bradshaw-$2,500,000
- Chris Canty-$1,700,000
- Michael Boley-$1,400,000
So now, we can add up the Giants current cap figures with current contracts, add in the dead money, and subtract the $1,000,000 salary cap rollover and we can determine exactly how much money they have to play with:
Total Contracts: $113,574,892
+Total Dead Money: $6,771,306
$120,346,198
Total Cap Hit: $120,346,198
-Total Cap Rollover: $1,000,000
$119,346,198
Net Cap Hit: $119,346,198
-NFL Salary Cap: $121,500,000
$2,153,802
So there we go folks, the Giants currently have just $2,153,802 left in total cap space. Now lets go into why Bradshaw, Canty, and Boley had to go:
Let's start by posting each person's 2013 contract figures and then subtracting their dead money from what their cap hit in 2013 would have been to get a net cap hit figure:
Ahmad Bradshaw:
Base Salary: $3,750,000
Signing Bonus: $1,250,000
Workout Bonus: $250,000
Total Cap Hit: $5,250,000
Net Cap Hit: $2,750,000
Chris Canty:
Base Salary: $6,250,000
Signing Bonus: $1,700,000
Workout Bonus: $250,000
Total Cap Hit: $8,200,000
Net Cap Hit: $6,500,000
Michael Boley:
Base Salary: $4,250,000
Signing Bonus: $1,400,000
Total Cap Hit: $5,650,000
Net Cap Hit: $4,250,000
So in total by cutting those 3 guys, the Giants saved a total of $13,500,000. It's amazing how they're still just $2,153,802 under cap. They're going to be in BIG trouble if they don't make more room. Why? Here's a list of players the Giants are losing to free agency this year...
Brian Witherspoon
Osi Umenyiora
Lawrence Tynes
Justin Tryon
Justin Trattou
Adrian Tracy
Ryan Torain
Keith Rivers
Kenny Phillips
Kregg Lumpkin
Sean Locklear
Domenik Hixon
Victor Cruz
Jim Cordle
David Carr
Stevie Brown
Andre Brown
Kevin Boothe
Chase Blackburn
Rocky Bernard
Martellus Bennett
Travis Beckum
William Beatty
Ramses Barden
As good as the Giants have been at finding players, I'm not sure how the Giants will get themselves out of this mess. A lot of those players are reserve guys, but there are also big names like Osi, Cruz, Tynes, Blackburn, Bennett, Phillips, Brown, Bernard, and Beatty. David Wilson is the only RB left on the roster, they have no serviceable TE on the roster, and the WRs are going to be gutted. Just Ruben Randle and Hakeem "Always Hurt" Nicks left.
Unfortunately, I believe this is going to be a rough rebuilding year for the Giants. The typically level-headed Giants front staff seemingly went all-in trying to get a couple more championships. Unfortunately, it seems like this team is going to be in pretty rough shape.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)