Peter King on The Skins - Future Cap Trouble

IMO I don't think we should eat his deal. As Gtripp said, some of the guys are just going to have to play better. Lloyd is one of them. Personally I would just try and reach out to the guy rather than eat the money.

I don't think Lloyd will ever play better than Randle El or Moss, so the bottom line to me is we are paying WAY TOO MUCH money for an (at best) WR#3. McCardell was brought in for cheap and he is contributing as is Thrash (before he got hurt) Our #3 WR should be an NFL minimum guy, no more....... Lloyd has to go and Vinny and company have to learn their lesson on this one.

This is the same stuff we get into every year. I have been singing this song the last couple of seasons with the way we sign contracts and convert salary to bonuses. Every time they restructure the deals, the money is pushed to the future. Eventually it comes time to pay up. I think they should start taking some hits now in places we can and start drafting and making wiser decisions on FA market. I saw this fact also, we are over that much in the cap with only 40+ players signed.

You and I have butted heads on this before, and I'm not going to get into a big thing again. You are right in that the general principle of restructuring players pushes money off into the future. But if you pick and choose which players you do that for, plus occasionally clear a disappointing player off your books, plus take into account the rising cap limit, you can manage your cap number without coming up against the cap hell. It's not smart to restructure ALL of your players, that's too much pushed into the future. It's also not smart to restructure NONE of your players, because then we'd have to cut a bunch of guys this year. The best approach lies in the middle, the Goldilocks syndrome, just right.

Remember, we shed a bunch of money from the awful Archuleta contract, clearing him off our books this year. Remember, the cap limit is going up by about $8 million in 2008. We weren't in dire straits last year like everyone said, and we won't be in 2008 either.

You and I have butted heads on this before, and I'm not going to get into a big thing again. You are right in that the general principle of restructuring players pushes money off into the future. But if you pick and choose which players you do that for, plus occasionally clear a disappointing player off your books, plus take into account the rising cap limit, you can manage your cap number without coming up against the cap hell. It's not smart to restructure ALL of your players, that's too much pushed into the future. It's also not smart to restructure NONE of your players, because then we'd have to cut a bunch of guys this year. The best approach lies in the middle, the Goldilocks syndrome, just right.

Remember, we shed a bunch of money from the awful Archuleta contract, clearing him off our books this year. Remember, the cap limit is going up by about $8 million in 2008. We weren't in dire straits last year like everyone said, and we won't be in 2008 either.

Here comes the cap hell folks, LOL here we go again :doh:

I don't think Lloyd will ever play better than Randle El or Moss, so the bottom line to me is we are paying WAY TOO MUCH money for an (at best) WR#3. McCardell was brought in for cheap and he is contributing as is Thrash (before he got hurt) Our #3 WR should be an NFL minimum guy, no more....... Lloyd has to go and Vinny and company have to learn their lesson on this one.

That is a good way of putting it. But can we get another year out of KM and Thrash as our # 3 and 4 wr's?

Yeah, but...

The way we do things, we don't have an allowance for player personnel failure. Signings like Arch and Lloyd greatly compromise the freedom we have within the market.

Those are talent evaluation issues. The cap implications from those guys are offset by the gains elsewhere. It really ends up all a wash and comes down just to talent evaluation. I doubt you'll find many people who think we have been "compromised" in our talent aquisition because of the cap at any point.

That is a good way of putting it. But can we get another year out of KM and Thrash as our # 3 and 4 wr's?

KM looks darn good this year. He's not burning anybody, but he's still running sharp routes. I can't say I'd mind having him as my 3rd WR next year, he can move the chains.

I'd prefer a young guy with some talent, but I recognize you can't get everything you want in a single offseason, and we may have more pressing needs. KM would be a good stopgap if it came to that.

KM looks darn good this year. He's not burning anybody, but he's still running sharp routes. I can't say I'd mind having him as my 3rd WR next year, he can move the chains.

I'd prefer a young guy with some talent, but I recognize you can't get everything you want in a single offseason, and we may have more pressing needs. KM would be a good stopgap if it came to that.

Who would have thought KM would come here an contribute like he has. This is the kind of wily vet that will be very valuable if we can make it to the playoffs.

I'm going to list the ways to get the cap number down. You can debate the merit of making certain moves on this list, but if we don't cut a certain player, you can bet we'd restructure them, which would also save some money.

Expected Roster Cuts:
Phillip Daniels - $3.0 million saved
Mark Brunell - $3.4 million saved
Total Savings for Cuts: $6.4 million

Keeping These Players, Restructuring 2008 Base Salary, Prorating over Remaining life of Contract:
Randy Thomas - $4.3 million saved
Clinton Portis - $3.8 million saved
Jon Jansen - $3.7 million saved
Chris Samuels - $3.4 million saved
Cornelius Griffin - $2.8 million saved
Santana Moss - $2.4 million saved
Casey Rabach - $1.8 million saved
Total Salary Restructure Savings: $22.2 million

Keeping These Players, Restructuring 2008 Roster Bonuses, Prorating over Remaining life of Contract:
Ladell Betts - $1.7 million saved
Clinton Portis - $0.4 million saved
Andre Carter - $1.9 million saved
Antwaan Randle-El - $1.2 million saved
Total Bonus Restructure Savings: $5.2 million

So I see ways to reduce our 2008 cap number by about $34 million. So do I think armageddon is coming next year? NO.

But I wouldn't go making ALL of the moves I listed above, either. We're starting to push a little too much into the future. And if we get rid of Brandon Lloyd, that move will eat up some more space.

Bottom line, we won't have to dismantle the team, but we won't have lots of flexibility, either. We'll need to draft very well.

Schneed - thanks for the update.

One question here though - I heard on the radio that Brandon Llyod's 2008 roster bonus of $1.5 million is due on March 1, 2008. I know that cutting Llyod post June 1st will spread the cap hit over 2 seasons instead of taking the entire $7.1 million all in 2008. My question is if you are going to cut the guy is the cap spread more important than giving him $1.5 million? I know the Danny is rich, but if you are going to cut him anyway that is a lot of money to just give to a guy who will be gone anyway. Why not just take your lumps and get it all overwith like they did with Arch Deluxe?

Schneed - thanks for the update.

One question here though - I heard on the radio that Brandon Llyod's 2008 roster bonus of $1.5 million is due on March 1, 2008. I know that cutting Llyod post June 1st will spread the cap hit over 2 seasons instead of taking the entire $7.1 million all in 2008. My question is if you are going to cut the guy is the cap spread more important than giving him $1.5 million? I know the Danny is rich, but if you are going to cut him anyway that is a lot of money to just give to a guy who will be gone anyway. Why not just take your lumps and get it all overwith like they did with Arch Deluxe?Additionally, if he is cut prior to March 1, 2008 under the new June 1 cut rule, do we still have to pay the roster bonus?

Or since March 1 is the first day of the league year, we pretty much have to pay this roster bonus...don't we.

We could save $1.6 million by cutting Griffin. This would take him off our books for the future.

Or we could save $2.8 million by restructuring him. This would not only keep him on our books for the future, but would increase the cap charges in that year. So definitely a catch 22 with him.

On Daniels, he's probably a goner. There's opportunity to save $3.0 million by cutting him. Or save $1.4 million by restructuring him.


Schneed - if we cut Daniels wouldn't it be safe to say that the Skins would most likely use their 1st round pick on a DE? If they didn't than who starts at DE for the departed Daniesl - Demitric Evans?