Current Redskins Salary Cap Status - 2008

Under review.

In this thread, CrazyCanuck and I will periodically update the Salary Cap status of the Washington Redskins. As players restructure, resign, are signed as free agents, drafted, cut, and traded, we will do our best to keep the community updated on the cap implications of each transaction. This thread is also designed to house analysis and insight regarding the Redskins' likely course of action in free agency and the draft. The salary cap can often provide an indication of the team's intended approach to free agency - aggressive vs passive, etcetera.

We'll start off with a summary of the Redskins current cap situation and where they're likely headed before free agency opens in March.

In short, the numbers in the table below illustrate that the Redskins are currently $5.8 million over the cap. Once Brunell and Cartwright's contracts void, they will be $2.1 million over the cap. And then once the team makes some more standard moves listed below, the team should have an estimated $9.7 million in cap room heading into free agency.

Numbers presented below are in millions:


Thanks for the update - so Brunell and Cartwright are the only two players with the voidable deals upcoming for this season?

Didn't see anything in there specifically about Jon Jansen...do any of these figures reflect the effect of him restructuring?

Didn't see anything in there specifically about Jon Jansen...do any of these figures reflect the effect of him restructuring?

Yes, Jansen's restructured deal is reflected in the numbers at the top of the analysis, within the current state section.

i really hope they give Lloyd another shot. the one thing that i really hate is carrying alot of dead cap money

Top notch work Schneed.

Thanks for the love.

I'm making an update. Thanks to SS, we saw a little tidbit regarding some advanced cap-massaging performed by the Skins at the end of 2007. Essentially, coming down the stretch, the Redskins had about $1.8 million in excess unused cap space. There's a loophole in the CBA that says if you renegotiate a contract after the season starts, and you put incentives into the contract, the incentives are automatically considered Likely To Be Earned, regardless of how attainable they are. Hence, the Redskins renegotiated the contract of Randall Godfrey at the end of the season, putting about $1.8 million in incentives into his contract. They were incentives that were impossible to reach, but get treated as LTBE. According to cap rules, when a Likely To Be Earned incentive is not reached, the team gets credit for it in the form of extra cap room the following year.

Essentially, because of this clever maneuver, the Skins managed to push $1.8 million in 2007 cap space into 2008. Because of this little discovery, our cap numbers just got better by $1.8 million.

Clever stuff. Lots of other teams do this, but clever nonetheless.

The change is reflected in the first post in this thread under the current status section.

i really hope they give Lloyd another shot. the one thing that i really hate is carrying alot of dead cap moneyYeah, you'd be carrying the dead cap in 2008, but cutting dead weight eliminates his contract beyond 2008. So in the long run, it saves the team a lot of money to cut him now.

I know it's hard to come up with exact figures when one does not know the actual contract, however I thought in the last number crunching we figured to be approximatly 20 mil under the cap? I know that also was if they reworked all the contracts. Am I missing something or is the best we can do right now is get 11 mil under?

I know it's hard to come up with exact figures when one does not know the actual contract, however I thought in the last number crunching we figured to be approximatly 20 mil under the cap? I know that also was if they reworked all the contracts. Am I missing something or is the best we can do right now is get 11 mil under?

That figure you're referring to, the $20 million under or whatever it was, assumed we made every possible cap-saving move under the sun. This revised version you're seeing here shows only the moves the team is likely, or at least reported by JLC as likely to make.

For example, the version that showed $20 million meant we'd do things like cut Phillip Daniels and Shawn Springs, plus keep Brandon Lloyd. Those three moves alone would take us from the $11.5 million listed here to very close to the $20 million you're referring to.

So basically, I'm listing the $11.5 because they are moves the team seems likely to make, but the section at the very bottom lists other ways to cut money which would take us closer to the $20.0. In the end, the numbers are the same, it's just a different perspective.