How are the Redskins going to manage the cap in the next few years?

Does anyone find it disturbing that in 2006, the salaries for the top 10 guys on the team (in salary) are going to escalate in the neighborhood of 2-3 million dollars each? Samuels and Arrington together will account for somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 million dollars.

How are they going to manage the cap - or are they anticipating making a ton of cuts, taking a huge hit, and rebuilding?

I think their only hope is renegotiating with Arrington and Samuels, cutting Wynn, Barrow, McCants, Daniels, Morton and Brunell (unless they are willing to take large pay cuts), and hoping that we can draft some great players after the 1st round in the next 2 years (to fill the holes at cheap rates).

That way, the only guys making salaries that will eat away at the cap would be Portis, Jansen, Coles, Springs, Taylor, Thomas, Griffin, Arrington (renegotiated), and Samuels (renegotiated). That is not bad, because those guys are all borderline pro bowl talents and deserve the contracts.

The wildcard in all of this is Ramsey. If he starts next year, and blows up, we are going to have a huge problem fitting those other guys, and Ramsey, under the cap.

Honestly, it sounds nuts, but it might not be such a bad thing if he turns into a QB with a rating of like 80 or so, who manages the game well (a la Dilfer) from a salary cap perspective. Is that ludicrous?

What do you guys think?

I'd like to add, I think we should cut Barrow next year if he is not completely healthy, and replace his salary by re-signing Antonio Pierce to a long-term deal; and possibly think about cutting Wynn next year as well, just so we can pace the cap hit a little better.

We already renegotiated with Arrington....

Redksins are cap masters and always will be. Thye'll renegotiate where they need to and cut where they need to. This is the best thing about having I think. He is so adept and at getting lower profile guys to play huge football(ie:Pierce) that we can take a small hit here and there and see little in the way of on field product. At least I hope!

We were asking the same questions back in 2000, I've yet to see this "cap hell" the critics warned us about.

That's what re-negotiations are for, plus the TV contracts will bump up the cap.

Were gonna HAVE to redo samuels deal, and then cut brunnel Wynn and a couple of other guys, like Morton. But we might also have to let Smoot go.

Ive got faith in Dan

One thing that all of the cap critics keep forgetting is that the league's TV deal is up in another year and will be renegotiated for a far greater amount than it is now which will increase the cap. The cap is calculated based on league revenues if I am not mistaken. Cerrato made the comment during the offseason that they have planned for a 'significant cap increase' over the next few years.

We were asking the same questions back in 2000, I've yet to see this "cap hell" the critics warned us about.

That's what re-negotiations are for, plus the TV contracts will bump up the cap.


While I generally agree with this sentiment Matty, it does fail to consider one significant factor.

Over the past several years, the Skins have been losers. Because of this, there has been no desire/need to retain players and the big hits could be spread out and replaced. IF (as is hoped) the Skins start being successful because of the players signed, THEN we may actually have to face some real tough decisions. Because of the success, we will want to retain Cornelius Griffin, Arrington, Springs, etc. but may not be able to afford or renegotiate with all of them. I hope we can but I am not sure if we will.

If Gibbs succeeds, Dan will be faced with an entirely new problem of retaining and supplementing the existing talent rather than ripping up the roster and starting over. He has done the second quite successfully. The question remains as to whether he can do the first.

We need Crazy Canuck in on this.