FINALLY! - A National Columnist Gets it Right

[Schneed10]

Peter King:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...417/index.html

2. Now we know how the Redskins play Houdini with the cap every year.
I hear it every winter -- from editors, readers, people in line at Starbucks. (True story: I got asked at an Orlando Starbucks during the league meetings how the Redskins were able to sign 10 guys to gigantic contracts every year.) The answer: They don't. It's 70 percent funny money. Take the case of linebacker Andre Carter, signed to a reported seven-year, $32.5 million contract on March 15. It's more accurately a one-year, $5.85 million deal, or a two-year, $10.18 million contract, or a three-year, $13.5 million deal. See, the Redskins sign players to long deals, but the contracts are back-loaded, meaning they would get most of the money in the final years of the contracts, if they get the money at all. And if Carter turns out to be the defensive force the Redskins hope he'll be, they'll almost certainly just let him play the first two years, then re-do the deal before the fat money kicks in. Specifically, in Carter's case, he has two major slices of money he may never see: $13.4 million, combined, in five separate roster bonuses to be earned if he's on the roster in 2008, '09, '10, '11, and '12; and salaries totaling $8.9 million between 2008 and 2012. Collectively, that's $22.3 million of a $32 million he may never see. Now the other question you have is this: Well, won't the Redskins get killed on the salary cap if they release Carter, say, after two years? The answer is not really, because the only part of his contract that's guaranteed is the signing bonus, which is $5 million.

He stops short of saying it's a smart cap strategy, but from this little excerpt hopefully he spreads a little understanding to all those ignoramuses who love to bash the 'Skins' cap management.