Salary Cap Status Update

[Schneed10]

My main man CrazyCanuck recently updated his cap sheets, which includes Chris Cooley's new contract extension. In that deal, Cooley has a roster bonus in the amount of $11 million due to him in 2008. When Peter King reported that we were $20 million over the cap, that included Cooley's large roster bonus, which counts entirely towards the team's 2008 cap figure. However, Snyder and Cerrato will certainly renegotiate this bonus into the form of a signing bonus, giving Cooley the same $11 million this March, but allowing the team to account for it differently and spread the cap hit over the life of Cooley's contract.

Long story short, the cap analysis I've been posting is now being updated, and gets significantly better in light of this recent update. Behold:

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.

Start: $20.4 million OVER cap

Potential Roster Cuts:
Phillip Daniels - $3.0 million saved
Mark Brunell - $3.4 million saved
Shawn Springs - $2.5 million saved
Pete Kendall - $1.8 million saved
Todd Wade - $700K saved
Total Savings for Cuts: $11.4 million

Keeping These Players, Restructuring 2008 Base Salary, Prorating over Remaining life of Contract:
Randy Thomas - $3.7 million saved
Clinton Portis - $3.2 million saved
Jon Jansen - $3.2 million saved
Chris Samuels - $2.8 million saved
Cornelius Griffin - $2.6 million saved
Santana Moss - $1.9 million saved
Casey Rabach - $1.4 million saved
Total Salary Restructure Savings: $18.8 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
Chris Cooley - $9.2 million saved
Andre Carter - $1.9 million saved
Antwaan Randle-El - $1.2 million saved
Total Bonus Restructure Savings: $14.4 million

Total Potential Cap Reductions: $44.6 million

Maximum Cap Room for 2008: $24.2 million

So this is all to say that the Skins are currently $20.4 million over the cap. By cutting players and restructuring contracts, they can clear up to $44.6 million in cap room. This would get us to a point where we'd have $24.2 million in cap space for 2008. That's if we decide to make every move, which we won't need to do if we don't want.

In light of this update, I hereby revise my position I've previously held suggesting that switching coaches was a bad idea from a cap standpoint. The team clearly has the capability to dramatically alter the roster this season if they so choose. Whether or not that's a good idea from a football perspective is entirely another matter. But the cap will not prohibit it from taking place.