Salary Cap Status Update

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Roughly a 4 million dollar hit to release Thomas, and roughly 2 million to release Jansen.

In my opinion: it makes sense to restructure Thomas and just leave Jansen's contract as it is. My reasoning: Thomas is more of a lock to play out his contract here than Jansen is. Thomas is under contract for 5 more seasons and likely will play 4 of them. Jansen is under contract for 4 more seasons, and we might be able to squeeze two out of him.

Schneed may have a different interpretation though.

I would agree actually. With Jansen you have the ability to save $3.7 million by restructuring him, but like you said it would kick a lot of cap money down the road. Given the amount of space we'll have after making other moves, this one probably doesn't make sense to make. After all, you've got Heyer on the roster. Nobody's really sure yet how good that kid is, he performed decently enough this season, but he needed a lot of help. So you kind of need another year to see what he can become. You don't want to committ to Jansen in 2010 yet, because if Heyer can improve in 2009, then maybe he becomes your starter in 2010. And if Heyer doesn't step up, then you still have Jansen in 2010 if you still want him. Or you can cut Jansen in 2010 and save tons of cap space, allowing you to go out and replace him with the best available RT.

Basically, by not restructuring Jansen, it allows the team more financial flexibility at that position in 2009 and 2010.

Thomas, in my opinion, is the best lineman we have. I'd committ to him until he's 45. Did I mention I heart Randy Thomas?