Ocho Cinco In B&G

[sandtrapjack]

Originally Posted by RobH4413

Why not Santana Moss and a 2nd round pick?

You don't need to pay for a placement... the ammo is certainly there, I just simply don't understand the cap logistics behind a move like this. Don't know if it's plausible or not. Anyone that knows the salary cap well, please feel free to chime in... I'm curious to the possibility of something blockbuster like this.

Lemme see if I can help....

The "Dead Money" I mentioned is the remaining portion of his pro-rated signing bonus.

If Johnson stays under contrat with the Bengals, he would get his signing bounus in (lack for better words) yearly installments. He gets a portion of that signing bonus each year.

Now if a player is traded BEFORE his contract expires, then the remaining amount of the signing bonus gets piled into one lump-sum and counts AGAINST the teams salary cap.

So if Johnson is traded, then you have FOUR YEARS of the remaining signing bonus that is (remaining signing bonus installment) X 4 yrs = 8.8 mill that instantly counts against the teams cap.

So as Bill B mentioned, by trading Johnson, the Bengals would incur and instantaneous 8.8 hit against thier cap with no player to show for it.

Hence the term "Dead Money"

Sure any team can propose a trade that would acquire Johnson, but are the Bengals going to allow it and voluntarily place themselves 8.8 million in the hole on the cap?

Now if Johnson was entering the FINAL year of his contract, that dead money hit is almost nil and a trade would be feasible for Cincy.

But with 4 years remaining on his current contract, and 8 Mill in dead money, I just do nor forsee the Bengals entertaining trade offers.