The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

TtiT -- The late Gene Upshaw used to say in times of labor trouble, no one protects his team's talent base better than Jerry Jones. Jones has always locked up his best players to give his team the best chance of winning. But they are roughly $18.9 million over a $120 million cap, and they will have to make some player sacrifices. Cutting wide receiver Roy Williams, right tackle Marc Colombo and running back Marion Barber would be easy decisions, but not so fast. Their combined salaries are $12.259 million, but those three players have more than $27 million in signing bonus proration. They might create too much dead money against the cap to get under.

Oakland Raiders -- Depending on how much dead money is created by the voiding of Nnamdi Asomugha's contract, the Raiders are more than $10 million over the cap. They can save $2.1 million by cutting guard Cooper Carlisle, but they have only six players with salaries of more than $1 million that can be used to restructure contracts to free up cap room. Remember they gave extensions to defensive end Richard Seymour and defensive tackle John Henderson and made Kamerion Wimbley a franchise player.

New York Giants -- Even though the Giants are $11.34 million over a $120 million cap, they can save $7.5 million if they don't bring back offensive lineman Shawn Andrews. The Giants have plenty of contracts they can restructure, so getting under the cap won't be a problem. The difficulty might be not having too much free cap room for getting into free agency after re-signing key veterans such as Ahmad Bradshaw.

Pittsburgh Steelers -- The Steelers are $10.51 million over, but a $5 million savings comes from not bringing back tackle Flozell Adams. Defensive end Aaron Smith is in the final year of his contract and has a salary of $4.5 million. He might have to restructure his deal or be released. The Steelers have to make sure they have enough room to re-sign cornerback Ike Taylor.

Minnesota Vikings -- The Vikings are $5.148 million over, which will make it tough for them to keep Bernard Berrian. Releasing him would save around $3.7 million. Adrian Peterson is in the final year on his contract with a salary of $10.72 million. He wants a long-term deal, and if the Vikings accommodate it would free up a lot of cap room.

Indianapolis Colts -- The Colts are $2.77 million over. That's not the big problem. The problem is finding cap room. They have $35.5 million tied up in base salaries for Peyton Manning and Dwight Freeney. With Manning's $23 million franchise tag, the Colts have incentive to sign him to a contract extension and get some cap room. After those two players, though, the Colts have only eight other players with salaries above $2 million to consider for cap-friendly restructures or possible release.

Green Bay Packers -- The Packers really don't have a cap problem, particularly if they move linebacker Nick Barnett. Cutting or trading him saves the team about $4.4 million. They can save close to $4.5 million if right tackle Mark Tauscher doesn't come back. The Packers are $62,000 under the cap.

When a new CBA is at last forged and the focus returns to football, what promises to be as unique a free agency period as any in NFL history will undoubtedly take center stage.
With the league's labor negotiations fluid -- see the possible impact of the 8th Circuit Court ruling in favor of the owners -- we don't know how quickly free agency will begin, how long it will last or the rules it will be executed by. And throughout the NFL, everybody's flying blind in that regard.
"If anybody tells you they know the way free agency will unfold, what it will be like, they're just guessing, because no one's been in this situation before,'' one veteran NFL club executive told me this week. "We're all waiting to find out.''
The anticipation, of course, is that a spasm of free-agent spending will commence at the stroke of 12:01 a.m. on whatever day the NFL's annual meat market is scheduled to open. After all, there has been speculation that the 2011 salary cap could wind up north of $140 million, and if new rules are implemented in the labor deal mandating teams spend at least 90 percent of the cap allowance, there figures to be plenty of teams willing to throw a lot of cash around very quickly at a laundry list of available talent.
One longtime NFL general manager I talked to this week foresees a scenario in which the new general manager and/or coaching regimes around the league are going to be particularly tempted to whip out the check book and start writing fat ones. His reasoning? After taking over in January, all they've done is work the draft and sit on their hands for the past six months, and they're itching to start the major roster renovation that almost every new administration undertakes. And that could make for multiple examples of the kind of signing frenzy the Washington Redskins used to annually execute en route to defending their Offseason of the Year title.
"What's going to happen is you're going to have some inexperienced GMs and owners go crazy early on,'' the longtime general manager said. "They're going to think, 'I've got to go out and do something crazy. This is my window of opportunity.' But I think that's absolutely the wrong move. There are so many free agents and so many guys out there that if you're just patient, you can wind up with some good players at really good value and not put yourself out there [at risk] with a couple mega-deals.
"That's going to happen, I promise you. A couple of these guys are going to say, 'Hey, we're going to be aggressive. We've got a fat wallet and we're raring to go.' I just hope those teams are in our division. Because when you go back over the history of free agency, it rarely works out with the big-money guys. Just look at the last five years or so, with Albert Haynesworth, Joey Porter or Terrell Owens.''

1niksder wrote:These teams may need to get creative if numbers currently under discussion hold


If the cap is at $120 million, approximately seven teams are over the cap, and some of those teams have some interesting issues.

TtiT -- The late Gene Upshaw used to say in times of labor trouble, no one protects his team's talent base better than Jerry Jones. Jones has always locked up his best players to give his team the best chance of winning. But they are roughly $18.9 million over a $120 million cap, and they will have to make some player sacrifices. Cutting wide receiver Roy Williams, right tackle Marc Colombo and running back Marion Barber would be easy decisions, but not so fast. Their combined salaries are $12.259 million, but those three players have more than $27 million in signing bonus proration. They might create too much dead money against the cap to get under.

Oakland Raiders -- Depending on how much dead money is created by the voiding of Nnamdi Asomugha's contract, the Raiders are more than $10 million over the cap. They can save $2.1 million by cutting guard Cooper Carlisle, but they have only six players with salaries of more than $1 million that can be used to restructure contracts to free up cap room. Remember they gave extensions to defensive end Richard Seymour and defensive tackle John Henderson and made Kamerion Wimbley a franchise player.

New York Giants -- Even though the Giants are $11.34 million over a $120 million cap, they can save $7.5 million if they don't bring back offensive lineman Shawn Andrews. The Giants have plenty of contracts they can restructure, so getting under the cap won't be a problem. The difficulty might be not having too much free cap room for getting into free agency after re-signing key veterans such as Ahmad Bradshaw.

Pittsburgh Steelers -- The Steelers are $10.51 million over, but a $5 million savings comes from not bringing back tackle Flozell Adams. Defensive end Aaron Smith is in the final year of his contract and has a salary of $4.5 million. He might have to restructure his deal or be released. The Steelers have to make sure they have enough room to re-sign cornerback Ike Taylor.

Minnesota Vikings -- The Vikings are $5.148 million over, which will make it tough for them to keep Bernard Berrian. Releasing him would save around $3.7 million. Adrian Peterson is in the final year on his contract with a salary of $10.72 million. He wants a long-term deal, and if the Vikings accommodate it would free up a lot of cap room.

Indianapolis Colts -- The Colts are $2.77 million over. That's not the big problem. The problem is finding cap room. They have $35.5 million tied up in base salaries for Peyton Manning and Dwight Freeney. With Manning's $23 million franchise tag, the Colts have incentive to sign him to a contract extension and get some cap room. After those two players, though, the Colts have only eight other players with salaries above $2 million to consider for cap-friendly restructures or possible release.

Green Bay Packers -- The Packers really don't have a cap problem, particularly if they move linebacker Nick Barnett. Cutting or trading him saves the team about $4.4 million. They can save close to $4.5 million if right tackle Mark Tauscher doesn't come back. The Packers are $62,000 under the cap.

When was the last time the Redskins didn't make this list, even better there are two NFC East teams in the top 5