2007 Offseason Cap Spreadsheet and Rules

[Duckjake]

He is extremly overrtated on this board and league wide. If we would have kept him we would be paying 50+ million for a lackluster player at his position.

Much smarter to pay $6,303,850.00 for a lackluster player at his position.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

Thats not an assumption. LD was the anchor of a horrible OL for 3 straight years. He is the epitomy of what that OL stood for with lackluster performances and penalty prone. That is all a fact!

We let him go because he wasnt worth what he wanted in either the FO or Whisnehunts opinions. This team will be better without him in the long run. I would be willing to bet that if we are to land either Thomas or Brown that this line as a whole will be better than it has been with LD.

He is extremly overrtated on this board and league wide. If we would have kept him we would be paying 50+ million for a lackluster player at his position.

You can continue to claim that his performance was lackluster, but that weight holds little water when the guy is a pro bowl alternate. Like it or not, many players and coaches hold the guy in pretty high regard. If we have a bad year this year because of a poor offensive line, this is completely on Graves.

 

[Duckjake]

If we have a bad year this year because of a poor offensive line, this is completely on Graves.

The big thing is continuity with the offensive line. Now we'll have to watch another group try to gel. The 1,592nd different group of olinemen the Cards have tried since moving to Arizona.

Hopefully the Cards won't be 1-7 by the time they get it together.

 

[joeshmo]

NOOOOOOOO. Can we please not make this a Davis debate thread. We already have plenty of those.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

NOOOOOOOO. Can we please not make this a Davis debate thread. We already have plenty of those.

Agreed, I can't help myself....














p.s. you are still wrong shane...

 

[vinnymac]

What you stated is what everyone said when the NEW CBA came out and the cap went from 85.5 to 102 Mill, and what every one said this offseason when the cap went from 102 to 109 Mill. Yet just like all offseasons before only a small portion of the free agents got over the top deals and the rest got market value. The players contracts havent begun to reach the level of increase the cap went up and the remaining cap space teams had last offseason to re-sign their own and place franchise tags and the remaining cap space teams have left this offseason is clear cut proof of that. Teams are already starting to extend their own and arent even waiting until the season starts, Cleveland just extended one of their own and thats just off the top of my head because I just read the article on it, but I know that the amount of extensions so far is on pace to break the amount of offseason/midseason extensions teams gave out last year.

Thats not even mentioning that every team in the league knows exactly how to work the cap and not be in cap hell anymore. The Titans are the last team to be in cap hell and they will be the last team for a long time.

People need to stop trying to kid themselves about how the free agent market will play out in up coming offseasons. The free agent market is not going to be anything worth while for another year or 2. The cap went up to much to fast to soon, 27.5% in just 2 years and will go up again a minimum of 6% more in 2008. Its basic economics when you oversaturate the market with to much money. I predict we wont see a even average free agent market until the 2008 offseason, and the other cap guru Antsportsteve doesnt think we will see it until 2009 offseason.

I thought that Unrestricted Free Agents get an 30% pay increase.

 

[joeshmo]

I thought that Unrestricted Free Agents get an 30% pay increase.

UFA's get what the market will pay them, no specific increase.

Unless you mean an increase in Veteran minimums, or an increase in RFA tenders, or EFA tenders.

If that is what you mean then yes those amounts do go up. But the RFA and EFA amounts are pretty minimal with I think the max tender only going up by 100K. Same with the Vet Minimum as I believe it only went up 15% over the past 2 years and will go up again by 5% this coming offseason. Those increases are only a blip on the screen in the grand scheme maybe adding only another 1 Mill.(aggresively high estimate) to each teams cap.

 

[vinnymac]

Thanks for the info.

 

[joeshmo]

I went ahead and updated this thing.

Their may be in error in it right now though. According to NFLPA.org Oliver Ross salary went down by 1 Million over the course of a month, from 2.8 a month ago to 1.8 today. I did include this change until further notice.

Not sure if this is just an error on NFLPA's part which they are known to make from time to time, or if Oliver Ross actually did take a pay cut or restructure and it just went unoticed.

I have an email into Sommers and should get and answer back when he gets back from vacation. So stay tuned.

 

[Cards Czar]

I went ahead and updated this thing.

Their may be in error in it right now though. According to NFLPA.org Oliver Ross salary went down by 1 Million over the course of a month, from 2.8 a month ago to 1.8 today. I did include this change until further notice.

Not sure if this is just an error on NFLPA's part which they are known to make from time to time, or if Oliver Ross actually did take a pay cut or restructure and it just went unoticed.

I have an email into Sommers and should get and answer back when he gets back from vacation. So stay tuned.

Joe here is the 2007 Rookie salary cap. The cardinals will have to spend 4.186 so you can adjust your figures.

Team- Players - Pool (in
millions)
Arizona 5 $4.19
Atlanta 11 $6.17
Baltimore 7 $3.37
Buffalo 7 $4.06
Carolina 8 $4.09
Chicago 9 $4.04
Cincinnati 7 $3.51
Cleveland 7 $5.67
Dallas 8 $3.54
Denver 4 $2.76
Detroit 8 $5.82
Green Bay 11 $4.91
Houston 7 $3.81
Indianapolis 9 $4.34
Jacksonville 11 $4.92
Kansas City 7 $3.43
Miami 10 $5.37
Minnesota 8 $4.84
New England 9 $3.68
New Orleans 7 $3.37
New York Giants 8 $3.87
New York Jets 4 $2.65
Oakland 11 $6.91
Philadelphia 8 $3.36
Pittsburgh 8 $4.26
San Diego 8 $3.28
Seattle 8 $3.01
San Francisco 9 $5.42
St. Louis 8 $3.98
Tampa Bay 10 $6.10
Tennessee 10 $4.60
Washington 5 $3.43
Total 255 $136.79



Dam excell wont work right. Hope this helps.



Navy Mike

 

[joeshmo]

Joe here is the 2007 Rookie salary cap. The cardinals will have to spend 4.186 so you can adjust your figures.

That is how much they can spend on rookies, not how much will count against the cap.

For example. Only the top 51 salaries count towards the total cap amount at this point in time. 3rd through 7th round draft picks usually dont make that much their first years to be included in the top 51 salaries hence I only included what I think the 1st and 2nd round draft picks will count towards the cap as they will be the only rookies making enough to be in the top 51 salaries. Also as a rookie signs someone else that was in the top 51 salaries will drop out and not count anymore so you have to take that into acount as well.

Sommers explains it in his blog pretty well:

The team's rookie pool is $4.2 million. That is essentially a cap within a cap. You can't just subtract $4.2 million from the $5 million, because as a rookie signs, another player in the top 51 will drop out. Let's say it costs $3 million for the rookies.

 

[joeshmo]

Their may be in error in it right now though. According to NFLPA.org Oliver Ross salary went down by 1 Million over the course of a month, from 2.8 a month ago to 1.8 today. I did include this change until further notice.

Not sure if this is just an error on NFLPA's part which they are known to make from time to time, or if Oliver Ross actually did take a pay cut or restructure and it just went unoticed.

I have an email into Sommers and should get and answer back when he gets back from vacation. So stay tuned.

Well Somers continues to be the coolest sports writer in town. He just got back from Vacation and although he is still off for another week he still answered my email this morning that he was unaware of any changes to Ross contract and last he knew Ross should be making 2.8 Mill in base salary, so he said he was going to put in a call to Olivers agent.

Well 7 hours later he emailed me back again after getting some more info and Ross did in fact take a 1 Mill. Pay cut this year. He can earn back that 1 Mill in incentives but Somers wasn't sure of what the incentive was, he thought it would most likely be a playing time incentive such as he has to play in 90% of the snaps or something like that. Check in with Sommers blog from time to time as he may put up the full details once he can track them down.

Once again thanks to Somers.

 

[Stout]

Well Somers continues to be the coolest sports writer in town. He just got back from Vacation and although he is still off for another week he still answered my email this morning that he was unaware of any changes to Ross contract and last he knew Ross should be making 2.8 Mill in base salary, so he said he was going to put in a call to Olivers agent.

Well 7 hours later he emailed me back again after getting some more info and Ross did in fact take a 1 Mill. Pay cut this year. He can earn back that 1 Mill in incentives but Somers wasn't sure of what the incentive was, he thought it would most likely be a playing time incentive such as he has to play in 90% of the snaps or something like that. Check in with Sommers blog from time to time as he may put up the full details once he can track them down.

Once again thanks to Somers.

Good. That was a savvy front office move, if only a small one in a sea of bad ones that was our list of FA contracts.

 

[kerouac9]

Somers is totally awesome. What a great guy.

And good for Oliver Ross, I guess. He's been stealing from the franchise the two seasons that he's been here.

EDIT: I'd just like to re-iterate how lucky we all are to have resources like Joeshmo on this board, and Kent Somers in the local media.

 

[kerouac9]

Joe -- Just FYI, Somers has posted Davis's contract info on his blog. Do you know what kind of an upgrade his deal is over last year's pick at the same level?

 

[Harry]

The problem with eating up the bonuses is if a player gets injured and the Cards have to sign someone or trade for someone. It really ties the GM's hands.

 

[Ryanwb]

What does Scott Player and Buster Davis do for salary cap room?

 

[joeshmo]

What does Scott Player and Buster Davis do for salary cap room?

Without actually updating the actuall spreadsheet I can say that cutting Davis and taking on his remaining bonus we paid him will cost us 305,000 in dead cap space this season and the same amount for next season. It actually cost us cap space to cut him.

We have about 3.5-4 Mill in cap space right now. Minus about 750K for what we have to pay the PS and thats how much we got.

 

[joeshmo]

Most like my final post for this thread. It will be a total of what we are working with and a look into next offseason.

We are sitting on 3.5-4 Mill in cap space. Probably closer to 3.5, cant seem to nail down the final details of Levi Browns deal. (EDIT - I forgot to add the 1 Mill for what it costs for the PS. We are actually closer to 2.5 Mill)

Anyways that is what we have to work with for possible after game one veteran pickups, injuries, and mid season extensions. Although keep in mind we dont need cap space right now to make those extensions becuase we can just lay out the deal so the players bonus doesnt kick in until the first day of the start of the 2008 accounting year. But it would be nice to use up that space to count their bonus towards this year and save 2 Mill on next years cap.

As for the candidates for extensions this mid season, a list of the unrestricted free agents, restricted free agents, and exclusive rights free agents for the 2008 offseason.

UFA -

Karlos Dansby LB
Calvin Pace DE
Leckey, Nick C/G
Bryant Johnson WR
Brown, Ralph CB
Nathan Hodel LS
Kolodziej, Ross DL
Tafoya, Joe DE
Bailey, Rodney DE
Ahmad Merritt WR
Matt Ware DB

RFA -
Eric Green CB
Daryl Blackstock OLB
Elton Brown OG
Smith, Antonio DE
Tim Euhus TE

EFA -
Michael Adams CB
Steve Baylark RB
Lang Campbell QB
David Holloway LB
Matt Trannon WR
Elliot Vallejo OT
Bienemann, Troy TE
Cammeron Vaughn LB

Highly doubtful any of the EFA's get a new deal as tendering them is just way to cheap to do anything else. I bolded Green because if he plays well we will have to give him the highest tender to keep him and extension probably wont be much higher of a cap hit, most likely treating him just like Dockett with him getting an extension before his first 3 year contract ended and went through the RFA tender process.

The only others I can see us trying to extend is Dansby, BJ, and Hodel. Everyone should be replaced or given a EFA or RFA tender.

Now a look into next offseasons cap projections. Some Items to keep in mind.

1. Hopefully 3 Mill of that reamainging money we have this year goes towards lowering the cap of the mid season exception players.

2. Projected incentives and escalators being added to Matt, Fitz, Brown, and Rolle's contracts. But some of those incentives we already picked up a year early to count towards this years cap. Rolle wont be starting, so that will help with the cap for next season as well. (note - Matt gone on IR and Brown not playing in a 1/4 of the season will lower this amount considerably)

3. Gandy will either be outright cut or he will have a renegotiated deal. His deal now is pretty much a 1 year prove it deal of which his base salary goes from 600K to 3.5 Mill and he gets a 2.5 Mill roster bonus in 2008. Thus making his cap hit for next year 7 million bucks. not a chance he stays at that amount unless he makes the pro bowl. I expect that to be dropped by a minimum of 3 Mill with a new contract.

So with that all in mind I am going to project 25 Mill in cap dollars after taking into account items 1,2 and 3 above.

For those wondering about what that could be spent on, it can be spent on the RFA and EFA tenders. And check out the link for up coming free agents(keep in mind how bad this list looks and its the list before re-signings, extensions, and franchise tags even happen)

http://www.footballsfuture.com/freeagents.html

 

[ThunderCard]

bump. I wonder what are 2008 salary cap looks like ?

 

[Cards Czar]

Joe have you been doing any refiguring of the numbers for 2008 yet??

 

[Skkorpion]

We'll stickie this again after the season is over.

 

[joeshmo]

Joe have you been doing any refiguring of the numbers for 2008 yet??

Wont be able to for some time yet. Have to find out and figure in all escalators, incentives, and bonuses after the season is over. Probably wont put up the 2008 spreadsheet until late Jan or early Feb. Still plenty of time before March 1st free agency period.

But for now here is the link to who is under contract and who the UFA, RFA, and EFA's are -

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1577319&postcount=28

And here are the projected cap amounts for 2008 for all teams (keep in mind that these amounts do not included bonuses, incentives or escalators that will have been earned when March 1st rolls around) -

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/peter_king/12/09/week14/4.html

I am projecting that after all of those bonuses, incentives or escalators are added in we will be at around 20 Mill.

 

[MadCardDisease]

I'll sticky this until Joe gets us the 2008 version.

What's taking so long Joe?

 

[Redheart]

Joe! Joe! Joe!....