Dead Money Woes Almost Over

[RugbyMuffin]

Like toilet paper on the bottom of your shoe, those Rod Graves contracts just seem to stay around forever.

2015 will be the last year the Cardinals will have to deal with dead money issues because of Rod Graves.

Daryn College will be on the books for 2,275,000 in 2015, yes, but Levi Brown, and Adam Snyder are officially off the books come March.

Brown, Snyder and Colledge were a 10 million dollar cap hit last season. Ugh.

Almost over.

 

[Vermont Maverick]

Well, if I have the Fitz deal figured right, since the deal voids after 2016, but 2017 and 2018 years were included to continue to spread the bonus. There will still be 2.4 M in deferred bonus money cap hit for 2017 AND 2018 from the previous restructuring(s) plus 2.5M in bonus from this deal for each year, so we are still looking at nearly 5M in dead money for 2017 AND and 5M for 2018.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

Good ole Rod Graves. The gift that just keeps on giving, ugh

Must nice to be that incompetent, still stay with the team in some meaningless job and pull down a big salary

 

[az jam]

Mike Jurecki @mikejurecki · Feb 20
#AZCardinals MT @corryjoel: $9.7M of dead money when Fitzgerald's contract voids in 2017. $5M will be from the new deal.”

 

[don7031]

^And the remaining $4.7 million will be from transmuting base salary into bonus to give the Cardinals cap room last year. Yes, it is dead money created by Keim, but it's a precipitant of the contract negotiated by Graves.

 

[Vermont Maverick]

Well, if I have the Fitz deal figured right, since the deal voids after 2016, but 2017 and 2018 years were included to continue to spread the bonus. There will still be 2.4 M in deferred bonus money cap hit for 2017 AND 2018 from the previous restructuring(s) plus 2.5M in bonus from this deal for each year, so we are still looking at nearly 5M in dead money for 2017 AND and 5M for 2018.

Mike Jurecki @mikejurecki · Feb 20
#AZCardinals MT @corryjoel: $9.7M of dead money when Fitzgerald's contract voids in 2017. $5M will be from the new deal.”

So I think I had it right, just that the (nearly) $5M 2018 dead money must accelerate to 2017 due to the Void.

 

[az jam]

So I think I had it right, just that the (nearly) $5M 2018 dead money must accelerate to 2017 due to the Void.

Yeah, looks that way. These are sometimes hard to figure out. Lots of games spreading money over years, etc. to get under cap but it catches up.

 

[Jim Otis]

How much dead money are we talking about , if we had released Larry last week , what would the hit have been for 2015 ???

 

[GuernseyCard]

How much dead money are we talking about , if we had released Larry last week , what would the hit have been for 2015 ???

$14.8m.

 

[football karma]

Their is dead money, and the there is DEAD money.

I am okay with $5 million of dead money from having to pay a good player what it takes until the end

What hurts is dead money from a player that didn't contrbute much-- Levi Brown, etc.

 

[Darkside]

I dislike Graves as much as anyone, but he kept Fitz here, kept Wilson here (mostly), kept Dockett here. He made the deals for Warner and others.

Yes he mortgaged the future, but when he made those deals we sucked. We were desperate.

Stop the hate. All of that made this possible now. He kept the core of this team and the face of the franchise. When he was making deals we weren't a good team to come to. We had to overpay.

Frankly, I think he's as much a reason we're in this position as anyone else. He had little to work with. And just because Keim is awesome doesn't negate his contributions. Keim is working with a much better team and coach, where the Cards are a destination. Graves never had that luxury.

 

[Cardiac]

I dislike Graves as much as anyone, but he kept Fitz here, kept Wilson here (mostly), kept Dockett here. He made the deals for Warner and others.

Yes he mortgaged the future, but when he made those deals we sucked. We were desperate.

Stop the hate. All of that made this possible now. He kept the core of this team and the face of the franchise. When he was making deals we weren't a good team to come to. We had to overpay.

Frankly, I think he's as much a reason we're in this position as anyone else. He had little to work with. And just because Keim is awesome doesn't negate his contributions. Keim is working with a much better team and coach, where the Cards are a destination. Graves never had that luxury.

I don't dislike Graves but I'm thrilled he's gone. As you point out he did a ton to move this organization towards being a real NFL team and that was with the anchor that was Bill Sr. tied around his neck. Everybody forgets that Fitz's stupid rookie contract was structured by Bill Sr. and not Graves. IIRC Sr. wanted the escalators put in that Fitz did hit and sky rocketed the cost of that first contract.

I get that it's fun to bash Graves but he doesn't deserve the level of bashing he receives. He wasn't nearly as aggressive as SK and that's why I'm glad he's gone.

 

[Catfish]

I don't want to rain all over your parade Darkside, as I agree with a lot of what you say about Graves. Still ----- He is the GM who brought in Larry Foote for an interview and a med check, AND allowed him to walk back out of town after the weekend WITHOUT even making him an offer. Graves was soooo slowww to get anything done that he became part of the reason that we were not a destination place for players even though we had the weather, the city, and eventually the facility to play in. Keim has also let prospective free agents walk, but not because he didn't make an offer. He let them walk when they didn't accept his offer in a timely enough manner. Big difference between the two. Foote was our best LB last year, (and we possibly could have had him all these years). He is now going to be on our coaching staff. That was a huge miss caused by Graves.

 

[NJCardFan]

All you need to know about Graves is how he handled the Kurt Warner situation. Here we have a QB who took this franchise to it's first Super Bowl, is much beloved in the locker room and by the fans, who stated a strong desire to stay here, and it took him going to SF for Graves to get off his ass and finally offer him something.

 

[AZ Native]

All you need to know about Graves is how he handled the Kurt Warner situation. Here we have a QB who took this franchise to it's first Super Bowl, is much beloved in the locker room and by the fans, who stated a strong desire to stay here, and it took him going to SF for Graves to get off his ass and finally offer him something.

TRUTH

 

[Cardiac]

All you need to know about Graves is how he handled the Kurt Warner situation. Here we have a QB who took this franchise to it's first Super Bowl, is much beloved in the locker room and by the fans, who stated a strong desire to stay here, and it took him going to SF for Graves to get off his ass and finally offer him something.

TRUTH

Not this teams best moment but let's not define an org. or individual on one single situation. Plus we don't know how much Bill Sr. was still involved with the FO decisions this point. Michael was definitely more involved but I don't think he had total control at the time. If he did then he shares in some of the shame of the Warner blunder which did ultimately turn out fine.

 

[Darkside]

All you need to know about Graves is how he handled the Kurt Warner situation. Here we have a QB who took this franchise to it's first Super Bowl, is much beloved in the locker room and by the fans, who stated a strong desire to stay here, and it took him going to SF for Graves to get off his ass and finally offer him something.

That's probably partially true, in that Warner was going to leverage that SB any way he could.

The truth is Graves kept core players at ridiculous prices and was the GM when we went to the SB, and... AND kept core players on this team after he left. I don't know that you can ask more from a GM than that.

And some of ya'll act like he lost Kurt Warner with that SF trip. He came back. Nothing was lost and KW didn't even return with leverage. Graves didn't lose a thing.

He kept Fitz and Dockett. Fitz is way overpaid, sure, but he's here isn't he? He kept Adub too and I'm one of those weirdos that thinks Adub should have retired a Cardinal.

Graves handicapped us with contracts, to some extent, but the real issue is his lack of free agency knowledge and inability to sign them. That can't be put solely on him though, the Cardinals brand wasn't what it is now and nobody wanted to come here, for one thing. He had to overpay for everything.

I honestly believe he helped usher in this new era by keeping dudes, franchise guys. It's a relatively easy job for Keim to come in now and pick up the mess and sign guys. Totally different decade, totally different mindset, and not nearly as tough a job as Graves had. Not even close.

Graves was a good interim GM, to stabilize the franchise and propel it forward. Keim is an awesome front runner, great at 1 year deals and hard-nosed negotiations. If you switched the two in those time frames, I think they'd both fail.

That's why Michael Bidwill is awesome. Right GM's and right coaches at the right times.

 

[Cardinals.Ken]

I give Graves credit for creating the expectation of bringing in our draft picks on time. That used to be the most horrible of odysseys from my perspective.

 

[Hollywood]

Lets not get all slobery over Graves. The guy simply wasnt a good evaluator of talent. It still boggles my mind that he came up through the scouting ranks.

Fitz, Dock and even Warner were brought on during the Green era.

Now that I am thinking about it maybe his trouble wasnt evaluating talent. Maybe it was more basic than that. Maybe he just wasnt a leader. And whenever there was a real alpha male in the building he would take a back seat. Which leads to the drafting of Levi Brown over Adrian Petersen.

 

[Stout]

I dislike Graves as much as anyone, but he kept Fitz here, kept Wilson here (mostly), kept Dockett here. He made the deals for Warner and others.

Yes he mortgaged the future, but when he made those deals we sucked. We were desperate.

Stop the hate. All of that made this possible now. He kept the core of this team and the face of the franchise. When he was making deals we weren't a good team to come to. We had to overpay.

Frankly, I think he's as much a reason we're in this position as anyone else. He had little to work with. And just because Keim is awesome doesn't negate his contributions. Keim is working with a much better team and coach, where the Cards are a destination. Graves never had that luxury.

He had little to work with because he continually sucked at improving the team. He was an awful GM. Absolutely awful. The Human Snail.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

Ask the Jets about how good of a GM type Rod Graves is.

 

[BigRedRage]

couldnt stand graves. Now we get top guys fast and do what needs done instead of watching the rest of the league snap everyone up and signing guys off the street for big ass contracts.