Somers: Only 11 mil in cap space left!

[ajcardfan]

Contracts eat up cap space
Kent Somers
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 8, 2007 12:00 AM

The Cardinals haven't been impulse buyers in this free-agent market, signing only three players, including two of their own.

Yet, those deals have consumed nearly $10 million of salary-cap space, leaving the team about $11 million under the $109 million cap, and bringing into question how many more free agents it can afford.

In each of those three contracts, the Cardinals chose to pay a roster bonus instead of a signing bonus. It's a significant difference, because a roster bonus counts toward this year's cap. A signing bonus can be prorated over the life of the contract for cap purposes, saving the team cap room in the current year. advertisement




Center Al Johnson, who signed a four-year, $17.5 million deal earlier this week, received a $3.5 million roster bonus. Combine that with his $3.5 million salary and Johnson's cap figure is $7 million this year.

If the Cardinals had paid him a $3.5 million signing bonus, Johnson's cap figure would have been about $4.4 million, instead of $7 million, a difference of $2.6 million.

Add the contracts of running back Marcel Shipp and safety Hanik Milligan, and the total difference in cap figures increases to almost $3 million, enough to accommodate another player or two.

The Cardinals have entered the past few seasons with more than $10 million under the cap. This has prompted criticism from fans and media, who would like to see them acquire more free agents with that money.

Rod Graves, the team's vice president of football operations, did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday. In the past, however, he has said structuring contracts this way is a prudent financial and football decision.

If a player is cut, his signing bonus can accelerate on to the current year's cap, leaving the team to pay for a player who is no longer available. The Cardinals ran into that problem a few seasons ago when departed players were consuming almost $10 million of cap space.

A team avoids that problem with a roster bonus, which is counted against one year's cap figure.

This isn't a new strategy by the Cardinals. Running back Edgerrin James' 4-year, $30 million contract, which he signed last spring, included a $4.5 million roster bonus. His salary-cap number in 2006 was $9.5 million.

The roster bonuses do help the Cardinals' salary cap in subsequent years. For instance, James' figure decreases this year to $7 million. If the Cardinals had increased his signing bonus by $4.5 million, his cap figure would be about $8.125 million.

But with only $11 million under the cap this year,the Cardinals can't afford many more large contracts in free agency, unless they decide to make adjustments by cutting players or signing them to extended deals.

Part of that $11 million of space must be used to accommodate rookies, cover ancillary player costs, re-sign players or to acquire additional players in the event of injuries.


Note
Detroit safety Terrence Holt, an unrestricted free agent, is scheduled to visit the Cardinals today. A five-year veteran, Holt started 15 games last season and had three interceptions.

They remain interested in several other free agents, including cornerback Roderick Hood. Hood was in New Orleans for a visit on Wednesday.

 

[ajcardfan]

Wow. Looks like we're almost done in free agency. One guy more maybe, then everyone else will be for the vet minimum.

 

[General Chaos]

All they have to do is give the new guys signing bonuses, and they can squeeze more in.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

No wonder we are not throwing money at these guys .. it sounds like we are eating up this years cap with our FA signings, but it should leave us with cap space next year to bring in some other FAs ..

 

[Urubu Rei]

This sounds to me as quiting free agent market.

 

[Totally_Red]

Wonder how much of that $11 million goes to draftees? Signing 4 to 7 more guys means roughly 1 to 1.5 million each right?

 

[Totally_Red]

This sounds to me as quiting free agent market.

Hey look at the bright side. At least we'll have a fifth or sixth round compensatory pick next year after we go 5 and 11 again.

 

[Goldfield]

Shocking...

 

[sly fly]

Comical beyond belief.

Is there a reasoning in structuring contracts like this? Or, can it be considered "mismanagement" (that's a word you don't hear often with the Cardinals).

 

[BullheadCardFan]

Anybody think that we would have handled this diferent if we still had Idzik handling the contracts .. ??

 

[ajcardfan]

One thing about this is that we've pushed so much money onto this year's cap, that could've been spread into the future, that doing an extension for anyone before the season ends seems to have been eliminated. If Dansby has a good year, this could hurt us.

 

[Duckjake]

One thing about this is that we've pushed so much money onto this year's cap, that could've been spread into the future, that doing an extension for anyone before the season ends seems to have been eliminated. If Dansby has a good year, this could hurt us.

With the big contracts being offered this year and the expected increases in the cap limit it could become more difficult to get players to sign extensions.

 

[Covert Rain]

So if Rod Graves run things, does this mean he made the decision to structure contracts like this? He is so the best GM in the league.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

It really does make me wonder why we need a GM in the first place. Flat contracts, no back ended deals. I am sure half of ASFN could do as well as Graves.

 

[joeshmo]

I finally got over being pissed off yesterday. Now I am pissed off again.

It looks like we are going to be 2 free agents and done becauase we have no clue how to structure a contract like the rest of the NFL. We are the only team in the league that can have Shipp, Milligan, and Al Johnson take up 10 Mill of cap space in one season. This is so disheartening.

 

[PJ1]

Is it OK to start panicking now? No way to be aggressive as was promised. Not the way we do contracts.

 

[joeshmo]

Wonder how much of that $11 million goes to draftees? Signing 4 to 7 more guys means roughly 1 to 1.5 million each right?

Draft cap will be slightly under 5 Mill., save 1 more Mill for the Practice Squad, and we are down to 5 Mlll. Now how much of that are the CArds going to keep for injuries or midseason extensions?

Does everyone know how crappy the remaining 3-7 UFA's we were promised the Cards were going to sign are going to have to be to fit under our cap especially the way we are structuring them.

 

[joeshmo]

Hey look at the bright side. At least we'll have a fifth or sixth round compensatory pick next year after we go 5 and 11 again.

Well I was telling everyone that were not going to get a comp pick for Davis because we would sign enough quaility FA to make up for his loss. But since it looks as if its only going to be Al Johnson and one more guy. We will without question get a comp pick, maybe even 2 depending on what Macklin gets.

 

[JeffGollin]

Wonder how much of that $11 million goes to draftees? Signing 4 to 7 more guys means roughly 1 to 1.5 million each right?

It's unclear what the various cap numbers being thrown around include or don't include.

I could swear hearing that the original cap figure was around $30-mil, but that $10 or 11 of it had to go for rookies and to extend or re-up a few veterans.

That would leave $20-Mil available to sign new FA's.

Now Somers is telling us we only have about $10-mil. Is this number accurate? Or is he double-counting the first $10-mil that was to come off the original $30-mil? Or is Rod G revising a bit of history and selectively issuing new numbers?

Without meaning to point fingers, it would be really really helpful to see a set of numbers breaking down (a) the original cap budget going into the offseason, (b) est. rookie pool budget, (c) amount of this year's cap spent on renewing or extending current veterans and (d) the money still remaining.

Without context, we'll continue to be throwing around boxcar dollar figures that don't mean anything.

 

[joeshmo]

It's unclear what the various cap numbers being thrown around include or don't include.

I could swear hearing that the original cap figure was around $30-mil, but that $10 or 11 of it had to go for rookies and to extend or re-up a few veterans.

That would leave $20-Mil available to sign new FA's.

Now Somers is telling us we only have about $10-mil. Is this number accurate? Or is he double-counting the first $10-mil that was to come off the original $30-mil? Or is Rod G revising a bit of history and selectively issuing new numbers?

Without meaning to point fingers, it would be really really helpful to see a set of numbers breaking down (a) the original cap budget going into the offseason, (b) est. rookie pool budget, (c) amount of this year's cap spent on renewing or extending current veterans and (d) the money still remaining.

Without context, we'll continue to be throwing around boxcar dollar figures that don't mean anything.

Sommers is correct.

32 Mill on Feb 28th. Minus a Dockett bonus, and about 6 Mill worth of bonuses to Matt, Rolle, and Fitz, then 1.3 Mill to Leckey, then 435K to A. Smith, then the crappiest structured contracts I have every seen at a cost of 10 Mill for only 3 players (2 out of 3 being backups in Shipp and Milligan, with Al Johnson a new starting C). What does that leave us with slightly under 11 Mill.

 

[General Chaos]

This 11 mil left does not include the rookie pool. We had 15-20 to spend on FA's, so take away 10 and that leaves us 11.

 

[AntSports Steve]

I agree Joe, I was finally over being mad and now I'm mad again.

$6M for the rookies, $1M for practice squad, $4M for injuries. And presto the cap money is gone.

Only the Cards could start Free Agency with $36M in cap space. Sign 2 backups and 1 reasonable players and eat up all their cap.

Any chance the reporter made a mistake?

 

[Chainthroer]

Quote
I could swear hearing that the original cap figure was around $30-mil, but that $10 or 11 of it had to go for rookies and to extend or re-up a few veterans.

That would leave $20-Mil available to sign new FA's.

Now Somers is telling us we only have about $10-mil. Is this number accurate? Or is he double-counting the first $10-mil that was to come off the original $30-mil? Or is Rod G revising a bit of history and selectively issuing new numbers?
That what I remember too. And that's what most of the news articles have been printing. Something is fishy. Davis is leaving and we do not have his annual salary for a replacement. We just got to have and extra $10M!! But, I'm not the numbers man for the Cards.

 

[joeshmo]

I agree Joe, I was finally over being mad and now I'm mad again.

$6M for the rookies, $1M for practice squad, $4M for injuries. And presto the cap money is gone.

Only the Cards could start Free Agency with $36M in cap space. Sign 2 backups and 1 reasonable players and eat up all their cap.

Any chance the reporter made a mistake?

Nope he is in fact correct. And we only had 32 Mill as of Feb. 28th. I forgot to include Dockets bonus of 3.5 Mill in my 36 Mill projection.

We do in fact have slightly less then 11 Mill. left and that does not include the rookie cap, Practice Squad, or injury funds.

 

[ajcardfan]

Someone from the Cards explained this to Somers, so this is what they want the public to know. Just yesterday, Somers said Johnson had a signing bonus and his cap hit was 4.4mil. If they have more money under the cap, then they are misleading us for some reason. And, Graves' biggest supporters have always said he's a non-lying straight-shooter. So, I think this actually is what they have left.

I guess they could cut someone, or restructure some deals, but I think that's very, very unlikely.