What effect do today's cuts have on the cap?

[Mainstreet]

True enough, but if we hadn't ate up the capspace, maybe we could have traded Clancy? They said he had 4 teams lined up to look at him and signed with NO for more money than we were paying him. Maybe we get a 5th rounder or something?

But we couldn't trade because we needed more caproom and trading wouldn't do that.

I'm not overly familiar with the finances/ trades in the NFL but it would seem if 4 teams were interested in Clancy one team would be willing to give the Cards a pick in a trade just to make sure they got him even though they knew he was going to be released.

 

[Stout]

Like I said, it's not that they were cut. I just think it would've been better had the cuts happened in August instead of June. But, we didn't have that luxury.

Now there, MadCard, is a great point and pretty much sums up how I feel. It's just plain dumb to cut your depth before training camp. The only thing that might mitigate that is one point you made, about the reps, but that's too minor of a point to worry about. If you're thinking about cutting them going into camp, bury them on the depth chart and give them less reps. They might get unhappy, but it will quickly become apparent if you need to keep them or not. Certainly don't keep them for the whole preseason if you have no major injuries and they absolutely cannot fit into your system.

Even still, even at their price and even though they might not fit the system, I'd STILL rather have Clancy than Lewis and Brown than Elton Brown.

 

[joeshmo]

I'm not overly familiar with the finances/ trades in the NFL but it would seem if 4 teams were interested in Clancy one team would be willing to give the Cards a pick in a trade just to make sure they got him even though they knew he was going to be released.

If Clancy was traded we would have to take the cap hit of his bonus all in this year, instead of being able to spread it out over 2 seasons if released.

So trading him would not have saved us any cap space, and the reason why we didnt try to trade him.

 

[jefftheshark]

What is the date that we have to be at, or below, the cap? I was under the impression that we could be over the cap until a short period prior to the start of the first game.

If this is the case, then why was there a hurry to cut these guys now? I guess I am in the camp that doesn't care as much that they got cut, as the timing of the cuts.

The Shark

 

[joeshmo]

What is the date that we have to be at, or below, the cap? I was under the impression that we could be over the cap until a short period prior to the start of the first game.

If this is the case, then why was there a hurry to cut these guys now? I guess I am in the camp that doesn't care as much that they got cut, as the timing of the cuts.

The Shark

Teams had to be under the cap a while ago and the deadline was the end of the business day the day before free agency started.

 

[jefftheshark]

Teams had to be under the cap a while ago and the deadline was the end of the business day the day before free agency started.

Thanks for the answer, but aren't teams sometimes over the cap, and that is why they have to cut players at the end of training camp in order to get under? I think that everyone had to be under the cap on March 2nd, but they are free to be where ever they want to be (cap-wise) up to the beginning of the actual season (when they have to be under again).

The Shark

 

[joeshmo]

Thanks for the answer, but aren't teams sometimes over the cap, and that is why they have to cut players at the end of training camp in order to get under? I think that everyone had to be under the cap on March 2nd, but they are free to be where ever they want to be (cap-wise) up to the beginning of the actual season (when they have to be under again).

The Shark

Teams have to get under by the final cut down date becuase thats when the salary cap accounting changes from only counting the top 51 salaries during the offseason to having to count the top 53 salaries + the practice squad + players on injured reserve. So teams might have to do some wiggle room to get those extra 2 salaries, the PS, and injuried reserves under the cap limit.

Other then that a team is never allowed to be over the cap during the offseason.