couple notes on comments here:
1. after lavar gave money back, they fixed the CBA to prevent players from being allowed to return guaranteed money... i don't know the specifics, so i'm not sure if there's still a possible loophole, but i don't think you can ever count on that.
2. when ARE, AA, etc's contracts jump from vet min salary to ~4mill a year, 60% of the signing bonus (6mill) will be off the books, so they could be cut for no savings at that point. Not a great situation, since it'll still be 4mill of unusable cap space per, but it's not cataclysmic... the combined result or so many exploding contracts is bad though
(unless you can stretch it until another TV deal comes to bail us out, which is NOT a great idea).
3. It's too bad patten got signed to an extension due to the cap crisis :/ otherwise he'd be easy to ditch or trade (he'd be decent for another team at under a 2mill/year average).
4. Dockery and betts should be re-signed, since they have more value here than with any other team, so the prices should be low (hopefully they don't get blown away, in which case, matching would be a bad idea).
5. the cuts - that list is slim pickings :/. when looking through it, remember that some guys CANNOT be replaced any cheaper (price/performance), and the min. cost to fill a roster spot is ~250k (rookie) or 425k (vet 1 year deal).
suggested cuts:
Mark Brunell - $2.33 m
Renaldo Wynn - $2.5 m (use high first round pick on adam gaines)
John Hall - $1.5 m
Todd Collins - $1.25 m
Christian Fauria - $1.0 m
Mike Rumph - $1.0 m
emergency cuts:
Troy Vincent - $1.37 m (cheap safeties are always available)
James Thrash - $1.3 m (4 deep + RBs/TEs/FBs/street FAs is good enough)
Phillip Daniels - $1.9 m (wouldn't leave us with any depth)
keeps:
Joe Salave'a - $710K (cheap, not much DT depth)
Pierson Prioleau - $710K
Lemar Marshall - $600K
Demetric Evans - $600K
Khary Campbell - $500K
Rock Cartwright - $450K
Nick Novak - $435K
I'd guess one of wynn or daniels will re-structure... if not, there's a good chance only one (or neither) will be back - but replacements would have to be lined up first.
the big thing is to clear room to try and get clements signed, since we don't have 2 first day draft picks to address both DE and CB.