The Archuleta cap hit question.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

It's still too early to tell what the cap implications are, but Schneed10 posted this in another thread

To update myself, it appears that I was correct in that post. Per the WP's article:

The Redskins and Archuleta agreed to postpone his original deadline of March 12 to receive his bonus payment in order to facilitate a trade, and the Bears, whose coach, Lovie Smith, has a strong relationship with the safety from their time together in St. Louis, ultimately agreed to pick up that $5 million payment as part of the deal, sources said, beating today's new deadline for the option.

Archuleta will get a new contract with Chicago, while the Redskins are expected to land just a sixth-round pick as compensation for a player who was drafted 20th overall in 2001. Had the Redskins executed the option and kept Archuleta as a reserve (behind starters Pierson Prioleau and Sean Taylor), he would have cost them $2.4 million against the salary cap; by dealing him, he likely will count $4 million in dead cap space, pending any other possible contract restructurings, but will be off the team's books after 2007.

He counts $4 million against our 2007 cap instead of $9 million. He would have counted $2.4 million if he played for us in 2007. So trading him ate up $1.6 million in space.

This means we now have $8 million in space to work with right now. Given that rookies will fit in $3 - $4 million in space, there clearly is a plan in place to make another major move. Look for the Bly deal to go down soon.