What can the Redskins really afford?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Sheriff Gonna Getcha

Schneed,

Why is the WP article about Lloyd's release stating that Lloyd will be treated as a 6/1/08 cut, but we won't realize any additional cap space until June 1?

June 1 is the day that the NFL's fiscal year rolls forward. It used to be that if you cut a guy after June 1, you pushed most of his deadcap hit until the next season as opposed to the upcoming one.

So before the new CBA was signed, you saw teams cutting a bunch of guys for cap reasons on June 1, in order to save space in the current year and push the deadcap hit into the next year. It worked well for the NFL teams, but the players didn't like this because by the time June 1 rolls around, the NFL has gone through free agency and the draft, so teams have already had a chance to address their roster needs. It left the June 1 cuts without many options.

So the new CBA stipulated that teams could still reap the same salary cap benefits with post-June 1 cuts, and at the same time release the player earlier in order to give him a fighting chance to catch on with another team.

So in short, even though Lloyd was released yesterday, for salary cap accounting purposes he remains on the roster until June 1 2008. So even though he's gone, we don't see the cap benefit until June 1.