Next Year's Cap Situation

[Aussie_Skins_Fan]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

For the 2008 season, I removed the value of all players who are likely to be cut from the 53 man roster in this 2007 season. I came out with a total cap number of 119 million. The projected cap for 2008 is 116 million.

On the surface that seems fine. We were three mil over this year and cut some dead weight and restructured some guys and ended up about 10 million under. Not that hard right?

Heres the big issue. After removing 20 players who are likely to miss the 53 man roster in 2007 from the 2008 cap total, that leaves the Redskins with 33 players under contract for the 2008 season who combined are costing us more than the salary cap allows. In that 33, we do not have a Punter, a Kicker, or a long snapper.

Now, we still have to draft two classes worth of players and resign key guys like Cooley. So I estimate that 119 figure will be in the ballpark of 130 million before free agency next year. I am estimating that we will be adding about 9 players to that 2008 total before we hit FA next year (Cooley's new deal + First round pick this year + 3 day 2 picks this year + 3 or so guys to fill out this years roster [TE, LB, OG]).

So if my projections are to be accurate, we will have to free up 14 million in cap space (just to comply with the league office) by March 1st.

Great info, alot of work has obviously gone into this and it is appreciated.

Our FO must know all this and more about the cap situation and although they have put themselves into this situation, i am confident that they will come through it without too many cap casualties. My confidence is growing because of the actions that they have taken so far this off-season. Rather than breaking the bank with big signings (as we have become accustomed to recently) they are acting in a much more economical manner, seemingly with future cap space in mind.

In addition to this, we have nearly 2 full years to get this sorted out and if there is one thing this franchise does better than anyone else, it is restructuring contracts. I would hope that a key player like Washington would re-work his contract in order to remain here. That being said, i am sure you are right about some of those players becoming cap casualties. Hopefully the damage can be minimised now that our FO seems to have realised their previous approacah was wrong.