Peter King on The Skins - Future Cap Trouble

[#56fanatic]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

You and I have butted heads on this before, and I'm not going to get into a big thing again. You are right in that the general principle of restructuring players pushes money off into the future. But if you pick and choose which players you do that for, plus occasionally clear a disappointing player off your books, plus take into account the rising cap limit, you can manage your cap number without coming up against the cap hell. It's not smart to restructure ALL of your players, that's too much pushed into the future. It's also not smart to restructure NONE of your players, because then we'd have to cut a bunch of guys this year. The best approach lies in the middle, the Goldilocks syndrome, just right.

Remember, we shed a bunch of money from the awful Archuleta contract, clearing him off our books this year. Remember, the cap limit is going up by about $8 million in 2008. We weren't in dire straits last year like everyone said, and we won't be in 2008 either.

i wont get into a lenghty discussion on this either. The way things are done now is the reason we see our roster changes every few years. I hope things change in the near future. I am kind of tired of retooling the roster every few years. The signings of Cooley, Sellers, Betts is in the right direction. Keeping draft picks and using them next year will hopefully stop all the overpaid signings. I do think our FO does a good job of working the cap figures, but the costly signings of Lloyd, Arch, Brunell (money and picks) ect hurt us more in the long run because of dead money. cutting lloyd is like 7 million in dead money next year. Arch has to be costing some money too.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by #56fanatic

i wont get into a lenghty discussion on this either. The way things are done now is the reason we see our roster changes every few years. I hope things change in the near future. I am kind of tired of retooling the roster every few years. The signings of Cooley, Sellers, Betts is in the right direction. Keeping draft picks and using them next year will hopefully stop all the overpaid signings. I do think our FO does a good job of working the cap figures, but the costly signings of Lloyd, Arch, Brunell (money and picks) ect hurt us more in the long run because of dead money. cutting lloyd is like 7 million in dead money next year. Arch has to be costing some money too.

Can't argue with any of this, except to correct that Arch is costing us much. We farmed $5 million in Archuleta dead money off to the Bears. In the grand scheme, Arch is barely a blip on our dead-money radar.

I think the team needed to make free agent acquisitions mainly because Spurrier didn't manage to leave the team chock full of talent. The 'Skins had to make some free agent moves and make some trades to get the players they liked. Those 2004 moves were pretty solid, all in all. But they whiffed miserably on the Archuleta, Lloyd, and Duckett moves, which really hurt the team's depth.

From what I've seen, they now are liking the guys they've drafted, which wasn't the case when Gibbs first took over. Now they're managing the team quite a bit better, IMO.

[Bill B]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

We could save $1.6 million by cutting Griffin. This would take him off our books for the future.

Or we could save $2.8 million by restructuring him. This would not only keep him on our books for the future, but would increase the cap charges in that year. So definitely a catch 22 with him.

On Daniels, he's probably a goner. There's opportunity to save $3.0 million by cutting him. Or save $1.4 million by restructuring him.

Schneed - if we cut Daniels wouldn't it be safe to say that the Skins would most likely use their 1st round pick on a DE? If they didn't than who starts at DE for the departed Daniesl - Demitric Evans?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Bill B

Schneed - if we cut Daniels wouldn't it be safe to say that the Skins would most likely use their 1st round pick on a DE? If they didn't than who starts at DE for the departed Daniesl - Demitric Evans?

Good question. That probably plays into the decision to cut Daniels or keep him.

[SFREDSKIN]

Originally Posted by Bill B

Schneed - if we cut Daniels wouldn't it be safe to say that the Skins would most likely use their 1st round pick on a DE? If they didn't than who starts at DE for the departed Daniesl - Demitric Evans?

Don't be surprised if it's Chris Wilson, he'll bulk up after the season. The coaches like his upside a lot.

[Schneed10]

General note, I'm happy to take questions on this stuff, as always.

But if you want to wait until the offseason, I'd certainly understand. After all, we've got a playoff race to win!

[redsk1]

Good posts. I would like to think that our Capogists at Redskins Park already know this and have a good plan to work our way thru.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by redsk1

Good posts. I would like to think that our Capogists at Redskins Park already know this and have a good plan to work our way thru.

You bet they do, they've been executing this exact plan for four years now. The growth in the salary cap each year mitigates the consequences of pushing cap hits into the future.

[BleedBurgundy]

Here's a stupid question. What if we were to pull a NY Yankees and just give the finger to the Salary Cap? Is there a luxury tax? Are you not allowed to sign any other players until you're under the cap? Would Goodell just come in and shoot Danny?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by BleedBurgundy

Here's a stupid question. What if we were to pull a NY Yankees and just give the finger to the Salary Cap? Is there a luxury tax? Are you not allowed to sign any other players until you're under the cap? Would Goodell just come in and shoot Danny?

The NFL's salary cap is a hard cap.

In baseball, the consequences for being over the cap is a luxury tax. If you want to be over the cap, you just have to pony up the bucks in taxes. Same in the NBA.

But in the NFL, teams are required to stay under the cap. It's a hard cap. I've never seen a team violate this, so I'm not sure what the consequences are, but I believe they are severe, like forfeiting lots of draft picks.

[GTripp0012]

Springs is pretty much a goner too, IMO. Todd Wade has a high cap number for a backup, although he's likely safe one more year.

Springs saves a million or so this year, but more importantly, takes him off the books for the future.

The biggest deal this year is that we simply won't have the money to go out next season and make a splash in free agency. No longer will we be able to outbid other teams for talent.

However, we should have no issue keeping the contributors around for the foreseeable future. The only way we can improve this team though is with the development of young talent.

[skinsfan69]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Springs is pretty much a goner too, IMO. Todd Wade has a high cap number for a backup, although he's likely safe one more year.

Springs saves a million or so this year, but more importantly, takes him off the books for the future.

The biggest deal this year is that we simply won't have the money to go out next season and make a splash in free agency. No longer will we be able to outbid other teams for talent.

However, we should have no issue keeping the contributors around for the foreseeable future. The only way we can improve this team though is with the development of young talent.

You hit it right on the money. Perhaps we can add some guys through FA here and there. And some of the draft picks in 08 pan out. But the young core guys like JC, Heyer, Cooley, Rocky, Carlos, Landry, Montgomery, and so on, all of these guys are just going to have to get better and play better.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

You hit it right on the money. Perhaps we can add some guys through FA here and there. And some of the draft picks in 08 pan out. But the young core guys like JC, Heyer, Cooley, Rocky, Carlos, Landry, Montgomery, and so on, all of these guys are just going to have to get better and play better.

Yep.

The big question going into next year is can the development of those select young guys offset or even exceed the decline of the steady vets on this team?

Based on position value, such as Quarterback, I would argue that yes, they will offset them.

[skinsfan242]

EVERY year, I hear we will be in CAP HELL. NEVER HAPPENS and won't next year so I think we will be OK.

Plus the cap wil probably go up by at LEAST 5 million for next year.

Over by 19.5. Goes up by 5, we can cut 33. Looks like we are 18.5 UNDER next year, Plenty of Room to eat Lloyd's deal.

[#56fanatic]

Originally Posted by skinsfan242

EVERY year, I hear we will be in CAP HELL. NEVER HAPPENS and won't next year so I think we will be OK.

Plus the cap wil probably go up by at LEAST 5 million for next year.

Over by 19.5. Goes up by 5, we can cut 33. Looks like we are 18.5 UNDER next year, Plenty of Room to eat Lloyd's deal.

This is what gets us in trouble every year, pushing larger amounts of money into the future.