Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

To do business, Redskins will have to cut over $13 million off of cap

With the announcement that the 2013 salary cap would be $123 million, the Redskins, assuming that they will be unable to appeal or sue their way into regaining their penalized $18 million in salary cap space, are technically about $3 million over the salary cap. One simple move such as the lowering of DeAngelo Hall’s $7.5 salary to something more in line with his market value, somewhere around $3 million or so, would get them under the cap.

But, in reality, they have much more work to do.

The Redskins will need to be able to sign their draft picks, so they will have to create about $5 million more in cap space to do that. If they want to offer restricted free agent tenders to ensure that they will be able to keep players such as Rob Jackson, Darrel Young, and Logan Paulsen. Tendering those three players along would take up about $4 million.

You want to be able to go into the season with $5 million or so in cap space in order to be able to pay a full practice squad (that’s a minimum of about $800,000, more if you need to pay some players more to keep them around) and to cover injuries as players on injured reserve are generally paid their full salaries and that money is charged to the cap.

So they need to get to about $14 million under, meaning they have to cut $17 million, just to start to do business. Then they have to get to work to replace players like Dorson Boyce and Tristan Davis who are now on the roster counting against the salary cap at the second-year minimum of $405,000. Signing veterans will cost more, in some cases a lot more. There is not a punter or long snapper on the roster as Sav Rocca is an unrestricted free agent and Nick Sundberg is restricted.

The good news is that they to not have to clear all of the $17 million by March 12. One thing that they could do to help out immediately would be to sign Jackson, Young, and Paulsen to contracts that are more cap friendly this year. That would keep their $1.3 million tenders from hitting the books at their full value. Or, they could just let their RFA’s become unrestricted and give up the right to match an offer sheet from another team. And they don’t need to have the $5 million to go into the season with until training camp is over.

How will the Redskins get done what they need to get done? We don’t know, but we can outline some pathways to $14 million under. Look for those here over the next few days as we count down to March 12.

Redskins have $7 million in cap space left

When the Redskins were hit with a $18 million salary cap penalty for this season (with an equal amount set to hit in 2013), it was reasonable to think that they would go into training camp just barely under the cap. Either that or some high-priced veterans would have to be thrown overboard to keep the ship from sinking. Or perhaps some veteran free agents like London Fletcher would have to be let go.

As it turns out, none of the above turned out to be the case. Santana Moss and Chris Cooley are still on the roster despite high cap numbers and reserve status. The Redskins didn’t lose Fletcher to another team. And they have more cap room than about half of the teams in the NFL.

According to Pro Football Talk, Washington has $6.79 million remaining in cap space. That is more than 15 other NFL teams.

The Jaguars have the most cap room with $25.1 million in reserve. On the other end of the scale are the Ravens, who are looking under couch cushions for spare change with only $660,000 in cap space left. 

What should the Redskins do with their remaining cap space? After signing draft picks Robert Griffin III and Josh LeRibeus, absolutely nothing. You always want to go into a season with a few million in cap space to account for players on injured reserve. And anything that they don’t spend this year will be added to their cap next year. That will help mitigate the effects of that 2013 cap penalty.

 

Redskins signings have minimal cap impact

The Redskins’ free agent shopping spree this week did not cost them very much in terms of salary cap room.

By using two provisions of the salary cap rules the Redskins were able to get Leigh Torrence, Kedric Golston, and Madieu Williams under contract for the 2012 season and add just $400,000 to the salary cap in the process.

Aaron Wilson of Scout.com reported the contract details for the three players via Twitter on his must-follow @RavensInsider account (don’t be fooled by the handle, Aaron breaks news for all 32 NFL teams):

@RavensInsider #Redskins CB Leigh Torrence's one-year deal: $750,000, $50,000 roster bonus. Cap figure $590,000 under min. salary benefit

@RavensInsider #Redskins DE Golston's one-year deal is $790,000, including $65,000 bonus. Cap figure $605,000 under min. salary benefit

@RavensInsider Madieu Williams' deal is $890,000, $65,000 bonus. Cap figure $605,000 under min. salary benefit, $200,000 gtd.

The minimum salary benefit allows teams to get salary cap credits for signing veteran players who are making the veteran minimum. This softens the cap consequences for keeping a veteran player over younger, cheaper options.

The cap hits on the three one-year contracts total $1.8 million but the Redskins had less than that subtracted from the $7.6 million they had in cap space at the beginning of the week. That is because of the Rule of 51. 

During the offseason, only the top 51 salary cap numbers on the team are counted towards the cap. When a player is added, his cap number pushes the player with the lowest cap number out of the top 51 and, therefore, out of the cap number.

The additions of Torrence, Golston, and Williams and their $1.8 million total cap numbers pushed Willie Smith, Maurice Hurt, and Nevin McCaskill out of the top 51. The cap numbers of the younger players, which total $1.4 million, came off of the cap figure. 

That makes the net cap hit of the three signings $400,000, leaving the Redskins with about $7.2 million.

 

Restructure candidates are few

With the Redskins' cap space getting tight, one good way to create more if by restructuring existing contracts. 

A simple restructure usually involves take a player's salary for the coming season and paying it to him up front. You then call that salary a signing bonus and you can prorate the cap charges for it over the rest of the player's contract. 

If you want to do that, you have to go where the money is. Here are the Redskins who currently have salaries over $1 million:

1. Trent Williams $11 million
2. DeAngelo Hall $6 million
3. Chris Cooley $3.8 million
4. Barry Cofield $3.75 million
5. Josh Wilson $3.4 million
6. Jammal Brown $3.25 million
7. Santana Moss $3.15 million
8. Stephen Bowen $2.9 million
9. Jabar Gaffney $2.65 million
10. Chris Chester $2.5 million
11. John Beck $1 million

Note: Fred Davis' salary is $5.4 million but that is under the franchise tag. The team could create more cap space by signing him to a long-term deal but that is a separate discussion.

Williams and Hall are the obvious candidates to be restructured. Redoing Hall's contract would save about $3.5 million or so and they could save around $8 million by restructuring Williams.

But not so fast on Williams. He faces a year's suspension if he violates the NFL's substance abuse policy again. The Redskins can recover any salary due to him if he is suspended but signing bonus is protected by the CBA. The organization seems to be confident that Williams will be able to steer clear of future problems but perhaps not to the point where they're willing to bet $11 million in him.

Of the rest, Beck and Gaffney can't restructure since they are in the last year of their contracts. The others might offer minimal savings but every little bit can help.

The downside to restructuring is that it pushes money back into later years and the Redskins have come to prefer more of a pay as you go approach. It also increases the cap consequences of releasing a player should his performance decline. 

Redskins will have extra cap money in 2012

By Rich Tandler

After the lockout ended, the Redskins signed a number of free agents such as Barry Cofield and their own Santana Moss. When they were done spending, they had some cap room left and many have been wondering why they have not spent it on things such as contract extensions.

We now know why they were not concerned with disposing of the spare cap room. It used to be that if you didn’t spend or otherwise account for your unused cap money with phony incentives you would lose it the next year. However, the new CBA allows teams to carry over unused cap money from one season to the next.

According to our sister site Pro Football Talk, the Redskins had $11.9 million in cap space as of Nov. 20. They have eaten into a little of that with some injury replacements and some other roster moves but they still have almost all of it. So if the 2012 salary cap is $125 million as it is projected to be now, the Redskins will have almost $137 million to spend in 2012.

This sounds good at first but 10 other NFL teams will have even more extra cap space next year including the Cowboys, who were $18.2 million under the cap as of Nov. 20. The other NFC East teams will have less money added to their 2012 war chests as the Eagles were $5.3 million under and the Giants just $1.7 million under.

The Jaguars will have the most to spend, an extra $32.9 million while the Steelers have the least at $640,000.