I want Antonio Garay's big sweet ass on the defensive line next year

[frash.exe]

Antonio Garay (SD) - NT - Just as quickly as they lost Jamal Williams, they've replaced him at nose tackle with another Pro Bowl caliber player. It's crucial to the defense that they retain Garay to anchor the defensive front.

http://footballsfuture.com/2012/fa/dl.html

Sign Garay, Tollefson, Dwayne Bowe, draft Coples or Brandon Thompson and hope Upshaw falls to our 2nd round pick. Blowout Pissburgh on the Saints' turf in February 2013

[Kevin Greene]

G/L with that.

[R0CKnR0LLA]

can't afford him

[Frizzy350]

and we are going to get the cap space to sign those doods plus our draft picks where?

[Clicheking]

Once again our fanbase's knowledge on how football actually works is proudly put on display for the world to see

[Proudiddy]

It's cool, we'll just go into "edit player," go to "contract" then reduce Charles Johnson, Denagelo, and Beason's salaries to 1 million each year...

hehe...

Computer... doh, I mean, the NFL will never even notice.

[frash.exe]

Once again our fanbase's knowledge on how football actually works is proudly put on display for the world to see

clicheking have you ever heard of elements of satire?

[Swarly]

can't afford him

you know the salary cap is going to skyrocket when the new TV rights are agreed to right?

quit acting like we're fuged for the next 5 years because we extended some very talented players.

[Jangler]

clicheking have you ever heard of elements of satire?

Maybe a Freddie Mercury smiley instead?

[R0CKnR0LLA]

you know the salary cap is going to skyrocket when the new TV rights are agreed to right?

quit acting like we're fuged for the next 5 years because we extended some very talented players.

The salary cap is a designated percentage of the league's shared revenues from the previous league year. Any new deal that is reached won't take effect right away. Estimates for 2012 have it going up around 8-10% but we are nearly maxed now before you take in account the increase. Once it's increased we'll have enough to sign our draft picks, a few of our own guys (Shockey, Connor, Hangartner) and not much else. Anyone waiting on even a single big name signing is going to be dissapointed. Of course this is assuming we aren't trading/restructuring anyone to clear space.

[Swarly]

The salary cap is a designated percentage of the league's shared revenues from the previous league year. Any new deal that is reached won't take effect right away. Estimates for 2012 have it going up around 8-10% but we are nearly maxed now before you take in account the increase. Once it's increased we'll have enough to sign our draft picks, a few of our own guys (Shockey, Connor, Hangartner) and not much else. Anyone waiting on even a single big name signing is going to be dissapointed. Of course this is assuming we aren't trading/restructuring anyone to clear space.

I never really expect us to sign a big name anyways.

I think if there is a big time DT available they will cut/restructure to make it happen, otherwise even the best GM's in the league don't build through free agency.

[fieryprophet]

The salary cap is a designated percentage of the league's shared revenues from the previous league year. Any new deal that is reached won't take effect right away. Estimates for 2012 have it going up around 8-10% but we are nearly maxed now before you take in account the increase. Once it's increased we'll have enough to sign our draft picks, a few of our own guys (Shockey, Connor, Hangartner) and not much else. Anyone waiting on even a single big name signing is going to be dissapointed. Of course this is assuming we aren't trading/restructuring anyone to clear space.

Hurney restructures all the time, which is one of his strengths as a GM. A lot of people here get worked up about the larger than usual contracts he hands out to our own players, but the fact is most of these contracts will be either restructured or dropped before they completely play out. I think he prefers putting together big numbers to get players on board and wanting to produce to back those numbers up, and to avoid any holdout shenanigans if a player performs up to his pay scale. It also means that other teams have to overpay to sign away our guys, usually messing with their cap numbers as well.

[JawnyBlaze]

Shockey, Connor and Hangartner aren't exactly going to command big paychecks...they'll probably all be able to be had for a little over minimum. The good thing about Connor starting this year: he's not going to get much attention next year in FA with the way he's been playing.

[R0CKnR0LLA]

The type of restructuring he does doesn't lower the total cap hit of the contract it simply pushes the cap hit to future years which is what leads teams straight into cap hell. Given that we have the least amount of cap space in the league for several years to come this is a terrible idea. It's basically like buying a brand new HDTV that you can't afford because it's on a 12 month with no payments promotion. Eventually you're gonna have to pay up.

Cutting someone with a big signing bonus usually increases the cap hit for that year. It helps clear cap in the future but you end up with "dead money" counting towards the cap for that year even though the guy isn't playing for you anymore. Here's how the TD situation was explained to me

TD has a base salary of 2.25 million for 2012 and an 8 million option bonus. Option bonuses do not count against the cap until the team agrees to pick it up, which they obviously won't in this case. He also received a 7 million dollar signing bonus, the cap hit for which is prorated over the life of the contract (5 years), so 1.4 million cap hit each year.

Right now he is counting 3.65 million against the cap for 2012 (2.25 base, 1.4 bonus). Once released we will be off the hook for the 2.25 million base salary and option bonus, however the entire remainder of the signing bonus (5.6 million) will count against the cap immediately. So we will actually end up with 1.95 million less in cap space by releasing him this offseason than we do right now.