..or they should be increasing the vet minimum benefit scheme payout to the vet players so teams can more easily afford to keep average vets on the roster.
This is why you see so few teams play at a consistent level over several seasons. Historically great teams and perennial contenders were made up largely of experienced vets who were reliable while being unsoectacular - it's the best foundation. Then they had the few hall of fame types to make them great, but who excelled because of their teams' solid foundations.
Those days are gone. The salary cap has killed team building. The league today is made up of teams trying to win in spite of glaring weaknesses they can't address without creating new ones.
It is killing team identity and it is feeding the fantasy crap and "individualism". I can't stand fantasy football unless my team is all Redskin players because that is all i care about is the logo on their helmet. We are a dying breed!
Rookie salary cap - much cheaper than the vet min, let alone the average starter wage. Simply look at Case Roullier vs Spencer Long - no brainer. It'll be interesting to see how the NFLPA attempt to redress this in the next EBA.
It'd be interesting to see the correlation between success and the number of rookie priced starters a team has.
As I said above one way is to make the Vet Minimum Benefit scheme more lucrative to the vet players while keeping the cap hit low for the NFL teams.
Last season for example on the vet min benefit scheme, a 10 year vet could earn a smidgeon over $1.0m and it counted $630k against the cap.
They could change that easily making the rule to fit an escalating scale but restrict the number of vets on the scheme per team.
So max payment to a vet of 10 years or more could be say $3m and only counting a max of $1m to the cap. Then it scales down depending on credited seasons earned to a minimum of 4 years experience making say $1m for a 3 year vet minimum cap hit.
Awesome job PC, Thank You!
So, we wouldn't have any dead cap if we cut him Pre June 1?
I think it's pretty clear that it's time to set fire to it all. & imo, Atleast it's a good time for it given the potential QBs in 2020. However, I'm not holding my breath that they'll do that.
I'd be thrilled if they cut Alex along with your other suggestions (esp trading JNo). Get the books clean for 2020, acquire any picks they can- I'd be more than happy if they were '20 picks too bc you know we'll F up our draft slot by winning a meaningless game here & there (see Jax this year, we coulda been at #8 🤬) so having extra picks in '20 would be nice to ensure a Top 3 pick. I'd say Top 4 but I'm not sold on a 4th great QB prospect yet. I can virtually guarantee that Herbert, Tua & Fromm will go 1,2,3 & I want one of them.
Anyways, ppl ask how I can root for a throwaway season. It's easy, we've been stuck in NFL purgatory forever. I think anyone still sticking w this team is more than ok with employing this strategy. To me, it's The Only good option. Use the horrible Alex injury as the excuse. I just HATE that Fuller was lost too. It sickens me.
I pray they dump Alex & WAIT until '20 to draft a QB high. I'm fine w using a 3rd pick on Rypien tho. The 2020 QB will still need a backup, let Rypien get a head start. Actually, that won't matter as Gruden will probably be fired.
On Norman, yes we would have dead cap if cut post June in 2019 but the net savings would be $11.5m (ie savings less dead cap). if cut pre June 1 we save $8.5m (savings less dead cap). the difference is that $3.0m prorated signing bonus attributed to post 2019 years.
Considering what happened to the crowds by season end I seriously doubt they have any intention of cleaning the decks and having a dumpster fire in 2019 just to try and set up a future from 2020. Consider what that will do to the locker room let alone the game attendances. Who would bother turning up to watch a dreadful 2-14 season?
So Bruce Allen is NEVER going to contemplate that road. The big issue they believe they'll need to come up with a legit solution is a one year rental at QB that gives a legit chance to be competitive. The rest is just business as usual.
I think we are all on board for a rebuild season and clean up the cap and trade whatever we can to get picks but the sad truth is Bruce knows this is his last chance to keep his job along with Jay. He has convinced Dan that if not for bad luck the past two years we where a playoff team.
So I don't see us moving Trent or Reed and not cutting Norman as well. I am sure they will take Alex 15m base and bring it down to a minimum and spread the base over the four years since they know he is done but are waiting on the 12M insurance to kick in next year and offset the spread in future years. This would give them an extra 11ish million of space along with cutting McGee, Brown and Vernon and save another 13ish million so around having around 40m to work with in 2019.
This gives them some cash to go find a one year rental QB like Flacco or maybe trade for Dalton and also bring other FA in as well.
I guess this is the best we can hope for at this point and if we get another 6 to 8 win season then Dan will clean house. All I want out of this offseason is an extension for Brandon, don't trade up or draft a QB in this draft and draft O line and a solid CB. I am also on the fence if we should bring back Preston Smith as well.
Take a look at Washington's contracts for 2019 on Spotrac, and you'll quickly find the problem. Players are being paid disproportionately to their updated values. Together, Paul Richardson, Stacy McGee (the last of the infamous Big Macs), Vernon Davis, and Morgan Moses make up 12.94 percent of the team's cap. Alex Smith alone constitutes another 10.52 percent, and if released, he'd incur a whopping $42 million in dead cap. So he's not being released.
But wait a minute - I thought Bruce was highly regarded in his ability to manage the Cap?
How Allen and Grunfeld remain the top personnel men of two of the 4 major pro sports teams in town defies all logic. And we Washington sports' fans suffer as a result.
This will be a big year on contract restructures (Norman, Reed, Williams, Kerrigan, and maybe Alex Smith) as BA will not cut or trade any of these players. There will be quite a few cuts (Davis, McGee, and Brown) which would give us plenty of money to resign Scherff and some FA's (WR, Safety, Guard, TE).
Given Brufus believes we are close - and said so at the Senior Bowl - I can see a "kick the can down the road" situation.
Exactly, and every year when we have prediction thread I always predict that the Skins will go at least 10-6. I always try to find the positives with every roster. As of now, I clearly feel horrible about the direction of this team and the leadership under BA. The next closest year to feeling this miserable was the Spurrier cast of characters. Even then there was still excitement because it was the "Old Ball Coach". BA is such a cancer that the only coaches that will come here are unemployed and had some connection to Tampa. Someone needs to tell him that his record and personnel in Tampa were not that good and that he needs to pick up the phone and actually speak to coaches that have never stepped foot in Tampa except when they traveled there to beat his former teams.
Pretty much whats been outlined here as far as the issues and possible solutions are concerned.
The main factor is if you believe we are - or should be - in "win now" mode or not, and the Alex Smith issue that hangs mightily over our head.
I am sure PC already knows these things but most of us do not. This is an interesting article about the Final League Year for the CBA which will be 2020 under the current agreement.
Yup we went through all this leading up to 2010/2011, the one interesting change in this CBA (as mentioned) is the retraction of an uncapped year clause in the final year of the agreement. I wonder why they eventually settled on doing that?
If you remember back to 2010 (the final league year of the previous deal) and into 2011, hardly anything was achieved through 2010, then after intense negotiations leading into the 2011 league year (which would have been played under no CBA rules) the owners imposed a lockout that lasted from March 12, 2011, to July 25, 2011. During that 18-week, 4-day period, there was no free agency and training camp, and players were restricted from seeing team doctors, entering or working out at team facilities, or communicating with coaches. The end of the lockout coincided with the formation of a new collective bargaining agreement prior to the start of the 2011 regular season along with a shortened FA period of a few weeks, and a mad scrambled training camp.
I'd expect nothing less this time around.
What a mess this team finds itself in - as usual, of course. Bad decisions made with respect to Cousins's contract in 2015 and the ripples continue to be felt.
I said last year that signing Smith was a bad move and that he would likely no longer be on the roster come 2019-2020. Looks like that will prove to be true.
His performance when healthy was godawful and now he can't reasonably be expected to come back anytime soon and contribute to this team's success.
I agree with PC that we need to cut our losses now, take the hard lumps right away, and look to the future. However bleak that future looks - it's the only option.
I completely agree on taking our lumps now but no way this happens with Bruce still in the building. He knows this is his team and there will be no more "injuries" excuses anymore.
Unfortunately we have to wait out this season and win our 5 to 6 games and then hopefully Dan then let's our young guys take over at GM and coach. At least we might have our future GM and coach already in the building so if we go like 3 and 6 out of the gate we can make the moves earlier.
Looks like the cap is going to be $188 million. Check out the story at the Washington Post story.
So how much do we officially now have to spend?
Well I allowed $187m as the NFL cap number (worst case scenario) and we had around the $20m mark in cap space, so its around $21m.
The NFL and the NFLPA have set the 2019 salary cap at $188.2million per team. That's up from $177.2 million last year and the sixth year in a row that it's gone up by at least $10 million.
"my understanding has been that it would happen when he's cut or determined that he can't play. was told it depends on when it's processed and finalized. but I know Peyton Manning had an insurance policy with Denver for his neck and it would have given cap relief without him needing to be cut (i think)."
I'm in 100% agreement with the opening post.
Let's just start again. Forget 2019.
Will we start shedding some guys today or will we adjust as we are trying to sign new FA? I would think some restructures, new deals, contract extensions, etc. would have been completed by now. Brandon Scherff is the biggest surprise as he must be asking for ridiculous money.
We head into FA with $14.2m in cap space.
Note though that cap will be adjusted over the next day or so for the OTA workout bonuses, so it'll go down again by around $675k.