Creative enterprise Vikings, Eagles rule roost of salary-cap manipulation Posted: Saturday March 1, 2008 2:09AM; Updated: Saturday March 1, 2008 11:48PM http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/reuben_frank/03/01/cap.figures/index.html It's a regulation buried deep in the NFL's Collective Bargaining Agreement, a regulation so obscure it doesn't even have a name. Other than Article XXIV, Section 7, section ii, paragraph c, part (iii). Here's what it says: At the end of a season, if performance bonuses previously included in a Team's Team Salary but not actually earned exceed performance bonuses actually earned but not previously included in Team Salary, an amount shall be added to the Team's Salary Cap for the next League Year equaling the amount, if any, by which such overage exceeds the Team's Room under the Salary Cap at the end of a season. This dizzylingy obtuse regulation is unwittingly having a profound effect on the NFL's economic landscape. The level playing field the NFL's salary cap supposedly created? It's a myth. Because of a variety of complicated tricks that savvy NFL team officials have figured out, teams can manipulate their salary cap to the point where their cap figure winds up millions of dollars higher than the teams they're competing with. The Vikings and Lions are both in the NFC North. Both have unadjusted cap figures of $116,729,000, like all 32 NFL teams. Yet the Vikings' 2008 cap figure exceeds $135 million, and the Lions' adjusted figure is more than $111 million. So the Vikings this offseason will have $20 million more than one of their division rivals to pay free agents and re-sign their own players. That's an 18 percent difference, and it demonstrates just how much of a difference shrewd cap management can make. The NFL salary cap is a fluid number. Although the unadjusted cap number for all 32 teams is identical, the real numbers actually vary greatly. Here's why. Teams need room to make room. The way the NFL's Collective Bargaining Agreement works, the more flexibility a team has, the easier it is to gain future flexibility. So teams that find themselves in cap trouble are often stuck there for years. And teams that stay out of cap trouble can tweak contracts in certain ways that generate huge cap advantages in later years. That's where the above CBA trick comes into play. Teams with significant cap space late in a season can manipulate the following year's cap by writing likely-to-be-earned incentive bonuses into contracts that, in reality, have zero chance of being earned. Such incentives count against a team's cap the year they're written, but if they're not met -- and teams have ways of making sure they're not met -- the team is then credited the amount of the bonuses against the following year's cap. According to figures distributed to each NFL team this week, 24 of the 32 NFL teams were given upward cap adjustments for 2008, six teams were given downward cap adjustments (thanks to conventional incentives that were met) and two teams had no adjustments. Of the 24 teams that gained more room under the cap, seven tacked on at least $10 million, a group led by the Vikings ($18,432,577), Eagles ($14,087,449), Buccaneers ($13,306,634), Bills ($12,713,009) and Browns ($12,633,503). Not coincidentally, the Eagles, Vikings, Bills and Browns all made a splash on the first day of free agency. The Vikings signed safety Madieu Williams to a six-year, $33 million contract; the Eagles signed Asante Samuel to a six-year, $57 million deal, the Bills acquired linebacker Kawika Mitchell and signed him to a five-year, $17.5 million deal; and the Browns traded for defensive tackle Corey Williams and gave him a deal including nearly $20 in guaranteed components. What team lost the most money via cap adjustments? The Lions. They have the lowest adjusted cap in the league in 2008 -- their $111,380,935 figure actually coming out $5,348,065 below the unadjusted cap figure. Does that surprise anybody? 2008 Salary Cap Figures Team Adjustments Adjusted Cap Arizona Cardinals $0 $116,729,000 Atlanta Falcons ($350,574) $116,378,426 Baltimore Ravens $2,532,265 $119,261,265 Buffalo Bills $12,713,009 $129,442,009 Carolina Panthers $8,926,802 $125,655,802 Chicago Bears $726,231 $117,455,231 Cincinnati Bengals $0 $116,729,000 Cleveland Browns $12,633,503 $129,362,503 Dallas Cowboys $998,443 $117,727,443 Denver Broncos $660,000 $117,389,000 Detroit Lions ($5,348,065) $111,380,935 Green Bay Packers $9,430,581 $126,159,581 Houston Texans ($2,207,869) $114,521,131 Indianapolis Colts $6,501,115 $123,230,115 Jacksonville Jaguars $11,920,898 $128,649,898 Kansas City Chiefs $11,658,373 $128,387,373 Miami Dolphins $3,944,997 $120,673,997 Minnesota Vikings $18,432,577 $135,161,577 New England Patriots $2,596,078 $119,325,078 New Orleans Saints $8,017,003 $124,746,003 New York Giants ($3,096,512) $113,632,488 New York Jets $5,052,789 $121,781,789 Oakland Raiders $4,340,722 $121,069,722 Philadelphia Eagles $14,087,449 $130,816,449 Pittsburgh Steelers ($1,910,774) $114,818,226 San Diego Chargers ($597,647) $116,131,353 San Francisco 49ers $2,310,787 $119,039,787 Seattle Seahawks $7,386,108 $124,115,108 St. Louis Rams $632,320 $117,361,320 Tampa Bay Buccaneers $13,306,634 $130,035,634 Tennessee Titans $5,491,147 $122,220,147 Washington Redskins $1,821,260 $118,550,260 ? 2008 unadjusted salary cap is $116,729,000 ? Numbers in parentheses are negative cap adjustments
WTF? I spend a good half hour putting the numbers in columns, when I posted they all ran together again! <sigh>
use Code next time Code: Team Adjustments Adjusted Cap Arizona Cardinals $0 $116,729,000 Atlanta Falcons ($350,574) $116,378,426 Baltimore Ravens $2,532,265 $119,261,265 Buffalo Bills $12,713,009 $129,442,009 Carolina Panthers $8,926,802 $125,655,802 Chicago Bears $726,231 $117,455,231 Cincinnati Bengals $0 $116,729,000 Cleveland Browns $12,633,503 $129,362,503 Dallas Cowboys $998,443 $117,727,443 Denver Broncos $660,000 $117,389,000 Detroit Lions ($5,348,065) $111,380,935 Green Bay Packers $9,430,581 $126,159,581 Houston Texans ($2,207,869) $114,521,131 Indianapolis Colts $6,501,115 $123,230,115 Jacksonville Jaguars $11,920,898 $128,649,898 Kansas City Chiefs $11,658,373 $128,387,373 Miami Dolphins $3,944,997 $120,673,997 Minnesota Vikings $18,432,577 $135,161,577 New England Patriots $2,596,078 $119,325,078 New Orleans Saints $8,017,003 $124,746,003 New York Giants ($3,096,512) $113,632,488 New York Jets $5,052,789 $121,781,789 Oakland Raiders $4,340,722 $121,069,722 Philadelphia Eagles $14,087,449 $130,816,449 Pittsburgh Steelers ($1,910,774) $114,818,226 San Diego Chargers ($597,647) $116,131,353 San Francisco 49ers $2,310,787 $119,039,787 Seattle Seahawks $7,386,108 $124,115,108 St. Louis Rams $632,320 $117,361,320 Tampa Bay Buccaneers $13,306,634 $130,035,634 Tennessee Titans $5,491,147 $122,220,147 Washington Redskins $1,821,260 $118,550,260
Do not fear that number. This does not take into account space saved by Vilma gone and any other player gone...Nothing can be done right now. this is all speculation. None of the real contracts have been released. So, a contract may be backloaded.
That number represents how much more over the cap we are allowed to be. The Jets have a cap of $121,781,789 while it is only supposed to be $116,729,000. I do not know what the Jets salaries are at this point, but the front office has been doing things right and getting us more room.
There is no way this is correct. We started with 28 million in cap space. Lets say the two guys we signed (Jenkins and Faneca) just got a balanced contract, not backloaded, not frontloaded. That means Faneca earns 8 million per year (4 years, 32 million) and Jenkins earns 7 million per year (5 years, 35 million). That is only 15 million combined right there, leaving our cap at 13 million. That does not even include the players we dropped, such as McCariens and Vilma. Unless we frontloaded the hell out of these 2 contracts, we should not even be close to 10 million, let alone 5 million. Also, if we only had 5 million, we would not be in rumors pursuing all of these other players. Lastly, I find it quite hard to believe that the highest cap room left in the entire NFL is 14 million.
Can anyone read? 5 million is not our available cap room. 5 million is how much money was ADDED to our 2008 salary cap because tannenbaum and many other GMs used CBA tricks to adjust the cap. It's 5 million MORE dollars to sign FAs than we otherwise would normally have.
is that how it works? i'm very confused about that, if we trade a player do they no longer count against the cap? any help on how cap figures work would be appreciated.
