Interesting Salary Cap Updates

[Keith]

Originally Posted by kravix

I am not to worried about Daniels or Winston becoming RFA's next year. I find it odd they opted out though. Both were almost garanteed bigger contracts than their 3rd and 4th round contracts IMO.

Winston was gonna get a top 10 RT contract anyway, and most likely would have gotten it next year without opting out.

There are a couple things at play here, the first of which is that the owners opted out of the CBA, which initiates a new set of cap rules somewhat similar yet still different from the time just before the CBA was last extended a few short years ago. I honestly need to read up on some of the changes to refresh my memory.

Second, I don't find it odd at all that the final contract year was voided. This is a cashflow league, and in 2009 Daniels and Winston were only going to be paid their base salaries of $530k (plus a set of "small" workout bonuses if earned). Now, as RFAs, they'll both receive at miniumum 2nd round tenders, meaning they will likely earn base salaries of roughly $1.5 million (and possibly more if tendered as first or first-and-third rounders).

Both are worth the increases, quite a bit more actually, so it wouldn't surprise me if the Texans negotiated contract extensions with them sometime soon.

Side note.... Charles Spencer also had a voidable clause in his contract, but given his injuries, he has not been able to execute it, so he remains under contract through 2009 (assuming he doesn't get cut soon, of course).