Cap

[today]

Excellent guesses Keith/WMH, you were spot on with Antonio and Andre:

StephStradley Stephanie Stradley
Restructured? DeMeco, Andre. Antonio Smith.

Confirmed 20 minutes later by McClain:
McClain_on_NFL John McClain
The Texans have redone the contracts of Andre Johnson, DeMeco Ryans and Antonio Smith to get under the salary cap. They were $8.5M over.

[Keith]

So I guess it isn't a surprise that the Texans approached their higher-paid players in a stable contract.

Extending Mario is going to be a tough, complex process, and I don't know that the Texans wanted to rush into that.

Extending Schaub seems like a no-brainer to do it, but negotiating the terms will require some thoughtful insight and a lot of back-and-forth negotiation as well I'm sure.

I don't remember DeMeco's 2011 base offhand, but restructuring Antonio and Andre alone was probably enough to get them close.

I know the typical knee-jerk reaction from the media will be to applaud these three players, but really, it's not much sweat from them... they pretty much just get their base salaries paid as bonuses now. Not a bad deal at all, really. I'd take it.

The kudos belong to the front office, probably to Chris Olsen and whoever else is doing the paperwork.

[Keith]

Also worth noting that these three now have to sit out of practice with the other signed FAs, at least for a day.

I'd want Mario on the field as much as possible, and there is just Yates at QB if Schaub had to sit iirc.

[today]

Originally Posted by Keith

Also worth noting that these three now have to sit out of practice with the other signed FAs, at least for a day.

I'd want Mario on the field as much as possible, and there is just Yates at QB if Schaub had to sit iirc.

Apparently they just had to sit out the morning practice. Kubes pushed the afternoon practice back to 4:30, so as long as the season calendar officially starts at 4pm today as it should (still a player vote or something?), everyone will be able to practice this afternoon.

[popanot]

I think it was Burge saying Cody's base was at ~$3.5MM. I assume they'll be talking to him soon or he'll be a camp casualty when/if things get tight.

[jcp]

That's great news.

The beauty is that it still leaves two big contracts they can restructure/extend if they want to make another splash. I personally think extending Mario/Schaub is a nobrainer. Even if Mario doesn't work out a LB he will have plenty of trade value.

[WMH]

They may not be done just yet....

From PFT:
We previously obtained the salary cap room (or lack thereof) for each team as of Tuesday. Several of you have asked for something more current.

Your wish is our command.

Here’s the info as of Thursday.

The teams with cap space, a day before all teams must be in compliance, are as follows: Buccaneers ($ 29,560,000); Chiefs ($ 28,431,000); Jaguars ($ 28,000,000); Browns ($ 27,620,000); Bengals ($ 27,164,000); Broncos ($26,542,000); Bills ($ 23,460,000); 49ers ($ 22,570,000); Bears ($ 19,300,000); Seahawks ($ 16,387,000); Cardinals ($ 14,603,000); Redskins ($ 11,450,000); Packers ($ 11,106,000); Jets ($ 8,920,000); Dolphins ($ 8,446,000); Colts ($7,925,000); Titans ($ 7,127,000); Saints ($ 7,027,000); Patriots ($ 5,264,000); Chargers ($ 5,031,000); Eagles ($4,604,000); Ravens ($ 3,558,000); Panthers ($ 1,915,000); Vikings ($ 938,000); Falcons ($811,000); Giants ($623,000); Rams ($621,000).

The teams in the red are: Raiders ($15,246,000); Steelers ($8,597,000); Lions ($7,793,000); Cowboys ($6,671,000); and Texans ($3,358,000).
By tomorrow at 4:00 p.m., there should be no teams in the red.

This is supposedly thru today, doesn't give a definitive time line, IE does this include Smith, Ryans, and AJ's restructures, but would assume it does.

Since their "only" $3.5MM away, I still look for the Schaub extension to happen. My hunch, and I have absolutely no basis for this, is that they didn't want to have practice this morning with 1 QB, so they are waiting till the CBA is ratified to pull the trigger on it. Since it was ratified today, they have till 4PM tomorrow to be in compliance.

AJ wouldn't have practiced anyway, unlikely Demeco would have either. No harm in giving an older feller like Smith a day off in this heat....

Could be right, could be wrong, but if they are still truly $3.5MM over, Schaub's extension continues to be a no-brainer (in my eyes).

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by WMH

They may not be done just yet....

From PFT:
We previously obtained the salary cap room (or lack thereof) for each team as of Tuesday. Several of you have asked for something more current.

Your wish is our command.

Here’s the info as of Thursday.

The teams with cap space, a day before all teams must be in compliance, are as follows: Buccaneers ($ 29,560,000); Chiefs ($ 28,431,000); Jaguars ($ 28,000,000); Browns ($ 27,620,000); Bengals ($ 27,164,000); Broncos ($26,542,000); Bills ($ 23,460,000); 49ers ($ 22,570,000); Bears ($ 19,300,000); Seahawks ($ 16,387,000); Cardinals ($ 14,603,000); Redskins ($ 11,450,000); Packers ($ 11,106,000); Jets ($ 8,920,000); Dolphins ($ 8,446,000); Colts ($7,925,000); Titans ($ 7,127,000); Saints ($ 7,027,000); Patriots ($ 5,264,000); Chargers ($ 5,031,000); Eagles ($4,604,000); Ravens ($ 3,558,000); Panthers ($ 1,915,000); Vikings ($ 938,000); Falcons ($811,000); Giants ($623,000); Rams ($621,000).

The teams in the red are: Raiders ($15,246,000); Steelers ($8,597,000); Lions ($7,793,000); Cowboys ($6,671,000); and Texans ($3,358,000).
By tomorrow at 4:00 p.m., there should be no teams in the red.

This is supposedly thru today, doesn't give a definitive time line, IE does this include Smith, Ryans, and AJ's restructures, but would assume it does.

Since their "only" $3.5MM away, I still look for the Schaub extension to happen. My hunch, and I have absolutely no basis for this, is that they didn't want to have practice this morning with 1 QB, so they are waiting till the CBA is ratified to pull the trigger on it. Since it was ratified today, they have till 4PM tomorrow to be in compliance.

AJ wouldn't have practiced anyway, unlikely Demeco would have either. No harm in giving an older feller like Smith a day off in this heat....

Could be right, could be wrong, but if they are still truly $3.5MM over, Schaub's extension continues to be a no-brainer (in my eyes).

My take on this is that since the Texans reported to McClain that they are under the cap, that they are under the cap. I would think PFT would be the number that is delayed or incorrect.

Also McClain reported in an early report that the Texans had taken the 3MM exemption from another year this year, is PFT counting those dollars also?