2008 Salary Cap Status

[Keith]

I have pretty solid info that the Texans are sitting at $3.52 million in available salary cap space for 2008 (at least prior to the Moats activation). The ItB.com cap page currently reflects $3.29 million, so I'm off by just a smidge somewhere, but still pretty close -- ~$230k, or about 0.2% off the initial 2008 cap estimate.

Tampa Bay leads the league with over $26 million available. Other notables: Tennessee ($7.05 million), Jacksonville ($5.95 million), and Indy ($5.32 million). Chicago has the least remaining room at $318k.

The good news is not just that the Texans will probably be able to forward a few extra million into their 2009 cap, but outside of Anthony Weaver (and Jacques Reeves?) for the first time in about four years there doesn't appear to be the sort of dead money weight just waiting to be let go... this team will have NO excuses to build the team they want to go to battle with next season.

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by Keith

The good news is not just that the Texans will probably be able to forward a few extra million into their 2009 cap, but outside of Anthony Weaver (and Jacques Reeves?) for the first time in about four years there doesn't appear to be the sort of dead money weight just waiting to be let go... this team will have NO excuses to build the team they want to go to battle with next season.

And given that they have a full slate of picks in the 2009 Draft for the first time since 2006, they should finally be in a position to fill "most" of their personnel needs and thereby compete for a playoff spot (assuming they don't give away any more games like the gift to Peyton and friends in Relaint a few weeks ago).

[KJ3]

Originally Posted by Keith

I have pretty solid info that the Texans are sitting at $3.52 million in available salary cap space for 2008 (at least prior to the Moats activation). The ItB.com cap page currently reflects $3.29 million, so I'm off by just a smidge somewhere, but still pretty close -- ~$230k, or about 0.2% off the initial 2008 cap estimate.

nicely done man!

so does that mean if they do end up cutting weaver or reeves their contracts won't affect us anymore?

[NBT]

Thanks Keith, and as Nun said, we will have a pretty clean slate, with all our draft picks for a change. I think the offense is pretty well set, so we can really concentrate on building that defense into a winner. I really wish we could get a better feel for how Molden, Adibi, and Okam are working out, so we could see where we really stand on defense.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by KJ3

so does that mean if they do end up cutting weaver or reeves their contracts won't affect us anymore?

Oh, dead money is still dead money; the difference for 2009 is just that we are looking at one, maybe two, burdensome contracts. Nearly all teams carry some amount of dead money - a few years ago, the average was somewhere around $5 million, so maybe it's a little higher nowadays - and for the first time in awhile the Texans might be in line with the rest of the league, maybe even lower.

Even if you look at Weaver, Green, and Reeves as possible dead money in 2009, and since the Texans can treat two of them as post-6/1 cuts if they want, Rick Smith won't really be able to point to dead money as holding him back in the offseason for what he wants to do.

[KJ3]

ooohh, no i get it, the texans just won't have a ridiculous amount of wasted money, right? so the option of throwing copious amounts of money at big-time free agents is definitely there?

you'll have to explain about the june 1st cuts (if you feel like). i've heard of them, just never understood their role.

[Keith]

The post-6/1 cuts allow teams to only account for the current year's bonus/dead money on the current year's cap. All future dead (unamortized bonus) money then hits the following year's cap.

The biggest misconception with the June 1 cuts is usually that the dead money is split evenly between the current year and next; this would only be true if the player had the contract expiring after the next year.

The other noteworthy item here I alluded to in an earlier post is that the revised CBA ('06) allowed for teams to designate two players as post-6/1 cuts before 6/1 actually passed. (ex. The Texans can spread Weaver's dead money like a June 1 cut even if they cut him in March).

[KJ3]

so they cut a guy with 3 years left, 5 mil a year. they owe him 15 mil. k, so the june 1st cut means they only have to pay him 5 for the current year and then 10 the next instead of just laying the money down in full right as soon as he's cut? is that right?

how does this help?