Surprise wastes of salary cap dollars

[Patler]

Kevin Seifert at ESPN reports that the cap space for the NFC North teams (before credits and adjustments) for the upcoming season are:

Detroit: $26.8 million
Minnesota: $20.4 million
Green Bay: $19.09 million
Chicago: $17.4 million

But that's not including various tricks teams use to push caproom forward. I know that Minnesota and Green Bay tend to make heavy use of those, I don't know about Chicago, and I've just come to expect incompetency from Detroit.

I wonder what "before credits and adjustments" really means? If it is just the unearned bonuses that he didn't include, that should have been an easy thing to estimate based on the left-over 2008 cap dollars and an assumption that most was rolled forward. If he has not bothered to take into consideration the effect of the release of players and the such it is a very cursory estimation at best. Either way, his numbers could be off by quite a bit.

[Gunakor]

Fritz, I don't think that is the only teams or the actual order. Just some the writer mentioned. Does anyone know what the Packers cap amount for this year ended at?

Kevin Seifert at ESPN reports that the cap space for the NFC North teams (before credits and adjustments) for the upcoming season are:

Detroit: $26.8 million
Minnesota: $20.4 million
Green Bay: $19.09 million
Chicago: $17.4 million

But that's not including various tricks teams use to push caproom forward. I know that Minnesota and Green Bay tend to make heavy use of those, I don't know about Chicago, and I've just come to expect incompetency from Detroit.

From what I understand a lion's share of A-Rod's salary was used this year but that number is not very impressive considering they have to lock up Jennings and Rodgers salary for this coming season is only less than a million before he jumps to 8 million in 2010 it would seem the Packers are not as rich as some would think.

Rodgers' salary next year is around 9.5 million including guarantees. It then drops down to about 6 million in 2010, once his guaranteed portion is paid off. That's when the savings from the deal given to Rodgers will be realized, when we have a 3 year starter with loads of talent playing for a mere 6 million dollars. Jennings contract expires after the 2009 season, and when it's time to resign him we'll have at least 3 million added under the cap from the decrease in Rodgers' total salary.

I broke down Rodgers' contract info in another thread a few weeks ago, but I'll go find it again and post it to this one.

TT, if nothing else, is a brilliant accountant. You will not have to worry about where the money is coming from to lock up our core players. TT has that all figured out already, years in advance.

[Gunakor]

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20081104/PKR01/81104193/1058

Aaron Rodgers' cap-friendly deal: $12.9M in 2008

He's making more than Jets' Favre this season

By Rob Demovsky
rdemovsk@greenbaypressgazette.com

The Green Bay Packers were able to put more than $12 million of Aaron Rodgers’ new contract onto this year’s salary cap.

As a result, they used up more than half of their $20 million in cap space by getting the deal done on Friday and submitted to the NFL on Saturday.

Until the end of league business on Monday, teams could count the entire increase in a player’s pay for 2008 against this year’s salary cap. Anything done after that deadline must be treated as a signing bonus and therefore prorated for the length of the contract for salary-cap purposes.

Complete details of the deal became available on Tuesday, when several sources with access to NFL Players Association contract information shared it with the Press-Gazette.

Rodgers’ salary-cap number for 2008 jumped to $13,957,419 from $1,737,420.

This season, he will make $12.9 million – that’s $320,000 of his original $680,000 base salary already paid under his old contract plus $12.58 million in new money to be paid the rest of the season, a sum that is guaranteed.

It means Rodgers will be paid more this season than his predecessor, Brett Favre, who will be paid $12 million by the New York Jets.

Rodgers also is guaranteed a $7.42 million roster bonus due next March, bringing the total guaranteed money to $20 million.

Because of next year’s guaranteed roster bonus, Rodgers has another relatively large salary-cap figure for next season of $9,652,500, even though his base salary will be only $680,000. Under the contract he signed as a rookie in 2005, his cap number for 2009 would have been $1,852,500.

Rodgers’ base salaries for the five new seasons will be: $6 million in 2010, $7.25 million in 2011, $8 million in 2012, $9.25 million in 2013 and $10.5 million in 2014.

The deal contains annual workout bonuses of $500,000 beginning in 2009. The salary-cap numbers beginning in 2010 are his annual base salary plus the $500,000 roster bonuses.

Because Rodgers' new contract contained no signing bonus, the only remaining bonus prorations are $300,000 this season and $1.052 million next season ($300,000 from his original signing bonus as a rookie and $752,000 from a $3.010 million option bonus he received his second year).

[Patler]

TT, if nothing else, is a brilliant accountant. You will not have to worry about where the money is coming from to lock up our core players. TT has that all figured out already, years in advance.

Didn't he work as a financial planner, investment counselor or something like that after he retired from the NFL and before Wolf hired him in GB?

[Gunakor]

TT, if nothing else, is a brilliant accountant. You will not have to worry about where the money is coming from to lock up our core players. TT has that all figured out already, years in advance.

Didn't he work as a financial planner, investment counselor or something like that after he retired from the NFL and before Wolf hired him in GB?

I'm not sure, but I can remember a lot of things being said about his financial background when he was hired here. Part of the reason, I'm sure, he was brought here in the first place. Sherman really made a mess of things, and it's remarkable how quickly TT got that turned around.

Chalk that one up as another reason TT is NOT on the hot seat just yet.