NO, YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE BEST OF THE BEST OUT THERE OR YOU WON'T WIN A SUPER BOWL. It's not like the Packers drafted 3/4 of their starting DB's....wait.
In Grbac's case, he signed a contract in 2001 with a $5M signing bonus, and a $6M option bonus for 2002 option bonus, so he wasn't paid that money until they picked up his 2002 option. The scenario with Sanchez would be to convert almost all his 2011 salary into a 2011 option bonus. At that point, I believe it would be treated like a signing bonus (and paid in the 2011 season). He would be taking on risk if they made it into a 2012 option bonus or something, but that's not what's being talked about in the OP. They're talking about a 2011 option bonus. Sanchez would still receive the same amount of money in the 2011 season, it would just impact the cap differently.
Every team is under the same set of rules, and Tanny is the best in the business at managing things, but there are only 2 or 3 teams in as dire cap shape as we are. Unless the Clayton report of a $120M cap (with a $3M exception) is way off, I just don't see how we can sign many of our guys (more than one of Holmes/Cromartie/Edwards).
http://www.thejetsblog.com/2011/07/17/guest-post-worst-case-scenario/ post by the dude jason from nyjetscap.com. great article
This looks about right to me. It seems a little optimistic about the price to sign the rookies, but that's a minor speculative quibble. More concerning is that that $14.2M in cap space is without Tomlinson, Bryan Thomas, Folk, Weatherford, Ellis, Brodney Pool, Tony Richardson, Wayne Hunter, Eric Smith, Brad Smith, Drew Coleman, James Ihedigbo and Kellen Clemens on the roster. Now maybe we can replace them all at league minimum salary, but actually that in of itself is another $3.6M in cap room (11 guys at $330K). But some of these guys we're going to want to retain, like Folk or Tomlinson, and they're going to carry slightly higher cap hits than the league minimum (without being huge). We're looking at something like $10.6M in cap room to resign Cromartie, Edwards and Holmes in the end even if we go with league minimum guys across the board. Realistically, that looks like we get to have one of those three, and then use the extra cap room to keep Folk or Tomlinson. In this "worst case" scenario, we need to make a hard choice on which of the three we want.
That's what I'm saying - I don't think there's a lot of hope for keeping two of the three if all the dead money from last year counts.
2011 current salaries WTF w/ teams like TB, KC & Carolina...after seeing this, I believe the low-spenders will have to give some bigger contacts & go after free-agents than in the past, which will provide more parity, but AFC powers Pitt/Ind/..... are in a similar situation as Jets.. 1) Tanny is a key to this whole new CBA... 2) hopefully "dead $" from the past is not included http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Sports/nfl-salaries.php NFL Team Salaries 2011 Total NFL Payroll 2011 NFL Dallas Team Salaries $ 136.6 million NFL Green Bay Team Salaries $ 129.8 million NFL New York Jets Team Salaries $ 128.5 million NFL New York Giants Team Salaries $ 126.3 million NFL Denver Team Salaries $ 125 million NFL Houston Team Salaries $ 118.4 million NFL Pittsburgh Team Salaries $ 116 million NFL Indianapolis Team Salaries $ 115.5 million NFL Washington Team Salaries $ 115.2 million NFL Detroit Team Salaries $ 113.8 million NFL Minnesota Team Salaries $ 108.4 million NFL Tennessee Team Salaries $ 107.4 million NFL New Orleans Team Salaries $ 105.2 million NFL Chicago Team Salaries $ 104.9 million NFL Miami Team Salaries $ 103.1 million NFL St. Louis Team Salaries $ 102.4 million NFL New England Team Salaries $ 102.3 million NFL Atlanta Team Salaries $ 102.1 million NFL Baltimore Team Salaries $ 101.3 million NFL San Francisco Team Salaries $ 100.9 million NFL Cleveland Team Salaries $ 99.2 million NFL Buffalo Team Salaries $ 96.4 million NFL Cincinnati Team Salaries $ 90.7 million NFL Oakland Team Salaries $ 85.8 million NFL San Diego Team Salaries $ 85.8 million NFL Arizona Team Salaries $ 83 million NFL Seattle Team Salaries $ 81.1 million NFL Philadelphia Team Salaries $ 80.8 million NFL Jacksonville Team Salaries $ 78.1 million NFL Kansas City Team Salaries $ 74.7 million NFL Carolina Team Salaries $ 73 million NFL Tampa Bay Team Salaries $ 59.7 million
Seeing this list is kind of terrifying actually. Teams are currently something like $660M below the salary floor. That money is going to have to get spent. Now most of it will probably go towards teams locking up existing pieces, but at the same time, some of it will go towards free agents. Who are the top free agents out there? Cromartie, Edwards, Holmes, Peyton, Rice, Vincent Jackson, Nnamdi, Vick, Clabo, and a few others? We have three of the top 15 guys or so out there. Our guys are going to be targeted by other teams and bid up just because the math demands it...
I saw this list as well. I'm not sure how accurate it is. I can only really attest to the Jets- I'm not sure how they arrived at $128.5." It looks like a pretty good batch of rough estimates, though. Teams like Tampa Bay should be pretty terrifying, if they're FORCED to spend $50 million when they've already got a competitive roster.
What's interesting about that list is while likely accurate or good for rough estimates, that it doesn't tell the true story of where some of those teams-- maybe most of those teams stand with just a few quick moves, etc. For instance, the Redskins' number is currently misleading on that list, with something around $26M in cap space, or thereabout, but if they make certain moves-- part with certain players, restructure some contracts, do whatever, they very quickly can have around $52M to work with. I have to believe there are other teams on that list (hopefully the Jets included) that don't look like they have as much to spend, but can quickly make moves to free up a lot of cash, as well, albeit, maybe not quite like the Redskins, due to Haynesworth and McNabb and what other moves that are that easy to make for them. Source: Rich Tandler and J. I. Halsell of Salary Cap 101: realredskins. com/2011/07/redskins-have-26-million-in-cap-space-can-add-more
I agree that the list is NOT 100% accurate because they didn't account for the cuts/dead money/ and other variables that would reduce the Jets down to about 100 million, but until we see the actual new CBA, we won't know where every team stands, but if I was a fan of the bottom of the list teams, there might be cause for optomism...
rickjet- So true about the bottom of that list. Tons of cause for optimism. You were correct above, I also can't even imagine the pieces a team like Tampa or KC might be able to acquire to try to get past rivals, and it's not like Tampa or KC are awful now, they were right there. It will be interesting to see how some of this winds up.
that list is nuts. Tampa Bay could hook up Freeman with OLine, and WR help. Big time franchises, and owners arent gonna be happy if dead money carries over to the new CBA. This could be good for us. Jerry Jones/Mara? They going to be pissed.
I think unfortunately there are enough big teams (New England, Philly, Washington) that want dead money to carry over that we may end up seeing some sort of compromise on the situation. Like half the dead money carries over? Clayton has written suggesting there may be some sort of in between solution like this, so that seems like as good a guess as any about what we're likely to see. Also, do the big money teams even have a lot of dead money? Some guys like Snyder didn't end up cutting many guys (Haynesworth), which they probably would have done if dead money was going to be cleared. Generally, I would think owners might want dead money to carry over, if for no other reason than that it keeps overall spending levels down?
If that list is true then there's about $200 million worth of contracts that will be signed this Free Agency. That's scary.
I see way more than $200M there? I think I counted $660M approximately earlier. There's more than $200M just from the bottom five teams?
My Jets thread contribution of the day- The actual picture from this article. Don't ask me how I got it, I just did.
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/jets/ by Rich Cimini Just in case you're wondering what the Jets were doing Friday during this prolonged labor mess, GM Mike Tannenbaum and his staff attended the four-hour seminar for league executives in Atlanta. A total of about 150 execs were present at the session, designed to familiarize teams with the new rules of the proposed CBA -- the CBA that was supposed to be fully ratified by now. Tannenbaum was joined by right-hand man Ari Nissim, the team's director of football administration, and others in the FA department. This sort of thing falls into Tannenbaum's wheelhouse; he cut his teeth in the NFL as a capologist. He will need to be on his game when free agency starts because the Jets have a lot of players to sign and not a lot of cap room. The cap is set at $120.4 million. According to ESPN's John Clayton, the Jets project $1.2 million over the cap. But, wait, there is some flexibility. Teams can use $3.5 million in what would otherwise be performance-based pay to fund veterans' salaries. In addition, they can also "borrow" $3 million from a future cap. So, in essence, they're really gaining an extra $6.5 million in cap space. Plus, there's a $3 million cap exemption that can be applied to one player's cap number. For instance: If the Jets used it on Mark Sanchez ($16.5 million cap figure), his number would drop to $13.5 million. In reality, the proposed CBA has mechanisms that would help teams like the Jets -- teams that, on the surface, are dealing with cap issues. So the Jets will have some breathing room, but it also will take some creativity to make room for two or three (or more?) big-ticket signings/re-signings. Plus, they have a six-player draft class that needs to be signed. No word yet on the rookie salary pool.
