Per Schefter & PFT: NFL salary cap debacle continues---updates include NFLPA filing collusion lawsuits---links and discussion current--MET

[daveakl]

They might have heard about it, but they didn't know about this when they restructured the contracts.

Repeat after me:

The Redskins did not break any rules.

They did not commit any abuse.

Those restructurings were approved BY THE NFL.

The NFL, 2 years after the fact, decided that they were going to punish us because we were too smart with the cap. ****ing amazing. Anyone blaming the FO for this needs their head examined.

Again, the NFL did not just "decide" two years later. The NFL needed the cap to go up more then it did. And now it has.

[tjhazuki]

*glued to listening to The Fan*... j

[Boss_Hogg]

JSteelz reported that other owners ****ed about it.

Probably that punk ass mark in JAX and the small market owners

[Califan007 The Constipated]

It may have something to do with the 30% rule of the uncapped year: According to J.I. Halsell

"Chief among those rules is one that prohibits a salary from increasing or decreasing more than 30% from year to year. This would rule out, for instance, paying a free agent a $25 million salary in 2010 and then paying him the league minimum in future years when, presumably, there will be a cap.

Halsell said that the word around the league is that there should be a deal in 2011 that will avert a work stoppage and bring back a salary cap. That means that teams must be cautious about what contracts look like next season and beyond."

When we re-structured Haynesworth and Hall in early 2010 we may have messed with the 30% rule. Not sure if those restructres add up to 36 million but I do recall big Al was given a roster/option bonus for 21 million and Hall in the area of 15 million (not sure about Hall's numbers). Anyway that made their salaries for 2010 30% more than there were for 2009 and 2011 thus the penalty???

Not sure if that is the reason but it could explain some things.

That means that, if you have a UDFA making $500,000 who suddenly busts out and becomes one of the best players in the league at his position, if you redo his contract he can only make $650,000 the next season? lol

[skinsfansince1988]

Unless the Colts take him

Just had a moment of thought about this, this hurts the team, but the team can still be active if they go "Moneyball" and draft solid underrated players who are not exactly superstars. If you can spend your money wisely and get a nice supporting cast, while still being able to manage that 18 mil penalty (because I'm assuming you would cut into it half and half over 2 years), you might be able to give Griffin some serviceable options.

This isn't the end of the world, but it impairs the Redskins, no doubt. Now it's time to see what the Redskins do to adjust and adapt to this sudden, unfair, ridiculous change in rule.

I think that was what they were going to do anyway, I loved our FA class last year and I never wanted VJax, I prefer Meachum or Colston

[Conn]

How the conversation should have gone:

Redskins: "We need these contracts approved".

NFL: "Remember the memo we sent out about moving too much cap to the uncapped year. This is what we were talking about."

Redskins "OK. Thanks for the clarification. We will go back to the drawing board."

EXACTLY. This **** was approved at the time, it sure as hell shouldn't be punished retroactively, less than a day before FA starts, two years later.

[rebornempowered]

Shouldn't the penalty be the acceptable amount of moved cap space instead of the entire amount? That seems like cruel and unusual punishment.

Or is this a reduced amount. I don't remember how much cap those two contracts moved.

[Rufus T Firefly]

Keep in mind when people are throwing out cap savings from releasing players, they mostly are using just this year's savings. With the ability to spread the 36 mil over two years, we need to think of these release saving for those two years.

For example, (using warpath numbers) Atogwe, Cooley, Brown and Hall being released saves about 10.5 mil this year. But it knocks off around 23 mil in commitments in 2013.

[SkinsTillIDie]

As I understand it, we didn't violate anything. This was part of the collective bargaining agreement. The owners (including Snyder) agreed to it:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7677375/sources-dallas-cowboys-washington-redskins-lose-millions-cap-space

There's no way this was a unanimous decision. By all means, this looks like the majority of the NFL owners milking the two richest franchises and hurting two premier competitors in the process. In the guise of "collective bargaining"

[HigSkin]

On second thought - forget the lawyers, turn it over to the Government as collusion complaint.

[Boss_Hogg]

*glued to listening to The Fan*... j

ack, don't listen to Chad and Lavar. They are gonna make it worse.

[NattyBo]

This is honestly some scandalous **** by the NFL to drop this on the eve of Free Agency.

[SkinsTillIDie]

Keep in mind when people are throwing out cap savings from releasing players, they mostly are using just this year's savings. With the ability to spread it over two years, we need to think of these release saving for two years.

For example, (using warpath numbers) Atogwe, Cooley, Brown and Hall being released saves about 10.5 mil this year. But it knocks off around 23 mil in commitments in 2013.

Excellent, excellent point.

[santanathegreat]

I understand if they want to penalize the Skins/Cowboys for doing it, but the timing of this is just pathetic. The day before FA starts, you pull this horsecrap? It's just entirely too convenient that they wait the day before to come down with these penalties. This is a blatant abuse of power by the league FO's.

[frommd]

When did David Stern becoming the Commissioner of the NFL?

[rockfan7224]

On second thought - forget the lawyers, turn it over to the Government as collusion complaint.

It certainly sounds like one. This is some shady ****.

[ADF]

Well, the new TV deal kicks in next year. That should cause the cap to rise quite a bit.

[skinsfan242]

So we basically have 13 million in cap space this year (assuming we spilt down the middle) after all our tenders and before any cuts. Thats not horrible, not great but not horrible.

[Epochalypse]

If the league approved the contracts, it's the league's fault.

The league should be taking the hit, not us.

This HAS to be legally contestable.

[SkinsTillIDie]

Hopefully this helps our "they're all against us!" motivational card this year

[Fifty Gut]

is an uncapped year an uncapped year or what? this is bull**** to the highest degree. the NFL created this system, not us. we played by the rules. used them to our advantage, as any team should have. I'm sure our front office knew this was coming, but still, not one NFL talking head I respect understands how the league can do this

[Supreme Wu]

Can they defer the full amount and go to court for a year?

I guess if they lose they get F'd in the A in 2013.

[A Walton]

I trust Bruce and Shanny to mitigate this BS. They have done a spectacular job purging Vinny's work. Too bad we all have to eat a **** sandwich, it wasn't like living thru those years wasn't bad enough....Vinny, the gift that keeps on giving.

[Est.1974]

This was from back at the time of the contract restuctures. Looks like thats your $36m right there.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/redskinsinsider/albert-haynesworth/why-haynesworth-hall-arent-lik.html

In his "Under the Cap" column on FootballOutsiders.com, Jimmy I. Halsell, who really knows his numbers, wrote about how the Redskins finally capitalized on the uncapped year in restructuring the contracts of Albert Haynesworth and DeAngelo Hall. Haynesworth and Hall were due guaranteed option bonuses of $21 million and $15 million, respectively, so the Redskins converted the option bonuses to signing bonuses and provided each player with voidable clauses in their reworked contracts.

Because the players have the option to void the contracts, the Redskins can assign all of the bonuses to the 2010 uncapped season.

[War Paint]

Well, we were 31 million under the cap. If we split the 36 million over two years, that would be an 18 million loss this year, which would leave us around 13 million under the cap. Then you have to factor the cap space saved by cutting players like Atogwe, which might increase our cap space for this year. We can still go out and sign VJax. Will we have holes on our roster at the start of next season, such as in our secondary? Probably. I do think we'll still have enough space to add a couple of players like VJax and on Oline.

I think the Cowboys were something like 4 million under the cap. If they split the 10 million over two years, they are 1 million over the cap.

This suck bad, but we still have decent cap space available to make some important moves like at WR.