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In crunch for salary cap space, three teams must make last-minute moves
- Jason Fitzgerald Contributor @Jason_OTC
- August 28, 2014 2:08pm EDT
- Once the regular season begins the accounting rules change and nobody is free in the NFL.
- Every roster will now have 53 active players. Every team will field a 10-man practice squad. All players on the various reserve lists will now immediately count on the salary cap. That’s why for those managing the cap, there is probably no worse week of the year than the one in which the final preseason game is played. Nearly half the players who will participate in the game have almost no chance of making the football team. But if they are injured, they become a burden on a team’s salary cap, moving to the injured reserve list or receiving an injury settlement.
The numbers begin to add up quickly and teams that seem to have a significant amount of cap room will see it vanish quickly. In almost every case, these accounting changes will reduce a team’s cap room by about $2 million
Most teams in the NFL will want to have a safety net of at least $5 million in salary cap room to operate during the season. They also want roster flexibility, giving them the freedom to release and re-sign the last 10 players on the roster as they see fit. They can help a team deal with replacing injured players, accounting for unaccrued roster bonuses, and signing contract extensions with pending free agents during the season.
Teams will have a few ways to create the cap room and maintain their flexibility. One is to restructure veteran player contracts. A contract restructure occurs when a team converts a portion of a player’s Paragraph 5 salary into a prorated signing bonus. The player earns the same amount of cash, but his cap charge in the current year is reduced. The Ravens just created $3 million in cap room by restructuring the contract of cornerback Lardarius Webb in this manner. The Ravens were projected to have less than $2 million in cap space once the regular season began.
A contract renegotiation occurs when a team approaches a player with a choice. The choice presented is to take a pay cut or be released. One of these situations played out on television a few years ago when the New York Jets were featured on Hard Knocks. Though the scene was acted out for television, Jets General Manager Mike Tannenbaum had negotiated with the agent of backup quarterback Kellen Clemens based on the fact that if he refused a pay cut, he would be released.
The New England Patriots reportedly gave that same option to Logan Mankins and he refused the pay cut. He was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a salary dump on Tuesday. Had no trade materialized, it would have not been a surprise if he were released.
Veteran players will have their contracts guaranteed for the season if they make the week 1 roster. If a veteran player is on the bubble, that fact will actually work against his position on the roster. If the player is signed following the first week, only 25 percent of his salary is guaranteed. Teams will maximize their roster flexibility and short-erm cap space by releasing those players, even if they are better than a younger player they are competing with. The young player’s contract contains no guarantees.
So what are my top three teams that will likely be looking to create cap space in the coming days?
St. Louis Rams
The Rams currently have the least cap room in the NFL with just $1.67 million in cap space. The Rams already have placed Sam Bradford and Isaiah Pead on IR and they also have three other players on the list. That means that in a few days, the Rams will need to account for 58 players and a practice squad. If they opt to sign a full 10-man practice squad, it means the Rams will lose about $3.66 million in cap space. That gives them have no choice but to make a roster move before the start of the season.
Expect the Rams to operate with a minimal safety net as they went all of the 2013 season with almost no cap space. Things were so tight that the Rams had to make a minor modification of just $200,000 to their contract with Chris Long in order to cover for injuries suffered late in the season. I would anticipate the Rams restructuring the contract of Long, who has a $13.2 million Paragraph 5 salary, to create a few million in cap space. James Laurinaitis would be another possible candidate. Kendall Lankford would be a possible renegotiation candidate.
