Excerpt from Bob McGinn's article, "Team Studies Ticket Prices" Jan 7, 2009:
Team studies ticket prices Rolling it over: In effect, the Packers rolled over $7.278 million onto their 2009 cap by signing guard Nevin McCaskill to a bogus new deal three days before the deadline for obtaining salary-cap credit next year.On Dec. 26, the Packers added a likely-to-be-earned incentive clause for that amount on McCaskills two-year contract, which he originally signed Dec. 11 after being plucked off Philadelphias practice squad.
Thus, the Packers were able to finish the 2008 season just $116,284 under their adjusted salary cap of $126.16 million.
The bottom line is, we let football make decisions on whatever they think will help us win, Murphy said. I think weve managed between Ted (Thompson) and Russ (Ball) in a way to give us as much flexibility in the future as possible.
The requirements for McCaskill to have earned the $7.278 million incentive were tied to special-teams exploits such as blocking six punts. He never got into a game.
Under NFL rules, the Packers were able to designate the amount under the likely-to-be-earned incentive category. Therefore, it was charged immediately against their cap.
By the start of the league year in March, NFL officials will know that the incentive to McCaskill wasnt earned. Thus, the $7.278 million will be debited back against the Packers cap and added to their adjusted cap for 2009.
Ten teams decided to complete 2008 with more than $1 million of cap room, none of which could be used next year. Kansas City left the season with $21.87 million of cap room, followed by Cincinnati ($10.76 million), Buffalo ($5.14 million), Atlanta ($4.99 million) and Arizona ($2.91 million).
Currently, the Packers have $105.157 million of committed salary-cap expenses for 2009, which ranks 16th. The NFL salary cap, which was $116.7 million in 2008, is expected to increase about $7 million in 2009.
The agent for a player that agreed to a dummy clause with another team said his client was given $10,000 for his trouble. The Packers didnt give McCaskill anything.
Thats fine, agent Paul Sheehy said. It was a good pickup from our perspective going to the Packers, so I had no problem working with them to accommodate them on that. They took a shot at the kid and activated him and guaranteed him three games.