Zero2Cool
15 years ago
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Today marks an important day in the business of the NFL, made even more important by the events surrounding it. Let me explain.

Monday after Week 10

The Monday following the 10th week of the NFL season is the deadline for extensions with players that charge money to a teams 2009 cap without proration into future years. Teams can still extend player contracts through the final Saturday of the regular season, however, those extensions will treat any additional 2009 signing bonus monies as prorated through the length of the contract.

For example, in the event a team wants to give a player $10 million in bonus money to extend his expiring contract four more years, it can if it wishes have that entire $10M contained in 2009 rather than prorated out and added to future year cap charges. It can do that only if a contract is completed and submitted by 4 p.m. EST today. A team, however, can continue to add Paragraph 5 amounts (salary) through the rest of the season and have it count only in 2009.

Were that same deal submitted after today, the $10M would be prorated over the five years of the deal, with only $2M of the bonus counting in 2009 and an additional $2M counting in each of the next four years. In any other year besides this one, were that same deal submitted after today, the $10 million would be prorated over the five years of the deal, with only $2 million of the bonus counting in each of the next four years. However, with the uncapped year looming next year, all extensions adding salary to this year will be treated as 2009 Cap charges, rather than being prorated.

[img_r]http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c117812/media_center/images/rendered/blog/wysiwyg/1dd.jpg[/img_r]Thus, a team with $15M of cap room remaining for 2009 can soak up most of that available room which is use it or lose it by consummating a deal such as the one above. In my time with the Packers, we completed these Week 10 deals with players such as Donald Driver, Nick Barnett, Mark Tauscher, Scott Wells and Donald Lee over the years. This is especially valuable for teams that are sitting on large amounts of cap room Green Bay, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, etc.

Use it or lose it

The use of cap room by NFL teams is more important than ever, both for today and the next seven weeks. With each passing day toward March, the likelihood of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and continued operation of the salary cap lessens. So NFL teams have to prepare as if there will be no cap in 2010.

The prospect of no cap means there are no allowable transfers of 2009 available cap room to 2010. In a typical year, teams with tens of millions of dollars of existing cap room would typically use maneuvers to bring forward cap room into the subsequent year.

For example, entering the 2009 league year, although the designated salary cap for NFL teams was $123 million, there were teams approaching $150M as their adjusted cap figure their cap room after the addition of the rolled-over room from 2009. This is a technique that allowed teams such as Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Green Bay and others to enter the 2009 league year with close to or over $40M of available cap room (Tampa Bay had close to $50M).

The silly incentive trick

The cap rollover exercise is typically achieved by renegotiating an expiring player contract by adding an LTBE (likely to be earned) incentive that has no way of being earned yet will serve the purpose of eating up cap room in the present that will be credited in the future.

[img_r]http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c117812/media_center/images/rendered/blog/wysiwyg/Nall.jpg[/img_r]For example, for several years in Green Bay, I would negotiate with our third-string quarterback the week of the last game that if he completed seven touchdown passes and blocked five punts, he would receive a $5M bonus. The insertion of the incentive would eat up the teams cap room and end up as a credit toward the following years adjusted cap. I negotiated that deal one year with our third-string quarterback, Craig Nall, prior to a game against the Bears which turned out to be meaningless. Nall came in in the second half and threw two touchdown passes. If he threw a third and fourth, I was going to go down to the sideline and pull him out of the game myself!

That tactic is not available this year. Because this is the YBTUY (year before the uncapped year), the rules prevent any phony incentive rollover maneuvers. The rules also prevent any dumping of cap room at all into 2010 since with no cap to account for, there are no defined accounting procedures at all for 2010.

Will anything happen?

So the question becomes: Will there be any or many extensions today? The answer is likely few, if any. With so much uncertainty, not only about whether there will be a cap, the bigger question is who will be a free agent in 2010. Without a cap, six rather than four years of service will be required to reach that status, robbing some 230 players of the free agency they had been looking forward to.

With the increasing likelihood that these 230 players will be restricted, rather than unrestricted free agents in 2010, teams will likely be more cautious in their efforts to extend players today and through the rest of the season.

Lock-In to a CBA?

With these 230 players facing so much uncertainty and the possibility that teams will roll back spending without a cap-spending minimum in 2010, there becomes increasing pressure on new NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith to work out a deal with the league.

Not that Smith isnt trying. He has suggested a lock-in in January or February if theres no deal, locking his negotiating team in a room with the NFL for as long as it takes to get a deal done. That request has been met with deafening silence from the NFL.

Who wants a salary cap?

The clear, although silent, message from the NFL is that the league and the teams are not only unafraid of an uncapped year in 2010, but may even embrace it as a way to recover from debt and get their expenses under control. This isnt a message the union wants to hear.

Thus, we are in this bizarre labor negotiation in football that has the following backward-looking appearance:

The NFL appears to want to play 2010 without a salary cap; the NFLPA appears to want to play 2010 with a salary cap.

Well be following this closely. In the meantime, well watch to see what if any deals get done today, the last cap deadline day for a year or two, or more.



lol good stuff
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Zero2Cool (21-May) : Well, emailing should work now. After not working for almost a year. Oops.
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Zero2Cool (20-May) : lol our email hasn't worked in months. 7 pages of unverified users
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Zero2Cool (19-May) : Packers have signed first-round pick Matthew Golden, leaving second-round tackle Anthony Belton as their only unsigned draft pick
beast (19-May) : Supposedly he has to take his image, and name off of it... but otherwise could keep selling wine if he wanted to.
Zero2Cool (19-May) : he giving up his win business?
beast (19-May) : Speaking of Woodson, sounds like he'll be a minority owner (0.1%) of the Browns
Mucky Tundra (15-May) : Zero, regarding Woodson, that'd why I find the timing with Williams peculiar
dfosterf (15-May) : Ryan Hall y'all does a great job of tracking thesr
Zero2Cool (15-May) : Fear not!! I planned to do 33mi bike ride tomorrow morning, so ... yeah
Zero2Cool (15-May) : We got some dark clouds and nasty winds right bout now.
Zero2Cool (15-May) : Madison they had hail 4pm.
dfosterf (15-May) : Sure looks like these tornadoes are headed towards Green Bay
Zero2Cool (15-May) : Woodson of Charles fame was reluctant and then loved it. that didn't really come out until post career
Mucky Tundra (15-May) : IE "We bought into the Bears and they let us down, we have no choice to seek alternatives"
Mucky Tundra (15-May) : Or that Williams and his family are preparing an exit ramp if they don't like how things are going in a few years
Mucky Tundra (15-May) : Either Williams thought it would make him look good (reluctant but then embraces the city and franchise)
Mucky Tundra (15-May) : I can only assume that the Williams camp agreed to cooperate with that article tells me 2 things
dfosterf (15-May) : Ya. They are in a great mood
Zero2Cool (15-May) : I should visit again
dfosterf (15-May) : ChiCity Sports entering freakout mode due to Caleb and his dad not wanting him to go there
Zero2Cool (15-May) : "He's looking really good out there," Derrick Ansley said of Kalen King. Adds that he's been playing inside and out.
Zero2Cool (15-May) : Him saying he doesn't have one to give haha
Zero2Cool (15-May) : True, that was awesome. The whole F thing was great actually.
dfosterf (15-May) : I did like the Mark Murphy part, sorta
Zero2Cool (15-May) : Some comments on it saying it was great, amazing... I came away thinking... awkward.
dfosterf (15-May) : Packers schedule release video is "interesting" I guess.
Zero2Cool (15-May) : SOOO glad that tool still works. Saves from manually entering each game
Zero2Cool (15-May) : NFL Pick'em import was done last night.
Mucky Tundra (15-May) : Atlanta with 5 primetime games lol
Zero2Cool (15-May) : Week Five BYE?? NFL is hell.
wpr (14-May) : Vikings schedule leaked. Week 12 in GB. Week 18 in MN.
wpr (14-May) : CBS has GB @ NYG Week 11 Nov 16 and they will face MN in week 18 but don't say where. I think away
Zero2Cool (14-May) : W15: Packers at Broncos
Zero2Cool (14-May) : Ben Sirmans on MarShawn Lloyd: “Everything’s full go for him.”
Zero2Cool (14-May) : Luke Butkus says training camp will allow plenty of time to implement new center Elgton Jenkins
Zero2Cool (14-May) : wk 2 commanders at packers
Zero2Cool (14-May) : Ugh. Packers thanksgiving detroit ...boring
Zero2Cool (14-May) : Panthers at Green Bay in week 9, Nov 2nd
buckeyepackfan (14-May) : Week 1
buckeyepackfan (14-May) : Packers Host Detroit Week 1! ML finally gets a week home opener.
beast (13-May) : I was kind of hoping Douglas might come back to the Pack
beast (13-May) : My question is how much do we trust Jenkins? In bad weather, he seemed to struggle a bit with ball control snapping, though he started at OG
beast (13-May) : Well Jenkins probably knows he's not getting that 2026 salary number without a new contact... so just trying to get the new contact early
Zero2Cool (13-May) : CB Rasul Douglas is visiting the #Seahawks today, per source.
dfosterf (13-May) : He's a switch and baiter. Its the same as a bait and switcher except he agreed to the switch first lol
dfosterf (13-May) : 6.8 mil raise next year. Those are existing contract numbers
dfosterf (13-May) : 12.8 plus 4.8 pro rata signing bonus is 17.6 mil. Top center in the league at 18
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