2008 Salary Cap Status
 

I have pretty solid info that the Texans are sitting at $3.52 million in available salary cap space for 2008 (at least prior to the Moats activation). The ItB.com cap page currently reflects $3.29 million, so I'm off by just a smidge somewhere, but still pretty close -- ~$230k, or about 0.2% off the initial 2008 cap estimate.

Tampa Bay leads the league with over $26 million available. Other notables: Tennessee ($7.05 million), Jacksonville ($5.95 million), and Indy ($5.32 million). Chicago has the least remaining room at $318k.

The good news is not just that the Texans will probably be able to forward a few extra million into their 2009 cap, but outside of Anthony Weaver (and Jacques Reeves?) for the first time in about four years there doesn't appear to be the sort of dead money weight just waiting to be let go... this team will have NO excuses to build the team they want to go to battle with next season.

And given that they have a full slate of picks in the 2009 Draft for the first time since 2006, they should finally be in a position to fill "most" of their personnel needs and thereby compete for a playoff spot (assuming they don't give away any more games like the gift to Peyton and friends in Relaint a few weeks ago).

nicely done man!

so does that mean if they do end up cutting weaver or reeves their contracts won't affect us anymore?

Thanks Keith, and as Nun said, we will have a pretty clean slate, with all our draft picks for a change. I think the offense is pretty well set, so we can really concentrate on building that defense into a winner. I really wish we could get a better feel for how Molden, Adibi, and Okam are working out, so we could see where we really stand on defense.

Oh, dead money is still dead money; the difference for 2009 is just that we are looking at one, maybe two, burdensome contracts. Nearly all teams carry some amount of dead money - a few years ago, the average was somewhere around $5 million, so maybe it's a little higher nowadays - and for the first time in awhile the Texans might be in line with the rest of the league, maybe even lower.

Even if you look at Weaver, Green, and Reeves as possible dead money in 2009, and since the Texans can treat two of them as post-6/1 cuts if they want, Rick Smith won't really be able to point to dead money as holding him back in the offseason for what he wants to do.

ooohh, no i get it, the texans just won't have a ridiculous amount of wasted money, right? so the option of throwing copious amounts of money at big-time free agents is definitely there?

you'll have to explain about the june 1st cuts (if you feel like). i've heard of them, just never understood their role.

The post-6/1 cuts allow teams to only account for the current year's bonus/dead money on the current year's cap. All future dead (unamortized bonus) money then hits the following year's cap.

The biggest misconception with the June 1 cuts is usually that the dead money is split evenly between the current year and next; this would only be true if the player had the contract expiring after the next year.

The other noteworthy item here I alluded to in an earlier post is that the revised CBA ('06) allowed for teams to designate two players as post-6/1 cuts before 6/1 actually passed. (ex. The Texans can spread Weaver's dead money like a June 1 cut even if they cut him in March).

so they cut a guy with 3 years left, 5 mil a year. they owe him 15 mil. k, so the june 1st cut means they only have to pay him 5 for the current year and then 10 the next instead of just laying the money down in full right as soon as he's cut? is that right?

how does this help?

Unless the 5 mill a year is guaranteed they don't owe him anything, but there still some money charged to the salary cap from his bonus that has already been paid..

Dead money only pertains to the salary cap number, not what the player is actually being paid. When a player get a 15 million dollar bonus he gets the money right then, but as far as the salary cap is concerned the 15 million is spread across the life of the contract.

Dead money is basically money that has already been paid to the player, but still counts against the cap even if he is no longer on the team. Cap dollars and real money paid to the player are 2 different things.

I have no idea if that answers your question, or even makes sense. I'm not sure why I'm even trying when the expert Keith will do it better anyway.

Keith,

Along those same lines what Texan free agents (after this season) currently on the roster do you see being resigned and what cap implications do you anticipate? I know Dunta is a free agent and will get a big contract, maybe even Owen Daniel. Could we be on the edge of not being able to afford our own players?

I can think of two (maybe 3), that I would cut, or let go at the end of the season: #1 - Ahman Green, #2 - Greenwood, & #3 - Travis Johnson.

This (fictional) scenario is correct. The benefit would be in pushing off when a team needed to recognize the $10 million in dead money... two reasons why they might be helpful: 1. The team might not be able to absorb the entire $15 million all under one season's cap, and 2. the present value in money is greater now than later... i.e. inflation, as the cap grows each year... runs almost parallel to the notion of 'why pay now when you can pay later?'.


fyi - I have listed the team's key UFAs and RFAs on the 2009 cap page.

Dunta and Daniels are definitely the priorities imo. Recall that Winston was recently re-signed. He would have been an RFA, which leads me to think that the Texans would also probably prefer to sign Daniels long-term and not have to tender him as an RFA. We shall see...

Dunta's situation is easily the most captivating to me, what with his return from injury and his pre-injury performance as being near-Pro Bowl level.

To answer your question though... the Texans have AMPLE cap room to re-sign any of their own free agents they want to retain. This is part of the jist of my OP... cap room is less of a reason for the Texans to blame for not getting done this offseason what they want than it has maybe ever been since before the 2004 season.

As for other free agents to be re-signed... there are a number of safeties on that list plus Faggins and a couple old guys (Bruener, Zgonina). I think they'll evaluate each position and determine, sort of how they decided to leave Ron Dayne without a contract this year.

I could see them offering small contracts to Faggins and CC Brown, letting them test the market to see their value. Faggins/Dunta will be interesting, as I think it could have significant draft implications.

cool thanks guys. safe to say i learned a little bit about it hahaha...

Thanks, Keith! I also think Dreessen is starting to have value as a second tight end and Brisiel as a guard.