Interesting Salary Cap Updates
 

As a part of a salary cap challenge performed by a pair of SI.com writers, they linked salary cap data for individual players. I audited their list (which was a little dated, btw) versus the ItB.com salary cap page, and while my page was nearly identical to what they had, I found a couple things worth pointing out.

First, Owen Daniels and Eric Winston have apparently been able to void the final year (2009) of their rookie contracts. This accelerated the last year of their signing bonus to the 2008 cap (no big deal), but it also should make them both restricted free agents after this season.

Also, speaking of RFAs, Anthony Maddox had been given the low tender for $927k iirc, and back in April, he signed a one-year contract. But - oh ho - he apparently did not sign the tender. He signed a new contract worth $710k in base salary and $90k in what appears to be a signing or roster bonus of some sort.

Why would Maddox do this, you may ask, agreeing to a contract worth more than $100k less? Because the RFA tender came with $0 in bonuses or guarantees. Methinks Maddox is nervous about making the final cut...?

Thanks for the update Keith. Really most of what I know about our caps and the league caps in general I learned from you.

I am not to worried about Daniels or Winston becoming RFA's next year. I find it odd they opted out though. Both were almost garanteed bigger contracts than their 3rd and 4th round contracts IMO.

Winston was gonna get a top 10 RT contract anyway, and most likely would have gotten it next year without opting out.

I think OD has more to lose here than we do. I love the guy. But he has had some fumble issues. The guy is always open, but he needs to hold the ball better. He better put glue on his hands because the team could opt for Dressen if his fumbling continues.

While I would hate to lose either one, giving them 2nd round tenders instead of bigger money could play well for us. Neither one is a superstar though and could be replaced, I have no fear that Kubes and Smith not only have the talent on the roster but could abra cadabra somethin up that is as good.

i'd rather replace daniels than winston. especially with the history of this o'line being sort of bad, a rock is the last thing i'm willing to give up. and we have a guy who's closer to replacing daniels than butler(?) is to replacing winston in joel dressen. he's big, strong and has pretty good hands. i think he's also pretty good at blocking if i remember the kubiak interview correctly...

but seriously, owen daniels is good. people don't recognize him as a brand name TE like gates, winslow, gonzalez, witten, etc. so he gets pushed down in the TE rankings. now, i'm not gonna be ridiculous-homer-guy and say he's easily a top 5 TE but you wouldn't have a hard time making an argument for him. worth some cash, especially if fumbling ceases to be a problem.

I am not sure, as i still dont understand all the ramifications of the owners opting out of the cba, but my guess is that their opt outs had more to do with the cba opt out than anything. i believe it severly restricts players' ability to move depending on a number of issues that i honestly don't understand.

There are a couple things at play here, the first of which is that the owners opted out of the CBA, which initiates a new set of cap rules somewhat similar yet still different from the time just before the CBA was last extended a few short years ago. I honestly need to read up on some of the changes to refresh my memory.

Second, I don't find it odd at all that the final contract year was voided. This is a cashflow league, and in 2009 Daniels and Winston were only going to be paid their base salaries of $530k (plus a set of "small" workout bonuses if earned). Now, as RFAs, they'll both receive at miniumum 2nd round tenders, meaning they will likely earn base salaries of roughly $1.5 million (and possibly more if tendered as first or first-and-third rounders).

Both are worth the increases, quite a bit more actually, so it wouldn't surprise me if the Texans negotiated contract extensions with them sometime soon.

Side note.... Charles Spencer also had a voidable clause in his contract, but given his injuries, he has not been able to execute it, so he remains under contract through 2009 (assuming he doesn't get cut soon, of course).

OD is a good pass catching who can work the seems downfield in this offense. While he did have "fumbleitis" last year, I do not see Dreesen as a challege to him in the pass catching department. OD will get it fixed, and be a large part of this offense for years to come.

Dreesen IIRC is also a long snapper. With this roster becoming harder to make, he could supplant a specialist like Pittman whose only role (albeit an important one) is to snap.

I am not ready to call OD a fumbler and I doubt if Kubiak is either. If I recall correctly, his fumbles came in high profile situations so they are more easily remembered. If anyone has his career stats compared to some other TE's, I would be interested in seeing them. I remember that at least one of his fumbles came when he was hit really hard from behind while he was fighting for extra yards. Maybe when he is in that situation again, he can remind himself that he may be about to be decapitated.:)
If the coaches are not satisfied with OD, I doubt that Dreesson replaces him. More likely, they draft someone next year to compete with him.

Player--Years Played--Fumbles Last Year--Fumbles Career
Dallas Clark--5--0--2
Alge Crumpler--7--0--4
Owen Daniels--2--4--4
Antonio Gates--5--0--1
Tony Gonzalez--11--0--6
Jeremy Shockey--6--0--5
Kellen Winslow--4--2--3
Jason Witten--5--1--3

I put him up against the best TE's in the league here. Granted all 4 of his came last year and none the year before when he had about half the touches.

Hopefully he doesnt fumble at all this year, but if he puts more than 2 on the ground we may need to worry.

one also wasnt a fumble. he was on the ground and pulled the ball in to his side, and the ref called it a fumble which was bs. that said, he did have some others that were unacceptable

well, also when he got hit (i think it was against the saints) and broke his nose and dropped the ball he took a pretty savage hit. it's not like he was just giving them away for free which is reassuring...i remember him saying that he had never fumbled in college which means to me that 4 fumbles is probably a fluke

On that one where he broke his nose, he was knocked unconscious, that's why he dropped the ball. One of the others was an out and out BS call when he was on the ground, reached out and pulled the ball back in, (play over), an opponent jumped on him and then grabbed the ball away. The stupid zebra called it a fumble, how I don't know.

True that. I remember that was an absolutely terrible horrible call.

Not to be a homer, but we seemed to get the wrong end of the replay calls last year. Maybe that is a respect issue. When we start kicking arse then we will hopefully get the calls (like the Pats against the Ravens last year etc).