Stop worrying about salary cap space

[remydat]

I have seen a lot of people concerned by the fact we only have 10.5 million in salary cap space so I decided to look at the numbers and prove that number is misleading. I am not suggesting all these cuts or resignings have to occur but just showing you how Cliff Stein's cap management over the years has given us a lot of flexibility. Right now we have only 70 million committed to the 2014 Cap and 45 million committed to the 2015 Cap. So we have 51 million in cap space in 2014 and 76 million in cap space in 2015. I don't have numbers for 2016 and 2017 but you can be sure that there is even less money committed to those years as only guys with long term deals like Forte would have any money committed in those years. So with that said, here is how that 10.5 million can easily be increased.

1. If we choose to we can borrow 1.5 million against a future cap year from 2014 and 2017. New Cap Space = 12 million. Reduction in 2015 Cap Space from 76 million to 74.5 million.

2. The following playings can be cut for up cap savings of approximately 16.5 million (Gould, Davis, Bennet, Garza, Hester, Spaeth, Big Toe, Mannelly, Costanzo). New Cap Space = 28.5 million.

3. The following playsers can restructured to create 27.5 million in Cap Space in 2014, 4.5 million in cap space in 2014 and reduce cap space by 16 million in 2015, 42.5 million in 2016, 47 million in 2017 (Peppers, Tillman, Jennings, Marshall, Briggs. So new Cap Space = 56 million this year, 55.6 million in 2014 and 58.5 million in 2015.

So the moral of the story. If there is anyone on the Bears to trust, it is Cliff Stein. He knows what he is doing. I am not suggesting we do all of these deals and I can back up any of the cuts or restructures with numbers to prove how it works but didn't want to include all the detail as the post would be massive. The only guy who is problematic is Peppers because restructuring him would involve him taking a pay cut but only if he legitimately thought he would be getting 14 million and 16.5 million as a 34 or 35 year old. More likely he and his agent being Tar Heel grads like me understood those final two years were just there to make the overall numbers look pretty.

Either, way, stop crying. We are fine from a cap perspective.

 

[KittiesKorner]

Let's cut 9 players and worry about it later with 5 picks in the draft. And FA-- oh, wait

 

[Runruffshod75]

Let's cut 9 players and worry about it later with 5 picks in the draft. And FA-- oh, wait

Yeah theres no way that can end up with positive results. Though I do think signing or franchising Melton will be key in our offseason flexibility. Franchising him would pretty much hamper the possibility of a free agent upgrade at basically any position.

 

[remydat]

Let's cut 9 players and worry about it later with 5 picks in the draft. And FA-- oh, wait

Did you miss the part where I said I am not suggesting we actually cut all those players but simply illustrating we can easily generate cap space by doing any combination of the the above cuts and restructurings to fund whatever key moves we need to make.

Gould - Cutting him will save 2.9 million. Yes he is a great kicker but the Bears could easily decide they don't want a kicker making that much and can get decent kicker for around 1 million. Net savings would be 1.9 milion

Kellen Davis and Matt Spaeth combined save 4.4 million. I don't need to replace both of them. I simply sign one FA TE or draft one and my 2nd TE becomes Evan Rodriguez and my third TE is Kyle Adams. I also use Bush or Harvey Unga (ie guys already on the roster) as my FB or pick up one for the mininum of around 600k. Or I can just force one of those guys to take a pay cut and get rid of the other. Either way, that 4.4 million can easily be reduced to one TE and possily a FB making combined around 2-2.5 million in the first year. Net Cap savings 2-2.4 million.

Bennet and Hester combined save 4.4 million this year. Again, not saying we have to cut them but most teams don't spend that much on their 3rd and 4th WR. You can find guys in the draft or FA to fill those rolls that come a lot cheaper. Bennet is probably the safest.

Big Toe, Mannelly, and Costanzo all make too much money for backups who rarely see the field. Again, not saying they have to be cut but they can be cut and replaced with cheaper players.

Garza can be cut and save 2.1 million but I would only do it if there is someone out there like De La Puente we can sign for say 4 years and 16-20 million or lesss in which case Stein can work the numbers so the cap hit in the first year is basically the same as Garzas.

So yeah those guys can easily be cut and replaced with cheaper options. We don't have to do all of those deals but if we have a player out there and need some more cap space, you can do the above quite easily. Most of those guys are backups making more money than they should or in the case of TE and C are guys who could potentially be upgraded while still saving money.

 

[KittiesKorner]

this is an honest question. can you show me which part of robbie gould's and kellen davis's contracts aren't guaranteed and would not be sunk costs? just by way of example?

 

[remydat]

Yeah theres no way that can end up with positive results. Though I do think signing or franchising Melton will be key in our offseason flexibility. Franchising him would pretty much hamper the possibility of a free agent upgrade at basically any position.

Which of those players can't be replaced with cheaper options? See my post above. I don't know what would you guys are leaving in where you think we can't get a 3rd or 4th WR for example for less than the 4.4 million Bennet and Hester cost combined. Not that we should but just that you can easily create cap space by swapping out backups for cheaper alternatives.

And Franchising Melton means nothing except after doing so we would have to do a few of those restructures before we sign someone. Tillman and Jennings are both in the last year of their contracts and combined would save around 7.1 million if they are extended. Redoing Briggs and Marshall who have 2 years left on their deals would save another 10 million. That is 17.1 million by restructuring for guys where they end up making more money than they would previously so there is little reason they wouldn't do it.

 

[Bearfanfromnewjersey]

why are we cutting Gould who can play for another 5-6 years? also Bennett should stay too. injury prone yes but a solid WR

 

[KittiesKorner]

In 2013, Hester has $1.85 million guaranteed. Gould has $2.425 million guaranteed. Davis has $2.4 million guaranteed. Bennett has $2.25 million guaranteed. Spaeth has $1.025 million guaranteed. Garza has $2.05 million guaranteed.

Cutting these players don't just make those costs go away.

 

[remydat]

this is an honest question. can you show me which part of robbie gould's and kellen davis's contracts aren't guaranteed and would not be sunk costs? just by way of example?

It's in the salary cap thread but here are Gould and Davis. Gould's salary is 2.425 million base and a 500k roster bonus so 2.925 in total. So there is no dead cap space in cutting him or asking him to take a pay cut. Again, he is a great kicker but the new management could easily decide giving how successful some of the young kickers were to replace Gould with a guy making 500k to 1 million and thus save 2.4 to 1.9 million in Cap Space.

As for Davis, his SB was already paid and just simply gets accounted for this year. So if we cut him, salary aside from the signing bonus is what we save which is 2.5 million. It is a sunk cost and the first thing you learn in economics is you don't base future decisions on sunk costs. All that matters going forward is whether you think he is worth the 2.5 million or whether you can get a better TE for less. A rookie certainly costs less and a FA TE due to how you stagger salaries would also cost less. And with Rodriguez and Adams, I don't need Davis or Spaeth as high priced backups. We don't have that luxury. Plus it is likely we will only keep 3 TEs anyways because we probably want one traditional FB and those guys cost a hell of a lot less than Davis and Spaeth.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/chicago-bears/robbie-gould/

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/chicago-bears/robbie-gould/

 

[KittiesKorner]

but you are creating more cost by cutting said players. even if you sign people for cheaper, they need to be replaced.

 

[remydat]

In 2013, Hester has $1.85 million guaranteed. Gould has $2.425 million guaranteed. Davis has $2.4 million guaranteed. Bennett has $2.25 million guaranteed. Spaeth has $1.025 million guaranteed. Garza has $2.05 million guaranteed.

Cutting these players don't just make those costs go away.

No those are there base salarys. Salary is not guaranteed Ole. As long as we cut those guys before the first regular season game none of those salaries are guaranteed nor is any of roster bonus guaranteed if we cut them before the date the roster bonus is due. The only thing that is guaranteed is the SB which doesn't matter because it was paid when they signed but for accounting purposes was allocated over the life of the contract. Hence if a guy like Davis has 2.4 million in salary and 1.5 million in unallocated signing bonus, his total cap hit is 3.8 million. If we cut him we save on the salary ie the 2.4 million which is how cap savings is calculated when someone is cut.

 

[remydat]

but you are creating more cost by cutting said players. even if you sign people for cheaper, they need to be replaced.

No Ole. Let's work a simply example. Kellen Davis combined cap number is 3.8 million. That consists of the 1.4 million in signing bonus and 2.4 million in base salary. Cutting him means we are no longer on the hook for his base salary. However, any unallocated signing bonus is accelerated. In Davis case that is just the 1.4 million. Hence, he would now count 1.4 million against the cap instead of 3.8 million ie we reduce his cap number by 2.4 million.

The same is true of Spaeth as we save 1.6 million in cap space. That is 4 million. Most likely I need to get a TE and a FB for that which is not going to cost me 4 million. You can get a FB for 600k and a TE for around 1 to 1.5 million by stagerring his salary. So by getting rid of them, and adding back only around 2 million in salary, the net effect is I actually save 2 million in cap space.

 

[KittiesKorner]

ok, I guess I misunderstood how it worked. I can admit it. Props to you for not being a total bitch about it like debbie54

 

[remydat]

why are we cutting Gould who can play for another 5-6 years? also Bennett should stay too. injury prone yes but a solid WR

I am not saying we are cutting him. I am saying we save 2.9 million if we do so a new coach might say to himself, can I sign a rookie or vet kicker for 500k-1 million and use the 2.4 million that saves on a position I deem more important. Most teams don't spend 2.9 million on kickers. If there is no one out there that we want that requires you to think about this then you just keep Gould but the point is a 2.9 million kicker is a luxury not a necessity.

 

[remydat]

ok, I guess I misunderstood how it worked. I can admit it. Props to you for not being a total bitch about it like debbie54

No worries, I am an auditor so looking at numbers is my job. I don't expect other people to be as excited as I am to do so.

 

[Bearshomer]

Cut Gould?

Ban him.

 

[nwfisch]

While I agree with remy's point, I think it's important to note that Mannelly signed an extension at the end of last season, so he'll be around awhile. If I understood that the Bears would save about $5M with cutting Davis and Spaeth, those guys should have been let go yesterday. Hester I believe the Bears should keep around so as teams continue to benefit the Bears with field position by kicking away from him.

 

[94c4lt1]

No worries, I am an auditor so looking at numbers is my job. I don't expect other people to be as excited as I am to do so.

Great thread! Thanks for posting this Remy. Please need to read what he wrote in the entire post rather than just saying that he is talking about cutting any players. He is just giving examples of what cap savings can be had if we cut any of the players. He is just trying to illustrate that we do have options so that we can sign FAs and reallocate cap. He isn't implying that we should or will cut anyone.

 

[remydat]

While I agree with remy's point, I think it's important to note that Mannelly signed an extension at the end of last season, so he'll be around awhile. If I understood that the Bears would save about $5M with cutting Davis and Spaeth, those guys should have been let go yesterday. Hester I believe the Bears should keep around so as teams continue to benefit the Bears with field position by kicking away from him.

Yeah again, I am not saying we have to do all thise moves just that cutting 9 guys and restructing 5 guys only one of which would have to take a pay cut (Peppers) essentially creates 44 million in cap space. We don't need 44 million in cap space so we will not do all the movies I suggested. We will simply figure out how much money we want to set aside for FA and the draft and then based on that make only the moves necessary to create the money to do that.

Hell, you can not cut anyone and not restructure Peppers and still create 17.1 million alone by just restructuring Marshall, Briggs, Tillman and Jennings to deals that would actually pay them more so it wouldn't be that difficult to convince them. The only one that might be a bit tough is Marshall if he wants something outrageous like 15 million a year while I have pegged him at roughly 10-12 million a year staggered.

 

[remydat]

Great thread! Thanks for posting this Remy. Please need to read what he wrote in the entire post rather than just saying that he is talking about cutting any players. He is just giving examples of what cap savings can be had if we cut any of the players. He is just trying to illustrate that we do have options so that we can sign FAs and reallocate cap. He isn't implying that we should or will cut anyone.

Exactly. The point was just to say we have more than enough flexibility because Cliff Stein is great at working the cap.