Cap Update: McNair and JO's retirements have been processed

[B-more Ravor]

NFLPA records are no longer showing JO or McNair, so it appears that the team has placed them on the reserve/retired list, so they now come off of the books.

They will receive an additional $6.515M in cap space ($4M from McNair, $2.515M from JO) for this year. However, they will have to carry $10.226M ($4.9M from McNair, $5.326M from JO) in dead money against the 2009 cap.

They were already carrying around $2.4M in cap space, so they will not need all of that space to sign their draft picks. With some of the excess, they can likely recoup some of that dead money via the "phony" incentive loophole later in the year.

[darb72]

McNair is going to cost an additional nine million dollars? Holy cow what a crap signing that was.

Grbac might have been a little sissy man, but at least he won a play-off game.

[B-more Ravor]

McNair is going to cost an additional nine million dollars? Holy cow what a crap signing that was.

I think you misread my post. They get $4M in cap relief this year, but have to take a hit of $4.9M next year.

[festivus]

Thanks as usual, Ravor.

[darb72]

Yeah I did mis-read. Sorry about that.

.9 million dollars still on the books for that loser? What a crap signing that was.

[B-more Ravor]

Thsnks for this update.

I've been waiting to see the numbers.

As far as that dead money - OUCH.

Yeah, it's a lot, but they'll have ample cap space next year to cover it.

You can also rationalize it that McNair and JO were set to count over $20M next year, so now they will only count around $10M.

[Mista T]

You can also rationalize it that McNair and JO were set to count over $20M next year, so now they will only count around $10M.

That's glass half full thinking. I like it: The team made $10 million!

[jonboy79]

The team could also now afford to re-sign Suggs to a Monster, that would be MUCH more freindly to the cap in the future. They coul dgive him a relatively big bonus and a BIG guaranteed first year salary.

[UKRavenStockers]

On the topic of Suggs, the Saints re-signing Will Smith for $70mill contract over 6 years I don't think will help us in what seems to be our endeavour to sign Suggs for a lowball contract.

I realise I'm not privy to the contract negotiations but it strikes me as odd that we're still not getting the Suggs deal done. It strikes me that there have been a lot of deals struck in the last off-season or two for 4-3 ends and 3-4 OLBs that are of a similar calibre to Suggs, surely it can't be that difficult working out his contract value.

Now yes you can point to his sack total, but quite frankly if you're saying that Suggs only had an impact on 5 plays last year and say Aaron Kampman only had an impact on 12 plays last year (the numbers of sacks they had, ok that ignores half sacks, but you should get the thrust of my argument) then I think that is an insane way to quantify a defender's contract value. Yes sacks are the massive end product that you want but if you take Suggs' entire body of work over the course of the season and tot up the number of times he hit or pressured the QB then I think he's worth a big deal.

Dwight Freeney has fewer sacks than Suggs in the last two seasons, but I'd still consider Freeney one of the elite 4-3 DEs/3-4 OLBs in the NFL. Teams might compensate for Freeney and Suggs by sliding protections to their side, but they're still having an impact on the game. The contrast is that Freeney had Robert Mathis playing opposite him taking advantage of those pass rushing situations, where Suggs had Dwan Edwards across from him. Edwards did a very, very good job against the run at DLE last year but he's never going to provide the pass rush threat to take advantage of the protection that Suggs draws. But I don't think that should diminish Suggs' contract value.

We have plenty of comparable contracts for comparable talents around, so we have plenty of contracts to either all but copy or meet in the middle of, so I really don't see what the stumbling block is. Suggs doesn't sem to me to have the same character concerns that McAlister had when we tagged him two years in a row, so I'm really stumped as to what the stumbling block is there.

What's the latest news on negotiations does anyone know? Are they still at the table or have talks broken off again?

[B-more Ravor]

Apparently, they are talking, but not getting anywhere.

FWIW, they must get a deal done with him by July 15th or they can not re-sign him until after the season. Hopefully, that will create some urgency to get it done.

From the Ravens perspective, the price is only going to go up next year and because of the CBA opt-out, they can only pro-rate bonus money over 5 years next year, as opposed to 6 years if they get it done now.

From Suggs' perspective, he faces the possibility of getting hurt and possibly losing out on substantial bonus money.

Bottom line is that they - both sides - need to find a way to get it done.

[B-more Ravor]

The team could also now afford to re-sign Suggs to a Monster, that would be MUCH more freindly to the cap in the future. They coul dgive him a relatively big bonus and a BIG guaranteed first year salary.

Most of the newly created space is going to go toward getting their rookies signed and getting Brown re-signed.

Given that he's presently tendered at $8.5M, the Ravens already could do a deal to keep his cap number in that range and lessen the impact in the future. Taking McNair after June 1, will perhaps allow them to throw a little more in if they are inclined to follow that approach, but IMO, it was more aimed at being able to get Brown done, since without the $4M from McNair (and short of a deal with Suggs), they probably didn't have enough room to get Brown re-signed.