Friday, May 17, 2013

News about the recently released Michael Palmer & Antonio Dennard

Here's a tweet by Giants beat writer Ralph Vacchiano about them:


Source:
https://twitter.com/RVacchianoNYDN












  • This gives the Giants the option of adding either player back to the 90 man roster once they get healthy.
  • Currently, the Giants only have 89 players on the 90-man roster, giving room for one more.

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  • Michael Palmer's cap number counted towards the salary cap since it fit into the club's Top 51 cap numbers, whereas Antonio Dennard's didn't since it fit into the 52nd though 90th range.
  • Palmer's salary and cap number were both the same, coming out to $630,000.
    • He has 3 years of accrued experience with the Atlanta Falcons, dating from 2010 to 2012.
  • Dennard's cap number and salary were both the same as well, coming out to $405,000.

Towards further understanding the Minimum Salary Floor

• I wrote abut this subject back in February on Bigblueinteractive.com (see the link below).
 "Minimum Salary Floor explanation for the salary cap" | Optimus-NY : 2/20/2013 12:46 pm




•Here's an excellent article discussing the subject from overthecap.com:

"Minimum Cash Spending: Does It Mean Anything?" by Jason Fitzgerlad from overthecap.com | February 17, 2013


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• There used to be a salary cap floor in the old CBA that has since been changed in the new CBA.
• Teams in the old system found ways around it.
• Teams used to have to spend a certain percentage of the salary cap each year (I think that the number was 84% in 2006).
• In order to get around this, teams used to use incentives during the course of the season, which were termed “likely to be earned”, which in turn were added the salary cap total. This accomplished two things.


1.) One thing was that certain teams used to use these incentives from previous years in order to carry over cap space over to the next year while reaching the minimum threshold for the salary cap in a given year (e.g., the Eagles and the Jets).

2.) Another thing that certain other cheapskate teams used to do (e.g., the Bengals), in order to avoid paying players, while remaining cap compliant, was to give an unreachable bonus to a player that counted towards the salary cap for that year.
 • With the new CBA, this is no longer the case.


• Teams now have cash spending limits instead now, so as to keep teams from doing what the Bengals did.
• As a result of the new CBA, there is a salary floor, not a cap floor.
• Most people, including myself, misunderstood this initially.


• This DOES NOT mean that teams have to spend X amount of dollars—specifically 89% of their cap—this coming 2013 season.
Here is what it does mean: what is happening now with this rule is that teams don’t have to “blow their wad” so to speak all in one year in 2013 to spend the requisite money to reach the cash spending salary floor.
• The NFL has decided to split these cash spending limits into 4-year periods.


• This is done over a 4-year period, or “bucket”—2013 to 2016 is the cycle, or “bucket”, that is being started now in the league.
• For example, teams can spend below the salary cap this year, but still make it up in cash payments in 2014, 2015, or 2016.


• Teams need to meet 89% of the cap during this 4-year cycle, or “bucket”—it doesn’t matter what year or years they spend this money in, as long as they spend it by the end of the cycle, or “bucket”, in 2016.
• Bonuses count differently in this instance: rather than counting towards the cap, they simply count for a given year (e.g., A bonus of $15 million dollars signed over 3 years will count as $5 million in Cap dollars, but will count in one year as $15 million in actual cash spending—basically bonus payments count in one year).


• Teams can reach the minimum numbers by signing a couple of high priced players per year with large bonus money—be they their own, or from other clubs.
• This was a win for the NFLPA, in a CBA that they otherwise caved in to towards the owners.
• If teams don’t meet the salary floor over a 4-year cycle, or “bucket”, the penalty will not be anything that affects teams in the cap.


• What will happen is that if a team fails to meet the cash spending floor, they’ll simply have to pay out the remaining sum (e.g., $30 million) to the players who played for the team over that 4-year span—being evenly distributed.
• This is advantageous because under the old system teams used to be able to horde this cash money that they saved.
• Under the new CBA this is not the case: teams can’t keep that cash money, anyway that you slice it. It MUST go to the players.


• In summation, teams like the Bengals, Colts, and Browns DON’T have to spend the money this year to reach the salary floor linked to cash spending.
• These teams don’t have to spend a dime this year, but at some point before 2016 they will have to make moves to meet that cash spending minimum—it’s not a set year-by-year number that must be strictly adhered to.


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•In a future post, I will discuss the Giants' situation as it stands now.
I'll demonstrate how the Giants' signing of their 2013 rookie draft class will put them ahead of the pace that they need to be on with regard to the cap spending floor.

The restructuring of contracts, & its effect on the Giants so far this offseason


Before diving deeper into the contracts that the Giants restructured this offseason, here's a little primer for how restructuring contracts works in many cases:












Thus far this off-season, the Giants have restructured the deals for Mathias Kiwanuka, David Baas, & Corey Webster. Webster received a voidable year. Read about how voidable years work below. Incidentally, the Giants did the same thing with Osi Umenyiora's contract last year. Here's an excellent article on the general subject at large:

"The Voidable Year and the Salary Cap" by Jason Fitzgerald from overthecap.com | March 8, 2013


To understand more about the difference between the Giants' dealing with Cory Webster, and their dealing with Baas, check out this outstanding article below:

"The difference between the Giants’ dealings with Webster and Baas" by Andrew from overthecap.com | March 8, 2013


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Here's another article that focuses on Webster's restructured deal focusing on the voidable year that the Giants and Webster agreed to:

"Update on Corey Webster’s Restructure – Giants Tack on Voidable Season" by Andrew from overthecap.com - March 9, 2013



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Besides the 3 players mentioned above, the Giants and David Diehl agreed to a paycut. I didn't include it with the players mentioned above since the changes made to Diehl's contract were different. There was no dead money pushed ahead to the next year, as in Umenyiora's and Webster's case with their voidable year deals or getting more upfront bonus money, as in the cases of Kiwi and Baas. Diehl simply accepted a pay cut, which was wise in his case, since he's a declining veteran who functions as insurance in case the Giants' plans for their offensive line go astray in 2013 (e.g., the first round selection of Justin Pugh). Here's an excellent article about the subject below:

"The Giants Restructure the Contract of David Diehl; Freeing up space for… " by Jason Fitzgerlad from overthecap.com | March 27, 2013


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I encourage people to read these articles when they get a chance, since they're a million times better than the corporate media driven drivel that passes as news nowadays when it comes to topic of the salary cap. People like Jason Fitzgerald at overthecap.com deserve to be recognized and appreciated for the excellent work that he and his staff do with respect to the topic of the salary cap.


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  •  Here's an article by Mike Garafolo from when the Giants released Michael Boley


Adjusted cap numbers for Aaron Curry, Jeremy Horne, Frank Okam, & Johnathan Hankins

The cap numbers for the 4 aforementioned players were subject to speculation until Joel Curry tweeted them. Here are the details regarding Aaron Curry's Minimum Salary Benefit contract in which he received roster and workout bonus money totaling $65,000 making his cap number be $620,000:




Source
https://twitter.com/corryjoel



















Source:
Aaron Curry - cap number from overthecap.com





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Jeremy Horne's cap number turned out to be $555,000 not $480,000 (no bonus money was included in the deal). It turned out that his first year in 2010, turned out to be an accrued year after all (giving him two accrued years rather than one), thereby making his salary and cap number be $555,000 instead of $480,000 like I had thought at first.



Source:
Jeremy Horne - cap number from overthecap.com






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Frank Okam's cap number of $555,000--as I originally expected--does not include a signing bonus of any kind. He has 4 vested years, even though he did not play last season (he was drafted in the 5th round in 2008 by the Houston Texans out of Texas). His 1-year salary is for $715,000. His cap number is as listed above.


Source:
Frank Okam - cap number from overthecap.com






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Johnathan Hankins was signed last week in rookie mini-camp on the same day as Cooper Taylor, Michael Cox, & Damontre Moore. Hankins's contract details were the last to emerge though. His cap number for 2013 is $732,852. His contract details are as follows: