Saturday, August 24, 2013

Roster Designation Lists for the Giants & how they effect the Salary Cap

Here are ten players who are spread out over four different roster designations (only four of whom are still on the roster at present) who all impact/potentially impact the Giants' salary cap in different ways this coming 2013 season that's only 12 days away from officially starting when the Ravens open up at Denver:





As indicated above, the Giants have no players on Injured Reserve at the moment. This may change of course over the span of the next week. Teams have until a week from today at 6 pm New York time to cut down their rosters from 75 to 53 players on the Active/Inactive List. Check out what they must also in addition to this from the link below regarding the August 31st final cut-down date:


Simultaneously with the cut-down to 53, clubs that have players in the categories of Active/Physically Unable to Perform or Active/Non-Football Injury or Illness must select one of the following options:
1 - Place player on Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform or Reserve/Non-Football Injury or Illness, whichever is applicable. 2 - Request waivers 3 - Terminate contract 4 - Trade contract 5 - Continue to count the player on the Active List.




As noted above, the players on Injured Reserve (none so far), the Waived/Injured list (five so far), and the PUP list (the Giants have 2 at the moment in JPP and Kuhn; I'll explain the difference between Inactive and Active PUP below) all count against the cap. It should be noted that the players on the Waived/Injured List will all receive Injury Settlements in all likelihood---unless things go awry between the team and the agent for any of the players in question resulting a grievance filed against the team. Injury Settlements count against a team's salary cap fully once the Top 51 Rule ceases, which will be on September 5th this year.

It should also be noted that the PUP list is divided into two different categories: Active PUP list, and the Inactive PUP list. Patricia Traina explains the difference between the two in the great article below from insidefootball.com that I recommend everyone read titled the following:

She mentions that "the reason players are placed on Active PUP as opposed to Inactive PUP during training camp is because it is easier to slide that player onto the Inactive PUP list if he's still not ready to go come September." Click on Pattie's link above for a thorough explanation of each designation of the PUP list, both Active and Inactive. As always, Patricia knows her stuff. Read the rest of the article as well for a thorough understanding of the other roster designations too.

The players on the Reserve/Suspended list (two; S Will Hill & WR Brandon Collins) only count against the Cap partially if they are placed back on the roster. They won't count against the cap while they're not on the team. If they return, the team won't be charged any cap money for the time that they were suspended (4 games in the case of each in this instance). If Hill and Collins wind up on the team again in week 5, then the Giants will only be charged 13/17ths of their cap figure for 2013. Hill's cap number for 2013 is $480,000 and Collins's is $405,000; however, only Hill has a realistic chance of winding up on the Giants' 53-man roster when he returns. Collins is most likely head to the Giants' Practice Squad---if he's lucky.

Ryan D'Imperio, who is the only player on the Giants' Reserve/Retired list does not count against the cap. Tiki Barber was on this list until the Giants, meaning they held his rights if he decided to return to the NFL, while not counting against the salary cap. TE Ben Patrick was on it as well when he suddenly decided to retire from the NFL in 2011 after the Giants signed him in free agency.

The only list that isn't included is the Non Football Injury list. This list counts against the salary cap, as do players who are on the PUP list, Injured Reserve, & the Waived/Injured List. At this point, the Giants have nobody on this list. Fans will recall Chad Jones, who suffered that horrific injury to his leg in a car accident 3 years ago, was on this list for a while after he suffered the injury.

Look out for who gets taken off or added to any of these lists in the coming week. It's very likely that JPP comes off of the PUP list, according to what Jerry Reese has said in the press over the past couple of weeks. It'll be interesting who the giants place on IR this year, if they place anyone on it at all this season. Last year, I believe they only placed 2 players on IR: Terrell Thomas and Brandon Mosley. Given the very small amount of cap space that the Giants have, they might have to restructure a contract by September 5th, when the Top 51 rules expires, in order to be able to get such a transaction under the salary cap. Keep your eyes open going forward into this coming final week of the preseason where lots of injuries tend to happen due in part to the short turnaround between preseason games this weekend and this coming Thursday when the final games of the preseason will be played.