Monday, September 30, 2013

Snee restructures again to help the Giants gain more cap breathing room

The Giants restructured Snee's deal again today. Snee got an extra $2,500,000 up front. In exchange, the Giants got an extra $1,250,000 in cap room. Before this move today, the Giants were dead last in the entire league in this department with only $60,066 in cap room. This meant that of the Giants sustained another injury they would not be able to make a transaction. After this move, the Giants are now $1,310,066 under the cap according to the NFLPA's League Cap Report website. They are now ranked 28th in the league in cap room. The only teams that have less cap room are the following clubs:

  • #28) NY Giants - $1,310,066
  • #29) Baltimore - $1,213,052
  • #30) San Francisco - $1,165,060
  • #31) New Orleans - $1,142,350
  • #32) St. Louis - $442,374


Here is how Snee's contract looked before his first restructure on September 4th (courtesy of OverTheCap.com):
























Here is how his contract looked as of September 4th when Snee agreed to his first contract restructure this season:
























Here is how his contract looks now after his second contract restructure this season that was agreed to today, on September 30th, 2013:























I stated before in a previous post from September 5th (click HERE to read it) that the Giants could get as much as en extra $1,743,750 in cap space from further restructuring the contracts of Snee and Weatherford. That's an extra $1,680,000 in extra cap space from Snee to be precise, and an extra $63,750 from Weatherford. After today's Snee restructure (the second so he's agreed to to thus far this season), the Giants can gained $1,250,000 in cap room. This means that they can get as much as another extra $430,000 from him should they need it. I doubt they will, but the money is there for them to dip into should the necessity arise.

People should know that players can restructure their contracts multiple times in a season, as Snee has done twice already thus far this season to lower their base salaries. Players can restructure their contracts multiple times in a season, as Joel Corry (@corryjoel) pointed out to me of they lower their base salaries to make cap room. Joel also pointed out to me that QB Matt Flynn is an example of another player who has done what Snee with regard to restructuring his contract multiple times this off-season. Flynn has already done so twice since being traded to the Raiders this off-season from Seattle.

Jason Fitzgerald of overthecap.com nailed why the Giants made this move when he stated that is was done "just to function for the rest of the year." Check out his brief write-up on the subject below:
I think longtime BBI poster Matt in SGS nailed the long-term impact of these Snee restructures in this post below (click HERE to see the actual post):
"All signs are pointing to Snee retiring after this season. I wouldn't be shocked if he fails the physical next year so he is able to at least say that his body couldn't hold up anymore. We've seen it before with his former linemates, O'Hara and Seubert."


I've read comments about people criticizing this move, but it was completely expected. The Giants restructured Snee both times because of the expected return of Will Hill in the next week or so, and in order to keep their heads above water cap-wise for the remainder of the season. They're doing this in a piecemeal fashion because they don't want to overcommit to unnecessary restructures that will result in added and unnecessary dead money added on to their 2014 cap. They are employing this strategy to cap management on purpose for the reason that I mentioned just above, which I fully agree with. My only issue with Snee is that I would have cut him in the off-season, but that's neither here nor there at the present moment. Click HERE to read about the $108,354,494 that the Giants have committed to 36 players in 2014 at the moment as per overthecap.com.

These restructures are done with an end-game in mind, unlike the haphazard style with respect to the salary cap management employed by Jerry Jones of the Cowboys. The endgame with regard to Snee mentioned by Matt in SGS from BBI makes perfect sense when fit into next year's commitment to Active Salary. The Giants will be able to absorb it next year.

What also has to be considered is that whatever rollover money that is left over at the end of the 2013 regular season will cancel out the cap room that was added to the Giants' cap as the result of the two restructures by Snee ($2.5 million). At present, if you subtract the current cap room that the Giants have ($1,310,066) from the $2.5 million that Snee restructured so far this season, you'll wind up with a figure of $1,189,934. This net amount of $1,189,934 is that the Giants have REALLY sacrificed in cap room at the moment with respect to the Snee restructures.

This latest restructure also tells me one more thing: the Giants can now have enough room under the cap to make room for the return of FS Will Hill when he returns from his 4-game suspension. As Patricia Traina has astutely pointed out, the Giants will most likely request and be granted a roster exemption prior to the re-addition of Hill to their roster in the coming week, thereby giving them a few more days to figure out which player they'll move off of the roster to make room for his return.

As a result of this second Snee restructure, the Giants no longer have to cut someone to make room under the cap for Hill's return. They now have what they need to account for Hill's $367,059 cap number for the 2013 season (Hill lost 4 weeks of pay instead of earning the full 17 weeks on account of his drug-related suspension). They can easily IR a player now and and retain his rights for next year. Candidates to be placed on Injured Reserve at this point are TE Adrien Robinson, rookie S Cooper Taylor, and maybe even rookie QB Ryan Nassib. If the Giants IR a player in the coming week as they prepare to re-add Will Hill back to their 53-man roster, their cap number would dip from being $1,310,066 to $943,007.

In my opinion, this second restructure by Snee combined with CB Terrell Thomas's injury situation probably saved CB Trumaine McBride's job for meantime. It also gives the Giants more of a chance to place a player on season ending IR when Andre Brown comes back after week 8. The possible return of DT Markus Kuhn form the PUP List to the 53-man active roster between weeks 7 and 13 won't be an issue since he's already fully accounted for on the active roster salary cap-wise. As long as the Giants don't sustain more than 3 or 4 more players not going on IR on the next month, they'll be in good shape cap-wise. As long as what happened to the Steelers in week 1 (they lost multiple players for the season in one fell swoop) doesn't happen to the Giants in the next month, they'll be okay with respect to keeping their collective heads above water with respect to the cap for the rest of the 2013 season.