Check out this podcast by Jason Fitzgerald from overthecap.com

If you follow this blog, you know how much I love Jason's work. This podcast from last week, dated May 19th, is a great listen. He dives deep into "questions about the Jets, Redskins, Lions and the best and worst free agent signings of the year."

Podcast: Jets, Redskins, Lions and the Best and Worst Free Agents

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Enjoy the podcast, and the holiday weekend!

Check out this great article by Joel Corry

It's titled "The offset battle with early first round picks" - May 24, 2013 - 5:30 AM, EST from nationalfootballpost.com

• It's a fascinating and educational read. If you're a fan of the inner-workings of the salary cap, then you will definitely enjoy this.
• Besides salary splits for players drafted in rounds 3 through 7, offset language is the next big issue that teams and player agents will be dealing with going forward with respect to signing draft picks in light of the new CBA.
• Joel explains how that works wonderfully in this article.
• Enjoy, and thank me later.

Pre-June 1st cut clarifications regarding the Giants and the league at large

Both Patricia Traina and myself wondered about post June 1st cuts and the Giants. After the Giants cut Ahmad Bradshaw and Chris Canty, it was speculated by some--including myself, as noted above--that the possbility existed that they may have been designated as post June 1st cuts. You may in turn ask "how is it possible to do that before June 1st actually arrives without Doc Brown and a DeLorean?" Here's how and why McFly:

• Check out this article on June 1st cuts from overthecap.com by Jason Fitzgerald addressing this general topic titled "Explaining the June 1st designation." (Feb. 21, 2013)

Simply put, each team can designate up to two players that they can release, and count as post June 1st cuts before June 1st even arrives. This year, there were 5 players who fit into that category (I'll get to that soon enough).

What happens is that the players have the chance to see what their options are in free agency before the summer comes, a time in which many teams have shot their wad so to speak--a phrase by the way which is not intended to be vulgar, although many assume it to be so. Hey, you don't gotta believe me! To quote the great & powerful LeVar Burton, "You don't have to take *my* word for it..."

  

"DA DUN DUN!"

I digress...

Anywho, getting back to foosball. Teams can designate up to two players as post June 1st cuts months prior to that date, if they want to spread out the dead money that is left over from the player in question's contract over the course of two years, instead of one. The Giants, as per Joel Corry's response to me in an e-mail in which I asked him about the status of Bradshaw and Canty as potential pre-June 1st cuts was that when the Giants released Bradshaw, "they (the Giants) decided to take the full cap hit this year of $2.5 million." In other words, the Giants decided to absorb all of Bradshaw's remaining dead money in 2013--totaling $2.5 million--instead of choosing to spread it out over 2013 and 2014, with $1.25 million counting against the Giants' cap each of those two years. Such a situation would have given the Giants a cap credit of $1.25 million on June 2nd if the Giants decided to absorb Bradshaw's release over two years instead of one.

In the case of Canty, Joel explained to me that "Canty's signing bonus proration ended after this year even though he had a 2014 contract year." This is to be understood as being relevant in Canty's case because when he signed with the Giants in 2009, he signed a six-year contract. Contracts can not be prorated more than 5 years. That's why his $8.5 million dollar signing bonus was prorated to 1.7 million dollars--which is what is left in dead money on the Giants' cap after cutting him. That's where Joel's comment to me is significant. That's why Canty is not designated as being a "pre-June 1st cut."

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In short, the Giants will not be reaping the benefits of any pre-June 1st cuts this year; however, 5 players from 4 teams will be. They are as follows (to go along with the teams that they signed):

Joel was kind enough to share this information with me a few days ago in an e-mail. He mentioned to me, after I asked him if there were any pre (post?)-June 1st cuts from teams around the league that there were 5. He explained to me--I'm paraphrasing here--"that information isn't made public, but that it's noted when teams make transactions with the NFL."

He went on to mention to me that "Michael Huff (Raiders), Karlos Dansby (Dolphins), Kevin Burnett (Dolphins), Tyson Clabo (Falcons) & Willie Colon (Steelers) were given post June 1 designations."

• The Dolphins took full advantage of that rule, and decided to spread out the dead money for Linebackers Kevin Burnett and Karlos Dansby over the course of two seasons (2013 and 2014), instead of just one (2013).
• Ironically, they signed a player in ROT Tyson Clabo, who was also designated as a pre/post June 1st cut by his former team, the Atlanta Falcons.
• The Raiders, whose Cap woes are known to everyone, did the same with Michael Huff back on March 12th, who then went and found a home in Baltimore, 15 days later.
• In another bit of irony, the Raiders also went and signed a player who was a pre/post June 1st cut, in former Dolphins linebacker Kevin Burnett, after he spent only 5 days open the open market starting on March 12th.
• The Steelers, who only have $90,098 in cap room at the present time, did the same with Offensive Guard/Tackle Willie Colon.
• Considering their terrible cap situation, it makes sense why they decided to spread out Colon's dead money over two years.
• The Jets, desperate for Offensive Line help (and a low cap number for a potential starter on their O-Line because of a tenuous cap situation at the time), signed the Bronx native.

Yet another MSB contract for the Giants: Ramses Barden's cap number is listed as $620,000

In something that isn't coming as a surprise of any kind, Ramses Barden's 1-year deal is listed by the overthecap.com as having a cap value of $620,000--just as I predicted. The NFLPA confirmed his base salary as being $715,000. It is yet another contract in a long line of Minimum Salary Benefit (MSB) contracts for the Giants: the eleventh to be exact. If I'm not mistaken, I do believe that the Giants have the most MSB contracts in the league. Check this article out:

http://overthecap.com/explaining-the-minimum-salary-benefit/

• Barden's base salary, as already mentioned, is for $715,000 (the veteran minimum for a player with 4 accrued years).
• He received a signing bonus of $65,000.

• Therefore, his salary (not his cap number for you novices out there) for 2013 will be $780,000--provided of course that he makes the team, which is tenuous at best.
• Since Barden's inability to be a consistent performer on Special Teams makes him a liability in that department, it would be no surprise if all the real money that he sees from this deal is his $65,000 prorated signing bonus.
• Check out the link from overthecap.com below to see the details of his contract:

Source: http://www.overthecap.com/cap.php?Name=Ramses%20Barden&Position=WR&Team=Giants

Sorted Cap figures for all 32 teams, by cap space order (from the most room to the least) & alphabetical order

Here are the sorted figures, as described above in the subject line, for convenience's sake. This will help to interpret the numbers. First the list in order of most cap room to least cap room. As usual, the Raiders are up shit creek:

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Now, here are are the cap figures listed above, only this time sorted in alphabetical order, for the sake of convenience:

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•The Giants are going to need to make a move or two to get fully under the cap by the time the regular season begins.
•Since the Top 51 rules apply, everything is fine now, but this won't last.
•This is just speculation on my part, but it makes TOO MUCH sense to cut Chris Snee the day after June 1st and gain $7,875,000 in cap room ($4,750,000 in cap savings sans dead money, and then another $3,125,000 in cap credit due to the leftover dead money amount of $6,250,000 being spread out over two years).

•I'd cut Snee, and either sign or threaten to sign the still available--and pretty damned good--Brandon Moore to play his position for a 2 year deal with a cap hit in 2013 and 2014 of around $1.5 to $1.75 M, unless of course Snee would be amenable to agreeing to that deal himself after being released after June 1st.
•The Giants could still keep Snee after cutting him by using free agent RG Brandon Moore as leverage against Snee after potentially cutting him after June 1st to convince Snee to agree to a new deal with the more team friendly cap figures listed above.

•If Snee doesn't like those terms, then he could try his luck elsewhere; Moore, while not as good as Snee, would still be more than adequate at filling in the RG spot should push come to shove.
•This move would give the Giants the room they need under the cap to not only give Victor Cruz the contract that he wants, but give the Giants the room that they need to operate under the cap for the rest of the offseason, going past the Top 51 rule and into the regular season without having to restructure deals for any more of their players to create added room, like Antrel Rolle, Justin Tuck, or Steve Weatherford, off the top of my head of viable restructuring candidates.

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It will be interesting to see how these numbers change in about a week, since the post June 1st cuts are coming up pretty soon, which will free up more cap room for some teams. I'll post about that pretty soon with respect to the Giants and the other teams around the league.

Here are the official Cap numbers for teams around the league and the Giants:

This information is accurate as of today, this morning from the NFLPA's Top 51 Cap Report.

• The Giants are officially $3,312,849 under the cap at this time.
• My unofficial estimate of $3,461,340 (as of today's date) that I made was an overestimate.
• I overshot the mark by $148,491.
• My estimated figure listed above was 95.71% accurate when compared to the Giants' official cap number, for you geeks out there.