What's the potential impact of the Aaron Curry signing on the Giants' salary cap?

•With the Curry signing, the 51st cap number will be displaced if he received a $65,000 signing bonus.
•That 51st ranked cap number, if displaced, belongs to OL Brandon Mosley, and amounts to $555,146.


•Curry has 4 years of accrued experience.
•I'm assuming for the sake of this post that Curry got the Minimum Salary Benefit (MSB) deal, to go along with a bonus that the Giants have given to 9 other vets with 4 or more years worth of experience---the most in the league.

•Whether or not Curry received that $65,000 signing bonus is a point of contention until it is found out for sure (this is a speculative post by it's very nature).
•If Curry did not receive this bonus, then his cap number would not fall into the Giants' top 51 cap numbers, thereby not making him count towards the cap at this time since the "Top 51" rule is in effect until the first game of the regular season begins in September. 

•The $555,000 MSB plus a $65,000 bonus equals a cap hit of $620,000.
•Subtract $555,146 from $620,000 and you wind up with $64,854.

•This figure of $64,854 would then be subtracted from the total cap number as well.
•If Curry's cap number is indeed in the top 51 on the team's roster, then the Giants' official cap number will change on Monday after they cut a player to get back to the 90 roster limit.

•They're over that number by one now, but since the signing occurred after 4 pm on a Friday, as per Ralph Vacchiano, the Giants have until Monday (which is May 13th) to announce who it is that they cut in order to sign Aaron Curry.



•At that point, the Giants' cap number would decrease by $64,854.
•It would go from being $3,927,958 to $3,863,104--pending any other signings who would count towards the salary cap.
•As stated above, if Curry's signing does not include the $65K signing bonus mentioned above, the his cap number will simply be $555,000 and will not count towards the Giants' salary cap at this time on account of the "Top 51" rule being in effect.

What happens when the Top 51 rule ceases?

•The "Top 51" Rule is in effect from the time time the season ends to when the next regular season begins.

•Once the regular season begins on Sunday, September 8th, 2013, the "Top 51 rule" will cease.

•When the regular season begins the Giants, and all other clubs in the league, will have to be cap compliant with respect to the following mandatory things:

I. They must make room for the cap numbers that belong to players 52 and 53 on the 53-man roster.

II.They must also make room for the players on the 8 man practice squad.

•The last two guys at the back end of the 53-man roster will probably be rookies making something around the absolute league minimum of $405,000, so after you multiply that figure by 2, you'll have to create another $810,000 in cap space when it's time to begin the season.

•As far as the Practice squaders are concerned, they make $6,000 a week (1 player making that rate x 17 weeks = $96,900---Multiply that by 8 players and you get $775,200).

•If you add the CAP HIT money for the last 2 men on the 53-man roster and the practice squad, you get another $1,585,200 that you have to account for AT MINIMUM when the bullets start flying again.

•It should be noted, however, that teams are allowed to pay their pay their "taxi squaders" more than the weekly rate of $5,700 if they so choose.

•Tampa Bay's Markus White earned well over the $96,900 figure noted above (see the quote below).

"Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Markus White is currently (beginning the 2012 season) the NFL's highest-paid player on a practice squad, earning $17,647 per week, or $300,000 over the season. (see the article below):

•The Patriots are an example of a team that pays their practice squaders generously, as indicated in the article below.

 

•New England Patriots have top-paid NFL practice squad" by Brian McIntyre, Around the League writer | Published: Sept. 7, 2012 at 12:18 a.m. | Updated: Sept. 7, 2012 at 07:52 a.m.

•The Giants will need to make about $1 million in room for injury settlements as well that inevitably occur in training camp as well as players who go on IR (hopefully not too many).

•The Giants will also need to clear some "fudge money" too later on this offseason; this is 1 to 2 million dollars left over in cap space which the Giants can use in case of an emergency.

•If you add this 2 to 3 million dollars to the amount mentioned of $1,585,200 for the last 2 men on the 53-man roster and the practice squad, then there will be between $3,585,200 and $4,585,200 that the Giants will have to be prepared to make room for under the cap when the season begins.

•As of this moment, the Giants are $3,927,958 (not including the Aaron Curry signing announced a few hours ago).
•If you take into account the rookie signings (mentioned in another post), the Giants' cap number will be $2,754,977.

•If you subtract the low end number of $3,585,200 from the Giants' adjusted rookie cap number of  $2,754,977 after signing all their rookies (of which they have signed 4 today: Hankins, Moore, Taylor, & Cox), you'll get -$830,223.

•This means that the Giants are going to have to make another $830,223 to $1,830,223 in cap room by the time the regular season starts.

•Don't forget that this figure does not include any further free agent signings, which are likely; we already saw one today in Aaron Curry.
•I wouldn't be surprised if we see at least 1 more before the season starts.
•None of this has to do with a potential new deal with Victor Cruz, but that's a topic for another post...

LB, Karlos Dansby--who was mentioned by some Giants fans as a potential post-draft FA vet acquisition--signed a 1-year deal with the Cardinals today

Dansby signed a 1-year deal with the Cardinals today, as per Ian Rapoport as well as other sources:

https://twitter.com/RapSheet

"Karlos Dansby, Cardinals agree to terms on one-year deal" By Ryan Wilson | CBSSports.com May 10, 2013 11:45 am ET








The Cardinals are officially $8,574,061 under the salary cap as of now.


Source: https://nflplayers.com/reports/RunPublicReport.aspx?report=top51


Dansby has 9 accrued years under his belt (2004 to 2012), so if he signed for the league minimum he'd get $840,000 in salary. The Cardinals, his team for the first six years of his career, probably gave him a $65,000 signing bonus, which is the maximum that a player can get, and still be eligible for the Minimum Salary Benefit of ($555,000 + bonus money, if applicable). Add the $65,000 bonus to that $555,000 figure, and his cap number would be $620,000.

His salary however, would be $905,000. If I were a betting man--which I'm not--I would bet money that this is the deal that he got, even if the Cardinals have all that money to spare--which they really don't. They--and all the other 31 clubs in the NFL--will have to set aside some money for their rookie draft class, and when the Top 51 rule is kaput in less than 4 months, when the regular season begins, for the following:

• They'll need money for the 52nd and 53rd men on their roster (about $1 million cap dollars).
• They'll also need money for their 8 man practice squad (about $1 million cap dollars).
• Cap space will also need to be set aside for injuries during training camp: players who go on IR and who receive injury settlements (about $1 million cap dollars).
• They'll need money too in case they need to sign players to an emergency contract during the regular season (about $1 to $2 million cap dollars).
 

Fortunately for the the Cardinals, they have the necessary space to meet these future cap demands of an estimated 4 to 5 million dollars at this time already (not including the 1 to 2 million cap dollars they need to sign their rookie class of draft picks). They're in good cap heath now. The Giants, on the other hand, still need to continue to make room in anticipation of those future moves that listed above in bullet point style. I'll map that situation out for the Giants in an upcoming post.

 

Here's a link to the CBA

Take a read: 2011 CBA - ratified on August 4, 2011

Great article explaining the Minimum Salary Benefit (MSB)

Check out this article by cap guru Jason Fitzgerald, who runs the best cap website on the web, overthecap.com. Here's a link to his article titled: "Explaining the Minimum Salary Benefit"

Jason made a boo-boo when it came to the Giants when he lsited them as having ten players who qualified for the Minimum Salary Benefit (MSB). They actually have 9, not 10, which is still enough for the most in the league. Those 9 are as follows:

David Carr
Josh Brown
Shaun Rogers
Kevin Boothe
Mike Patterson
Aaron Ross
Dan Connor
Ryan Mundy
Louis Murphy

These players all count the same against the cap: each one has a cap hit of $620,000 ($555 K base salary + $65 K bonus). As stated above, since these are all MSB players, their cap hits are lower than their salaries. I'll list them below in order of highest salary to lowest salary:

 

 

      As can be seen on the left, the total savings in cap dollars for the aforementioned 9 MSB players on the Giants is $2,320,000.

Restricted Free Agency (RFA) tenders for Giants, and some news on Victor Cruz

Here are the Restricted Free Agent (RFA) Tender amounts, when Albert Breer tweeted them about 4 months ago back in mid-January:

The reason that I bring this up now is as a reminder of the tenders that the 3 Giants' RFAs (Victor Cruz, Andre Brown, & Stevie Brown) received. They're as follows:

.
.
.

Stevie Brown (he tweeted his signed RFA tender) and Andre Brown have both already signed their tenders, whereas Cruz has not. They all already count against the cap at the rates that they were tendered at (listed above), regardless of if they signed (A. Brown & S. Brown signed theirs) or didn't sign them (as in Cruz's case).

Giants' co-owner John Mara is optimistic regarding the chances that the Giants and Cruz reach a new deal for Cruz. Check out the article below:

"Victor Cruz still unsigned but NY Giants co-owner John Mara highly confident a deal will get done" | by Ralph Vacchiano / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 10:04 AM


The next 7 to 10 days are reported as being important for the Giants and Cruz to reach an agreement as per Pro Football Talk (see link below). This would be advantageous to the Giants since they would like Cruz in attendance as OTAs get underway.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/07/next-week-or-so-deemed-important-for-cruz-talks/


OTAs get underway 14 days from today on May 22nd, according to cbssports.com (source: NFL OTA, minicamp dates announced for 2013 offseason By Ryan Wilson | CBSSports.com April 30, 2013 7:14 pm ET).

Here are the dates for the Giants (the workout portion of the offseason for the Giants began on April 15th):

First day: April 15 OTAs: May 22-23, May 29-31, June 3-7 Mandatory minicamp: June 11-13 Rookie minicamp: May 10-12

Cruz's attendance during that time would be of significance for the following reason put forth by Patricia Trainia on this thread from BBI ( Giants want to get Cruz done in 7-10 days Jolly Blue Giant : 5/7/2013 4:22 pm):

Would Make Sense Because

Pat from Inside Football : 5/7/2013 4:26 pm

In a couple of weeks, the third and final phase of the offseason program, the OTAs, begin. and if Cruz isn't signed by then, then this has the potential to drag into training camp and become a distraction.

John Mara seems confident that a deal will be reached. Words of optimism always are encouraging to hear, hopefully they bare fruit in the upcoming days.