BillsVet Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 NFL teams found an additional 4M in cap space when it was determined franchises hadn't spent enough during the last year. That said, it's rare that a team signs a player in free agency who is a difference maker anymore. There may be a few available like Haynesworth or Houshmandzadeh, but nowhere near what it was in the late nineties. As long as the cap rises as quickly as it has, teams will be keeping more of their own talent. And that's placing a huge burden on teams to draft well or else. Buffalo is 0 for 2 in UFA from 06 and 07. Only 1 of their 14 totals free agents in those years is still with the team. The draft has to be perfect for a team like Buffalo. If not, there may not be any alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill from NYC Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 NFL teams found an additional 4M in cap space when it was determined franchises hadn't spent enough during the last year. That said, it's rare that a team signs a player in free agency who is a difference maker anymore. There may be a few available like Haynesworth or Houshmandzadeh, but nowhere near what it was in the late nineties. As long as the cap rises as quickly as it has, teams will be keeping more of their own talent. And that's placing a huge burden on teams to draft well or else. Buffalo is 0 for 2 in UFA from 06 and 07. Only 1 of their 14 totals free agents in those years is still with the team. The draft has to be perfect for a team like Buffalo. If not, there may not be any alternative. I must admit that I don't fully understand the "cash to cap" policy. Do you? I am wondering if cutting Dockery will help us a lot there. Ralph wasn't going to get anywhere near the cap, but it would seem that Dockery's salary would give us more spending money. Am I getting this wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flbillsfan#1 Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 I must admit that I don't fully understand the "cash to cap" policy. Do you? I am wondering if cutting Dockery will help us a lot there. Ralph wasn't going to get anywhere near the cap, but it would seem that Dockery's salary would give us more spending money. Am I getting this wrong? I wonder how Cash to cap will work in 2010 when there is no cap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvermike Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 Yeah, 'dead cap' isn't super meaningful for the Bills - their budget is determined by how much they're paying out each year, and they're saving a total of $26M (or so) on Dockery over the life of the contract. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsVet Posted February 27, 2009 Author Share Posted February 27, 2009 I must admit that I don't fully understand the "cash to cap" policy. Do you? I am wondering if cutting Dockery will help us a lot there. Ralph wasn't going to get anywhere near the cap, but it would seem that Dockery's salary would give us more spending money. Am I getting this wrong? Bill, Dockery's signing bonus is accelerated so that all of it hits their cap figure this year. I believe it's something like 5M left. Not sure on that one, but it keeps them from paying him the salary he's been stealing since the beginning of 08. My point to all of this is as the cap rises and teams keep their better players, UFA will be castoffs and malcontents. This means spending is even more risky and means a razor thin margin of error on draft day. Then again, Buffalo hasn't been all that great on draft day or in free agency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramius Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 I must admit that I don't fully understand the "cash to cap" policy. Do you? I am wondering if cutting Dockery will help us a lot there. Ralph wasn't going to get anywhere near the cap, but it would seem that Dockery's salary would give us more spending money. Am I getting this wrong? It all depends on how the Bills calculate "cash to cap." None of us really know much how it is calculated, except for the fact that we will never spend over the cap in terms of actual cash in 1 given year. The cap is 127 million this year, so the Bills won't spend over 127 million during 2009 when you combine base salaries, signing bonuses to new players, etc. Cutting dockery is a wash when it comes to cap space. But, in terms of real cold hard cash, its about $5 million (base salary plus bonus) that is now off the books for 2009. Whether or not Ralph will spend it is another story. The Bills need to spend a certain % of the cap space, per NFL rules. I believe it is 86%. Wha scares me slightly is that with dockery, ralph can still "spend" the dead cap space to get us to the lower limit, without actually spending anymore real $. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San Jose Bills Fan Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 I must admit that I don't fully understand the "cash to cap" policy. Do you? I am wondering if cutting Dockery will help us a lot there. Ralph wasn't going to get anywhere near the cap, but it would seem that Dockery's salary would give us more spending money. Am I getting this wrong? Here's a good piece to help understand it Brother Bill. Stay positive. http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/story/579896.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahbonas Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 It all depends on how the Bills calculate "cash to cap." None of us really know much how it is calculated, except for the fact that we will never spend over the cap in terms of actual cash in 1 given year. The cap is 127 million this year, so the Bills won't spend over 127 million during 2009 when you combine base salaries, signing bonuses to new players, etc. Cutting dockery is a wash when it comes to cap space. But, in terms of real cold hard cash, its about $5 million (base salary plus bonus) that is now off the books for 2009. Whether or not Ralph will spend it is another story. The Bills need to spend a certain % of the cap space, per NFL rules. I believe it is 86%. Wha scares me slightly is that with dockery, ralph can still "spend" the dead cap space to get us to the lower limit, without actually spending anymore real $. With the cap rising so high we are now back to simpler terms and really no longer care about "impact on the cap' and having to know about accounting rules for pro rated bonuses becasue we (and many teams) are nowhere near the cap and thus dont need (or care) about accounting to stay under the cap. We now simply cut players who are not producing to their salaries with little care about bonuses accelerating to the cap amount. It makes the decision to release Dockery & Royal easy...and likely means a Kelsay could see the door in due time as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsVet Posted February 27, 2009 Author Share Posted February 27, 2009 With the cap rising so high we are now back to simpler terms and really no longer care about "impact on the cap' and having to know about accounting rules for pro rated bonuses becasue we (and many teams) are nowhere near the cap and thus dont need (or care) about accounting to stay under the cap.We now simply cut players who are not producing to their salaries with little care about bonuses accelerating to the cap amount. It makes the decision to release Dockery & Royal easy...and likely means a Kelsay could see the door in due time as well I still believe teams will budget a certain amount for player salaries as any business would for their employees. But with labor strife imminent, teams can spend as little as they want with no repercussions, save fan animosity. Having said that, I've never seen a team with 50-60M+ in cap room. And this year there's not as much to spend it on. I don't think the Bills cut Kelsay because they would have done it by now. Historically they slice their trash off just before UFA opens. Regardless, the only number that counts is salary cap hit of a given team. Teams are expected to have a cap hit of no less than 110M in 2009, but not necessarily by March. They have time to hit this figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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