My Dolphins Value Board and Mock...

[VanDolPhan]

Originally posted by Blitz
The cap might be gone two years from now.

Who knows...

Nope. The NFLPA signed an extension with the league. Not quite sure how much longer it runs but it's at least 2006.

 

[baccarat]

Re: Re: Compensation Picks

Originally posted by VanDolPhan


[Warning the following is just a guess since no one can predict the future occurences. Warning #2. Long read]

True however I figure we got 2 more seasons before the salary cap kills us especially if we get Kreutz who is going to cost big bucks. Surprising that we might actually sign a big $$ player and actually be an offensive linemen! Latest info on Kreutz is at the bottom of the "Gardener to Left DE spot" story.

In 2004 Gardener's got a 5.8 million base 2004 salary (and it will go up if they restructure it) + Jay's 3.7 million base salary + incentives that could be earned (if incentives aren't earned jay would be cut by then..not hard to earn those) +Madison's 6.3 million base + Surtain's 5.4 million and JT's 5.5 million.

We would now have 26.7 million "base" salary wrapped up in the 2004 cap not including the recent restructuring of Surtain/JT's contracts which means we forwarded roughly 8 million between the 2 into the future years. Then you add the fact that Zack Thomas is a free agent and we probably won't let him go, but we will probably give him an extension this year or next to save money now and cost us money in 2004. So lets be kind and say that will only be 3 million base not including the signing bonus #'s. So that would put us at 29.7 million base.

Doesn't sound too bad does it? Well now you got to remember if Chris Chambers blooms into that great WR then we are going to have to pay him big $$$'s before 2004 starts or we risk losing him in FA in 2005. If he blooms into that great WR his base salary will probably only be roughly $500,000 - $700,000. Not too bad so that brings us up to roughly 30.3 million.

Now add in the fact Kreutz is out for big bucks and he will probably be kicking into the 3.5 million + range that year and we are at 33.8 million.

All of this is without factoring in signing bonuses. Avg signing bonus of lets say (imaginary # as I can't be bothered to grab everyone's signing bonus info) 5.5 million for 8 players with an average of 5 year contracts. So that's 1.1 million PER player per year. That brings us to 42.6 million on EIGHT players not counting Jay's heavy incentives if he reaches them. Getting scary now isn't it?

Now add in that we will probably be carrying 4 million (being nice here...if it turns deadly we are looking at 6-8) min in dead weight $$$'s from released players and we are up to 46.6 million and the rest of the team.

Now imagine if we do get Ricky Williams? We could probably keep the cap low enough that year down to around 3.6 million for him and that would bring us to 50.2 million on 9 players.

This doesn't account for future free agents on our team or from others. Now lets say the cap goes up to a generous $85 million. That leaves roughly 34.8 million for the rest of the 45+ players on the team. 34.8 million or roughly $733,333 per player.

It will get interesting starting 2004 because while Spielman has kept this team salary cap wise for the past year and the next couple it's mostly because of back loaded contracts and they will bite us in the ass if it isn't played incredibly smart.

You're scaring me with this talk of Zach leaving. I agree that within the next 3-4 years, we will have a rebuilding year.

 

[VanDolPhan]

No I doubt Zack is leaving (at least not before 2004). I see us giving him an extension in the next few weeks to be able to pay for Olin's big ass contract. By giving Zack an extension we can lower his cap hit by 5 million this year.