The turth about restructuring contracts!

[Todd347347]

I see alot of people wanting players to restructure so we get more cap room. First of all restructuring contracts is a last resort for teams that have mismanaged contracts. Basically by restructuring the team is saying that the player is here for the long term. Terminating or trading that player in the near future after a restructure would make the team take a large cap hit and have "dead money" the following year. From the players persepective restructuring is great, it means more garrenteed money and job security.

So of course carter offers to restructure, he isn't doing the team any favors he is thinking of himself. Carter restructured for tenn. because he was younger and a probowler and expected to be around a long time. This is why we haven't seen JT or Zach restructure either. Restructuring a 30+ year old player is playing with fire from the teams perspective.

So instead of crying out for players to restructure for more cap room this year, think about those ramifications.

 

[KingCsonka]

I totally agree. The only reason to restructure would be to bring in a player that you feel you have to have (ie Drew Brees) and can't finance another way. This isn't the only way to free up money there are still cuts to be made (ie Gus).

It's just not worth it for mid skill players - Nick Saban has proven he can find these in Free Agency.

It also impacts on your ability to sign FA's in later years as you've guaranteed money in your payroll.

I wonder what the reaction of those players, who people want to restructure, would be if they were asked to take a pay cut for the good of the team.

 

[BennyVW]

Not really...basically it guarantees money to the player and spreads out the cap hit. In jasons case his salary this year is 5.525 million. If he restructures we could give him a salary of 1.525 million for this year and then a 4 million dollar bonus that we can spread over 4 years. This effectivly clears up 3 million in space.

But it creates problems later on. Becasue money is pushed back it will cost more dead cap money to trade or cut him.


Another option is for guys that under-achieve. Like with D-mac last year. He was signed to a vet minimum contract and then we converted all his "lost" money to playing incentives. Since he underperformed the year before they were all NLTBE. BUT since he met most of them he got his money back, and now instead of carrying his charge on last years cap, we are carrying it now even though he has been cut.

It's a fine line.

You are correct however in that you should not really restructure for cap relief unless the team is sure that the player will be here for a while...

 

[redclamcrowder]

restructuring isnt all that bad... I agree with what is being posted above, but on the same hand there are ways to put certain things in a contract (incentives, etc) that you can reduce a player's cap number while still giving them a whole bunch of incentives/earned bonuses... not a lot of players will take a chance on making less money, but restructuring isnt always damaging to a team...

 

[Jersey54]

I see alot of people wanting players to restructure so we get more cap room. First of all restructuring contracts is a last resort for teams that have mismanaged contracts. Basically by restructuring the team is saying that the player is here for the long term. Terminating or trading that player in the near future after a restructure would make the team take a large cap hit and have "dead money" the following year. From the players persepective restructuring is great, it means more garrenteed money and job security.

So of course carter offers to restructure, he isn't doing the team any favors he is thinking of himself. Carter restructured for tenn. because he was younger and a probowler and expected to be around a long time. This is why we haven't seen JT or Zach restructure either. Restructuring a 30+ year old player is playing with fire from the teams perspective.

So instead of crying out for players to restructure for more cap room this year, think about those ramifications.

Welcome to the world of the salary cap, pal. Restructuring veteran contracts is a fact of life. It's a little game that's been played since the NFL instituted the cap. No team is too perfect that they don't have to do it every single year.

 

[Danny]

I guess we'll have to trust Saban and his staff to do what's right...Of course noone wants to mortgage our future but at the same time we haven't won in 33 long years so the time is now....we wanna win now and Saban will do whatever it takes to do just that.

Ozzy rules!!

 

[BennyVW]

The toughest thing is contracts.
When you sign a guy you are hoping he will bring the same production when he played with a different team, in a different system, with differetn players and coaches against different opposition.

Contracts are all about seeing into the future and seeing where your team will be. What rookies you must re-sign, and what vets you must release.

Its tough, most times mistakes are made. Restrusturing ensures the players stays with the team for a while longer.