Salary Cap?

[goldbach]

According to BJ's salary cap page, the Eagles had $2.1 million in cap space before trading for Spikes.

http://www.geocities.com/eaglescap/

Spikes makes $4.5 million this year, and Holcombe makes an additional $1.5-$2 million. Losing Walker saves about $700,000.

If the numbers on BJ's page are correct, and the Eagles didn't renegotiate with anyone, they would be about $3 million over the cap.

I know it would be pretty easy for them to get under the cap by renegotiating some contracts so that the "Roster Bonuses" become "Signing Bonuses" and are therefore spread out over several years instead of all taking effect this year. It's just that nothing on this front has been mentioned.

Could that be why the deal took so long to announce yesterday? Were the Eagles redoing contracts with other players so that they would still be under the cap after making the trade? Or does BJ's salary cap page have wrong information?

[leifdawg]

Didn't Spike's get a new contract? Maybe his current contract has a lesser cap hit this year.

[stevemc]

No Spikes contract hasn't changed by any reports. I could see them re-doing his deal though by converting salary into bonus and extending him a year to soften the blow this year.

I bet they guaranteed either Cole's or Brown's roster bonus. The other thing was Donnie Mac's willingness to restructure. I wonder if they went that route?

[stevemc]

Update - AdamJT13 reported on the salary cap blog of the EMB:

"Trent Cole, Mike Patterson, Reggie Brown and Todd Herremans all had their roster bonuses converted to signing bonuses. "

Adam is the notorious salary cap guru of internet message boards. Heck, Pocono bows in homage to a stick figure drawing he made of Adam every sundown. Adam is involved in the league or has access to league information somehow so you can normally treat this stuff as the truth. IF accurate - it created about $13-14MM in salary cap room for the Birds. WE WIN THE SALARY CAP CUP AGAIN!!!!!

[saratoga]

WE WIN THE SALARY CAP CUP AGAIN!!!!!

[Leonard Tose]

seems like a little bit of overkill to create that much room for this year. i wonder if that means another significant move is in the offing.

[nc]

Good sign a big fat DT to keep OG's off of Spikes or Gaither. I'm assuming Trotters knees will not let him compete.

[leifdawg]

Could an LJ extension be in the works?

[MDFAN]

Could an LJ extension be in the works?

If true, that they have created "THAT" much cap room, I was thinking LJ myself.

Or at least "some" other move cause they don'y need that much right now.

[stevemc]

they could also draw up a ton of LTBE incentive clauses to the likes of Kelly Holcomb and Bethel Johnson to move $ into next off-season so they can break the bank if they have their sights set on any players!

[MDFAN]

they could also draw up a ton of LTBE incentive clauses to the likes of Kelly Holcomb and Bethel Johnson to move $ into next off-season so they can break the bank if they have their sights set on any players!

I agree Steve, but they would not have had to accelerate ALL those contracts to get that much room in order to open up more money next year would they? Unless they just wanted the option of have the cap space now and then passing it forward if they didn't use it,, guess it kinda makes sense.

[stevemc]

they could also draw up a ton of LTBE incentive clauses to the likes of Kelly Holcomb and Bethel Johnson to move $ into next off-season so they can break the bank if they have their sights set on any players!

I agree Steve, but they would not have had to accelerate ALL those contracts to get that much room in order to open up more money next year would they? Unless they just wanted the option of have the cap space now and then passing it forward if they didn't use it,, guess it kinda makes sense.

There may be a rule that they can't change contracts too many times within a certain time frame but I think they can essentially restructure some of these contracts (perhaps even next year) that guarantees $ and they can take the hit again. I think this move gives them flexibility with Spikes coming in and having the rookie pool to deal with to do whatever they want between now and the end of the '07 campaign.

[NoDakIggle]

Any possibilities of cuts coming this year that will accelerate pro rated bonus' into this year? Not to the extent that they would need that much space but added to the rook pool and extensions.