There seems to be a certain amount of confusion regarding the Darrelle
Revis situation, the Jets' cap situation, restructuring contracts, and
various and sundry other messy details. I'm going to attempt to address
many of the most common misconceptions being spread by the media and
others and shed some light on what is really going on. Read on if you
can stand exploring some of the arcane details necessary for a better
understanding of these issues.
Myth #1: The Jets cannot restructure Mark Sanchez' contract (or fill in
the blank with your favorite outsize contract) because he would be a
fool to accept less money.
Reality: Restructuring contracts more often than not does not involve
the player accepting less money. It CAN, and sometimes does, but more
often restructuring a contract leaves the total guaranteed $ in place.
What happens is base salary (which is always fully applied to the
current year salary cap) is converted into signing bonus (which can be
spread out in equal annual amounts over up to 5 years). So, as an
example, if player X has a 2013 contract with a base salary of $12
million, all guaranteed, all of that $12 million would count against the
2013 cap. But if we converted $10 million of it into a signing bonus,
the cap hit for that $10 million would be spread out over 5 years,
making the cap hit as follows: 2013 $4 million ($2 million in remaining
base salary plus $2 million prorated signing bonus). 2014-2017 $2
million each year in prorated signing bonus. Thus player X still gets
all his guaranteed money, but the cap hit for 2013 is reduced from $12
million to $4 million. If you really want to get creative, you can even
delay payment of the signing bonus until 2014 (or later), further
reducing the 2013 cap hit to just $2 million, at the cost of further
extending the cap hit into later years.
The point here is Sanchez (or anyone else) does not have to be a fool to
restructure his contract and provide the Jets cap relief. Restructuring
contracts need not cost the player a cent. Whether or not it is
advisable for the Jets to push out the cap hits into later years is an
entirely different issue. It may well be the Jets would be fools for
restructuring certain contracts -- the players, however, should not have
a problem with it. That brings us to...
Myth #2: Santonio Holmes (or David Harris, or choose your favorite
outsized contract) is untradable because his contract is so large no
team would want to take it on.
Reality: No player who still is capable of playing in the NFL is
completely untradable. As we discussed above, any player can have his
contract restructured. The acquiring team in a trade picks up base
salary and any currently unearned roster, workout and reporting bonuses.
All prorated signing bonuses stay with the team trading the player, and
are immediately accelerated into the current cap year.
Trading any player with any value as a player (i.e., maybe not Tebow, or
Sanchez) is not impossible. You simply have to get the cap figure for
the acquiring team down enough to make the player attractive at that cap
figure. The way to do that is to convert base salary into signing
bonus. So, as an example, Santonio Holmes has a 2013 cap figure of
$12,500,000, with $11 million in base salary. Any team acquiring that
contract would be taking on $11 million in cap space, too much for a
player like Holmes. But convert say $8,000,000 of his base salary into a
signing bonus, and the cap hit for the acquiring team becomes a very
manageable $3 million. Just like that, an untradable player becomes
eminently tradable.
There are two caveats to this. First, doing a deal like this creates
dead money. In the Holmes example, we now have $8 million on the cap
which is going to a player no longer on the team -- dead money. It is
not ideal, and you can only do so much of this kind of thing before half
the cap is being spent on other teams' players, but in small doses for
the right trades it works. The other caveat is that you have to convince
the player to restructure. As a monetary matter this shouldn't be
difficult, as the restructuring preserves all of the player's money and
in fact gets it to him faster. However, the player in effect has a no
trade clause, in that if he hates the idea of playing for the new team,
he has only to refuse to restructure. In that case you either have to
find a more palatable team to trade with or sweeten the pot for the
player. In most cases it should be doable, if the Jets are highly
motivated to get the deal done, but the player can and occasionally does
throw up a roadblock to a trade.
Myth #3: The Jets are in salary cap hell in 2013 and simply have no way
of affording anything other than bargain basement players.
Reality: The Jets can afford to be major players in the free agent
market, if they are so inclined. The Jets right now are already under
the cap by enough to afford their draft class and sign one pretty good
free agent. If the Jets want to go all in for 2013, they have
significant room under current contracts to restructure and create ample
space under the cap. Sanchez, Harris, Holmes, Cromartie, Ferguson,
Mangold collectively represent as much as $40 million in base salary,
roster bonuses, workout bonuses and reporting bonuses that can be
restructured into signing bonuses that are prorated, moving as much as
$32 million into later years' cap. This may or may not be something the
Jets should do, and it may or may not be something Idzik decides to do,
but it is most definitely something the Jets CAN do. If the Jets only
sign bargain basement players in 2013, it should be understood that this
was a CHOICE the Jets made after considering what was in the best
interests of the organization, not something forced on them by an
impossible cap situation.
Myth #4: The Jets cannot afford to re-sign Revis under the 2013 cap.
Reality: Revis is signed through the end of 2013. Any extension will rip
up the voidable years of his contract (2014-2016) and replace them with
something much larger in $. But it will only effect the 2013 cap figure
if the Jets choose to structure it this way. If the Jets choose it is
not at all difficult to restructure in such a way that 2013 remains
untouched. It is even possible, though unlikely, to restructure in a way
that LOWERS the 2013 cap figure (for example, by converting some of his
$6 million in base salary and non-proratable bonus money in 2013 into a
signing bonus, and prorating this into future years). Affording Revis
will not be easy, but the current cap situation should not pose any
impediment to getting it done. And 2014 cap room is more than ample to
fit Revis in. The Jets can afford Revis. The question is, do they want
to?
Myth #5: Sanchez's contract impacts the Jets' ability to fit Revis under the cap.
Reality: Sanchez's contract is structured in such a way that all his
guaranteed money will be paid out by the end of the 2013 season. By 2014
the Jets can afford to cut Sanchez. Since Sanchez only has an outsize
effect on the Jets cap in 2013, and a new Revis contract would only
effect the Jets cap space in 2014 and beyond, the two are completely
unrelated issues. So long as the Jets don't move most of Sanchez's cap $
into 2014, Sanchez's contract will have no effect on the Jets' ability
to fit Revis under the cap.
Reality: It's possible but not probable.
Revis is unlikely to be traded before the 2013 draft. Here’s why.
First, he will not even be running until early April at the earliest.
That’s straight line running, no cuts. No doctor in the world can at
that stage of the recovery accurately predict how the knee will hold up
in game conditions, hence no meaningful medical approval is possible.
All they can say is he is progressing reasonably well so far. Teams will
want to see him actually play cornerback. AP is NOT a template.
Peterson's recovery was such an outlier in terms of how quickly he came
back it was pretty much a medical miracle. This is the gold standard of
recoveries -- it is silly to think all future recoveries will follow the
same miraculous course. Revis is already 2 1/2 months behind AP. Plus a
significant % of guys NEVER return to their former form.
Putting aside the health issues, which I think almost everyone is WAY
too confident about, there is an even more fundamental reason Revis will
not be traded for 2013 picks: his contract. If Revis is traded PRIOR to
June 1st, all cap ramifications flow into the 2013 cap. Those
ramifications are as follows: a net $4 million INCREASE to the Jets cap
#, even after accounting for the trading partner picking up his base
salary and roster bonus, due to the prorated bonus money which will be
immediately accelerated. Bottom line, as of now Revis counts $9 million
against the 2013 cap. If he is traded prior to June 1 he will count $13
million against the 2013 cap.
It gets worse. Suppose he is traded for a single #1 pick. That pick will
cost an additional $2 million or so against the cap, bringing the total
cap hit to $6 million, and in effect meaning Revis will cost us $15
million in 2013 cap space. If we got more high picks, the effect would
of course be even worse.
Compare that to simply waiting until after June 1. Then all prorated cap
money would be counted against the 2014 cap. Bottom line: $9 million in
prorated money would be accelerated into the 2014 cap, not the 2013
cap. Revis would then count only $4 million against the cap, and the
picks would be 2014 picks, counting zero against the 2013 cap. Net
result: simply waiting until after June 1 to trade him will save the
Jets a whopping $11 million or more (depending on the return package of
picks) in 2013 cap space.
The Jets may be hell bent to trade Revis as soon as possible and take
the entire cap hit in 2013. If so it pretty much signals that Idzik is
writing off the 2013 season. I consider this highly unlikely, but not
impossible. By simply waiting until after June 1 to trade Revis, if that
is what the Jets wish to do, the Jets save at least $11 million in 2013
cap space, at the cost of that cap hit taking place in 2014. Since the
Jets are in far better shape cap wise in 2014, I consider it far more
likely that if Revis is traded, he will be traded for 2014 picks.
Myth #7: If Revis is lost to free agency, the Jets will get a 3rd round compensatory draft pick.
Reality: The Jets will receive a 3rd round pick as compensation for
Revis ONLY if the Jets do not sign any notable free agents in 2014.
Compensation is intended to be for NET losses; i.e., weighing how much a
team gained by signing FAs vs. how much they lost by other teams'
signing their FAs. Since as it now stands the Jets will have
considerable cap space in 2014, the likelihood of the Jets failing to
sign any notable free agents is pretty low. If they do sign high end
free agents of their own, then the compensation for Revis will be
reduced accordingly. If the Jets sign enough FAs in 2014, then they may
get no compensation at all for Revis.
Myth #8: The Jets cannot cut Player X because it would leave them with too much dead money.
Reality: Teams don't like dead money. It's money that counts against the
cap being spent on players no longer with the team. In an ideal world
you would never have any dead money. But the reality is dead money is
already spent, and will count against the cap whether or not Player X is
cut. So the only real issue is, does cutting Player X help the team? If
it does, Player X can be cut, regardless of dead money. I can think of
at least 2 scenarios where this is the case. The first: cutting Player X
frees up enough cap space to make the dead money worthwhile. So, for
example, if Player X is no longer good enough to play, and cutting him
will result in $4 million in dead money but $7 million in cap savings,
Player X should be cut, dead money or no dead money. The second scenario
is where having a player on the team would result in a fractured locker
room, or the player is a terrible influence on the team or undermines
the coaches' authority. Then you have to get rid of him, dead money or
no.
Dead money is always a consideration, and too much dead money cripples
your cap situation, but there is always the possibility that cutting a
player and eating the dead money is in the best interests of the team.
Myth #9: The Jets talk too much.
Reality: This may be the most pervasive and pernicious myth of all Jets
myths. The truth is, Tone talks some. Cro talks some. Scott talks some.
But none of them are over the top. And.. and... who else? The Jets don't
talk any more than almost any other team. Richard Sherman does more
talking than all the Jets players combined, and I don't hear anything
about how the Seahawks talk too much.
Rex in the early days did nothing but run his mouth. However, even Rex
doesn't really talk much these days, other than to compliment other
teams. The notion that the Jets talk too much is a tired and outdated
caricature that should be put to rest permanently.
I hope I have set some things straight here. But what about you? What Jets myths would you like to see put to rest?
> i saw this on " another fan site " .
