Salary Cap Update

[Lith]

Here are our numbers as of this AM according to Spotrac.  This includes all salaries, not just Top 51 contracts that are counted during offseason.  We have $10 million in Top 51 space, but will need to be under the cap once the NFL moves from the offseason Top 51 designation to the full roster for the start of the regular season.  Bottom line is we still have some work to do.

NFL Salary Cap	$155.3 Million
Rollover from 2015	$2.5 Million
NFL Adjustment	($225K)
Total Jets 2016 Cap	$157.5MM
53 Man Roster	$134.5MM
Reserve Suspended	$3.0MM	Sheldon
Injured Reserve	$5.3MM	Milliner, Reilly + 2 others
Reserve PUP	$7.0MM	Breno & D Smith
Dead $$	$7.9MM	Brick, Kerley & Others
Practice Squad Budget	$1.2MM
Total 2016 Cap Hit	$158.8MM
Cap Space	($1.3MM)

We are $1.3MM over the cap right now.  This assumes Milliner does not get claimed, which seems like a pretty safe assumption.  I keep coming back to Breno.  His cap hit is $5.6MM with $4.5MM savings if cut.  Can we really afford to keep him at that salary, given that he will likely miss at least half the season on PUP.  Find a way to cut him loose and if Qvale/Ijalana can't cut it, we can pick up a vet for a lot less than Breno's hit.  I don't know how his status on PUP impacts any of that.
 

[Sperm Edwards]

Minor sticking point, but cutting Breno would have saved closer to $4.4-$4.5M than $5.0M. Still plenty, though.

I have to believe MM looked around for another player to fill in at RT, because as overpaid as Breno is at $5M of new money this season, it's even more of an overpayment if it's $5M for barely over half of this season. A new player could have received a newly redone contract that would lower the 2016 cap number, and would have been available for all 16 games.

I don't know how much I love the idea of PUPing him. If the team thinks it can get through the brutal starting stretch of the season without him, and remain contenders, then why is it so important to keep him after that? And incidentally, there's no guarantee he'll be 100% healthy (or healthy enough) after the PUP period is over. Personally I'd have just let him go. Wipes out some $4.5M off this year's cap, and he was only going to play the "easy" balance of the season anyway. Not to mention is it so implausible that they could just re-sign him after he's healed, if they still feel they need him? It's not like anyone else is going to sign him to their opening day roster in his condition. He wasn't so great when he was healthy either, either here or in Seattle.

[Lith]

2 minutes ago, Sperm Edwards said:

Minor sticking point, but cutting Breno would have saved closer to $4.4-$4.5M than $5.0M. Still plenty, though.

You are right -- corrected in the original post.  My bad.  Looking at too many numbers too early on a Sunday morning.

[Sperm Edwards]

Just now, Lith said:

You are right.  My bad.  Looking at too many numbers too early on a Sunday morning.

I've done it plenty myself over the years. Forget that cutting him moves player #52 up to the #51 slot (we don't get to count only our top 50 cap hits just because we cut someone).

[Lith]

Just now, Sperm Edwards said:

I've done it plenty myself over the years. Forget that cutting him moves player #52 up to the #51 slot (we don't get to count only our top 50 cap hits just because we cut someone).

Agreed, but the Top 51 designation becomes irrelevant once the season starts.

[Sperm Edwards]

5 minutes ago, Lith said:

Agreed, but the Top 51 designation becomes irrelevant once the season starts.

Also true. It still kind of matters, though, if a player who moves up prior to the season starting would have teetered from on/off. Once an extra player moves up, his salary becomes guaranteed for the season even if he's cut after the season starts. So, yes and no.

Either way, I still think he should have been cut. Only makes it worse that he's missing nearly half the season for that same $.

[Kevin L]

This might be a stupid question, but if we cut Breno, do we have to pay him an injury settlement? And does that settlement count against the cap?

[Lith]

Skrine salary converted to bonus to free up cap space:

 

[rex-n-effect]

With the Skrine restructure we're now about $30k under the cap but that doesn't give us anything to work with if we need to make more signings. (We could go over on the cap this year and have to come under in the future but I'd hate to get back into that strategy.

Giacomini could be cut as late as Saturday without salary guarantee so there is still a possibility he is out. It's hard to imagine our other options are so awful that we're going to hang on to that $5MM salary when he could likely be cut today or tomorrow and re-signed later in the season for less.

[LIJetsFan]

On 9/4/2016 at 0:02 PM, Kevin L said:

This might be a stupid question, but if we cut Breno, do we have to pay him an injury settlement? And does that settlement count against the cap?

What about this??

[Lith]

29 minutes ago, rex-n-effect said:

With the Skrine restructure we're now about $30k under the cap but that doesn't give us anything to work with if we need to make more signings. (We could go over on the cap this year and have to come under in the future but I'd hate to get back into that strategy.

Giacomini could be cut as late as Saturday without salary guarantee so there is still a possibility he is out. It's hard to imagine our other options are so awful that we're going to hang on to that $5MM salary when he could likely be cut today or tomorrow and re-signed later in the season for less.

Spotrac has us $2.0 million under the cap after the Skrine restructure.  Over the cap has us with about $400K space, but I don't think the OTC number is right.  They show $1.7 million in dead money for Kenbrell Thompkins who they have listed on IR.  I don't think this is right.  If this is correct, then they have us about $2.0 million also.  I think we probably just need to give it another couple of days for the dust to settle to see exactly what sace we have.

All I know for certain is that we need to be under the cap now that the regular season has started and the Skrine move gets us there.  How far under the cap, I don't really know for sure.

 

[UnknownJetFan]

I thought Thompkins was a tendered contract none of which was guarenteed. And, I believe when we cut him loose it may have been with an injury designation, but that only impacts our cap if we bring him back on IR, which I don't believe we did. Therefore, I think he should be counting $0 on our cap. 

[Lith]

2 minutes ago, UnknownJetFan said:

I thought Thompkins was a tendered contract none of which was guarenteed. And, I believe when we cut him loose it may have been with an injury designation, but that only impacts our cap if we bring him back on IR, which I don't believe we did. Therefore, I think he should be counting $0 on our cap. 

I am pretty sure you are right.  Which is why I think the Over the cap numbers are wrong.  I sent an email to Jason at OverTheCap this morning lettiing him know that I think he has a mistake in his numbers for the Jets.  I haven't heard back from him yet.

[Lith]

21 hours ago, UnknownJetFan said:

I thought Thompkins was a tendered contract none of which was guarenteed. And, I believe when we cut him loose it may have been with an injury designation, but that only impacts our cap if we bring him back on IR, which I don't believe we did. Therefore, I think he should be counting $0 on our cap. 

According to Jason at Over The Cap, Thompkins failed his exit physical and as a result his salary stays on our books until he is able to pass his physical.  He said it is just a technicality and the teams generally do not list these players officially on IR.  As long as its expected to be short term, there is no need for an injury settlement or designation and the $$ will likely come off the cap in a few days.  

Could the NFL possibly make this cap stuff more confusing.  Just when I begin to think I have some level of understanding, I learn of some new wrinkle.