Dead Cap

7:55 EDT

Tom Kowalski of Mlive.com wrote an article about the Lions 2008 "Dead Cap". The article is well written and accurate.

What is Dead Cap? - Dead Cap is having salary cap space used by players who are no longer under contract.

How does that happen? - Most NFL player contracts are not guaranteed and therefore a team can cut a player at any time and not pay the remaining terms of the contract.

If you don't have to pay the remaining contract, how does a team acquire dead cap? - It is attributable to signing bonuses and other items treated as signing bonus, that, for salary cap purposes are prorated over the life of a players contract. For more information on these bonuses, refer to my blog entry, that explains these items. If a player is cut in the 4th year of a five year contract, there is "dead cap" for the unamortized portion of the signing bonus.

Why do the Lions have so much Dead Cap? - When Rod Marinelli took over the Lions in January of 2006, there were about 70 players under contract, the 53 active members of the roster, some players that were on IR and some players signed in early January. Of those 70 or so players, only 14 remain under contract and it's expensive to revamp an entire roster like the Lions have done over the past two years.

Kowalski's list of the Lions 2008 Dead Cap totals $15,192,000 (Plus another $2M of Dead Cap in 2009 for Kalimba Edwards) and based on history, we'll have another $1,100,000 from the normal course of business (injury settlements, workout bonuses, etc):

• 4,271,000 Shaun Rogers
• 3,000,000 Damien Woody
• 2,333,000 Fernando Bryant
• 1,360,000 Kenoy Kennedy
• 1,000,000 Kalimba Edwards (Plus another $2M to be recognized in 2009)
• 1,000,000 Eddie Drummond
• 741,000 Kevin Jones
• 500,000 Shawn Bryson
• 333,000 Rex Tucker
• 240,000 AJ Davis
• 180,000 Barry Stokes
• 150,000 Blaine Saipaia
• 84,000 Johnny Baldwin

Here's a list of the Lions 2007 Dead Cap that totaled $20,056,000:

• 5,448,000 Mike Williams
• 3,275,000 Charles Rogers
• 1,760,000 Ross Verba
• 1,600,000 James Hall
• 1,500,000 Corey Bradford
• 1,300,000 Dre Bly
• 1,000,000 Josh McCown
• 767,000 Marcus Pollard
• 530,000 Eddie Drummond
• 500,000 Shawn Bryson
• 383,000 Rex Tucker
• 333,000 Marcus Bell
• 275,000 Donte Curry
• 185,000 Barry Stokes
• 120,000 AJ Davis
• 1,080,000 Miscellaneous others (Injury settlements and workout bonuses)

In 2006, the Lions had almost $13,889,000 in Dead Cap:

• 7,088,000 Joey Harrington
• 3,340,000 Charles Rogers
• 1,350,000 Cory Bradford
• 469,000 LeVar Woods
• 375,000 Dan Wilkinson
• 167,000 David Loverne
• 1,100,000 Miscellaneous others (Injury Settlements and workout bonuses)

Since Rod Marinelli has been here, he's cleaned up the roster, but that cleaning has had consequences, to the tune of over $52M of Dead Cap, almost 16% of the salary cap space for that time period. The salary cap for the time frame has been a total of $327,727,000 (102M in 2006, 109M in 2007 and 116,727,000 in 2008).

Failed first round draft picks have accounted for $19,151,000, pre-Rod Marinelli:

• 7,088,000 Joey Harrington
• 6,615,000 Charles Rogers
• 5,448,000 Mike Williams

We've gotten some value for some of the players:

• $4,271,000 Shaun Rogers (for L. Bodden and a 3rd rounder in 2008)
• $1,600,000 James Hall (5th round draft pick in 2007)
• $1,300,000 Dre Bly (acquired G. Foster, T. Bell and a 5th rounder)
• $1,000,000 Josh McCown (for a 4th rounder in 2007 from Oak, along with M. Williams)

As I posted in an earlier blog entry, 2009 Cap Outlook, we are in good shape for 2009 with realistic cap commitments of $78M with a projected salary cap in the neighborhood of $120M (42M under). Dead Cap should be less of an issue going forward, this is Marinelli's roster now and there shouldn't be much of turnover in 2009.

The Shaun Rogers/Leigh Bodden Trade

8:35am EST

Shaun Rogers was traded to the Bengals for a 3rd and 5th rounder, which was rescinded and then he was finally dealt to the Browns for Leigh Bodden. My guess (and it's purely a guess), is that after the trade was agreed to, Cincinnati was either under the impression or was going to wait until after midnight (when the Lions would have been responsible for Rogers roster bonus) to submit the trade proposal to the league. Millen balked at the idea that he'd pay the roster bonus and traded Rogers to the Browns. Which is ok, I personally like that trade better. It's purely a guess on my part.

Breaking down Shaun Rogers contract

In December of 2004, Shaun Rogers signed an extension. When he signed the extension, he received a $9M signing bonus. In March of 2005, he received a 3.5M guaranteed roster bonus. The contract called for him to receive base salaries of $650K for 2005, $850K for 2006, $1.5M for 2007, $4.25M for 2008, $5.25M for 2009 and $7M in 2010. He was also due $1M roster bonuses (non-guaranteed) on the first of March in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

When a player receives a signing bonus, the CBA allows the signing bonus to be amortized over the length of the contract. However, for the 2004 season the maximum proration for signing bonuses to be amortized was six years. So, the Signing bonus is allocated proportionately over the first 6 years of the contract (2004-2009) and nothing is allocated to the final year of the contract. $1.5M allocated to each year through 2009.

The guaranteed roster bonus, for salary cap purposes, is treated just like a signing bonus. The $3.5M is amortized over the length of the contract. For the 2005 season (the year the bonus was paid), the maximum proration of signing bonuses was 5 years. The roster bonus would have been amortized proportionately over the five years from 2005-2009 or $700K per year.

According to Rogers contract, his salary cap figure by year, would have been as follows:
2004 $2,213,750 (1.5M added to his current 2004 cap figure of $713,750)
2005 $2.85M (650K in salary, 1.5M in SB amortization and 700K in RB amortization)
2006 $3.05M (850K in salary, 1.5M in SB amortization and 700K in RB amortization)
2007 $3.7M (1.5M in salary, 1.5M in SB amortization and 700K in RB amortization)
2008 $7.45M (4.25M in salary, 1.5M in SB amort, 700K in RB amort, 1M in RB)
2009 $8.45M (5.25M in salary, 1.5M in SB amort, 700K in RB amort, 1M in RB)
2010 $8M (7M in salary and 1M in RB)

In 2008, Shaun Rogers would have been included in the Lions cap calculation for 7.45M, when he was traded, we would have saved his salary (4.25M) and his roster bonus (1.M), but we would also have to accelerate the remaining unamortized portion of his bonuses (1.5M and 700K) that were allocated to 2009. So the cap effect of trading Rogers was $3.05M cap savings). His cap figure on our books for 2008 would be 4.4M (2.2M in 2008 amortization and 2.2M in accelerated 2009 amortization), commonly referred to as dead cap.

Leigh Bodden

Leigh Bodden was acquired in the trade of Rogers. He is due base salaries of 1.7M in 2008 and 1.8M in 2009. Current year Cap cost $1.7M.

Assuming that Adam Schefter was correct when he reported that the Lions were 6.8M under the cap on 02/21/08. And since he's looking at actual reports generated by the league, there's no reason to assume that he isn't correct. From now to the start of the season, teams only must count the top 51 player cap costs toward their cap figure. So, by my estimation, we are about 8.5M under the cap.

Askthecommish.com has a nice FAQ section that explains a lot of the rules of the salary cap and how it relates to player contracts. http://www.askthecommish.com/salarycap/faq.asp