Peter King had an interesting item in this week's Monday Morning Quarterback showing each NFL team's status relative to the 2008 salary cap. Take a guess at who the only team was that is already over the cap. Yep, the Redskins. Not only are they over the cap, but they are over by a whopping $20 million. Think about that for a minute. That means the 'Skins will have to trim $20M in payroll just to be in compliance next year, to make no mention of signing draft picks or free agents. They will be able to cut that number down a little bit by getting creative and converting some of their players' salaries into prorated signing bonuses and the like, but that alone is not going to get it done, and that's really just delaying the inevitable cap crisis to a later year anyway. Some high-price veteran players will have to be cut. With the emergence of Jason Campbell, and in light of Mark Brunell's large cap number next year he is a goner for sure. Who else will be let go?
I blame Dan Snyder and his reckless spending during the early years of his ownership for the cap problems the Redskins are facing now. It seemed like every year the Redskins signed several of the highest-profile and most expensive free agent players, and pushed the massive cap hits further and further into the future. Most of those players ended up underperforming and disappointing on the field, and the Danny's "win now" mentality unfortunately didn't result in a championship. Now the team is cleaning up the mess years later. I do like the fact that Snyder has been less meddlesome since Joe Gibbs took over as head coach, but unfortunately the damage has already been done.
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Blame Dan Snyder? How dare you? Brilliant signings of years past, both on and off the field. Deion Sanders, The Ball Coach, Marty Schottenheimer (remember him???). Unbelievable. If there were a way to fire the owner, he'd be the Steinbrenner of football.
First of all BMT, you're way off. After the players stopped the mutiny against coach Marty and went on a huge winning streak to end the season, it wasn't coach Marty that was a factor in firing him but GM Marty. GM Marty addressed the Salary Cap woes that season and gutted the roster and left it with little depth. Coach Marty brought stability back to the organization...and lots of jobs for his family. He clashed with the owner on GM issues.
Secondly, most of that is probably dead cap from cutting players last year. They go through this every year and are slowly getting better about this.
Most likely they won't have a need for a #3 QB named Brunell. This would be a savings, but also more dead cap room the following year. Daniels could be in trouble and restructuring on Samuels, Portis, and Jansen's contract plus a decision or restructuring on Springs could be a possibility too.
Don't forget that this year's Adam Archeletta - Brandon Lloyd will most likely be cut.
Without getting a bit morbid here, the Skins may take a hit on Taylor's bonus, but may find some savings due to the remaining years of the base salary being void. At some point, this information will become known.
The Skins may have enough cap space for a guard and or cornerback.
The Redskins would have been in HUGE trouble a few years ago, but the new TV Revenue stream allowed the cap to go up just when the Redskins needed it.
Well if you read my comment, you'd note that I said "on and off the field". GM would count off the field. Look, didn't matter if Marty was fired for being the coach or being the GM. He was fired period. Plus, you can't say that if he worked better as GM that Snyder would have kept him around as GM only? He wanted Spurrier so bad. I was no fan of Marty, but if you state only one accomplishment, he fired Vinny Cerrato. Unfortunately the V-man was hired back. Possibly the worst outcome from Marty's firing.
I agree with you that Lloyd will be gone also.
Yes, a fair amount of the overage is due to dead cap space, and the problem is going to get worse when they are forced to cut a few more players in the offseason.
Snyder is the Steinbrenner of football, except that he hasn't won anything yet.
Let's not become a revisionist, BMT. As I recall, there was a rift and control issue between Marty the GM and the owner. Most believe that Marty was an excellent coach despite his practice methods that players didn't see eye to eye with. He was a marginal GM, but was assured control when he took the job. When an issue arose about Mary concentrating on only one hat the damage was done.
Marty wasn't fired to just get Spurrier in DC. It was a control issue on two sides. Spurrier was the benefactor of the vacancy.
The point I was making is that Marty wasn't a bad signing. He coached well, which was something that hadn't occured since 1992. For the talent on the team at the time, he did as good a job as anyone.
How about bad retention like Casserly, Norv, and Vinny? All Mgmt that was/is allowed to stay on way too long.
Look, all I said is that it does not matter whether Marty the GM or Marty the Coach was fired. They were one in the same person. It's rare that there are Coach/GM combinations in the NFL. Even rarer are the ones who are fired for only one job. Only Holmgren comes to mind.
My point was, there was no way Synder was going to keep Marty around as coach only. He asked Marty knowing the answer already. In the end, we didn't even have a GM did we? I can't recall one.
Yes, Marty was a decent coach for us. But was I sad to see him go? Hindsight after all these years shows us we were all wrong about the Ball Coach. But really, was Marty going to take us to teh SuperBowl?