Jets Salary Cap Scenario

By Sperm Edwards

I’ve seen the Jets cap situation as being anywhere from $20-28M under the $109M cap for 2007. No outsider knows the number exactly, but I believe the figure is closer to $30M than $20M. Either way, that’s not all. We’re clearly going to make at least some roster changes. So who gets cut and how much (if anything) do we save?

This isn’t my own opinion of who should be cut but rather a combination of either likely cuts or (in Barton’s case in particular) a name that’s come up a lot from JetNation users as people they want to cut. I don’t understand cutting Eric Barton personally; he was our best ILB in ’06 and a $4M cap number is not outrageous for a good veteran when there’s a $109M total cap and we are under it by plenty. You should only cut a starter for two reasons:

(1) We acquired someone better at that position and need the cap room and/or roster space.
(2) We acquired an expensive player at a different position and we need the cap room and/or roster space.

Otherwise you’re just cutting useful players for the sake of cutting them, which is dumb and no GM does this unless there are personality issues.

This is how much we SAVE by cutting the following:

Cut prior to 6/1/07 (rounded to nearest $500K); leaves no dead cap space in ’08:
Barlow $3.5M
Barrett $2M
Barton $1.5M
Blaylock $-500K (costs us more money to cut him before 6/1 than keep for the season)
Dwight $500K
Houston <$500K
Martin $1M (retiring; not getting “cut” of course)
McCareins $1M
VonGarbage $1M

Cut them ALL (highly unlikely) = save ~$10M on the ’07 cap; no dead space for any of them in ‘08

Keep in mind that cutting someone like Houston or Jones really only saves us like $200K net since any player we add to the 53-man roster in his place is going to cost $200-300K minimum. If someone with a cap number of $500K or less gets cut, the Jets simply don’t want him; it wouldn’t be for cap savings.

Cut after 6/1/07 cap savings (and the ’08 dead space $):
Barlow $3.5M ($0; SF gave him his SB, not us)
Barrett $3.5M ($1.5M)
Barton $3M ($1.5M)
Blaylock $700K ($1.3M)
Dwight <$1M (<$500K)
Houston <$500K ($0; his SB was next to nothing)
Martin $3M ($2M)
McCareins $3M ($2M)
VonGarbage $2M ($1M)

Cut them ALL = save ~$20M on the ’07 cap; ~$10M tot dead space in ’08

Don’t want to push TOO much off to 2008 because cap-casualty possibilities are:
DRob: $9M cap number; save $7M if cut after 6/1/08, leaving $2M dead space in ’09)
Chad: $8M cap number; save $5M if cut after 6/1/08, leaving $3M dead space in ’09)

And we’ll have new (read: more expensive) contracts for Rhodes, Cotchery, Hobson, and any new FA’s we acquire for ’07). Those 3 alone cost under $2M combined right now and that will change. Currently, Hobson and Cotchery are only signed through 2007; Rhodes is signed through 2008.

All of our draft picks combined should cost in the ballpark of $3M this year.

Basically, unless we push ourselves up against the cap (unlikely since we’re so far under it), it doesn’t pay to push much off for the future. You cannot escape dead cap space for players we cut if the Jets gave them signing bonuses.

So now, who do you want to cut and who do you want to keep?  Discuss it here.

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