FanPost

trying to gain perspective, the salary-cap

First of all, I want to give credit where credit is due: I found all this information on salary cap numbers over at the warpath site. Specifically in the thread labeled crazy Canucks Figures by player; lots of good information over there. I suggest you wander over there when you have time.
http://www.thewarpath.net/WarpathRedskinsCap.htm

So the In 2009 was 127 1/2 million or thereabouts, of which almost $18 million was dead cap. The salary cap management is a very complex issue, obviously. And it's something I'm going to research and try to learn more about, in the meantime. I'm just going to throw out the most obvious observations.

The base salary cap number in 2009 was $109 million, that same roster’s base numbers are $111 million in 2010 and $103 million in 2011. In 2012, it drops down to 84 1/2 million. So we can glean some good news from this, our worst salary-cap year, ends up being the uncapped year. Our situation gets decidedly better in 2011 and beyond.

What follows now are our top 11 salary-cap number guys (please excuse the crappy formatting)

Player Ends Lgth Total 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Albert Haynesworth 2015 7 $100,000 $ 7,000 $ 8,800 $10,600 $12,400 $ 34,200 $ 15,000 $ 12,000
Chris Samuels 2015 11 $38,092 $ 6,978 $ 4,853 $ 5,023 $ 5,023 $ 5,623 $ 4,995 $ 5,595
Laron Landry 2012 6 $ 18,894 $ 5,794 $ 5,701 $ 3,533 $ 3,866
Clinton Portis 2013 10 $ 46,555 $ 5,671 $ 10,186 $ 10,589 $ 10,054 $ 10,054
DeAngelo Hall 2014 6 $ 53,500 $ 5,300 $ 6,800 $ 8,300 $ 9,800 $ 11,300 $ 12,000
Santana Moss 2013 9 $ 19,462 $ 5,055 $ 4,679 $ 3,320 $ 3,093 $ 3,316
Randy Thomas 2013 7 $ 25,851 $ 4,951 $ 5,475 $ 4,875 $ 5,775 $ 4,775
London Fletcher 2011 5 $ 18,550 $ 4,350 $ 7,100 $ 7,100

Andre Carter 2015 10 $ 28,900 $ 4,198 $ 5,207 $ 3,832 $ 4,272 $ 4,045 $ 3,453 $ 3,893
Fred Smoot 2011 5 $ 16,450 $ 4,150 $ 5,400 $ 6,900

Antwaan Randle El 2015 10 $ 28,513 $ 4,119 $ 5,036 $ 3,786 $ 4,236 $ 3,853 $ 3,517 $ 3,967

Of these players, I'm pretty sure we will lose Chris Samuels and ARE. If they are cut or traded before June 1, their entire salary-cap hit occurs in 2010. If not then the majority of it will hit in 2011. I think it's obviously in the team's best interest to get rid of players before June 1, 2010.
Other players of note: Cornelius Griffin, Carlos Rogers, Eric Dockery, Chris Cooley, Brian Orakpo, Todd Collins and Ladell Betts. These players all have quite a few years left on their current contracts for fairly large numbers.
Jason Campbell, Rocky McIntosh, Todd Yoder, Ethan Albright, Hunter Smith, Phillip Daniels, Lorenzo Alexander, Reed Doughty all need new contracts done.
I don't see how we trade out of the number four spot, so they salary-cap gurus are going to have to set aside a few million for that guy too.

I'll admit it's fun to talk about what free agents we might be able to add to this team, but when you look at the salary-cap situation I think you have to realize that the team can ill afford to chase the likes of Carlos Dansby. Look at the roster structure and see how little money the team spent on the offensive line this year. No matter how we fix that either through free agency or the draft, it's going to cost more money; that just doesn't leave a lot of money to go chasing high-priced free agents. And it sure as hell doesn't leave money to go chasing free agents that are not playing a position of dire need for this team; that leaves out the Reggie Bush's and the Joshua Cribbs’ in my opinion.
Remember, 2011 will be a capped year. I doubt the number will be over 127 million, the team needs to do the math and realize that we just can't go after the high-priced guys for a few years; the last six or seven years of that is what got us into this predicament. Props again to Pommy for pointing that out, I just wanted to add a little more background.