Enormous thanks to Washington Post beat writer slash Blogger extraordinaire Jason La Canfora for all his work and for clarifying a point for me today that I think needs mentioning here.
In Saturday's Post, Canfora wrote on Adam Archuleta's contract extensively and the possibility that he wouldn't be a Redskin. Here is what I gathered directly from Jason that I have either mistated or else simply neglected to mention in the past:
I believe Archuleta's original 5M signing bonus was prorated over 6 years, and not the 5 years I typically mentioned. That puts it at 833K per year. I don't know why this is as the CBA states in Section 7(b)(i)(1)(a):
Anyways, my repeated number for signing bonuses was typically 1M per year for 5 years. That doesn't appear to be the case, per correspondence with Jason La Canfora.
Here are the three relevant scenarios, and this is per a reliable source per a reliable source and I'm running with it. Please keep in mind however that this contractual nonsense is enormously complicated, I don't have access to sources or contracts or agents and thus cannot hammer out the details as readily as others, and thus I'm working at a disadvantage when reporting this and operate entirely on the word of others combined with my idiot-understanding of the CBA.
From all that here are the 3 scenarios with their attendent cap consequences to the best of my knowledge and idiot-understanding of Archuleta's contract:
- Excercise Archuleta's option and keep him on the team in '07. He makes 600K in salary + 833K in prorated bonus. Excercising the 5M option prorates 5M over 5 years adding 1M on '07 salary, meaning Archuleta would cost around 2.4M in '07 salary cap space.
- Not excercising Archuleta's option and keep him on the roster. The non-excercised option turns into a 5M bonus that is non prorated meaning he will cost the team 600K + 833K + 5M in '07 cap hit. 6.4M
- Cutting him either way will cost just under 9M in dead cap space; the 5M option bonus he is guaranteed will get accelerated + around 4.16M in remaining signing bonus. This amount can be shifted slightly over the course of two years with the majority of it in '08 dead space.
The only justification I can see for this team not to keep Archuleta on the team is if they honestly think he can't possibly earn his '07 and '08 salary (this presumes they think he can't earn his '09 salary as well, as it is significantly higher). If the team thinks Adam Archuleta cannot earn 1.6M over two seasons in unguaranteed salary, than they would see fit to cut him. I don't see how that could possibly be the case, but if it is than Adam Archuleta really has become absolute dead weight in the eyes of our coaching staff.
At this point I am so absolutely lost on Adam Archuleta's contract. I am going to refrain from commenting additionally until something gets done, as I feel that I've confused myself (and reader(s)) by ruminating on said contract for the past few months. I think this represents a perfect opportunity for me to wait on the news to happen and simply repeat what is said by more reliable sources, as I have done more to cloud than clarify this important issue.
Will keep you posted.