Cap Disaster? We will see.

I am certain that Redskins fans are used to having your team's spend-happy ways attacked. Many of you have probably joined in. Still, it seems that each year regardless of how poorly the Redskins have managed prior moneys, they somehow come out on top year after year.

The Hogs have an article up that optimistically challenges Redskins fans to have faith and defend against the Skins spending ways against naysayers. While Archuleta, Lloyd, and Carter are all underachieving for the salaries we offered them, they really aren't the reason we're in cap trouble now. Combined, those three players counted for a bit less than 5 million in cap space. To contrast, Mark Brunell cost us nearly 5 and a half million.

With the article was this amazingly detailed and useful Salary Cap Tutorial for the Redskins. While the tone of the original article is optimistic, I think the supplemental Salary Cap Tutorial is anything but. Here are my thoughts from it:

The Good News:

1. Sean Taylor cost us nearly five million in cap space for 2006, but that number shrinks to 1.6 million in 2007. This is because (as far as I can tell) of 3 million he made in bonuses in 2006. He still gets 1.2 million in prorated signing bonus payments that work against our cap + his annual salary -- which is a bargain at about 500,000.
   
2. Gulp

The Bad News keeping in mind that we are only 2 million underneath the cap as of right now:

1. We will either resign Ladell Betts or TJ Duckett. Whomever it is, that will cost us money. There are a number of backups that we need to sign, though most of them are cheap and this won't really cost us an enormous amount.
   
2. Derrick Dockery needs to be resigned. We do not have a reliable starter playing behind him, so unless we want a significant decrease in O-Line quality (which we cannot afford) we must keep him in. He's played well enough this year to earn a pay raise, meaning this could be difficult to do cheaply. He currently makes 1.5 million a year.
   
3. For a number of players, the amount of salary cap hits we take in 2007 are skyrocketing. Here is how much a few notable players are going to cost us next year: Adam Archuleta + 1 million. Mark Brunell + 1 million. Andre carter + 700K. Cornelius Griffin + 3 million. Santana Moss + 1 million. David Patten + 1.2 million. Clinton Portis + 4 million. Casey Rabach + 2 million. Chris Samuels + 2.2 million. Shawn Springs + 4 million. Marcus Washington + 3.5 million. Renaldo Wynn + 1 million. Somehow these totals will have to be accounted for in cuts.
   
4. As far as I can tell only two players had their cap hits go down. The aforementioned Sean Taylor and John Hall, whom we placed on Injury Reserve [Ed. thanks TexSkins]. Everyone else on the roster is either unsigned in 2007 or getting an increase.

This is all troublesome, though I don't think catastrophic. Somehow, someway the Redskins are annually in cap space hell and somehow, someway they claw their ways out of it. The numbers look as if doom is impending, but I'll believe it only after I see it.

By the way the Salary Cap is an aspect of professional football that I'm just now accustoming myself to and will track this as closely as my limited knowledge allows. If there are any mathwhizzes out there who want to become the Official Hogs Haven Salary Cap And/Or Impending Spending Doom Gurus, please by all means shoot me an email.

Thoughts?