Predictably, as it is now an annual event (we should make t-shirts!), Jon Jansen and Chris Samuels saw their contracts restructured in order to accomodate the Redskins financial strategy. Per a quick update from a sorely missed Redskins Insider:
the Skins redid Chris Samuels's contract the other day after doing Jansen's as well - combined the deals created $6.3 million in cap space, so the Skins are roughly $3 million under and still have 3-4 other contracts they could rework to create more room.
Not a lot of details available on how that gets worked out though it permits speculation. Using
PC's cap page, updated today because the man never sleeps, it already appears he's factored in the changes. Jansen and Samuels both appear to have base salaries ~730K. For Jansen, that's about half a million lower than his '09 base and over 3M lower than his '10 salary, telling me his base moneys this year were transferred in large part to guaranteed moneys. Ditto on Samuels, though the extent of the alteration is easier to identify; his '08 salary is over 4M lower than his '09 salary. In other words, those two guys are playing for millions below what their original contracts stipulated in base salaries right now. This makes perfect sense for them because it means the team simply cut those two players a checks for the amount their base salaries were lowered, and that money can't be taken away by them being cut, as it might were it merely base salary.
Jason La Canfora says 3M, he'd know, but PC says 2M, and he'd also know (that page explicitly acknowledges Samuels' restructure). So those two ranges should give you a pretty good idea about where we are capwise as of this moment. 2-3M isn't enough to work with given the upcoming free agency period and, of course, the draft, but there's still plenty of work to be done and we have yet to cut anybody of significance. Or at all; reader(s), have we cut anyone yet?
Elsewhere, David Elfin at Redskins 360 pegs the number at 1.2M over, but also takes a stab at predicting our next restructure:
Now the Redskins just need to redo one more player -- running back Clinton Portis, receiver Santana Moss, quarterback Mark Brunell, defensive tackle Cornelius Griffin and linebacker Marcus Washington are the likeliest targets -- to get below the NFL's mandated cap limit for the start of the free agent signing period on Friday.
Definitely Mark Brunell, but my understanding was his contract runs out anyways? If it had to be a restructure as opposed to an outright cutting, I'd choose either Portis or Moss for their relative youth among the list and because I think both could be productive for many years into the future here in Washington. I think that's also true of Marcus Washington and Cornelius Griffin but, given their age and recent injury histories, I'd just as soon gamble on younger players.
