Sunday, August 03, 2008

Dallas Cowboys 2008 Cap Update - $10,005,228 million as of 07/30/08

Originally Posted by AdamJT13 form a sports forum:

Here's a quick update on our 2008 cap -- The cap hasn't been finalized yet, but it's expected to be about $116 million. We currently have 56 players under contract for 2008, with a total cap commitment of $102.7 million. This DOES NOT include any credits or charges leftover from 2007, DOES NOT include tenders for our remaining free agents and DOES NOT take into account the voided contracts for Marion Barber, Julius Jones and Chris Canty.

I'm guessing we'll get a cap adjustment of about $1.5 million (more cap room) after all of the leftover charges and credits from 2007 are applied -- the credit for Tony Curtis' bogus $3.5 million incentive, minus leftover incentive charges from this season (playing time incentives for Anthony Spencer and Ken Hamlin, as well as Flozell Adams' Pro Bowl incentive). And we'll add another $1.08 million in cap room when the contracts of Barber, Jones and Canty officially void.

Those changes would leave us about $15.88 million under the cap, if it's set at $116 million. Our cap room would be reduced by any tenders given to RFAs (Barber, Canty, Ladoucer, Berger, Thompson), EFAs (Curtis, Procter, Oglesby, Bowen) or possibly UFAs (such as Flozell Adams or Ken Hamlin).

ONE VERY IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER is that during the offseason, the only base salaries that count against the cap are those of the players with the 51 highest cap numbers on the team (including tenders). For anyone outside the top 51, only their bonus amounts count against the cap. Anytime you sign someone who qualifies for the top 51, they bump another player's base salary off the cap. Right now, our 51st-highest cap number is $295,000 (six players are tied). So if we sign a player with a 2008 cap number of $1 million, it doesn't reduce our cap room by $1 million, it reduces it by only $705,000, because that player knocks another player's $295,000 base salary off the cap. After the voids and tenders, we should be up to at least 51 players at $370,000 or more, which means each player signed will reduce our cap room by even less.