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'Dead money' eating into Lions' salary cap in '08
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
By Tom Kowalski
ALLEN PARK -- While it appears Detroit Lions coach Rod Marinelli is in the final stages of revamping his roster, those changes have come at a cost.
With $15.2 million in "dead money" hitting their salary cap, the Lions are in worse shape cap-wise than the majority of other NFL teams. In each of the past two seasons, the average of dead money per club was just less than $10 million.
Lions executive vice president Tom Lewand, who handles the team's salary cap, refused to comment.
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There are reports that the Lions are anywhere from $700,000 to $1.2 million under the cap as they head into the draft. The Lions, though, should have no problem in signing their rookies or signing future free agents after the draft.
One of the players who was recently released -- defensive end Kalimba Edwards -- was designated as a June 1 cut. That means his current cap number is $5 million but, after June 1, it drops to $1 million. That $1 million hit is part of his prorated bonus (an additional $2 million will count against the 2009 cap) while $4 million -- Edwards' scheduled salary for this season -- reverts back to the Lions.
There are a variety of other ways the Lions can massage the cap to increase space as they go along, but the large amount of dead money could limit the team's flexibility at some point down the road.
There are six starters from last year's team who are no longer on the roster, but still count heavily against the team's cap: Edwards, Shaun Rogers, Fernando Bryant, Kenoy Kennedy, Damien Woody and Kevin Jones. There are a total of 13 players who are no longer with the Lions who still count significantly toward the cap.
The problem for this season is that, in some cases, the Lions are paying double for the same position because they have had to go out and sign free agents to replace the departed players, like replacing Rogers with Chuck Darby and Bryant with Brian Kelly.
There are several other positions the Lions are expected to address early in the draft to replace the missing players, including defensive end (Edwards), right tackle (Woody), running back (Jones) and return specialist (Eddie Drummond). Depending on where those players are chosen will determine how much money -- and cap space -- the Lions must commit to them this season.
In some cases, the Lions have done a decent job in mitigating their losses. For instance, they would have owed Kennedy $2.7 million in salary this season (for a total cap hit of $4 million). By releasing him and signing free agent Dwight Smith to a one-year, $2 million deal, the Lions shaved $700,000 off their cash output (and cap hit) this season.
Of the six players who will hit Detroit's cap for $1 million or more this season, four were released because the coaching staff believed they weren't performing up to their abilities. The other two, Bryant and Woody, were cut almost totally because of cap reasons (Woody's contract was restructured last year -- greatly reducing his salary -- but it also allowed him to become a free agent this season).
Now that Marinelli has assembled a roster of players that he has mostly brought in himself -- only 14 (of 69) players remain from the previous regime -- there is expected to be much less turnover next season. With almost all of the current dead money coming off the rolls next year, the Lions are expected to be back in excellent shape cap-wise going into the 2009 season.
http://www.mlive.com/lions/stories/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1207704303164910.xml&coll=6
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
By Tom Kowalski
ALLEN PARK -- While it appears Detroit Lions coach Rod Marinelli is in the final stages of revamping his roster, those changes have come at a cost.
With $15.2 million in "dead money" hitting their salary cap, the Lions are in worse shape cap-wise than the majority of other NFL teams. In each of the past two seasons, the average of dead money per club was just less than $10 million.
Lions executive vice president Tom Lewand, who handles the team's salary cap, refused to comment.
Advertisement
There are reports that the Lions are anywhere from $700,000 to $1.2 million under the cap as they head into the draft. The Lions, though, should have no problem in signing their rookies or signing future free agents after the draft.
One of the players who was recently released -- defensive end Kalimba Edwards -- was designated as a June 1 cut. That means his current cap number is $5 million but, after June 1, it drops to $1 million. That $1 million hit is part of his prorated bonus (an additional $2 million will count against the 2009 cap) while $4 million -- Edwards' scheduled salary for this season -- reverts back to the Lions.
There are a variety of other ways the Lions can massage the cap to increase space as they go along, but the large amount of dead money could limit the team's flexibility at some point down the road.
There are six starters from last year's team who are no longer on the roster, but still count heavily against the team's cap: Edwards, Shaun Rogers, Fernando Bryant, Kenoy Kennedy, Damien Woody and Kevin Jones. There are a total of 13 players who are no longer with the Lions who still count significantly toward the cap.
The problem for this season is that, in some cases, the Lions are paying double for the same position because they have had to go out and sign free agents to replace the departed players, like replacing Rogers with Chuck Darby and Bryant with Brian Kelly.
There are several other positions the Lions are expected to address early in the draft to replace the missing players, including defensive end (Edwards), right tackle (Woody), running back (Jones) and return specialist (Eddie Drummond). Depending on where those players are chosen will determine how much money -- and cap space -- the Lions must commit to them this season.
In some cases, the Lions have done a decent job in mitigating their losses. For instance, they would have owed Kennedy $2.7 million in salary this season (for a total cap hit of $4 million). By releasing him and signing free agent Dwight Smith to a one-year, $2 million deal, the Lions shaved $700,000 off their cash output (and cap hit) this season.
Of the six players who will hit Detroit's cap for $1 million or more this season, four were released because the coaching staff believed they weren't performing up to their abilities. The other two, Bryant and Woody, were cut almost totally because of cap reasons (Woody's contract was restructured last year -- greatly reducing his salary -- but it also allowed him to become a free agent this season).
Now that Marinelli has assembled a roster of players that he has mostly brought in himself -- only 14 (of 69) players remain from the previous regime -- there is expected to be much less turnover next season. With almost all of the current dead money coming off the rolls next year, the Lions are expected to be back in excellent shape cap-wise going into the 2009 season.
http://www.mlive.com/lions/stories/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1207704303164910.xml&coll=6