Roy Williams staying or going?
11:47 AM Fri, Jan 25, 2008
Todd Archer
Since the season ended, I've received a ton of e-mails about Roy Williams' future with the Cowboys.
Some of you have come up with wild trades, which I'll ignore. Why would a team trade want to trade for him? They see the same tape you do. They see his shortcomings and wouldn't want to take on his contract, so forget about a trade, especially to Miami for the No. 1 pick. Yes, somebody asked me that.
But what happens if the Cowboys release Williams? I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm not saying the Cowboys have even discussed the possibility. I'm just putting out a huge "IF," as it relates to the salary cap.
According to NFLPA figures, Williams is scheduled to count $6.667 million against the cap in 2008. If the Cowboys chose to cut him, they would have to take on $7.387 million of proration from his $11.1 million signing bonus, so the move would cost them $720,000 against the cap.
Now, they could choose to designate Williams a June 1 cap casualty and spread the hit over two years. If they were to do that - and remember this is IF - then they would take a proration hit of $2.947 million this year, saving them $3.7 million against the cap in 2008. Here's the rub: the remaining $4.4 million of the proration would hit the cap in 2009.
