ASK THE CAP DOCTOR
Q. I am always interested in the allocation of the cap to positions, either individual ones or groupings (i.e., running backs of all types, the kicking trio). Taking it one step further, what is the breakdown of the distribution of the cap between Offense/Defense; and if there are any players that are pure ST-ers, even though they may otherwise be designated as Offense or Defense.
ANSWER: I generally don’t get too caught up in the Cap allocation between the offense and the defense because that is often too dependent on where certain players are in the course of their contracts. For instance, if your QB is still playing under his rookie deal, your QB costs – and your offense totals in general – are going to be somewhat minimized. Similarly, players in the early years of their contracts are going to have lesser Cap numbers than players playing under the later years of their contracts.
A perfect example of this would be the Ravens’ 2014 offseason. The numbers for the offense were much lower than for the defense, but mainly because Flacco was in the 2nd year of his new contract – even though he had just been paid $51M over the prior year. Similarly, Eugene Monroe and Dennis Pitta had just been re-signed and both had very low Cap numbers ($3.2M), even though they had both just received Signing Bonuses of $11M. On the defensive side, a lot of players were in the later years of their deals, chiefly DT Haloti Ngata ($16M Cap number) and LB Terrell Suggs ($12.4M Cap number).
So, while the 2014 Cap numbers for the defense were much higher, it was really an apple and oranges comparison and didn’t really give a true representation of the amount of money that was actually invested in the offense and the defense.
Q. Why are Ravens seemingly always left with so much “dead money” almost every year? Am I wrong on this?
ANSWER: Right now, the Ravens only have around $200K in dead money heading into 2016. That number will certainly go up as the new league year approaches (March 9th) and the team begins releasing players to clear Cap space. That said, barring a decision by the Ravens’ brass to truly purge the roster, I wouldn’t expect 2016 to look anything like 2015.
Last season, most teams had between $10-15M in dead money after final cutdowns in early September. That’s a pretty reasonable, customary amount of dead money for a team to carry. Needless to say, the Ravens were much higher, but that largely had to do with the Ray Rice situation. In most years, they are much more in line with the league average.
Q. Why don’t the Ravens include roster bonuses in contracts, as others (NE/GB) do? Impact to SC?
ANSWER: The Ravens have used Roster Bonuses in many of their deals, but because they have been tight against the Cap pretty much every year since 2011, most of the roster bonuses they’ve recently used have been relatively minor in scope.
Roster Bonuses are paid to a player on a certain date if the player is on the team’s roster as of that date, but, unlike Signing Bonuses, a Roster Bonus counts 100% against the Salary Cap for that year and is not prorated (as Signing Bonuses are). Teams with gobs of Cap space will often use Roster Bonuses in place of or in conjunction with a Signing Bonus to try and get a higher Cap number early in the contract and reduce the Signing Bonus and thus the yearly bonus prorations that can create dead money down the road.
I would think the Ravens would like to use this approach more, but until they are able to clean up their Cap, it’s a method that is out of their reach.
I think it would also be wise for the Ravens to incorporate the use of game day active roster bonuses in some of their deals in the future. Gameday active roster bonuses are only paid if the player is on the game day active 46-man roster for any given week (i.e. healthy enough to play).
This is a great tool to use when a team has a player coming off of an injury or when asking a player to take a pay cut, through which the player is given the opportunity to earn some of that money back. These bonuses can often allow the team to keep a player’s salary and Cap number relatively low, but still compensate the player if he stays healthy and earns a place on the game day active roster. Gameday roster bonuses will be treated as either LTBE or NLTBE (or often, both) incentives depending on how many games the player played in during the prior year.
While I don’t expect it to happen, this would be a way to structure a renegotiated deal with TE Dennis Pitta if he proves to be able to return and play and the Ravens want to give him that chance here in Baltimore. A new deal could substantially reduce his $5M base salary and replace much of that with game day active roster bonuses that would, for example, pay him $100K per game that he is on the 46-man roster. That would allow Pitta to make $1.6M if he was healthy enough to play in all 16 games.
Such a maneuver would allow the Ravens to reduce Pitta’s $7.2M Cap hit for 2016 to a more palatable number and, by keeping him through 2016 (instead of releasing him in 2016), reduce the amount of dead money (down to $4.4M) that they will have to deal with in the future.
Again, not expecting that to happen, but would be an option if Pitta’s recovery takes a more positive turn.
Q. Why wouldn’t the Ravens franchise KO as a guard and play him at tackle vs signing a mid level tackle?
ANSWER: There’s no Franchise tag just for Guards as the entire offensive line (OT, G, C) is calculated together for Franchise Tag purposes. As such, with the highest paid OTs making more than the highest paid Guards (or Centers, for that matter), the Franchise Tag calculation is dominated by the contracts of OTs. As such, using the Franchise Tag on KO, and planning to play him as a Guard, does not make a lot of sense from a Cap perspective. Most teams aren’t going to want to pay a Guard like an OT. So, if the Ravens were to unexpectedly use the Franchise Tag on KO later this month, I would think that that would be a strong signal that they would be planning to play him at OT and not as a Guard – and would likely portend the end of Eugene Monroe’s career in Baltimore.
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