Figuring Shaun Alexander's Salary Cap Number

by John Morgan on Mar 5, 2008 10:15 AM PST in Analysis

I know a lot of people are interested in the effect of cutting Alexander, so here's my best attempt to explain it. Shaun signed an 8 year contract in 2006. Within it, Seattle offered Shaun an 11.5 million dollar signing bonus. Now, for the purposes of the cap, that money is spread evenly over all 8 years, 1.4375 million a year. Seattle has paid out 2 years worth of that bonus: 2.875 million, and has 6 more years to pay. If Alexander is cut, that entire remaining bonus is accelerated to the cap year of the cut: 8.625 million. Alexander's cap number for 2008 is only 7.35 million, so the Hawks would be paying more for Alexander to not play than to play. It might be worth it. Nevertheless, Seattle can cut Alexander after June 1st (or simply mark him as a June 1st cut) and split that hit over two seasons. In the first season, Alexander's cap hit from his bonus will be the same: 1.4375, but the rest will be accelerated to 2009 totaling a whopping 7.1875 against the already strapped 2009 cap. That's unfeasible. Seattle is in a better cap situation this year than next, so it makes no sense to designate him a June 1st cut. That's some serious dead money and would likely cost Seattle some serious talent. So, what makes sense for Seattle is to either cut him now, take the hit (if they can) on this year's cap and be done with it, or wait until next offseason and designate him a June 1st cut then. The latter would save Seattle 7 million much needed cap dollars in 2009, and with only 5 years remaining on the contract, only count 5.75 million against the 2010, sure to be larger, cap. I could be missing something; I don't have his contract in front of me, but it fits what I know about the cap and Tim Ruskell's decision not to cut or even consider cutting Alexander. So there you go, I hope this clears things up a bit. Barring a trade, Alexander is likely to be a Hawk next year. Hooray.

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I'm still confused

about the money pushed forward from the Womack deal. Is Ruskell not acknowledging that money because it puts him in a better negotiating position with Tru and other free agents? What's the deal?

http://lybberty.com/

by skijake1 on Mar 5, 2008 11:47 AM PST 0 recs

I think, even with that money, Seattle is up...

against it. I assume they will wait until talks with Trufant are resolved before doing much else. Figure, (9.5 (initial) + 7.4 (Womack) + 2 (Ashworth)) - (9.5 (Tru) + 2.8 (Wahle) + Around 3 (Duckett) and .65 (Putizer)) and you're only left with about 3 million. Seattle still needs to sign draft picks, too. Realistically, cutting Alexander would put Seattle at or near exceeding the cap.

by John Morgan on Mar 5, 2008 12:46 PM PST up 0 recs

Healthy Scratch.

by puerto on Mar 5, 2008 2:12 PM PST 0 recs

Or maybe special teamer/gunner

by puerto on Mar 5, 2008 2:13 PM PST 0 recs

Shaun's bonus is prorated over 5 years, not all 8

It was a rule put in with the re-negotiated CBA:
http://www.askthecommish.com/salarycap/faq.asp (question 1.7e)

IIRC, Shaun's contract is basically structured into two parts - the first 5 years with the $11.5M bonus, and then the last 3 years contain seperate roster bonuses.

So that leaves $6.9M of prorated bonus left to deal with, rather than $8.6M, and changes the math a bit (I'm using salary #'s from rotowrold.com):

Release Shaun now:
$6.9M bonus - $4.475M salary = $2.425 "dead cap" in '08

Release Shaun as "post June 1":
$2.3M bonus - $4.475M salary = $2.175 cap room created in '08. $4.6M of "dead cap" to handle in '09 (but Shaun's salary would've been $5.56M, so that can also be looked at as about $1.04M "saved")

Release Shaun in '09:
$4.6M bonus - $5.56M salary = $1.04M cap room created.

Release Shaun as "post June 1" in '09:
$2.3 - $5.56M salary = $3.2M cap room '09. $2.3M "dead cap" to deal with in '10 (when Shaun's salary would've been $6.65M)
___

So basically, IMO, Shaun's fair game to be cut at any point. The only question is if the team wants to make it a June 1, or "swallow their medicine" and take the entire $2.425 cap hit now .... which makes sense, since they're already against the wall and aren't that active in FA anyway.

I think as soon as either Tru's cap # is reduced with a long-term deal or the team comes out of the first day of the draft with an RB - Shaun's gone.

by jteckmann on Mar 5, 2008 4:39 PM PST 0 recs

Thanks for the correction.

by John Morgan on Mar 5, 2008 5:02 PM PST up 0 recs

No prob.

I'm not sure my numbers are accurate - since it's so hard to get concrete cap/contract info. For all I know, there could be some weird bonus/clause in the deal that throws all the numbers off.

John Clayton's usually pretty knowledgable about the cap stuff, and every time I hear him on KJR, he seems to think releasing Shaun soon isn't a possibility - so what do I know?

But this jives with what I heard back in '06. When Shaun re-upped, IIRC, a lot of guys like Sando & Clayton said to ignore the 8 year part - it was basically a 5 year deal that assumed Shaun would stay productive for 2-3 more years and was structured in such a way to give the 'Hawks an out after that point.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.

by jteckmann on Mar 5, 2008 5:44 PM PST 0 recs

As I recall

what they said was that after three years, we could cut him without causing any problems to the cap. The numbers make my head hurt, but from what I remember hearing I'm pretty sure we need to wait one more year, unless they decide they can just take all the cap hit in '08.

by The Ancient Mariner on Mar 5, 2008 6:30 PM PST up 0 recs

I messed up

On another message board, someone showed me a critical error I made.

For the '08 "cut him now" figures, I allocated the $2.3M wrong, since it's on the books no matter what.

If Shaun is on the team in '08: $2.3 bonus + $4.475 salary = $6.775 Total Cap Hit.

If Shaun is cut now: $2.3 bonus + $4.6 remaining bonus = $6.9M Cap Hit.

So for practical purposes, it costs the team $125K to cut him this year, without designating him a June 1 cut.

But, after looking around, I think I'm right that the bonus is prorated over 5 years. Danny O'Neil at the Times also uses the $2.3 number.
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/seahawks/2008/01/15/dollars_and_sen_1/

by jteckmann on Mar 5, 2008 7:17 PM PST 0 recs

So basically...

If the team considers Alexander useless this and next year and has no real need for cap space this year, but would love a full 5-6 million next year, then they should cut him before June 1st.

Otherwise if they want to save a few bucks this year and are willing to eat the rest next year, designate him a June 1st cut...

I don't see how keeping him on the squad this year makes any sense given jteckmann and O'neil's post. That 4-6 million spent on Alexander next year through one cap hit or another could be better spent elsewhere. I say cut him now if nobody will trade for him.

by Dobbs on Mar 6, 2008 9:21 AM PST up 0 recs