Salary cuts and Dead money

[hooper]

So lots of the ESPN type are talking a lot about 'dead money' thought I'd take a second a explain what that is, and how it could effect how the Bills go about cutting players.

 

When a player gets a new contract there signing bonus are paid out right then, but for salary cap reasons it is pro-rated to be paid though out the length of the contract (up to 5 years). So lets say Byrd gets a 4 year contract with a 16$ mil signing bonus, the bonus would be paid at 4$ mil a year plus his base pay. So if his base pay was 4$ mil a year he would count as 8$ a year towards the salary cap. Now lets say that Byrd pulls a Dez Bryant and goes nuts (please God no) and the Bills want to cut him after a year of the contract is complete. Well this is where June 1st comes into play. If he is cut before June 1st then the base salary will not count against the cap however the remainder of the signing bonus will, and that is what is called dead money. If the player is cut after June 1st then only the pro-rated portion of his signing bonus will be dead money for that year, the rest will count against the year afters cap. Example, if Byrd was cut after June 1st, 4$ mil would count against that seasons cap, and the remaining 8$ would count against the year after. If he was cut before June 1st, the entire 12$ mil would count against the cap for that year and would count as nothing the year after. Regardless of when a player is cut the base salary normally does not count against the cap. That having been said here is a look at some of the Bills who we may want to get cut but the dead money may play a big role in whether or not that happens.

 

Fitz- Dead money= 10mil

Kelsay- Dead money= 800k

M.Anderson- Dead money= 4.5mil

B.Smith- Dead money= 1mil

S,Chandler- Dead money= 625k

[hooper]

I think the biggest question is if the cutting the player is worth the dead money, in the case of kelsay absolutely, maybe chandler, and smith as well. But this is the only reason fitz is still on the team.

[Dibs]

I think the biggest question is if the cutting the player is worth the dead money, in the case of kelsay absolutely, maybe chandler, and smith as well. But this is the only reason fitz is still on the team.

 

Looks to me like you are taking the wrong view of Dead money. Dead money....is dead. It has been spent and does not directly factor into decisions on cutting a player. It is useful only in that it is used to calculate the cap saving(or cost) of cutting a player. It is the cap saving(or cost) that factors into the decision making process, not the Dead money.

 

For example.....if "Player A" was a bad player.....had 10mil in Dead money.....but if cut would save 6mil of cap room.....no team is going to consider the 10mil Dead money as being too high & chose to not cut him because of it. They will cut him to not only save 6mil in cap space.....but also free up a roster spot to hopefully replace with a non-bad player.

 

 

 

BTW......Anderson has 6mil in dead money......he would cost us an additional 1.5mil of cap room if cut.

[Big C]

I'm hoping Anderson performs next season.