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Talking Texans salary cap with Andrew Brandt of National Football Post
Todays blog guest is Andrew Brandt, president of National Football Post and NFL business analyst for ESPN. You can find his NFP columns here, and his Twitter is @adbrandt.
Just asked him a few questions about the Texans salary cap situation to just get another voice in the mix:
Difficult for many to get an accurate view of different teams salary cap situations based on public information. What is the Texans current situation?
We still do not know where the Cap will land for 2012 and the amount of space teams will have. At last check the Texans had about 5M of room assuming a flat Cap of around 120M, although that was with 47 players under contract. It appears they will be snug against the Cap depending on what they do with other high-priced players.
The Texans have publicly stated they want their free agents back. So far, the players have expressed the intention of wanting to be with the team and have acted in ways consistent with that. Even if the team thinks this is possible, what are the logistically possible ways if any of structuring things so that actually happens? What are the downsides to these approaches if any.
There is always the balance for teams of playing for the present and for the future. Without dealing with the Texans specifically, if teams are only worried about the short term, it is always possible for teams to spend what they wish and push out ramifications. That philosophy usually leads to long-term issues of releasing players and dead money cluttering their Cap.
I have always been a believer in a pay as you go strategy, not building up large charges for the future that will affect the product down the road.
At a minimum, fans want obtain fair value for Mario Williams if he leave the Texans. How would that best be structured, and what would be fair value for him?
Not exactly sure what you mean here. If a player is a UFA, the team receives no value for him if he leaves other than a potential compensatory draft pick in 2013 somewhere in the mid-to-late rounds. If the team wants to sign him, that is a negotiation based on comparable players and contracts. If the team wants to place the Franchise Tag on him, that will require a substantial one-year tender that will count on the Cap and allow him to sign the contract immediately and have it become guaranteed.
Read different publicly reported cap numbers for Mario Williams. The one that seems to be right is the number 120% of his 13.8 million salary, which would be $16.56 million. So this number is too high to franchise for purpose of trade?
Sounds high to just be a placeholder to trade, especially with Cap concerns.
Other teams have more salary cap space than the Texans. In a National Football Post article, you explained how the Texans could try to keep Arian Foster: The risks of a restricted tender, and the more certain approach of franchising him. What sort of multi-year deal would be realistic for him given the Texans current salary cap situation?
If the two sides do enter negotiations, there will be the usual parry about what are the appropriate parameters, certainly with discussion of contracts such as Chris Johnson, DeAngelo Williams, Stephen Jackson, Maurice Jone-Drew and others. It will be interesting to see what goes on with similar situations in Baltimore (Rice) and Chicago (Forte).
Thanks to Andrew for his time.
Thanks to Andrew for confirming things you probably already know that the Texans are going to have great challenges re-signing their free agents. I specifically talked about Williams and Foster, but theres players like center Chris Myers, and some other contracts coming down the road that may be issues.
I think that given their preferences, Mario Williams and Arian Foster would prefer to stay with this team and this staff. But I also think that Vonta Leach would have preferred to stay a Texan too, but more money could be found elsewhere at another competitive team.
Fortunately, this year is a more normal year than last. That the draft comes after when free agent decisions are made.
Given cap considerations, this may be one of those years where the best free agent acquisitions are keeping the players you can keep at sane numbers, and then filling your needs with drafted players. Never like the uncertainty of this time of year.
http://blog.chron.com/texanschick/2...with-andrew-brandt-of-national-football-post/
Todays blog guest is Andrew Brandt, president of National Football Post and NFL business analyst for ESPN. You can find his NFP columns here, and his Twitter is @adbrandt.
Just asked him a few questions about the Texans salary cap situation to just get another voice in the mix:
Difficult for many to get an accurate view of different teams salary cap situations based on public information. What is the Texans current situation?
We still do not know where the Cap will land for 2012 and the amount of space teams will have. At last check the Texans had about 5M of room assuming a flat Cap of around 120M, although that was with 47 players under contract. It appears they will be snug against the Cap depending on what they do with other high-priced players.
The Texans have publicly stated they want their free agents back. So far, the players have expressed the intention of wanting to be with the team and have acted in ways consistent with that. Even if the team thinks this is possible, what are the logistically possible ways if any of structuring things so that actually happens? What are the downsides to these approaches if any.
There is always the balance for teams of playing for the present and for the future. Without dealing with the Texans specifically, if teams are only worried about the short term, it is always possible for teams to spend what they wish and push out ramifications. That philosophy usually leads to long-term issues of releasing players and dead money cluttering their Cap.
I have always been a believer in a pay as you go strategy, not building up large charges for the future that will affect the product down the road.
At a minimum, fans want obtain fair value for Mario Williams if he leave the Texans. How would that best be structured, and what would be fair value for him?
Not exactly sure what you mean here. If a player is a UFA, the team receives no value for him if he leaves other than a potential compensatory draft pick in 2013 somewhere in the mid-to-late rounds. If the team wants to sign him, that is a negotiation based on comparable players and contracts. If the team wants to place the Franchise Tag on him, that will require a substantial one-year tender that will count on the Cap and allow him to sign the contract immediately and have it become guaranteed.
Read different publicly reported cap numbers for Mario Williams. The one that seems to be right is the number 120% of his 13.8 million salary, which would be $16.56 million. So this number is too high to franchise for purpose of trade?
Sounds high to just be a placeholder to trade, especially with Cap concerns.
Other teams have more salary cap space than the Texans. In a National Football Post article, you explained how the Texans could try to keep Arian Foster: The risks of a restricted tender, and the more certain approach of franchising him. What sort of multi-year deal would be realistic for him given the Texans current salary cap situation?
If the two sides do enter negotiations, there will be the usual parry about what are the appropriate parameters, certainly with discussion of contracts such as Chris Johnson, DeAngelo Williams, Stephen Jackson, Maurice Jone-Drew and others. It will be interesting to see what goes on with similar situations in Baltimore (Rice) and Chicago (Forte).
Thanks to Andrew for his time.
Thanks to Andrew for confirming things you probably already know that the Texans are going to have great challenges re-signing their free agents. I specifically talked about Williams and Foster, but theres players like center Chris Myers, and some other contracts coming down the road that may be issues.
I think that given their preferences, Mario Williams and Arian Foster would prefer to stay with this team and this staff. But I also think that Vonta Leach would have preferred to stay a Texan too, but more money could be found elsewhere at another competitive team.
Fortunately, this year is a more normal year than last. That the draft comes after when free agent decisions are made.
Given cap considerations, this may be one of those years where the best free agent acquisitions are keeping the players you can keep at sane numbers, and then filling your needs with drafted players. Never like the uncertainty of this time of year.
http://blog.chron.com/texanschick/2...with-andrew-brandt-of-national-football-post/
