Beef said:

They going to have Von Miller for an entire season with Ware on the other side, who will certainly be playing with a huge chip on his shoulder. I won't be surprised if Ware puts up a ton of sacks.

If Denver locks down/re-signs their FA receivers and Knowshon, they're going to be really good again.

The Hawks showed the blueprint. Attack their receivers and their offense slows. If they don't find balance on the run game their offense will hinder them.

Cap numbers for Asamoah:
$2.8 mil
$4.3 mil
$5.3 mil
$5.05 mil
$5.05 mil

wasn't weeden one of their picks from us in the JJ trade? I'm SO glad I'm not a browns fan

Something I wanted to be seen on the Tony G contract front, since it seems some are angry about it.

******

There are a lot of small rules that impact the salary cap, but there's two major rules of thumb that have to be considered. The basic salary cap hit for any given year is based on the signing bonus a player usually gets at the start of their contracts, plus the actual salary the player is supposed to make that year. Signing bonuses, both ones that are made at the beginning of a contract and "roster bonuses" that are made during certain checkpoints, are prorated over the remaining duration of the contract. This means that a $10 million signing bonus on a 5 year deal comes with a $2 million cap hit every year of the deal, plus the cap hit from the annual salary.

How does this affect Tony's cap hit? Before last season, Tony got a 2-year, $14 million contract. Like most GMs, Dimitroff knows how to work the salary cap. Rather than splitting up the $14 million into two $7 million cap hits, they agreed to a $3.5 million signing bonus and a $3.5 million salary for 2013, plus a $7 million salary in 2014. The cap hits for 2013 and 2014 thus looked like this:

**2013:** ($3.5 million signing bonus)/(2 years on contract) + $3.5 million salary = **$5.25 million cap hit**

**2014:** ($3.5 million signing bonus)/(2 years on contract) + $7 million salary = **$8.75 million cap hit.**

When a player is released, the team is relieved of having to pay the player's salary and any roster bonuses that may become due after that date. However, **bonus prorations still count towards the cap**. This is what is commonly referred to as "dead money" because you're effectively paying for nothing, as the player is no longer on your roster. For salary cap purposes, when a player retires, it is the **same as if they were released** (Source 1) / (Source 2). Thus, Tony's new 2014 cap hit is calculated as so:

**2014:** ($3.5 million signing bonus)/(2 years on contract) = **$1.75 million**

The Falcons were on the hook for paying this money regardless whether Tony were released, traded, or if he retired. Think of it as part of the 2013 fee for him; we paid him $7 million last season, so by the end of the contract we had to pay up $7 million in cap hit somehow ($5.25 in 2013, $1.75 in 2014). Dimitroff set up this contract with the full expectation that Tony would never play this season, and structured it to alleviate some of the cap pressure the Falcons had last season.

Drathdon said:

The Falcons were on the hook for paying this money regardless whether Tony were released, traded, or if he retired. Think of it as part of the 2013 fee for him; we paid him $7 million last season, so by the end of the contract we had to pay up $7 million in cap hit somehow ($5.25 in 2013, $1.75 in 2014). Dimitroff set up this contract with the full expectation that Tony would never play this season, and structured it to alleviate some of the cap pressure the Falcons had last season.

Don't think anyone here ever disputed that

Sproles traded to Eagles :-L

Drathdon said:

@Matt_Bryant3:

2014-03-12 16:56:59 UTC

Just saw the new guys at Flowery Branch. Who wants to play tug of war?

It's official.... Bryant is a communist.

It's Tug-O-War here in the South.

Am I the only person watching these really good left tackles going places in free agency and furious that we are stuck with Sam Baker? No matter what we do at RT we still have an injured sieve in Baker at LT.

I wonder what TD is thinking. Made a splash to kick off free agency and now... silence

mdrake34 said:

Can't sign em all.

Not all, but some would be sufficient