Franchised/Released/Signed/Traded--2008

[QB Eagles]

"I'll do everything that's within my power to not be with this organization." - Lance Briggs, March 2007

Apparently it's not within his power to turn down $36 million.

[PhillyGirl]

Bears | Briggs re-signs with team
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:25:44 -0800

Brad Biggs, of the Chicago Sun-Times, reports the Chicago Bears have re-signed free-agent LB Lance Briggs (Bears) to a six-year contract worth $36 million.

WOW. Just WOW. I can't believe he resigned there.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Apparently Washingto went after him too, but he chose to stay there.

The Bears would have been dumb as shtein to let him get away. They have a very good trio of LBs.

But it is shocking to see him stick around after he was all butt hurt last year.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Super-ghay:  Randy Moss and Daunte Culpepper want to play together

[Magical_Retard]

right now the bears possibly have the worst WR corps in the league. berrian and muhammed are gone.

i hear they are interested in b. johnson from the cardinals though.

[Zanshin]

yeah, but they make up for that with their terrible QB situation.

[QB Eagles]

Well, no point in paying for decent WRs when you've got Orton or Grossman throwing to 'em.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Maybe they should look into that Culpepper/Moss deal!

[QB Eagles]

Michael Turner, who has been the Chargers' insurance policy for LaDainian Tomlinson, agreed to a six-year, $34.5 million contract with the Falcons, with $15 million guaranteed, a source told ESPN.com's Michael Smith.

[BigEd76]

The Gay/McCray duo signs with New Orleans

[Eagaholic]

Bears | Briggs re-signs with team
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 18:25:44 -0800

Brad Biggs, of the Chicago Sun-Times, reports the Chicago Bears have re-signed free-agent LB Lance Briggs (Bears) to a six-year contract worth $36 million.

WOW. Just WOW. I can't believe he resigned there.

I believe it. The Bears saw right through his "I'll never play another snap here" schtick that Rosenhaus parades his high profile players through. He came back with his tail between his legs last year then wrapped his Lamborghini around a streetlight and fled to avoid a DUI. Basically in a contract year. Unless I'm washington or oakland that's not a player I'm throwing $7 million a year at.

[SD_Eagle5]

Decent summary of how the cap works and how money is carried over to the next years cap:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writ...ures/index.html

Creative enterprise
Vikings, Eagles rule roost of salary-cap manipulation
Posted: Saturday March 1, 2008 2:09AM; Updated: Saturday March 1, 2008 11:48PM

It's a regulation buried deep in the NFL's Collective Bargaining Agreement, a regulation so obscure it doesn't even have a name.Other than Article XXIV, Section 7, section ii, paragraph c, part (iii).

Here's what it says:

At the end of a season, if performance bonuses previously included in a Team's Team Salary but not actually earned exceed performance bonuses actually earned but not previously included in Team Salary, an amount shall be added to the Team's Salary Cap for the next League Year equaling the amount, if any, by which such overage exceeds the Team's Room under the Salary Cap at the end of a season.

This dizzylingy obtuse regulation is unwittingly having a profound effect on the NFL's economic landscape.

The level playing field the NFL's salary cap supposedly created?

It's a myth.

Because of a variety of complicated tricks that savvy NFL team officials have figured out, teams can manipulate their salary cap to the point where their cap figure winds up millions of dollars higher than the teams they're competing with.

The Vikings and Lions are both in the NFC North. Both have unadjusted cap figures of $116,729,000, like all 32 NFL teams.

Yet the Vikings' 2008 cap figure exceeds $135 million, and the Lions' adjusted figure is more than $111 million.

So the Vikings this offseason will have $20 million more than one of their division rivals to pay free agents and re-sign their own players. That's an 18 percent difference, and it demonstrates just how much of a difference shrewd cap management can make.

The NFL salary cap is a fluid number. Although the unadjusted cap number for all 32 teams is identical, the real numbers actually vary greatly.

Here's why.

Teams need room to make room. The way the NFL's Collective Bargaining Agreement works, the more flexibility a team has, the easier it is to gain future flexibility. So teams that find themselves in cap trouble are often stuck there for years. And teams that stay out of cap trouble can tweak contracts in certain ways that generate huge cap advantages in later years.

That's where the above CBA trick comes into play.

Teams with significant cap space late in a season can manipulate the following year's cap by writing likely-to-be-earned incentive bonuses into contracts that, in reality, have zero chance of being earned.

Such incentives count against a team's cap the year they're written, but if they're not met -- and teams have ways of making sure they're not met -- the team is then credited the amount of the bonuses against the following year's cap.According to figures distributed to each NFL team this week, 24 of the 32 NFL teams were given upward cap adjustments for 2008, six teams were given downward cap adjustments (thanks to conventional incentives that were met) and two teams had no adjustments.

Of the 24 teams that gained more room under the cap, seven tacked on at least $10 million, a group led by the Vikings ($18,432,577), Eagles ($14,087,449), Buccaneers ($13,306,634), Bills ($12,713,009) and Browns ($12,633,503).

Not coincidentally, the Eagles, Vikings, Bills and Browns all made a splash on the first day of free agency.

The Vikings signed safety Madieu Williams to a six-year, $33 million contract; the Eagles signed Asante Samuel to a six-year, $57 million deal, the Bills acquired linebacker Kawika Mitchell and signed him to a five-year, $17.5 million deal; and the Browns traded for defensive tackle Corey Williams and gave him a deal including nearly $20 in guaranteed components.

What team lost the most money via cap adjustments? The Lions. They have the lowest adjusted cap in the league in 2008 -- their $111,380,935 figure actually coming out $5,348,065 below the unadjusted cap figure.

Does that surprise anybody?

2008 Salary Cap FiguresTeamAdjustmentsAdjusted CapArizona Cardinals$0$116,729,000Atlanta Falcons($350,574)$116,378,426Baltimore Ravens$2,532,265$119,261,265Buffalo Bills$12,713,009$129,442,009Carolina Panthers$8,926,802$125,655,802Chicago Bears$726,231$117,455,231Cincinnati Bengals$0$116,729,000Cleveland Browns$12,633,503$129,362,503Dallas Cowboys$998,443$117,727,443Denver Broncos$660,000$117,389,000Detroit Lions($5,348,065)$111,380,935Green Bay Packers$9,430,581$126,159,581Houston Texans($2,207,869)$114,521,131Indianapolis Colts$6,501,115$123,230,115Jacksonville Jaguars$11,920,898$128,649,898Kansas City Chiefs$11,658,373$128,387,373Miami Dolphins$3,944,997$120,673,997Minnesota Vikings$18,432,577$135,161,577New England Patriots$2,596,078$119,325,078New Orleans Saints$8,017,003$124,746,003New York Giants($3,096,512)$113,632,488New York Jets$5,052,789$121,781,789Oakland Raiders$4,340,722$121,069,722Philadelphia Eagles$14,087,449$130,816,449Pittsburgh Steelers($1,910,774)$114,818,226San Diego Chargers($597,647)$116,131,353San Francisco 49ers$2,310,787$119,039,787Seattle Seahawks$7,386,108$124,115,108St. Louis Rams$632,320$117,361,320Tampa Bay Buccaneers$13,306,634$130,035,634Tennessee Titans$5,491,147$122,220,147Washington taterskins$1,821,260$118,550,260
• 2008 unadjusted salary cap is $116,729,000
• Numbers in parentheses are negative cap adjustments

[PhillyPhreak54]

Crumpler goes to Tennessee

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

He'll feel right at home being the only viable target for a run-first QB.

[QB Eagles]

Crumpler goes to Tennessee

I wonder if they plan on using Bo Scaife as an H-back now.