explain to me about the "dead money" players

[TexansFan03]

Will we pay them off this year in one lump sum, or do we have to wait out their contract money? Like say Carr had 2 - 5 years left w/ 5mill. would we have to pay in increments to ensure the salary cap stability or do they just usually pay it all off in one year of them leaving?

[Wolf123]

The best site for salary cap is Houstonprofootball. All the dead money you see there comes off next season so we should have about 25 million to play with. David and Domanick were just released this offseason so there sighning bonus will be spread out equaly over the remaining years.

[aj]

Teams are required to take dead money hits either in the same year of the release/cut (if prior to June 1) or they can split the hit over two years if a player is designated as a post June 1 cut. You can't depreciate a dead money hit more than two years. In the Texans case, most of what remains from the big dead money hits is hitting this year.
Next year is looking good, but you always need to look at who's on the current roster and what their remaining contract situation looks like. Guys like Anthony Weaver and Ahman Green will need to play well through the '08 season in order to make their contracts seem palatable from a cap perspective. Even then, their deals are through '10 so there will inevitably be dead money hits from those guys in the future - it's just a matter of how much, and that's dictated by how long and how well they play.

[painekiller]

Teams are required to take dead money hits either in the same year of the release/cut (if prior to June 1) or they can split the hit over two years if a player is designated as a post June 1 cut. You can't depreciate a dead money hit more than two years. In the Texans case, most of what remains from the big dead money hits is hitting this year.
Next year is looking good, but you always need to look at who's on the current roster and what their remaining contract situation looks like. Guys like Anthony Weaver and Ahman Green will need to play well through the '08 season in order to make their contracts seem palatable from a cap perspective. Even then, their deals are through '10 so there will inevitably be dead money hits from those guys in the future - it's just a matter of how much, and that's dictated by how long and how well they play.

And to add, the last bad contracts we have are Weaver (Casserly's last FA signing, truly a bad signing when you draft at #1 the same exact position)$7.2 M left after the season , Travis Johnson $4.1M left after the season, Greenwood $2.8M left after the season, Babin $1.4M left after the season. The money I have showing as being left is the Signing Bonus money that has yet to be allocated, if the player is cut than this is the charge off the team must take.
As you can see after this year we only have one truly bad contract left. Travis Johnson could end up playing to his draft spot and safe himself, Babin could be the pass rush specialist end we use on 3rd and long, his over all cap hit is not really that step.
Taking the cap hits of Williams (Davis) and Carr this year is a smart move, lets see what the young core the team has drafted the last two years can do. Next off-season we will have cap space and a better idea where we are player need wise, then we can be a player in the FA sweepstakes.
Will we cut Weaver next off-season? Not sure. If the DL plays to our hopes than no. But if they do not stop the run and get many more sacks, then I believe Weaver will be cut, Mario get moved to Strongside, and we either draft or sign a weakside DE.
Does Greenwood get cut, more likely, but he had a good year, but not a great year, last year.

[kcwilson]

I believe it started back in the days of Yore....

A general manager that pays out too much money for a player ought to be shot dead.

Thus, dead money.

[BigTimeTexanFan]

Teams are required to take dead money hits either in the same year of the release/cut (if prior to June 1) or they can split the hit over two years if a player is designated as a post June 1 cut. You can't depreciate a dead money hit more than two years. In the Texans case, most of what remains from the big dead money hits is hitting this year.
Next year is looking good, but you always need to look at who's on the current roster and what their remaining contract situation looks like. Guys like Anthony Weaver and Ahman Green will need to play well through the '08 season in order to make their contracts seem palatable from a cap perspective. Even then, their deals are through '10 so there will inevitably be dead money hits from those guys in the future - it's just a matter of how much, and that's dictated by how long and how well they play.

And to add, the last bad contracts we have are Weaver (Casserly's last FA signing, truly a bad signing when you draft at #1 the same exact position)$7.2 M left after the season , Travis Johnson $4.1M left after the season, Greenwood $2.8M left after the season, Babin $1.4M left after the season. The money I have showing as being left is the Signing Bonus money that has yet to be allocated, if the player is cut than this is the charge off the team must take.
As you can see after this year we only have one truly bad contract left. Travis Johnson could end up playing to his draft spot and safe himself, Babin could be the pass rush specialist end we use on 3rd and long, his over all cap hit is not really that step.
Taking the cap hits of Williams (Davis) and Carr this year is a smart move, lets see what the young core the team has drafted the last two years can do. Next off-season we will have cap space and a better idea where we are player need wise, then we can be a player in the FA sweepstakes.
Will we cut Weaver next off-season? Not sure. If the DL plays to our hopes than no. But if they do not stop the run and get many more sacks, then I believe Weaver will be cut, Mario get moved to Strongside, and we either draft or sign a weakside DE.
Does Greenwood get cut, more likely, but he had a good year, but not a great year, last year.

Greenwood is not that expesive, and considering our lack of depth at linebacker, I don't think we cut him for the sake of cutting him. Weaver is a solid player for our defense. He is overpaid, but again unless we can replace him with someone equal or better I can't see us cutting him either. Babin's contract isn't that bad and he led our D in sacks as a backup while transfering back to end. Now T. Johnson is definately on the bubble. If he doesn't step it up in a big way he needs to go.

[painekiller]

BigTimeTexanFan, the problem with Weaver is he plays in the same spots as your two last 1st rounders play. Williams is a true Strongside DE, which is where Weaver is playing now. And Okoye is the undertackle which is the other position Weaver can play. So what you end up with is a young player playing out of his best position.
The reason Mario was moved around last year had some of this as the reason. Mario and Babin/Peek were the better pass rushers, but Mario is better suited to rush against the RT, and Babin/Peek against the LT. So to get Weaver, who is not a pass rusher in the line up, where do you play him? Undertackle. Well this April we drafted an Undertackle in Okoye.
I see a player we are spending a huge amount of money on and we are not getting the results. Casserly paid Weaver like you would pay a pass rusher, like it or not run stopper are not paid like sack artist. It was just like Casserly to pay a guy much more than he was worth, he paid Todd Wade a RT and RT only, LT money. There is a pattern here.
Even if we had not drafted Williams, I am saying we overpaid for Weaver to be a run stopping DE, He is making $4.9M per year. I think that money could be better spent. BTW that is more than Williams and Babin make combined.
Greenwood is making $4.66 M per year, that is way to much for what he brings to the table. Casserly was a joke of a GM and his contracts show it.

[BigTimeTexanFan]

No argument here about Casserly. I said Weaver is overpaid, but my point is cutting a player because an ex G.M. overpaid him is not the solution unless we are able to replace him with someone who can perform equal to or greater than him. Same goes for any other position. I'm all for finding someone cheaper as long as we are not regressing in performance at that position. Hopefully with our new front office we can do a better job of aquiring players and paying them closer to what their performance necessitates.

[Wolf123]

Lets see how mario williams does this year going against the LT and see where it gets us. You forget that there are advantages for having mario on the right side. His strenght will be to much for alot of LT. If you remember the Jets game last year mario started on the right side because they wanted his strenght against D'brick. Mario consistantly push him into the backfield on every type of play. This lineup may hurt us alittle rushing the passer but the advantages on 1st and 2nd down I think outway the negatives.