Washington signs Washington: Let's Play Name the Signing Bonus

[Pyser]

ok, the redskins have signed marcus washington from indy.

before any numbers come out (and if they have, you cant look!), lets guess the signing bonus and total money amount. he signed for 6 years, by the way.

ill start.

signing bonus - 6 mil
total amount - 24 mil

these are just guesses, but danny boy has been paying a lot...

[Pyser]

well, that game sucked, i just looked at espn, and my numbers were just about right. oh well.

didnt think the numbers would come out that quick.

[cthomer5000]

thanks for ruining it for me. I was going to guess an 8 million bonus, 25 million dollar deal.

[Desnudo]

Someone please explain to me how Washington stays under the cap every year. It seems like their top five players alone hit the cap.

[JAG]

I was going to answer "Too much."

[SegRat]

Someone please explain to me how Washington stays under the cap every year. It seems like their top five players alone hit the cap.

I have wanted to know the same thing. Every year they hand out all these big contracts. Dan Snyder wouldnt do nearly as well with Front Office Football...He would be in cap hell!!!

[Franklinnoble]

Someone please explain to me how Washington stays under the cap every year. It seems like their top five players alone hit the cap.

The salary cap is easy to beat if you have an owner that is willing to pay large signing bonuses on a regular basis.

[Bee]

I'm finding it somewhat funny to hear all the "experts" on TV talk about how the Redskins will be in cap hell in 2 years. That's the same thing they said when the Redskins signed Deion, Bruce Smith, Mark Carrier, etc and that never materialized.

They may not be able to make it to the playoffs, but the Redskins sure are entertaining in the offseason.

[AgPete]

I'm finding it somewhat funny to hear all the "experts" on TV talk about how the Redskins will be in cap hell in 2 years. That's the same thing they said when the Redskins signed Deion, Bruce Smith, Mark Carrier, etc and that never materialized.

They may not be able to make it to the playoffs, but the Redskins sure are entertaining in the offseason.

I hope the Cowboys aren't taking this lightly. I'm scared to death of what Gibbs may do. I think the Eagles are too because of their Kearse signing. The NFC East is going to be an incredible division this year. Tom Coughlin ain't no slouch either. We're back to the days when the NFC East dominated the NFL.

[Desnudo]

Except that none of the teams have proven they can dominate yet. I'd get worried if Snyder sold the Redskins and Parcells found a QB and RB.

[Craptacular]

I'm finding it somewhat funny to hear all the "experts" on TV talk about how the Redskins will be in cap hell in 2 years. That's the same thing they said when the Redskins signed Deion, Bruce Smith, Mark Carrier, etc and that never materialized.

They may not be able to make it to the playoffs, but the Redskins sure are entertaining in the offseason.

Well, they're just going to have to be careful with who they cut and when. As usual, I'm sure the salaries are backloaded, so you expect some of these players to be cut early. However, that's when the remaining amortization of the signing bonus comes in. C'mon, does anyone expect Brunell to play 6 more years in Washington??

Based on what I've seen, here is how much each of the five newest Redskins' signing bonuses will cost in cap dollars per year. Remember, these are just the signing bonuses .... no roster bonuses, salaries, etc.

Griffin: $1.33 mill for 6 years
Springs: $1.67 mill for 6 years
Portis: $2.83 mill for 6 years
Washington: $1.17 mill for 6 years
Brunell: $1.42 mill for 6 years

That's almost $8.5 mill per year in bonus amortization just for those 5 players. They re-did Arrington's contract to make it more cap-friendly this year (and hence less cap friendly in future years), and they're going to take a dead money hit whenever they release Trotter. If they release Trotter in June, I believe it would only cost them $1.14 mill in dead money this year, but over $4.5 mill next year. The bonuses from Coles and Samuels each cost them about $2 mill a year.

I'd love to see these contracts in more detail to see how the roster bonuses and salaries are paid out. As I said before, you have to figure many of these are backloaded, which means players will get cut before six years is up. The Redskins are either going to have to spread them out, or be willing to take massive hits for a year or two.

[Peregrine]

Someone please explain to me how Washington stays under the cap every year. It seems like their top five players alone hit the cap.

As I said to a coworker yesterday "The Redskins' salary cap guy must have the most interesting "cap guy" job in the whole NFL. Each year is a whole restructuring, getting rid of players, bringing in players. They're wholesale while most NFL clubs are retail."

[stevew]

So already, before the skins have played 1 down, they have already spent 49 million dollars. Impressive.

[Travis]

For the Washington fans, a couple of questions.

1) What is the likelyhood of Trotter getting released during the offseason?
2) If above >= very likely, what was his playing level like last year? I know he was great in Philly, but didn't hear nearly as much about him last year. With the Seahawks in dire need of a MLB, I'm just wondering if I should even bother pipe dreaming about this.