kevin kolb

Report: Josh Freeman to Seek Trade

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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According to CBS Sports Jason LaCanfora Buccaneers starting QB Josh Freeman is expected to ask the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a trade. Freeman has struggled to earn the confidence of his head coach and there seemed to be a growing rift following the week 1 loss to the New York Jets in which Freeman struggled.

Asking for a trade during the season for a starting QB is pretty much unheard of in the NFL. The Bengals Carson Palmer had looked for a trade or his outright release from the Cincinnati Bengals in 2011, but that process began before the season.  Palmer had realized the Bengals were moving in a different direction with the drafting of Andy Dalton in the 2nd round which led to Palmer retiring for a brief period in 2011. Eventually the Oakland Raiders did trade for Palmer during the season when starter Jason Campbell was injured.  Freeman’s situation could be considered somewhat similar in that Tampa Bay seemed to draft an insurance policy in rookie Mike Glennon, a 3rd round selection in 2013.

Freeman is set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2014 and needs a big season to cash in on his first round value. Both Matt Stafford and Mark Sanchez, drafted ahead of him in the 2009 NFL Draft, have been able to cash in on their first round draft status and accomplishments, something Freeman will not be able to do if he gets benched or if the team does not trust him enough to be given the opportunity to show improved statistics.

It is hard to tell exactly what the market would be for Freeman. I have already seen many people say teams would not give up much for him because he is in a contract year, but that should be of almost no concern. Usually if you trade for a player you will immediately extend the players contract. Just this past season the Seattle Seahawks gave up a first round draft pick for Percy Harvin who was also in the walk year of his contract and they quickly turned around and signed him to a lucrative extension.

This has been very typical in the NFL when dealing with QB traded. Kevin Kolb had one year remaining on his contract when the Arizona Cardinals traded for him in 2011. They promptly extended him after the trade. The same occurred with Matt Cassel in 2009 when he was traded from New England to Kansas City as a Franchise player. The Bears added more years onto Jay Cutler’s contract after executing a trade with the Denver Broncos.

Teams also will consider the fact that even though he is a free agent the Franchise tag will always be an option for a full one year look at Freeman before committing big dollars to him.  So the term of the contract is not an issue.

What kind of value he has would be more of a problem. The going price for a player like Freeman would likely be a 2nd round draft pick, which Tampa Bay may not accept. They will likely want a 1st rounder which could be difficult to obtain. They could make it conditional and tie it in with performance or the signing of a contract extension, but if Freeman is indeed seeking a trade the Buccaneers may not have much leverage to execute the trade.

Freeman’s base salary this season is $8,430,000, so a team would need to have at least $7,438,235 million in cap room if they were to execute a trade next week. As of September 13 only 10 teams have the cap room needed to execute that trade. Of those teams the interesting names would be the Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars. Both teams have poor QB situations and significant salary cap space to spend this season. The Browns are about $24 million under the cap and the Jaguars are close to $18 million. Other teams whose names could be linked to such a trade would be the Raiders and Vikings, but neither has the cap room to execute a trade without including players or restructuring contracts. The Vikings have just $2.2 million in cap room while the Raiders have $3.25 million prior to the extension of FB Marcel Reece. The Vikings, in theory, could extend DE Jared Allen to make the trade happen but that would seem unlikely. Oakland would have a much more difficult route with Darren McFadden being the likely candidate.  Teams could also consider a sign and trade type agreement, but that requires a fast extension for Freeman and many moving parts would be needed to come together for that to occur.

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Recapping The First Day of Cuts

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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There are still about 500 moves that teams will make over the next few hours to bring their rosters down from 75 to 53, but many teams got to work yesterday, so lets review some of the action.

The Bills biggest moves on Friday came when they announced that they were placing WR Brad Smith and QB Kevin Kolb on season ending IR. I have seen many people mention that Kolb could retire or potentially take an injury settlement. Neither should occur. Kolb’s concussion was considered career threatening. By maintaining a spot on IR when the season completes Kolb is eligible for injury protection under the CBA because he is also under contract to Buffalo for the 2014 season. If Kolb’s injury from 2013 renders him unable to compete in 2014, 50% of his $2 million base salary is protected. He can earn another $1 million by simply being on the roster in week 17. If he accepts a settlement the Bills will be freed from this liability. If he voluntarily retires he will give up this payment and perhaps be asked to repay the Bills a $1 million dollar signing bonus. So it is in his best interests to maintain a presence even if all sides know he will never play again. Kolb lost a $250,000 roster bonus this year because he was placed on IR.

Smith had renegotiated his contract this season to improve his chances to make the team and I wonder if this will mark the end of his career. Smith was drafted in 2006 and was a good kick returner for the Jets while also filling in occasionally as “wildcat” QB. The Bills took a chance signing Smith feeling that he could do more and paid him accordingly, but, as is often the case, paying a specialist to become a complete player did not work. By no means was he guaranteed to make the team this season and it would be surprising if he was brought back next year. Smith has a $1.4 million base salary in 2014.

T Max Starks might have been the biggest name to be released yesterday when the Chargers gave him his walking papers. I had discussed Starks as a logical cut for San Diego because of the teams tight cap situation. Starks’ contract was only worth $1 million but it contained a large incentive that did count on the salary cap and pushed his charge over $2 million which made his cap number too high for the team. The sides could have removed the incentive, but the Chargers probably don’t see much benefit in paying him to be a backup.

The Seahawks released FB Michael Robinson because of salary cap concerns. He was another name I discussed and his $2.5 million dollar salary made him an easy target for release. I had speculated Heath Farwell could also be released due to cap concerns and he would be a name to potentially watch today when they make their final cuts. He is set to earn $1.5 million.

Arizona released a number of veteran players including special teamer Reggie Walker. Walker was set to earn $950,000 which may have been too much for a special teams ace. Arizona had around $6.5 million in cap room and while not a concerning amount it is likely under the mark the team would like to have. The release of a number of veterans saved the squad nearly $1 million in cap yesterday. The bigger concern for Arizona though was placement of their first round selection, Johnathan Cooper, on IR.

While these were the bigger name moves on the day there were many disappointed people yesterday who received their walking papers. Some were given hope of the Practice Squad while others were just clean cuts. Some teams will use practice to continue to evaluate and make decisions before the 4PM deadline today. For those who make it there will be a tremendous sense of accomplishment. Unfortunately the NFL is always moving and many of the players excited tonight will find out on Monday that the stay on the roster is short as another name hits the waiver wire and they are replaced before the season begins.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to keep up with the cuts on the website today, but by tomorrow we should get the rosters broken down into their final forms. The team web pages will look a lot different as will the real practice facilities which will look barren from all the summer names that were part of the NFL for a few months.

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Kirk Cousins and the Cost of Trading for a Backup Legend

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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Driving in today I flipped over to Mike and Mike on ESPN and heard them having a discussion about Kirk Cousins the backup QB of the Washington Redskins and how valuable a piece he is to the Redskins. The discussion centered around a comment made by Peter King that insinuated that a team drafting in the upper half of the first round should consider giving up their pick (I believe the number they used was 7) for him. I immediately thought that would make an interesting discussion.

Cousins has clearly fallen into the “backup legend” category where we all get so enamored with the position and the prospect of finding a great talent to start for our team. This time last season Cousins was almost an afterthought. Cousins was drafted with the 7th pick in the 4th round of the 2012 draft. This wasn’t Geno Smith falling from the top half of the 1st to the 2nd round as Cousins was projected to go anywhere from the late 2nd to the early 4th, which is exactly where he went. The scouting on him was pretty consistent: efficient player but will never be more than a game manager.

The draft pick itself was considered questionable at the time because the Redskins had just given up a draft fortune to select Robert Griffin III with the 2nd pick in the draft. To select another QB when you had just parted with so many picks seemed like a poor use of limited assets. Cousins began to create a little buzz in the preseason where he completed nearly 58% of his passes at over 13 YPC, but when Cousins was elevated from 3rd string to 2nd string over Rex Grossman more than just a few were surprised.

Once RGIII got injured Cousins got his regular season opportunity and yet another “backup legend” was born. Cousins first led a comeback against eventual champion Baltimore Ravens and then was terrific in his lone start throwing for 329 yards against the Cleveland Browns. Last night Cousins went 6 of 7 for 52 yards in a preseason game which sparked the discussion about his upside.  How quickly everyone forgets just where the young QB was a year ago as he battled for a backup job.

The best comparison one could probably for Cousins would be the career of Matt Schaub. Schaub was drafted with the 27th pick of the 3rd round in the 2004 NFL draft by the Atlanta Falcons. Schaub was brought in to be a backup to Mike Vick. Vick was a phenomenon at the time. The 1st overall pick in 2001, Vick was the most electric player in the NFL and had a reputation that far exceeded the actual play on the field. There were also questions about his durability making a backup seem like a bigger need than for other teams. Schaub was good in the preseason  and got one start in his Atlanta career where he threw for 298 yards against the Patriots. Schaub became the “backup legend”.

The price for Schaub was nothing like was being suggested on Mike and Mike. The Texans gave up two second round draft picks to acquire him. Schaub has gone on to have a solid but unspectacular career and has also been dogged by injuries at times. But he has probably been the most successful of the star backups. Other recent names who turned preseason and less than one season samples into starting jobs have been Kevin Kolb, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Derek Anderson, Matt Cassel , and AJ Feeley.  None were successful.  Kolb, Cassel, and Feeley were all acquired via trade while Fitzpatrick and Anderson were signed off their samples.

Trading a high first pick for a backup QB is a recipe for disaster. Part of the benefit of the top 15 pick now is the slotted pay scale. It allows teams an opportunity to mold a cap friendly roster around a number of potential superstar young talent. When you trade that draft pick for a “backup legend” it’s not just a draft pick being given up, but often large sums of money. Assuming a team was to trade for Cousins next season they would only have Cousins under his rookie contract for two seasons. If they waited one more season it would only be for one. After that he hits free agency.

When you make that trade commitment a financial one goes along with it. In essence you have traded the new rookie wage scale for the old one. For the group above here are the awarded salaries of the more recent backups to riches stories:

Player

Total

3 Year Cash

Kolb

$63,500,000

$32,000,000

Cassel

$63,000,000

$40,500,000

Fitzpatrick

$59,000,000

$29,800,000

Schaub

$48,000,000

$30,000,000

Anderson

$24,000,000

$24,000,000

Of all the deals Cassel was far and away the worst, which was just a sign of how inept the Chiefs front office was. Cassel has almost no pedigree at all (he was a 7th round pick) and they gave the farm away for him. At least in Fitzpatrick’s case there was no trade involved and the three year money total was smaller.

Of course the other question is whether or not a team would even consider giving up the first round selection for him. This is not the Bears trading for Jay Cutler. Most of the teams that would consider trading for Cousins are those same teams that have a scouting department that gave him a 3rd round or worse grade.  Maybe he has done enough in the preseason and limited game action to up that grade but it’s unlikely without an extensive look that a teams’ scouts would recommend giving him a 1st round grade, let alone a top 10 grade, especially factoring in the cost. Plus there are going to be teams that say Mike Shanahan runs a very QB friendly offense that turned players like Brian Griese and Jake Plummer into adequate players.

While we often all buy into the fantasy aspect of the NFL and the throwing away of draft selections it has been some time since teams decided to throw first round picks at lower regarded talent. I believe the last two big ones were Rob Johnson in 1998 and Trent Green in 2001. Johnson was a 4th round pick with only one start under his belt which led to the Bills trading a 1st and 4th for his services. It is a trade so bad that it is still talked about to this day. Green was a journeyman type QB who was displaced by injury and replaced by Kurt Warner. At the time I think the feeling was that Green was just as good and that the Chiefs were getting a steal for a 1st round pick. Green would have a decent career with the Chiefs, who really have gone overboard with the trading for QB’s dating back to Joe Montana.

Really unless you have the exceptional pedigree teams are not going to throw away a first rounder and all that money on a player.  Here are some of the potential starter  trades since the Green trade to Kansas City.

Name

Draft Round

Games Started

Trade Package
Jay Cutler

1

37

two 1’s, a 3rd, and Kyle Orton
Drew Bledsoe

1

123

1st* round pick
Carson Palmer

1

97

1st* and 2nd*
Donovan McNabb

1

142

2nd and 4th*
Alex Smith

1

75

2nd and 2nd/3rd*
Kevin Kolb

2

7

2nd* and DRC
Matt Schaub

3

2

1st round swap (2 slots) and two 2nds
Charlie Whitehurst

3

0

2nd round swap (20 slots) and 3rd*
AJ Feeley

5

7

2nd round pick
Matt Hasselbeck

6

0

1st round swap (7 slots) and 3rd
Matt Cassel

7

15

2nd (plus Mike Vrabel to KC)
* means actual slot unknown at time of trade

The marketplace really has been the 2nd round for players that do not have that elite pedigree. Of the younger talent, Cutler, who came from a Shanahan system and looked like one of the greatest prospects on the planet, is the only one to garner a fortune in compensation, losing the 11th and 18th pick in the 1st round. Kolb cost a 2nd and a player which is more or less the equivalent to the two 2nd rounders traded for Schaub. Alex Smith could be the same.

So it would be stunning, based on pat history, if any team in the NFL drafting in the top 10 would even consider trading for Cousins at that price. I tend to think that there may be more reservation as well due to the recent series of bust signings on questionable players with the small sample sizes. Over the next two seasons Kolb, Cassel, Fitzpatrick, and Matt Flynn will carry $23,950,000 in dead money for their respective former teams.

Flynn, who had backed up Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay and flashed in relief, expected to be involved in a bidding war of sorts when the Packers let him hit free agency. Teams were much more cautious with Flynn, a 7th round selection, than they had been with other players. Eventually he signed with Seattle for a base value of $19.5 million over three years. That was still good money, but not Kolb or Cassel money. Flynn of course was traded after just one season when unheralded rookie Russell Wilson outplayed Flynn by a significant margin in training camp and the preseason.

But right now I think many of us are going a little overboard on the expectations for Cousins in the trade market. Players don’t go from being 4th round draft picks to top 10 commodities based on a start and some preseason games. Maybe if he had close to a full season of work someone with a late 1st round pick might make a move, but the market is really a 2nd rounder and that’s assuming teams have not grown cold to the prospect of trading for someone else’s bench player rather than just  drafting one themselves. The financial commitment can be so large when you trade for a QB and is there really that much that separates Kevin Kolb from Blaine Gabbert?  Gabbert is certainly cheaper. Neither has been very good.  Gabbert had and probably has more upside.

I would think applying the Schaub test is really the right way to look at Cousins. Schaub has been the QB on two teams that made the playoffs and has twice gone to the Pro Bowl. He has started 79 games in 6 years and won 44 of them. Just a year after signing an extension many fans can’t wait to get rid of him because they feel the flaws, more or less the lack of physical tools that helped push him to the late 3rd round in the first place,  will keep them from winning a championship. In hindsight would you have been happy giving up the 7th pick in the NFL draft and somewhere around $60 million dollars for Schaub?  Probably not.

Now none of this is to say that Cousins can’t be better than Schaub. For all I know Cousins may be the next Tom Brady, who the Patriots wisely chose to stick with over Bledsoe in 2001. But as a teams’ GM or cap manager you have to weigh the risks associated with such a trade. You are losing four low cost seasons of a tremendous upside draft pick and replacing it with a high financial commitment for a player just a few years ago you felt did not have the tools to warrant a 2nd or 3rd round selection.  To pull that top 10 pick the player needs to be proven which means at least two years of significant meaningful game experience. Otherwise the 2nd round maximum is as far as a team should ever be willing to go.

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Bills Release Tarvaris Jackson; Could Jets be Landing Spot?

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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The Buffalo Bills have announced the release of QB Tarvaris Jackson. While many have expressed some surprise that the Bills would release a player that had recently received a $500,000 signing bonus without even seeing him in training camp, the fact is Jackson was simply a sunk cost signed when the Bills were searching for answers at the QB position.

After signing Jackson the Arizona Cardinals released Kevin Kolb, who promptly signed with the Bills to compete with Jackson for the starting job. The situation changed even further when the Bills selected QB EJ Manuel in the first round of the 2013 NFL draft, making the likelihood of both Kolb and Jackson being on the roster in September remote.

Financially the Bills put more into Kolb than Jackson. Kolb received a signing bonus that was double the amount of Jackson’s. Both players had roster bonuses tied to being on the roster in week 1- In Jacksons case $450,000 and in Kolb’s case $250,000. That made it likely one would be released rather than sinking more money into someone who was going to be a 3rd string QB.

Jackson’s chances of making the team were further compromised by  incentives in his contract based on playing time. Kolb, according to reports, had incentives in his contract that were tied to non-guaranteed escalators in his 2014 contract, which could be avoided by release. Jackson, if given the starting job, had the chance to earn $1.25 million in bonuses by playing 60% of the snaps and an additional $1 million if he played in 65% of the snaps. Once earned they would be guaranteed. That would likely equate to starting 10 or 11 games which just put him further behind Kolb in the chances for the starting job.

With such little chance to make the team it made almost no sense to carry Jackson longer and it is always in a players’ interest to be released before training camp to give the player the maximum opportunity to sign a contract with a new team and compete in training camp. The Bills also should owe Jackson payment on a $50,000 workout bonus, putting his dead money total at $550,000 once the release is processed by the NFL.

Jackson had reportedly drawn interest from the New York Jets in the offseason before accepting the Bills offer to return to Buffalo. The Jets ended up signing David Garrard with Jackson was off the market. The Jets had prepared to take 5 QB’s into camp this season following the drafting of QB Geno Smith and subsequent release of Tim Tebow. Garrard has since retired due to injury concerns leaving the Jets with just 4 QB’s on the roster.

Jackson is familiar with the concepts of the West Coast Offense and was coached as a freshman by Jets coach David Lee and is familiar with Jets General Manager John Idzik who was part of the Seahawks front office when they signed Jackson in 2011. Having already earned a signing bonus with the Bills and perhaps few options the Jets may be able to bring Jackson in at a cost that they deem reasonable.

The Jets had signed Garrard for $1 million in base salary only $250,000 less than Jackson’s base salary with Buffalo.  The Jets could offer Jackson a similar roster bonus as the Bills except base it solely on being on the active gameday roster rather than the week 1 roster.  Because Jackson was inactive for the entire 2012 season no bonus money would hit the 2013 salary cap. If the Jets were to carry Jackson as their third QB during the season and never suited him up they would not need to pay him any bonus money under that structure. Such a contract may be the best situation for Jackson to keep alive the faint hopes of being a starter in the NFL.

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Looking at the Bills QB Situation with Kolb and Jackson

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

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The Buffalo Bills continued their search for a Quarterback to get some return on significant defensive investments, this time signing former Cardinal Kevin Kolb to a two year contract.  Sometimes as fans we get caught up in “name value” and memories and the immediate reaction to this signing was that Kolb was destined to be the starter and a sign that the Bills would not draft a QB.  Kolb fed into it himself with the statement as to how he was in Buffalo to win a Super Bowl portraying himself as some type of superstar QB looking for a home. A closer look at the situation paints a much different picture.

The Bills find themselves in a bit of a QB hole due to the poor decision made to extend journeyman QB Ryan Fitzpatrick to a lucrative $59 million dollar contract after a handful of good games in 2011. I heavily criticized the move at the time on my nyjetscap site, (which in turn saw me criticized by Bills fans), because it was a move that had almost no upside and did not need to be done at that time. It was a situation where the Bills had struggled so badly for so many years, the only team in 2000s to fail to make the playoffs, and been perceived as a cheap organization that GM Buddy Nix got caught up in sending a message that the Bills organization was going to become a spender in the NFL. Unfortunately it was the wrong player and Fitzpatrick crashed the minute he signed his name on the dotted line.

Fitzpatrick now compromises the Bills spending allocation on the position for the next two seasons. The Bills designated Fitzpatrick a June 1 cut meaning he will count for $3 million in dead money in 2013 and $7 million in 2014. Not that the free agent market was going to provide strong QB candidates but $10 million in dead money is nothing to sneeze at. Cutting Fitzpatrick was absolutely the right move to make and restructuring his deal was simply going to eat into more cap room for no reason, but if there was one move that Nix would want back in his tenure it has to be the Fitzpatrick one.

With Fitzpatrick gone but not forgotten on the books the Bills are in a position where they needed to look for a stopgap player and continue to still look in the draft. The two are not exclusive events as many have portrayed. The Bills situation is not all that different than that of division rival Miami last year. In 2012 the Dolphins signed former Jaguar starter David Garrard in March to a one year contract to compete with Matt Moore, entering the final year of a two year contract to be the backup in Miami. When the draft came around the presence of low tier starters made no impact on the Dolphins’ draft decisions, drafting Ryan Tannehill with the 8th overall pick.  In the Bills case the low salary of a rookie contract will counteract the $7 million in dead money that Fitzpatrick leaves the team in 2014.

The Bills and Nix are far more protective of their rights with their latest QB signings of Kolb and Tarvaris Jackson. Neither is signed to a big money deal and both will need to perform if they want to earn their keep. Kolb received a $1 million dollar signing bonus and will earn a $250,000 roster bonus if he makes the team in September. Jackson received a $500,000 signing bonus and will earn $450,000 if he makes the team in September. Kolb has an escalator in his contract for 2014 while Jackson can earn $2.25 million in additional 2013 compensation if he is named the starter and stays in that role.

The salary cap hits and contract makeup don’t proclaim the job to be Kolb’s by any means. Kolb carries a $2.5 million cap hit compared to Jackson’s  $2.25 million. Kolb’s cash takehome in 2013 is $3 million while Jackson can max out at $4.5 million. Cutting Kolb before week 1 saves the team $1.9 million in cap and $1.9 million in cash consideration. The team would take on a $500,000 dead money hit in 2014 if released. Cutting Jackson saves $1.7 million in cap space and cash consideration not taking into account the incentives in the contract.  In general the two deals are equal and both players need to be active to see the money come their way. If a third QB enters the mix it is likely that the loser of the preseason competition will be cut as the contracts were both designed to be team friendly, allowing the Bills to cut bait with minimal cash outlay.

Bypassing consideration of the draft is simply not an option. In the last two seasons Jackson has only suited up for 16 games, starting 14 of them and throwing for 3,091 yards. The often injured Kolb has played in 15 games, starting 14 of them, and thrown for 3,124 yards. Jackson’s TD/INT totals were 14/13 and Kolb’s 17/11. Kolb completes around 58% of his passes and Jackson right around 60%. Both players, especially Kolb, have name value but neither is likely going to amount to anything more than a 1 year fill in. Both players have had two teams look elsewhere for answers which is usually not the trait of a quality player. In a QB market where Drew Stanton earns $3 million guaranteed the dollar figures tell you everything you need to know about how the rest of the league values Kolb and Jackson.

Now it may turn out that there is no QB in the draft this year the Bills want to draft but the signing of Kolb wasn’t a sign that the Bills completed the search. All Kolb represented was a $1 million gamble that he might be better than the $500,000 gamble in Jackson for this upcoming season. Drafting a QB makes the decision that much easier to cut the cord on one of the two players come September and at least gives the Bills the upside they need to look at a potentially bright future. With Tom Brady getting older, the Jets in a rebuild, and the Dolphins having a question mark at the QB position, getting the young arm gives the Bills an opportunity to supplant the Patriots in a year or two as Brady nears the end of a dominant career, a similar strategy the Dolphins are using. Neither Kolb nor Jackson gives the Bills that chance, and they know it as evidenced by the contracts they have given the two players.

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Cardinals Will Save $7.5 million in Cap Space by Releasing Kolb

Posted on by Andrew

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Much to the delight of many Cardinals fans, it sounds as if the Kevin Kolb era is coming to an end in Arizona. Reports are circulating that the team plans to cut Kolb in the next few days, and coupled with the Drew Stanton signing, this would certainly seem to be the case.

As it stands today, Kolb’s $13.5 million salary cap hit is the highest on the Cardinals in 2013 (the second-highest is Larry Fitzgerald with a $10.25 million). It should also be noted that Kolb’s cap hit this year is the largest in any of the six years on his contract. Kolb’s 2013 cap hit is broken down as follows:

Base salary: $9 million

Prorated signing bonus: $2 million

Roster Bonus: $2 million

Workout Bonus: $500k

The key thing here is the $2 million roster bonus. This bonus is due on Saturday and so Kolb needs to be cut by then to avoid an increase in dead money charges. Right now, Kolb’s release would result in $6 million in dead money on Arizona’s 2013 cap. This dead money is comprised of the remaining signing bonus prorations ($2 million in each of 2013, 2014 and 2015), which by rule accelerates to the current year’s cap if the player is released. As such, if Kolb was released after this upcoming Saturday, that $6 million in dead money would increase to $8 million due to the roster bonus due. Seeing as there’s no way the Cardinals would let that happen, Kolb’s dead money will remain at $6 million and the team will realize a net cap savings of $7.5 million upon his release.

As reported by numerous beat writers, early rumors for Kolb’s next destination include the New York Jets, who have a connection here due to new offensive coordinator Marty Morhinweg. Morhinweg was the offensive coordinator in Philadelphia while Kolb was an Eagle from 2007 – 2010, so there may be some interest. Whether or not the interest is strong enough to reach an agreement on monetary terms with the way the Jets are (or should I say, aren’t) spending money this offseason remains to be seen.

Check out the Cardinals salary cap page here

Twitter: @AndrewOTC

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Looking at Some Rumored NFL Cuts

Posted on by Jason Fitzgerald

With the meetings in Indianapolis underway there are the typical rumors that come out about “take it or leave it” offers made by teams to players whose salary cap numbers far exceed their performance on the field. Lets take a look at some of those players (players are linked to their cap pages).

RB Michael Turner– This certainly seems to be a very likely move and the Falcons did little to quiet the discussion when asked about it. When Turner was signed in 2008, he was going to be the centerpiece of an offense expected to turn the reigns over to a young QB. Now that young QB is a veteran and Turner is not a major part of the offense and has significantly slowed down. Cutting Turner saves the team $6.9 million.

QB Ryan Fitzpatrick– I discussed this one the other day  and while its a cap neutral move for 2013 it frees up $7.5 million in cash as well as cap room in 2014. Fitzpatrick’s extension is one of the worst contracts I can recall given in the last few seasons and the Bills are paying for it now.

CB Nnamdi Asomugha-  Set to earn $15 million in compensation in 2013 there is zero chance of him sticking in Philadelphia. His contract contains $4 million in fully guaranteed money with no offset provisions so the Eagles need to work from that base to reach a compromise, but I dont see his value being very high if released. Andrew posted more details on Asomugha yesterday.

QB Kevin Kolb– Speaking of bad signings this was a real cap killer. Kolb was supposed to be the person to rescue the Cardinals offense but he is always injured and when he isnt injured he doesnt play well. Arizona probably should have cut ties last year rather than chasing a sunk cost but they gave it another try. For as bad as their QB situation is they won’t make the same mistake and pay him $11.5 million to remain a Cardinal. He needs to take a major paycut or he will be released. Kolbs release saves Arizona $7.5 million in cap room.

LB James Harrison– The Steelers already seem to be talking about the soon to be 35 year old Linebacker as if he is off the team so this may be it for Harrison. His sack totals have steadily declined and his release saves Pittsburgh $5.105 million in cap room. The Steelers are in a salary cap pinch due to a large number of contract restructures in recent years where money due in the present is pushed off to future caps via bonus mechanisms and now they have run out of room to continue to do that. Harrison is one of the few they can release and create significant space making him a likely casualty of the cap.

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