The team completed a basic restructure with Ramcyzk, along with adding a void year to the contract (for salary cap purposes) to generate $10.336 million in cap savings for 2023. Once more details on the Lutz restructure comes available, his contract details will be updated.
Expect more from the Saints as they continue towards salary cap compliance by March 15.
Tennessee Titans release four veterans
Tennessee Titans have begun their offseason moves with reports coming out on veteran player releases of Taylor Lewan, Robert Woods, Zach Cunningham, and Randy Bullock. The transactions will generate ~$38 million in cap savings for 2023.
?BREAKING?
The Tennessee Titans are releasing the boy, Taylor Lewan
After 9 years in the two-tone blue and being a pivotal piece in turning things around in a Tennessee, the great ride has come to an end for the 3x Pro Bowler.
The releases of Woods and Lewan will create $26.8 million in cap dollars for the 2023 league year. The release of Robert Woods marks the end of an era where the former regime attempted to build a wide receiver room with failed trades of Julio Jones and Robert Woods, along with trading away star wide receiver AJ Brown during the draft.
The three releases will move the Titans out of the red, with over $4.2 million now in available cap space. Expect more transactions from the team leading up to the league year start in March.
*Update* as of 2:12 pm CST. Zach Cunningham has also been released per Tom Pelissero
The #Titans are also releasing veteran LB Zach Cunningham, per source.
Saints create additional cap space with restructure on Erik McCoy’s Contract
New Orleans continue to pull their available salary cap savings levers, this time adjusting the contract of Center Erik McCoy. News from Field Yates of ESPN
The Saints have converted $10M of C Erik McCoy’s 2023 compensation into a signing bonus (while adding a void year), creating $8M in cap space, per source.
McCoy is due a, fully guaranteed, $10 million roster bonus on the March 19 (5th day of the league year). The Saints have adjusted this roster bonus to a signing bonus, allowing the money to pro-rate over 5 years. This move does not change how McCoy receives his money. The adjustment creates $8 million in cap savings for the 2023 league year.
Cap & Trade Episode 12
We close out the regular season on a high note with Sean Pendergast of CBS Radio and SportsRadio610 Houston. Sean and TexansCap dove into the David Culley situation, how the Brian Flores firing effects Deshaun Watson, thoughts on the loss to Tennessee Titans, the continued progression of Davis Mills, and which players are the team MVP for the offense, defense, and rookie class.
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Cap & Trade Episode 11
This week TexansCap is joined by Aaron Wilson of SportsTalk790 Houston. We dove heavily into the future of the organization, what’s next for head coach David Culley, and the Deshaun Watson situation. We also discussed potential re-signings for the pending free agents currently on the roster.
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Houston Texans – 2021 Incentive Tracker
Player incentives are something that myself and Houston fans are not used to hearing about. Rick Smith was the General Manager from 2006 through 2017 (along with capologist Chris Olsen) and did not employ the use of player/team incentives into player contracts. That practice has since changed dramatically with new General Manager Nick Caserio. Caserio came over from New England where incentives were heavily used. Interim General Manager tandem of Bill O’Brien and Jack Easterby started the process in 2020 with incentives sprinkled into a few contracts. Caserio took that to a new level, negotiating incentives into the majority of free agent contracts signed during the 2021 season including offseason and in-season contracts.
Given that Houston fans are likely not familiar with incentives and how they can affect the team’s salary cap; this was a good time to explain how they work. We will also show where each player stands with their individual incentives heading into the last game of the regular season. We will not cover salary escalators as Houston has not deployed escalators as of yet.
Incentives can effect the player and team salary cap in various ways, and impact the cash spending for the team. Incentives can be used in practically any contract, including rookie contracts. However they are primarily used in non-rookie contracts. Referencing the above link to the CBA section on Incentives, there is a specific list of available incentives that may be negotiated into a contract.
Incentives that are considered to be LTBE will impact the cap charge for the current year. For an incentive to be LTBE, the league will reference the player’s performance in that category from the previous year. For example, if a player has a playing time incentive of 55% of defensive snaps worth $250,000 for the 2021 season. If the player played in 62% of the defensive snaps (no matter what team) then the $250,000 is considered LTBE and would count towards the player’s 2021 salary cap charge.
Conversely, using the same example, if the player played in 48% of the defensive snaps in 2020 then the $250,000 would be considered NTLBE and would not impact the 2021 salary cap.
After the conclusion of the regular season the teams will calculate all the incentives for players to determine the amount of cash earned through incentives on top of the player’s base salary.
If a NLTBE incentive is earned in 2021, and the same incentive is in place for 2022 then the incentive becomes LTBE and will be charged to the 2022 salary cap for that player. The team will also receive a debit towards the 2022 salary cap through the annual adjustment. Conversely, if a player has a LTBE incentive in 2021 that is not earned, then the team will receive a cap credit in 2022 annual adjustment for the corresponding amount and the incentive becomes NLTBE in 2022.
Teams can utilize incentives to manipulate cap space in the immediate year. Looking at David Johnson in the table below, the first tier of his Total Yards incentive is 1,006 yards. David Johnson had 1,005 total yards in 2020. Therefore this makes the incentive NLTBE and does not count towards the 2021 salary cap.
2021 Incentive Tracker
Sounds more confusing that it is. Below is a table for the Houston Texans players that have incentives and where they stand heading into Week 18 of the regular season. The amounts in Bold & Italics are considered LTBE for 2021. Everything else is considered to be NLTBE for 2021. The dollar amounts stack as each tier is achieved. The incentives listed as Yes Achieved, that is based on projection heading into the last game of the season.
Player
Incentives
Detail
Value
Achieved
Taylor, Tyrod
$ 6,500,000
60% Off Snap
$ 1,000,000
No
70% Off Snap
$ 1,000,000
No
80% Off Snap
$ 1,000,000
No
90% Off Snap
$ 1,000,000
No
60% + Playoff
$ 1,000,000
No
70% + Playoff
$ 1,000,000
No
Pro Bowl
$ 500,000
No
Britt, Justin
$ 1,800,000
55% Off Snap
$ 450,000
Yes
65% Off Snap
$ 450,000
Approaching
75% Off Snap
$ 450,000
No
85% Off Snap
$ 450,000
No
Kirksey, Christian
$ 1,500,000
55% Def Snap
$ 250,000
Yes
65% Def Snap
$ 250,000
Yes
75% Def Snap
$ 500,000
Approaching
85% Def Snap
$ 500,000
No
Johnson, David
$ 1,000,000
57% Off Snap
$ 250,000
No
65% Off Snap
$ 250,000
No
1006 Total Yards
$ 250,000
No
1200 Total Yards
$ 250,000
No
Collins, Maliek
$ 1,000,000
50% Def Snap
$ 250,000
Yes
60% Def Snap
$ 250,000
Approaching
70% Def Snap
$ 250,000
No
80% Def Snap
$ 250,000
No
Cannon, Marcus
$ 750,000
80% Off Snap
$ 800,000
No
90% Off Snap
$ 850,000
No
Grugier-Hill, Kamu
$ 750,000
30% Def Snap
$ 125,000
Yes
40% Def Snap
$ 125,000
Yes
50% Def Snap
$ 250,000
Yes
60% Def Snap
$ 250,000
Yes
McCray, Justin
$ 750,000
35% Off Snap
$ 187,500
Yes
45% Off Snap
$ 187,500
Yes
55% Off Snap
$ 187,500
Approaching
65% Off Snap
$ 187,500
No
Murray, Eric
$ 750,000
60% Def Snap
$ 250,000
Yes
70% Def Snap
$ 250,000
Approaching
80% Def Snap
$ 250,000
No
Amendola, Danny
$ 700,000
45% Off Snap
$ 140,000
No
55% Off Snap
$ 140,000
No
50 receptions
$ 140,000
No
60 receptions
$ 140,000
No
70 receptions
$ 140,000
No
Brown, Pharaoh
$ 600,000
30% Off Snap
$ 150,000
Yes
40% Off Snap
$ 150,000
Yes
50% Off Snap
$ 150,000
Yes
60% Off Snap
$ 150,000
Approaching
Taylor, Vincent
$ 500,000
20% Def Snap
$ 100,000
No
30% Def Snap
$ 100,000
No
40% Def Snap
$ 100,000
No
50% Def Snap
$ 100,000
No
60% Def Snap
$ 100,000
No
Pierre-Louis, Kevin
$ 500,000
60% Def Snap
$ 250,000
No
70% Def Snap
$ 250,000
No
Mitchell, Terrance
$ 500,000
80% Def Snap
$ 500,000
No
King, Desmond
$ 500,000
60% Def Snap
$ 250,000
Yes
70% Def Snap
$ 250,000
Yes
Conley, Chris
$ 500,000
45% Off Snap
$ 100,000
Yes
55% Off Snap
$ 100,000
Yes
45 Receptions
$ 100,000
No
55 Receptions
$ 100,000
No
65 Receptions
$ 100,000
No
Wilson, Eric
$ 500,000
70% + Improvement
$ 125,000
No
80% + Improvement
$ 125,000
No
90% + Improvement
$ 250,000
No
Burkhead, Rex
$ 500,000
30% Off Snap
$ 125,000
Approaching
40% Off Snap
$ 125,000
No
500 Total Yards
$ 125,000
Yes
650 Total Yards
$ 125,000
Approaching
Hewitt, Neville
$ 300,000
50% Def Snap
$ 150,000
No
70% Def Snap
$ 150,000
No
Brooks, Terrence
$ 250,000
40% Def Snap
$ 125,000
No
50% Def Snap
$ 125,000
No
Davis, Tae
$ 150,000
15% Def Snap
$ 50,000
No
20% Def Snap
$ 50,000
No
25% Def Snap
$ 50,000
No
Cap & Trade Episode 10
TexansCap is back with another great episode joined by returning guests Mike Meltser and Landry Locker. We covered the Houston Texans big win over the Los Angeles Chargers, Davis Mills’ performance, the impact of Nick Caserio’s first draft class, and what to look for in the 2022 draft.
