Does the team have some bombshell / trick up its sleeve to recoup the lost cap space?

[SkinsFan4Life71]

Seems everyone in the media feels like we've exhausted every avenue for trying to get our penalized cap space back (short of some nuclear option of taking the matter to the U.S. courts that would never happen), but Shanahan has be coyly implying for a while now that the fight isn't over yet, but that he can't really get into it until the situation runs its course. And more recently, Allen said that there are still options to pursue, but gave the same line about not being able to get into the details yet.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/...y-cap-penalty/

It seems doubtful the Redskins could recoup their penalized cap space by then. Only 26 days remain before the new league year begins and the free agency market opens on March 12.

“That’s a big day,” Allen said. “That’s a real big day.”

The Redskins aren’t giving up.

“There’s plenty of things we can do, but now is not the time,” Allen said. “And I know you guys are a little frustrated that we’ve been saying that for almost a year now. But the time is coming up.”

Sounds to me like they think they have at least one more card to be played ahead of the start of free agency to recoup cap space, but that's only a few weeks away so unless some process is already secretly underway, it seems very unlikely that anything they try to do now can be resolved in time for it to even matter. That said, it would be silly for them to keep saying they haven't given up yet and that there's a chance something could be done if that isn't actually the case, so I'm really curious what option(s) they think they have that nobody else can seem to think of.

[vibe607]

maybe the skins will threaten to start rex grossman in all primetime games so that the NFL loses monday night ratings hahahhaa.

In all seriousness I have no idea what they could do and I honestly believe it is all said and done unless they brought it to the courts.

[EricU812]

I doubt it.

[lajito64]

my understanding is there will be an owners meeting 5 days after free agency starts and they owners may agree to give some cap space back to the skins.

[cheddar08]

At the end of the day the light has been shed on what the NFL did. If they take it to court they could cause more problems, but everyone now sees how the NFL colluded. I think they have to give some space back to save theri image.

[Shareeb_omac2]

The way Bruce Allen talks about it makes him seem so confident. If he works some magic and gets us out of this I will be blown away.

[IHateTheSkins]

Maybe Bruce Allen has a very incriminating picture of Goodell's testicles. In Mara's mouth.

[matthewredskin3]

I want cap back. That'd be cool.

[NJrockPD]

Especially with all of these players being cut if we had some cap space it might be nice if guys like Asomugha gets cut.

[widow4523]

gettin some cap space back would be the difference in us being a complete team and a team relying on young draftpicks to fill in major roles...

honestly, aside from the obvious S, RT, and a good nickle CB, we are set..

what do i think we're going to do?
-moss is due 6.1 mill, that number will go down
-brown is as good as gone
-hall's 7.5 will likely be a 5 or 4.5 after he restructures
-trent, morgan and garcon are also willing to restructure from salary to bonuses to free up some space from what ive read
- merriwether has very little guaranteed salary from him 4.5 or what have you...

that should be at least 15 mill freed up right there

[lajito64]

thats good to know, i was wondering how they would free up money. there always seems a way, just excited to see who we get. Also Fletch may not come back either.

[SkinsFan4Life71]

Especially with all of these players being cut if we had some cap space it might be nice if guys like Asomugha gets cut.

The fact that he played so poorly last year for the Eagles is pretty disconcerting, though. Maybe he was only good in the way the Raiders used him and can't do the the things the Eagles asked of him well, so I wonder how well he'd fit our system. I don't know the answer to that, but I'm just saying that it's not a lock that we could expect the same level of play he demonstrated with the Raiders because the Eagles certainly got nowhere near that.

From Pro Football Focus:

Asomugha was the big prize from the 2011 offseason and many thought he was the missing piece on a seemingly talented team. After leading the NFL in Coverage Snaps Per Reception in 2011, at 18.6, he took a major step back in 2012. Asomugha still looks baffled in certain zone schemes and his one-on-one coverage ability, while still good, isn’t nearly as good as it once was. In 2012, Asomugha’s coverage snaps per reception was 11.5, 19th in the NFL. The alarming stat is the 120.6 QB rating on passes thrown his way, third-highest in the league. Asomugha is still under contract, but there is a strong chance that if he isn’t willing to restructure his deal he will be let go.

[SkinsFan4Life71]

-moss is due 6.1 mill, that number will go down
-hall's 7.5 will likely be a 5 or 4.5 after he restructures

Hall will have to take a pay cut to stay with the team, not just restructure, because his production on the field doesn't match his salary. A restructure pays a player the same amount as is stipulated in his contract, but just spreads the cap costs out over more time. It's a good deal for players because it's usually accomplished by converting salary, which is not guaranteed, to bonus money, which is not only guaranteed, but also paid upfront. The benefit to the team is that bonus money, even though paid in the current year, can be prorated for cap purposes over the life of the contract.

The danger, however, as we all saw under Cerrato, is that a player's production can decline before their contract is up, but they become difficult to cut because it would result in "dead money" on the cap since any remaining prorations from a player's contract are accelerated back to the cap as soon as a player is released. So it only makes good sense to restructure the contracts of younger players that you think will still be solid contributors for the lives of their contracts, otherwise you're just creating problems down the road that are hard to fix.

Moss is entering the final year of the 3-year deal he signed in 2011, and I've seen it reported that he'd likely need to restructure his contract to stick with the team, but I don't see how just a restructure is possible when he's only got 1 year left on his contract. We'd have to extend his contract, not just restructure it, to get any cap relief and, at his age, his value is only going to go down as his production will be less and less in line with his salary. We'd be better off giving a cheaper option already on the roster a shot to grow into the role of starting slot receiver for 2014 and beyond and hopefully bring Moss back just for 2013 under a reduced salary.

T. Williams, Garcon, and Morgan are good choices for restructures because they're all young and figure to be productive for the remaining lives of their contracts.

[widow4523]

either way, we need to make some moves to help us get some FAs.. resigning fred and lichtensteiger should be in the plan. then Talib, chung, byrd, leewis or shields would be huge additions.

i think we will settle for a mid-level FA like leodis mckelvin or glover quin which works very well for us when considering guys like josh wilson and stephen bowen were similar signings

[SkinsFan4Life71]

Oh, well. Guess maybe it was just wishful thinking. This doesn't look promising at all:

http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fo...n-be-informal/