2005 Bears Cap Analysis

This represents what are currently the Bears top 53 cap hits so if you don't see somebody that's on the practice squad or somebody else that's been signed since the end of the season, don't be surprised. They don’t count against the cap and are basically training camp fodder.

This is what each of the Columns represent:

Cap hit in 1000s – This is the value of each players cap number for the 2005 season represented in thousands. So the number 7,455 for Ogunleye is really 7,455,000.

2005 Salary – This is the amount of money that each player will be paid in salary for the year. A player’s salary is the sum amount that each player will be paid in their weekly checks over the 17 week season and is not guaranteed unless a player has 5 accrued seasons and is on the opening day roster.

Roster Bonuses – A roster bonus is a one time payment that is not guaranteed and the entire amount costs against the cap in the year it is paid. If a player is released before the payment is made, the payment is not paid and if a player is traded, the player’s new team is responsible for the payment.

SB Remaining – When a player signs a new contract, they are often given a Signing Bonus. A signing bonus (as well as an Option Bonus) is prorated over the length of the contract for salary cap purposes. So if a player signs a 5 year contract and gets a $5 million dollar bonus, $1 million of it counts against the salary cap in each year of his contract even though it was all paid upfront. An option bonus is a bonus that is not guaranteed and comes later than year 1 of the contract. This number represents the amount of both signing bonus and option bonus still left to be amortized against the player’s remaining contract. If a player is released before June 1^st or is traded, his entire remaining unamortized bonuses are counted against the salary cap the year in which the player is released or traded.

# of Years Remain – This is the number of years left for the player’s contract* and how long the SB Remaining will be amortized. *Except for Brian Urlacher. He signed a much longer contract than they allow bonuses to be amortized.

Dead Cap Space – This is the amount of cap space taken by a player that was released last year after June 1^st.

Trade or Cut +/- - This is the amount that a player would count against the salary cap from unamortized signing bonus if the player is released before June 1^st or is traded.

Hit this year if player is released after June 1^st – When a player is released after June 1^st, only the current year’s bonus proration counts against the current year’s cap and the remainder counts against the following year’s cap. So if the player who signed the 5 year contract with the $5 million signing bonus get released after June 1^st in the third year of the contract, his cap hit would be $1 million in the current year and $2 million the following year. This number is the cap hit for the current year in that instance. In the case where a player has a roster bonus, that amount also counts against this year’s cap because it would have already been paid before June 1^st.

Hit next year if player is released after June 1^st – This is the amount that would count against the cap next year if the player was released after June 1^st.

Savings for Cut after June 1^st – This is the amount that the team would save this year against the cap in the player is released after June 1^st versus having the player on the roster.

A few things to keep in mind when thinking about these numbers:

• When you look at the amount of salary cap money that a team has free before the free agency period begins, you have to look at how many free agent starters that team has that don’t currently count against their salary cap. For instance, the Seahawks are reported to have $24 million in cap space free, but they also don’t have Shawn Alexander, Matt Hasslebeck, or Walter Jones under contract.
• Before the final cut down date before the season begins, teams will have up to 80+ players on their roster. During that period, only the top 51 cap hits count against the team’s salary cap for that year.
• When a team is said to be “over the cap” they aren’t really. Every team has until the free agency period begins (around the beginning of March) to get under the following year’s cap. When a team is said to be over the cap, it means that their top 51 cap hits for players they currently have under contract add up to more than the salary cap for the following season.
• Trade or Cut +/- numbers that are highlighted in purple indicate a negative amount OVER $1 million dollars and number highlighted in teal indicate a savings of OVER $1 million dollars.

Disclaimer: These numbers are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate since I can only go by reports in the media which are known to leave out key information like some roster bonuses and workout bonuses.

Here are the numbers. Feel free to contact me with questions at lloydt56@yahoo.com

Lloyd Thomas

	Cap hit	2005	Roster	SB	# Years	Dead Cap	Trade or	Hit this year if	Hit next year if	Savings for cut
	in 1000s	Salary	Bonuses	Remaining	Remain	Space	Cut +/-	cut after June 1st	cut after June 1st	After June 1st
Defensive End
Adewale Ogunleye	7,455	455	5,000	8,000	4	0	-545	7,000	6,000	455
Micheal Haynes	1,641	500	0	4,564	4	0	-2,923	1,141	3,423	500
Shurron Pierson	380	380	0	0	1	0	380	0	0	380
Alex Brown	1,555	455	0	5,500	5	0	-3,945	1,100	4,400	455
Isreal Idonije	305	305	0	0	1	0	305	0	0	305
Defensive Tackle
Bryan Robinson						1,820
Alfonso Boone	1,100	1,000	0	200	2	0	900	100	100	1,000
Ian Scott	463	380	0	165	2	0	298	83	83	380
Tron LaFavor						56
Tommie Harris	1,755	305	0	5,800	4	0	-4,045	1,450	4,350	305
Tank Johnson	688	343	0	1,380	4	0	-693	345	1,035	343
Darrell Campbell	305	305	0	0	2	0	305	0	0	305
Linebacker
Brian Urlacher	6,157	1,250	3,050	9,285	5	0	-3,128	4,907	7,428	1,250
Lance Briggs	553	380	0	345	2	0	208	173	173	380
Joe Odom	396	380	0	32	2	0	364	16	16	380
Hunter Hillenmeyer	380	380	0	0	2	0	380	0	0	380
Jeremy Cain	305	305	0	0	3	0	305	0	0	305
Marcus Reese	305