The Jets looked like they were in position to pull off a win over the Packers on Sunday when they took a 35-20 lead in the third
quarter
Clay Matthews Jersey , but the Packers would come back to take a lead and then win the game 44-38 in overtime.The winning touchdown came after two pass
interference penalties on the Jets helped the Packers move the ball deep into
their territory. One of them was a 33-yarder on cornerback Trumaine Johnson that
represented Green Bay’s longest gain of the drive and the Jets also were flagged
for three personal fouls over the course of the game. Defensive lineman Leonard
Williams had one of them and was ejected for throwing a punch at Packers tackle
Bryan Bulaga.When all was said and done, the Jets were penalized 16 times for
172 yards overall. All that yellow left head coach Todd Bowles seeing red after
the game.?? thought we were playing two teams. The Packers and the striped
shirts,??Bowles said at his postgame press conference.Bowles said he expects to
be fined for his comments, but that the officiating was “ridiculous” enough that
he felt he had to say something about it following what might have been his
final home game in his current job. In early December, when the Green Bay
Packers put outside linebacker Nick Perry on injured reserve, we at APC
discussed all the options for what the team could do with him this offseason.
Any decision the Packers make — from a conventional release to a post-June 1st
cut to keeping him on his current contract for 2019 — will force the Packers to
take a substantial hit on the salary cap over the next year or two.At the time,
the most palatable option seemed to be cutting him with a post-June 1st
designation, which frees up about $10 million in salary cap space for 2019 and
another $7 million in 2020. It remains this author’s opinion that this is the
best option moving forward.A similar situation is now setting up with tight end
Jimmy Graham, however, who is scheduled to have a cap hit of $12.67 million in
2019. As with Perry, the team has three feasible options: a straight-up release,
a post-June 1st release
Mike Daniels Jersey , or keeping him through 2019 and dealing with him in 2020. Given Graham’s production — 55 receptions for 636 yards and two touchdowns — his
price tag for his age 33 and 34 seasons looks difficult to justify.Below, you
will find a breakdown of the financials of each of these situations as well as a
discussion of how the decisions with both Perry and Graham could work
together.Graham’s ContractThe contract that Graham signed last March is
scheduled to pay him $30 million over the three years from 2018 to 2020. That
included an $11 million signing bonus, which would apply to the salary cap as a
$3.667 million charge each of the three years. Graham’s cap hit in 2018 was just
under $6 million, as the deal backloaded significant dollars onto years two and
three.The current cap hits are scheduled as follows:2019: $12.667M2020:
$11.667MA final note is that $5 million of Graham’s 2019 compensation is in the
form of a roster bonus, which is scheduled to pay out on the fifth day of the
2019 league year.Conventional ReleaseThis is simple: if the Packers cut Graham
normally, they take a $7.3 million hit on their cap, due to the final two years
of his signing bonus deferral accruing in 2019. That frees up $5.3 million in
cap space immediately, and it gets him off the books entirely for 2020.2019:
$7.3M dead cap, $5.3M cap relief (immediate)2020: no dead cap, $11.7M cap
reliefPost-June 1 ReleaseThe post-June First cut option gets slightly tricky,
thanks to that roster bonus, but here goes. The move would free up some cap
space immediately
Jaire Alexander Jersey , some more as of June 2nd, and most (but not all) of his cap hit in 2020.The rule states that a post-June 1 cut puts the current year’s
guaranteed money (or signing bonus deferral) on the current year’s cap, and all
future years’ obligations go on the next year’s cap. Therefore, the Packers take
one hit of $3.7M each of the next two years. However, the post-June 1st cut
results in the player’s 2019 full cap hit remaining on the books until June 2nd.
This means that the Packers would get $9 million of extra cap space — but not
until that date. Thus, the schedule looks as follows:2019: $3.7M dead cap hit,
$9M in cap relief on June 2nd2020: $3.7M dead cap hit, $8M in cap reliefIf the
Packers are going to cut Graham, they may as well do it outright without the
post-June 1 designation; that would allow them to use the $5.3M in open cap
space immediately for free agent signings rather than leaving it on the books
until the summer. This makes even more sense when we add Nick Perry into the
mix, as you’ll see shortly.Keep Graham for 2019The other option is, of course,
to let Graham remain in Green Bay on his contract for a second season and
presumably cut him before 2020. In this case
Kingsley Keke Green Bay Packers Jersey , the Packers keep his $12.67M cap number on their books this year, then take a $3.67M dead hit in 2020 to open up that
$8M number that season.The difference here is the $9M in total cash Graham is
scheduled to receive in 2019. That’s the amount that the Packers would save by
cutting him in 2019 instead of 2020, with the timing of when those savings kick
in being determined by the cut designation. Given his production in 2018, this
writer feels that this $9 million could probably be put to better use elsewhere,
and a cut is the wiser option.Cutting Graham and Nick PerryPerry’s situation is
similar to Graham’s, but the amounts of cap savings are a bit different. As we
discussed previously, cutting Perry outright saves the Packers about $3.3M
immediately. However, the $10.7 million cap savings over the summer that would
result from a post-June 1st cut is a big number, one that could feasibly cover
the Packers’ entire draft class (which currently has a pool of $10.35M, per
Overthecap.com). Thus, the post-June 1 cut makes sense for him. Use the cap
savings from Graham to help sign some free agents, then use the Perry savings to
sign the draft class.That’s just one scenario. If the Packers were to cut both
players
Kingsley Keke Jersey 2019 , there are four combinations of designations possible: either, neither, or both players could get the post-June 1st designation. Here
is how cap space would open up in all four scenarios:Both Graham & Perry
designated as post-June 1st cutsImmediate: No cap reliefJune 2nd: $19.7M cap
relief2020: $14.9M cap reliefGraham released immediately, Perry post-June
1stImmediate: $5.3M cap reliefJune 2nd: $10.7M cap relief2020: $18.6M cap
reliefGraham post-June 1st, Perry released immediatelyImmediate: $3.3M cap
reliefJune 2nd: $9M cap relief2020: $22.3M cap reliefBoth Graham & Perry
released immediatelyImmediate: $8.6M cap reliefJune 2nd: no additional
relief2020: ~$26M cap reliefAgain, given that the Packers will need to sign
their draft class this summer, the option of cutting Graham outright and using a
post-June 1 designation on Perry appears to be the best. It frees up a nice
chunk of space immediately to help sign some free agents, opens up an even
bigger chunk over the summer, and gets two albatross contracts off the books
with a substantial savings against the 2020 cap. And keep in mind that any
unused cap space from this year’s cap will be applied to 2020, so the added
flexibility of having more money during the 2019 season can only help.The
question now becomes whether Brian Gutekunst and Russ Ball see the numbers the
same way.
