Decisions, decisions

June decisions will impact teams for better or worse

Sure, teams waited until June 1 to cut some veteran players to have enough cap space to sign their rookies and stop some salary-cap bleeding. But June 1 is just the start date of this cutting period; wait until July 15 to check out how many players really got the ax.

This housecleaning has to be done, but a year from now several teams will face real cap issues. Here are four examples of how much damage just two post June 1 cuts this year will have on the 2003 cap space.

Pay cut has little to do with restructuring

Ask the majority of general managers and they'll tell you that the June 1 cuts don't excite them much since their rosters are already set for the 2002 campaign. Yeah, right. History tells us that there will be some difference makers available.

In recent years the June 1 cuts have produced Jerry Rice, Trent Dilfer, Antowain Smith and Michael Barrow, to name a few. In fact, given what these players agreed to play for, they were better bargains than many of the overpriced free agents signed in March.

The smart GMs know they can upgrade their teams by adding a starter or two and dumping a lesser veteran from their own roster. Watch the ripple effect: every time someone is signed, another player will be cut. This phenomenon will go on until the worst players are gone from the game.

So, which players will attract the most interest over the next few days? From everyone I've spoken to, wideout Keenan McCardell, defensive end Marco Coleman and linebacker Keith Mitchell have the best chance of getting signed quickly and will probably get a decent signing bonus and a multiyear deal.

Players who finally realized that they may not be such hot tickets on the open market decided to renegotiate with their home clubs. Most redone deals at this late date signify pay cut, not restructuring.

Giants defensive end Kenny Holmes took about a $900,000 pay cut to stay in New York and still ended up with a bigger paycheck than he would have gotten as a June 1 cut. He made a good business decision.

Actually, I was surprised Buffalo tackle John Fina made it public that he was willing to take a pay cut to stay in upstate New York because he probably could have made more money as a free agent. Offensive linemen who can line up at left tackle are hard to find and a team -- like Cleveland, with Ross Verba injured, or the Giants getting ready to start an inexperienced left tackle -- that might have been interested.

Bad cap management can leads to pink slips

Team capologists love this time of year. High-priced veteran players are cut and cap space comes back to the club. That's an accounting function and by no means always a good football decision.

If a team is simply dumping a bad player, that's one thing. But if it's a cap issue I can tell you from personal experience that when the regular season starts up, the ownership, the media and the fans won't remember any of these June 1 decisions. It'll be the coach, not the capologist, who will be blamed for doing a poor job when victories don't come a team's way.

The Jaguars have no way to replace the talent of McCardell, the Redskins don't have a legitimate answer at Coleman's spot, and it remains to be seen if the 49ers can dig up a lineman who can be as productive as old man Ray Brown.

There's a lot less risk for the Chiefs in cutting Derrick Alexander; they've already signed Johnnie Morton. And the same can be said for terminations like Charlie Batch in Detroit and Jamal Anderson in Atlanta; their spots were already accounted for by high draft picks Joey Harrington and T.J. Duckett, respectively.

You win football games with players, not with accounting principles. Bad cap management or unforeseen injuries can trigger June 1 cuts, but unless club executives replace the talent lost teams will be going backwards. By season's end, a half-dozen coaches will get pink slips for not winning enough games.

Pat Kirwan, who spent 12 years as a pro football coach, scout and personnel administrator, is an NFL analyst for CNNSI.com.

 

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