Raiders’ Davis outsmarting the salary cap?

By Joe Mayes  |   Friday, April 11, 2008  |  Comments( 79 )

Oakland Raiders
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The buzz among NFL fans this off-season is that Al Davis has finally snapped. The Godfather is no longer running the show; he’s now just running around the garden with an orange in his mouth. He’s throwing money around like a sailor on shore leave with no thought of tomorrow. The once-proud franchise is in the hands of a senile old grandfather who appears committed to leaving his fortune to his 87 cats. The consensus is that that crazy Uncle Al has finally gone off the deep end.

In the immortal words of Lee Corso, not so fast, my friends.

Long-time Raider fans have watched Davis do some odd things in the past. Some have worked, others have not (see: Moss, Randall Gene). But with just 19 total wins over the past five seasons, something dramatic had to happen in order to awaken the moribund Raiders franchise from its collective malaise.

Last fall, Davis sold 20% of his ownership share in the Raiders. Of course, no actual ownership control was transferred so the net effect of this sale is that cash was freed up for Davis to take some drastic steps during this off-season.

And that he’s done.

The thing about Davis is that he’s always kept his own counsel, abetted by a very tight circle of advisors. The vision has always been his; the details are the only thing on which he seeks advice.

So when Davis signed Tommy Kelly to a seven-year, $52.5 million contract on the eve of free-agency, it merely marked the opening salvo in a battle to extricate the Raiders from the mire in which they’ve been stuck since their 2002 Super Bowl appearance.

Of course we all know what’s happened. Javon Walker signed for six years and $55 million. Davis signed Gibril Wilson for six years and $39 million. He traded this year’s second-round and 2009’s fifth-round picks to Atlanta for the privilege of signing DeAngelo Hall to a seven-year, $70-ish million deal. He signed Kwame Harris for three years and $14 million and locked down Nnamdi Asomugha by slapping the franchise tag on him, meaning he’ll get about $9.5 million in 2008 before going after the real money next year.

With the dust beginning to settle, the Raiders look to have approximately $137 million locked up in contracts for 2008, about $16 million over their adjusted salary cap of $121 million. While according to the collective bargaining agreement currently in place the NFL can take action against a team for exceeding the cap, until the beginning of the season only the salaries of the top 51 players plus bonuses (but not salaries) of the other players (up to 80) count against the cap. At this point, it’s not clear to me exactly where the Raiders stand against the adjusted cap of $121 million.

But you can bet Davis knows, down to the penny.

And before you panic about Davis selling out the future for the possibility of success in ’08 and ’09, keep in mind two things. First, most of the contracts mentioned above include only a portion of the money guaranteed in 2008 and 2009. That means Oakland can dump players -- and contracts -- following the 2009 season.

The current CBA allows either the owners or players to opt out beginning in November 2008, a scenario which appears likely to happen. If it does, there will be no dramatic change to the cap rules (other than an anticipated $7 increase next year) in 2008 and 2009. And assuming ownership opts out of the current CBA, there will be no cap in 2010.

Just in time for all the Raiders back-loaded contracts to kick in.

Sure this will cost the Raiders a lot of money but keep in mind the NFL well is not about to run dry. NFL revenues are more than $6 billion per year and while the league is carrying significant debt (Sports Business Journal estimates approximately $9 billion), a chunk of this money will continue to flow to the players. After the uncapped 2010 season, there’s no way to know what percentage of revenues will be committed to players but that gives the Raiders three seasons to determine if the recent signees are going to help return the team to glory. If not, most of the contracts can be dumped in time for whatever new agreement is in place at the start of the 2011 season.

In other words, Davis played the situation perfectly by making it rain in Oakland.
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About Joe Mayes

Joe Mayes is an award-winning writer with credits ranging from national sports columns to local newspapers and commercial and technical writing. Joe is the host of "The Morning Wrap," a morning drive-time sports talk radio show on WTKE-FM in Northwest Florida.
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CommentsComments: 79  |  Sign Up  View all comments
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No.1
11:23 AM
04/11/2008
from a famous movie "there is no tommorrow" and Mr Al Davis finally realizes this and is about to come true on his promise to...
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No.2
La Milicia Negra		11:25 AM
04/11/2008
yup... Al had the money he wanted a Team so he bought those final pieces he needed.. Man I love the Gibril move, and the Carter...
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No.3
11:34 AM
04/11/2008
As far as cap space goes let's not forget that Jordan will be gone before the season starts. 87 cats ? 100 minus 87 = 13. You...
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