Woodley restructures contract

by Kansas Steel on Feb 8, 2012 10:10 AM EST

Rotoworld is reporting that L. Woodley has agreed to restructure his contract to save the Steelers 6.65 million under the 2012 Salary cap. If the 25 million over figure I've been seeing is correct this still leaves the Steelers in need of cutting approx. 19 million just to become cap compliant. The article mentioned Ben, Troy, Harrison, and Timmons as possible additional targets for restructuring.

I would love to see a good breakdown of who counts what against the cap among players who are likely to be released. For example, does the difference in Hamptons 4+ million salary and his 8+ million cap figure mean that we take a 4+ million dollar cap hit even if we cut him? I assume so. How do these numbers play out with L. Foote, ect... The Steelers might have to take on a lot of "dead space" under next years cap even making intelligent and necessary cuts.

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I am impressed with Woodley for making this move. Hopefully more players will follow his example.

by steelerintexas on Feb 8, 2012 12:30 PM EST reply actions

i obviously dont follow other teams as closely

but ive never seen nor heard of so many guys on one team willing to restructure their contracts. almost every big star on the team has restructured at least once, most have done it a few times. it speaks to how tight-knit this group is in wanting to stay together and even willing to take less money (even in the short term) to do so. very impressed with Woodley and everyone else who’s restructured in the recent past.

by steel.curtain.number2 on Feb 8, 2012 1:15 PM EST reply actions

I wouldn’t be all that impressed by the restructuring. They take their salary and pay it all up front and call it a bonus so that they can then spread that cap hit out over the life of the contract. Not only is he not getting less money, he is getting it all up front. If my company offered to give me my whole salary except for a small amount all up front at the beginning of the year, I would jump at it in a heart beat.

by worldtrip on Feb 8, 2012 7:03 PM EST up reply actions

I believe they changed rules a few years ago so you couldn’t just give huge bonus’ like that (Deion Sanders rule, I think it is) I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’ve heard different. If there is any information on this type of stuff, could you point me to it?

Can I get some hot sauce for my doughnut?

by FrankWyt on Feb 8, 2012 10:48 PM EST up reply actions

Here is the relevant information about Woodley’s restructuring

“Franchised by the Steelers prior to last year’s lockout, Woodley signed a five-year extension worth $52.5 million on August. Woodley received a $13 million signing bonus, $4 million option bonus and a $1.1 million base salary which resulted in a 2011 cap number of $7.7 million. In 2012, Woodley was due a $3.4 million base salary and had a $5.5 million roster bonus due on the 5th day of the 2012 league year for a cap number of $11.5 million.

On Monday, Woodley agreed to a restructure that lowered his base salary to $700,000. The remaining $2.7 million in base salary was combined with his $5.5 million roster bonus and converted into an $8.2 million signing bonus, which will be prorated over the remaining five seasons of Woodley’s contract."

You can find the information here

by worldtrip on Feb 8, 2012 11:07 PM EST up reply actions

Thank you sir. I appreciate that very much.

Can I get some hot sauce for my doughnut?

by FrankWyt on Feb 8, 2012 11:43 PM EST up reply actions

as for your question regarding cap casualties

i found an article a few weeks ago that was very informative.. this isn’t the same one, but its the best i could find right now.
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=68&f=1897&t=8553160

by steel.curtain.number2 on Feb 8, 2012 1:23 PM EST reply actions

aha! i found it.

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2012/01/2012-steelers-salary-cap-10-players-sure-to-be-released-or-restructured/

basically if ALL 10 are cut in the most prudent way we can save almost $30million. some, like Kemo, have to be released in more creative ways in order to save the most money for 2012. if its true that Woodley is saving us 6mil, then we obviously dont need to cut everyone. id say the ones we keep are Ward, Farrior, and maybe Hampton if they all restructure.

by steel.curtain.number2 on Feb 8, 2012 1:48 PM EST reply actions

Good info. - thx

by Kansas Steel on Feb 8, 2012 2:45 PM EST up reply actions

Class move by Woodley

Things like this speak a lot about the character of a player and the quality of his relationship with the team.

Thank you Mr Woodley.

anyone trying to contact me via my yahoo account should be aware it has been hacked

by Cold_Old_Steelers_Fan on Feb 8, 2012 2:21 PM EST reply actions

In Omar Khan we trust

"It’s easy to lie with statistics, but it’s easier to lie without them." -Fred Mosteller
Follow me on Twitter

by John Stephens on Feb 8, 2012 3:18 PM EST reply actions

Just read an article at Steeler Depot

That Khan will be interviewing for the GM job in St Loius. I would do the link but computer challenged. Sorry!

"you will hardly know who I am or what I mean"-Walt Whitman

by Pittsblitz56 on Feb 8, 2012 7:58 PM EST up reply actions

all you got to do is highlight the entire address bar when you’re on the story. (right now, on this page it should say www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2012 blah blah blah

On the story, highlight the whole address, right click, copy. Then either in reply or any comment box, there is a little chain (second from the left in the box just above the comment box…next to a picture of a tree) Then, in that box that pops up, right click again, then paste, then enter it all

Can I get some hot sauce for my doughnut?

by FrankWyt on Feb 8, 2012 10:51 PM EST up reply actions

and if that's too much trouble, just paste the link in the body part.

anyone can then copy/paste that into a browser if supremely motivated to do so.

by SteelersVT on Feb 10, 2012 12:01 AM EST up reply actions

thank you, I was actually trying to make it as simple as possible, but you did a better job.

Can I get some hot sauce for my doughnut?

by FrankWyt on Feb 10, 2012 12:53 AM EST up reply actions

As long as Woodley does not get hurt

Restructuring contracts can get you in CAP hell very easily. I trust the FO, but am very concerned. Make the deep cuts now and move forward so that we have CAP room in 2013 and 2014 when the CAP goes up.

by Steeler Nation VA on Feb 8, 2012 3:28 PM EST reply actions

And just tank next season?

If you cut everyone to try and get under the cap, we would be awful next year. Imagine a team with no:
Hines Ward, Jerricho Cotchery, Max Starks, Jonathan Scott, Chris Kemoatu, Aaron Smith, Casey Hampton, Larry Foote, James Farrior, Bryan McFadden, and William Gay. You might not think that would be that devastating, but trust me, if you have every played football you would know how devastating losing 9 contributors to your team (and 5 starters) would be to your team.

draftdatabase.wordpress.com
Follow @steelersrule124

by seton hall and steelers on Feb 8, 2012 4:28 PM EST up reply actions

Imagine a team with no:
Hines Ward, Jerricho Cotchery, Max Starks, Jonathan Scott, Chris Kemoatu, Aaron Smith, Casey Hampton, Larry Foote, James Farrior, Bryan McFadden, and William Gay.

Hines is at best a 5th WR
Cotchery is a FA, try to resign him to a resonable contract
Max is a FA – if you want to resign him, where is the money coming from
J Scott – Sucks cut him
Kemo – has lost it and was a liability
Smith – will retire
Hampton – 2 down NTat best, not worth the money, especially returning from knee injury
Foote – may have to cut him or resign for vet min
Farrior – Draft a rookie ILB in round 1 or 2 and keep Farrior for 1 more year
McFadden – Did not even make it on the field – cut today
Gay is a FA, resign to vet min or let him walk and see what the young bucks can do
Arnaz Battle – Cut today

We may not make a run for the SB next year, but lets retool and make a run in a year or 2 with a new ILB, NT & LG.

Without deep cuts we can not resign Ziggy (2013), Wallace (2012), Lewis (2012), Sanders & Brown (2013) + many others who will be the future.

by Steeler Nation VA on Feb 8, 2012 4:55 PM EST up reply actions

Ward and Farrior are the two big ones

add them to the loss of Smith and thats way too much veteran leadership to cut in one year. Id like to keep Hampton as well but only if he restructures —a lot…

by steel.curtain.number2 on Feb 8, 2012 5:00 PM EST up reply actions

i think their strategy

is to keep putting the money into future years, once the cap number goes up high enough, we’ll suddenly be under the cap without really doing anything.

by steel.curtain.number2 on Feb 8, 2012 4:56 PM EST up reply actions

This is why I love this team

Every player on this team recognizes that the team is more important than their wallets and over the past couple years to see the amount of players that are willing to restructure their contracts to help the team is incredible. Even players that just signed their contract the year before will do it. That is why we continue to win Super Bowls and dominate the AFC. Yeah great drafting and player development helps. But if the players were not willing to restructure deals constantly and take less money to stay in Pittsburgh, we would lose too many of our great draft picks.

draftdatabase.wordpress.com
Follow @steelersrule124

by seton hall and steelers on Feb 8, 2012 4:27 PM EST reply actions

Every player on this team recognizes that the team is more important than their wallets and over the past couple years to see the amount of players that are willing to restructure their contracts to help the team is incredible.

Woodley got his entire 2012 salary minus the league min yesterday. It was not generousity, it was good business on his part.

Would you take your entire salary for the year upfront minus minimum wage ($15,080) on January 1st and then get $290 a week for the rest of the year. Sure.

by Steeler Nation VA on Feb 8, 2012 5:00 PM EST up reply actions

His point still stands.

"If you havin' dragon problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 arrows but my knee took one."

by Riddlah. on Feb 9, 2012 4:01 PM EST up reply actions

They will get there

Really not too worried about the cap. We were over by quite a bit last year as well and the Team has been great about knowing who not to over pay and who to cut. Not like the late 90’s when the never resigned a FA.

The area on the team I am worried about is LB. We have a lot of money tied up in Woodley, Harrison, and Timmons. This year due injuries to Woodley and Harrison and timmons playing out of position we did not get our bang for the buck (or millions).

I think they try to lock up both Wallace and Brown this year. Give Brown a 4 year extension now for reasonable money and it will have money in two years when he becomes a RFA.

by MrZoot on Feb 9, 2012 7:40 AM EST reply actions