Tavon Austin's Contract Is Almost Cap Neutral

Rob Demovsky confirmed that the Packers have signed Tavon Austin to the active roster.  Overthecap has provided the details of his deal, though in a form that seems confusing to me, but the numbers suggests that Austin signed a qualified contract.  Austin will be paid the minimum for a seven-year veteran ($1.05M) prorated for the remaining 5 games out of the 17-week season.  5/17ths of $1.05M is $308,823.  That is the amount of cash that Austin is scheduled to receive from the Packers for this season.  However, I care about cap, not cash.

Assuming it was a qualified contract, Tavon Austin would count for cap purposes the same amount as the minimum for a player with two credited seasons.  Players with two credited seasons earn $750,000, which when prorated for the remaining 5 weeks out of the 17-week season yields a cap number for Austin of $220,588.  

The signing of Austin caused the Packers to release Darrius Shepherd, so it seems fair to compare the contracts of those two players.  Shepherd was scheduled to earn $198,529 for the remaining weeks in the season.  Since Austin will make $308K, it cost the Packer about $110,294 in cash to replace Shepherd with Austin.

Since Austin will count as $220,588 against the cap and Shepherd would have had an additional cap hit of $198,529 had he finished the season with the Packers, replacing Shepherd with Austin cost just an additional $22,059 against the cap.          

Cost To Replace Shepherd With Austin
Cash $110,294
Cap Space $22,059

  

REMAINING SALARY CAP SPACE:

I have the Packers with just over $4.3 million in cap space and $3.45 million in effective space.  Ken Ingalls, who keeps a very close eye on the Packers cap, has the Packers with $4.18 million in cap space and $3.54 million in effective cap space.  You can look at Ken's numbers here.

Briefly, some of the big drivers between current cap space and effective cap space include not-likely-to-be-earned game active bonuses and incentives that players are on pace to actually earn.  For instance, Kirksey has $1M in game active bonuses ($62,500/game) and could be active for 11 games this year if he is active for the rest of the season.  He would earn a $687,500 bonus for being active, but he only was active for two games last year, so his cap number might increase by $562,500.  Linsley has a $250,000 incentive he earns if he is named to the Pro Bowl.  He was playing well enough to earn it so it should be in the budget.  Going on IR hurts his chances since the fan voting ends on the 12th, players vote on the 14th and the selections are announced on December 17, 2020. 

At any rate, the Packers can afford to sign low risk players like Austin since the cap consequences are minimal.  I just read an article suggesting that the Packers should sign Kenny Stills now that he has cleared waivers.  Stills played 10 games and caught just 11 passes on 19 targets for 144 yards with Houston this year.  Per Pro Football Reference, Stills dropped 3 passes.  He has battled a quadriceps injury and was ruled out for Houston's game a few days ago against Detroit and played just 12 snaps over the two games prior to that.  He does not sound like the answer to me, unless he is willing to sign for the practice squad.  Cap resources are getting low and it might be wiser to keep the powder dry.        

 

 

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7 points
 

Comments (13)

Fan-Friendly This filter will hide comments which have ratio of 5 to 1 down-vote to up-vote.
Thegreatreynoldo's picture

December 03, 2020 at 07:55 am

Okay, the photo is the one I wanted!

Packers have saved some on the cap by only once having a full complement of players ready for the game (53 on the active and 2 elevated from the PS). Probably saved the team $500K to $1M.

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flackcatcher's picture

December 03, 2020 at 06:06 pm

Thanks TGR. I didn't get why the Packers never had a full game day roster for most of this season. Gute vs Cap Man. Chapter three, the roster...

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Bure9620's picture

December 03, 2020 at 09:13 am

This is a shrewd move, very Wolfthompsonish....

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Ferrari-Driver's picture

December 03, 2020 at 10:24 am

Certainly agree with your suggestion of NOT signing Stills.

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stockholder's picture

December 03, 2020 at 11:48 am

I'm all for signing a KR. But lets not get carried away with the Jimmy Graham hype. Veterans are "released" because they just don't make a difference any more. Were in Cap hell now. If there isn't a void. Don't sign anyone. TT Rule #1. Play the hand your dealt!

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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

December 03, 2020 at 03:56 pm

Not hyping Austin. For $22K, he's an upgrade to Shepherd. He has to beat out Ervin, who is still limited in practice.

$22K in the NFL barely constitutes a negligible ante. It is less than one game of elevating two guys from the practice squad for a game instead of one.

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stockholder's picture

December 03, 2020 at 11:50 pm

Stills? I understand Austin. As I wrote he saved us a 2nd rd. pick. And the upgrade. But lets make sure of the upgrade. And the costs. Paying guys that have been bounced around. Doesn't work. They'll spend more time with the trainers. Or sit the bench.

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Tundraboy's picture

December 03, 2020 at 09:58 pm

Personally I want to move on from all things Ted. As Vince would say we are the Green Bay Packers. act accordingly, Passive approach gets you nowhere.

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stockholder's picture

December 04, 2020 at 12:05 am

Ted was cheap. Too cheap. Waste not ,want not.

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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

December 03, 2020 at 04:11 pm

The Packers had 51 on the 53-man roster. They activated Barnes to take one spot and will use the other spot on Dillon when he clears Covid protocol.

That means anyone they bring in would require them to release another player. Given that, it is likely that the cap would not be too greatly affected by the bulk of such possible moves, unless they swung a trade for an established player instead of a street free agent type of player.

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NitschkeFan's picture

December 03, 2020 at 04:47 pm

Wasn't there a "trade deadline"? Are you saying that trades can still take place?

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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

December 05, 2020 at 11:59 am

Yes, trades are still legal. Players have to go through waivers now but prior to the deadline they didn't, meaning prior to the trade deadline no team could throw a wrench in the works by making a waiver claiim to mess up a trade.

So, if GB trades for a player that player has to go through waivers. If a claim is made, the trade doesn't happen. That means that only a small set of players can be traded after the deadline. No one wants him, player has a big cap hit than he's worth to most teams, something unusual.

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KnockTheSnotOutOfYou's picture

December 04, 2020 at 02:57 pm

I really like this pick-up with Austin. I have felt all along they need a quick twitch WR kind of like the Chief's Hill.

Depending on his health and conditioning his size/speed might really work well interspersed with the Pack's bigger WR's. The lack of speed on the outside hurts the team. I was discouraged though in reading his route running is not sharp....if true that is unfortunate! Speed kills!

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