A handful of teams need to take action in order to participate in off-season trading. Each team must be under the $83 million salary cap. (14.1) To reach that number, teams may cut former rookies due to count against the cap, free agents, or players under contract with the following restrictions:
16.10 - An owner may only release a player under contract if: a. The team pays a fine equaling half of the player's salary over the life of his contract (Payable and deducted from the cap at the next draft). b. The player may be released without fine if the player played in no more than 3 NFL games in the prior disk season. (16.10.b)
For example, if a player played in 4 NFL games in the prior season and had 2 years remaining on his contract for 4 million and 5 million, the owner may release him by paying a 4.5 million fine.
New owners should use this Preliminary cut down period to rid themselves of any bad contracts without penalty as long as they can meet the minimum roster requirements of 22 players by the final cut down date. (16.12)
The Deadline for this Preliminary Cut Period is April 27th. No trades will be allowed until a team has met the requirements of the Preliminary Cut Down Period. The first trading period opens Apr 2nd.
The second and Final Cut Down date is My 25th when a team must be below $70m in salary with a minimum of 22 players.
24 April