COLTS - Ruling may lead to more cuts

[Keyser_WV]

This was on Fanball:

03/02 11:06 Colts: Ruling may lead to more cuts
THE NEWS
An NFL arbitrator's ruling regarding the contracts of quarterback Peyton Manning and wide receiver Marvin Harrison might necessitate more cuts by the Colts in order to get under the league's salary cap. The ruling by special master Stephen Burbank, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, prohibits the Colts from converting roster bonuses of $9 million for Manning and $10 million for Harrison to signing bonuses, allowing them to be prorated over the next four years. Such a move—a standard bookkeeping maneuver, according to the Indianapolis Star—would have lowered Manning's cap hit by $7.7 million and Marv's by $7.5. Burbank's ruling, according to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, was based on the "30 percent rule," which prevents base salaries from increasing more than 30 percent each year over the first year of the contract.

Our View
If the ruling holds—and a special master's decision is believed to be final, though Colts owner Jim Irsay told the Star the issue was "far from resolved"—Manning and Harrison would count a combined $32 million against Indy's salary cap for 2006. That would result in the need for some significant paring of the payroll, with more cuts inevitable and the possibility of bringing back running back Edgerrin James or linebacker David Thornton extremely unlikely.

[Canadian Seahawk]

Losers

[skibrett15]

now that is a job a "special master" sounds more like a jedi than a lawyer to me.

[maddog60]

These are not the cap figures you are looking for Indy. *waves hand in half circle*

[Dr. Duran Duran]

This blows.

[no1cowboysfan]

no offense to the Colts, but it serves them right. They've been handing out contracts like candy last couple years (guess not to Edge) with what appears to be no outlook to the future. And Freeney is coming up.

Meanwhile, the Colts FO has been planning to Snyder every year to fix what will be a cap Hell (yes, I made Snyder a verb). I'm glad this happened... you can't just give a guy the kind of money their throwing out in today's NFL.