New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com

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Originally Posted by mayoj

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I'm not too knowledgable about NFL contracts. When will we be able to cut Sullivan if he doesn't produce.

You can theoretically cut a player at any time. No NFL contract is guaranteed.

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When you cut a player, do you still pay him?

Yes and no. Time for Capology 101:

The typical NFL contract consists of a signing bonus, which is guaranteed, and annual salary, which is not. With rare exceptions (see Ricky Williams) the player gets to keep the signing bonus no matter what. OTOH the annual salary isn't guaranteed at all.

Now for salary cap purposes the signing bonus is spread over the life of the contract. So a player with a 5 year contract and a $10 million signing bonus would have a cap number of $2 million per year for the signing bonus. BTW Sullivan's bonus was 11.4 million on a 7 year contract which means he costs about $1.6 million against the cap each year. Note that the annual salary is also added to the cap number.

Now when you cut a player the team has to pay the remainder of the signing bonus money against the cap. Typically that money has to be paid immediately. For Sullivan that number is about $8 million.

Hopefully you can see the problem now. If we keep the lazy lug, he costs $1.6 million. If we cut him you take a $8 million hit right now.

So the correct course of action is to continue to try to motivate him to live somewhere close to his potential.

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Are there no clauses in contracts about practicing, conditioning, conduct etc?

It's on a per contract basis. Sullivan has a weight clause for example.

All signing bonuses are a gamble. So far Sullivan's has come up craps.

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Bottomline: If Sullivan doesn't come around, when will we be able to stop leaning over the bench and taking in it the a** from this guy? His raping us is bad enough, but my back hurts from his fat stomch resting on it in the process.

It'll probably be another two seasons before his cap hit becomes reasonable enough to consider.

Sullivan can void the last two years of his contract with sufficient performance numbers. A better tact would be to convince the guy to play better so he can get to his next contract and next signing bonus earlier.

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Hopefully, he'll come around.

That's one thing we all hope.

SFIAH