Wasting cap space on certain veterans

[*ochocincos*]

(10-19-2020, 05:43 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Yes, I know that.

I don't think we are quite understanding each other, so let me try to make my question more clear using an example...

Per Spotrac, Geno Atkins has a cap hit this year of $14.2 mill if he is here through the whole year.
His dead cap, if released, is $7.8 mill.

What I am asking is given the fact there are 10 games remaining...
1) What has he been paid to date this year?
2) What remaining guaranteed money is he still owed that would result in dead cap if released?
3) What, if any, cap savings would the Bengals be able to get this year from cutting him?

I'm to assume he's received $2.6 mill signing bonus, $200k roster bonus, $300k workout bonus. That would be $3.1 mill in bonuses.
Atkins's base salary this year is $11.1 mill.
Is the base salary split out per game such that he makes $693k per game?

If so, he'd be due $6.93 mill the rest of this year if he played his contract out.
He's already received $7.26 mill this season from bonuses + 6 games.

His remaining dead cap should only be the rest of his signing bonus, which is $5.2 mill, right?
As such, if he's released today, the Bengals would actually have a savings of $1.73 mill this year and also no dead cap hit to 2021 or 2022 because his dead cap would have been paid out this season.

Along with this, here's potential savings with cutting Dunlap this week:
$7.8 mill base salary (assumed to be $458k per game)
$2.25 mill signing bonus, $437.5k roster bonus, $500k workout bonus = $3.1875 mill in bonuses
($458k x 6 = $2.753 mill) + $3.1875 mill = $5.94 mill paid out to date.
$5.038 mill remaining to be paid for remaining 11 weeks.

If Dunlap is cut today, the remaining $2.25 mill signing bonus for next year would have to be paid out, therefore meaning the Bengals would still have a net positive $2.788 mill saved this year along with 0 dead cap hit next year.

So if Dunlap + Atkins are cut prior to Sunday's game...
$1.817 mill saved this year for Atkins
$2.788 mill saved this year for Dunlap
------------
$4.6 mill saved that can be rolled over to next year

Also, 0 dead cap for next year since Dunlap and Atkins would be off the books this year.

So basically this was the long version of "yes, the Bengals would save money if they moved on from them now"

EDIT - I just looked it up and the base salary is not split per game but by week, which includes the bye week. As such, a player only makes 1/17th of their base salary per game. Given that the Bengals have not had their bye week, there are still 11 pay periods remaining for Bengals players. I have updated the base salary numbers to reflect this.