ESPN reported earlier this month that the Raiders were $11 million over the projected salary cap for 2012. Now comes a report from ProFootballTalk.com that the Raiders are more than $25 million over the expected figure. The ProFootballTalk.com report pegs the Raiders at $145.7 million for their top 51 salaried players, the ones who count toward the cap for now. The projected cap is slightly more than $120 million, much the same as last season. By comparison, the Super Bowl champion New York Giants are the next most-cash-strapped team, at more than $129 million for their top 51 players. Source: Oakland Tribune
If I'm not mistaken, these figures are what was projected at the end of last season... The team has cut a couple of the out of wack contracts. I don't doubt there will be more restructuring before the the start of the season.
They're paying a bunch of money to their kicker and punter, thats a pretty bad way to round out your cap.
They have to cut some major names and it's still not going to be enough because of the contracts and pro-rated bonuses. Even releasing Wimbley, Tommy Kelly and Aaron Curry...you're not getting the cap space you need to get it done. Just those three and they are still in the neighborhood of $13M or so over. They are in "cap jail!". Not to mention they have little to no draft picks...lol.
So what happens when they are this much over the cap? Do they have to cut/trade players until they are under it?
Yeah. I think the date is March 13th when they have to be all the way under. Teams aren't allowed to be over for 5 minutes...
they pay a luxury tax i believe. i would imagine if they kept doing it, they could start taking draft picks or something.