MORE ON MARVIN’S CAP CONSEQUENCES

We’ve gotten a look-see at the receiver Marvin Harrison’s contract with the Colts. As Adam Schefter of NFL Network has reported, Harrison has a $13.4 million cap number for 2009. The inflated figure comes from sins of salary cap years past. In 2005, $7 million of a roster bonus was converted to a guaranteed payment. Ditto for $10 million of a roster bonus due in 2006. Though we assumed that Harrison’s base salary for 2009 is $7 million, it’s actually a whopping $9 million. With a $2 million acceleration from 2009 hitting the cap if Harrison were to be cut, the net savings would be $7 million, with $6.4 million in dead money. But since only $4.4 million of Harrison’s 2009 cap number arises from bonus allocations, the Colts could keep Harrison with the same $6.4 million cap charge if he were to agree to reduce his base salary to $2 million. So the question, in our view, is whether the Colts have given him that option – and whether Harrison is willing to comply. The real question, in our view, is whether anyone else would pay Harrison $2 million this year. Based on his gimpy knees and, on a couple of curious occasions last year, a slight case of alligator arms, we’d be surprised if anyone else would give him much more than that.