Raiders Rumors: How Restructuring Contracts Will Shape Oakland's Offseason Moves

The Oakland Raiders originally faced a mountainous salary cap deficit of more than $20 million this offseason, but after a flurry of moves in the past couple of weeks, the Raiders have not only erased much if not all of that salary cap overage, but they may actually be in the position to make a move or two to improve the team in free agency.

In just the past week alone, defensive lineman Richard Seymour, safety Michael Huff, quarterback Carson Palmer and linebacker Aaron Curry all restructured their contracts, in many cases converting base salaries into signing bonuses that can then be pro-rated, allowing the cap hit to be spread out over a number of years to afford Oakland more salary cap flexibility.

The Raiders also released cornerbacks Stanford Routt and Chris Johnson and safety Hiram Eugene this offseason in an effort to come into compliance with the 2012 salary cap before the March 13 deadline.

This flurry of transactions was sorely needed, as not only were the Raiders well over what the salary cap was expected to be this season, but the actual cap number for 2012 may have even come in a bit lower than was originally anticipated, according to FOX Sports' Jay Glazer, who tweeted Sunday that this season's $120.6 million cap figure is only fractionally higher than last year's, despite the NFL and NFLPA's last-minute efforts to find some way to increase it.

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Hearing that when the league sets the salary cap on Monday it'll be right around $120.6 million

— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) March 11, 2012"

The Raiders' next order of business will be to decide the fate of outside linebacker Kamerion Wimbley. Although Oakland and Wimbley had been in negotiations to redo the six-year veteran's deal in a manner that will lessen Wimbley's $11 million cap number this season, those talks have broken down. Scout.com's Aaron Wilson reports that the likelihood is increasing that Wimbley may be released.

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Wimbley is due an $11 million base salary next season, and $6.5 million of that figure is fully guaranteed for skill, injury and cap. The remaining $4.5 million becomes fully guaranteed for skill, injury and cap if he's on the roster on the fifth day of the league year.

Plus, an additional $13 million through his $11 million 2013 base salary and $2 million of his 2014 $10 million base salary becomes fully guaranteed in the deal if he's on the roster on the fifth day of the 2012 league year. By cutting Wimbley, the Raiders would save themselves a total of $17.5 million.

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Wimbley may well not be the last Raiders player headed out the door, as defensive tackle John Henderson is also a candidate for release.

With Oakland now believed to be in compliance with the 2012 cap, any further moves will likely be borne less of desperation than of attempting to free up some space to acquire free agents as the Raiders and new general manager Reggie McKenzie attempt to wrangle out from under years of bad signings and questionable contracts.

That problem isn't going to get fixed overnight, but to this point, McKenzie and the Raiders have done an excellent job, given they mess they were handed.

Although the Oakland Raiders almost certainly won't be big players in free agency this year, given where the team started out, it's rather amazing that they will be players at all.

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