It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…
The 5 o’clock club is published from time to time during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.
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One topic of frequent discussion this offseason has been the state of Washington’s offensive tackle position, where the current presumed starters are Andrew Wylie on the right side and either the veteran Cornelius Lucas or the 3rd round rookie Brandon Coleman on the left side.
Earlier this offseason, the March free agent frenzy came and went without the Commanders signing any OTs from other teams. Some of the top free agents who were (or could have been) available in March were Tyron Smith, Mike Onwenu, Mekhi Becton, and Jonah Williams.
In the April draft, the run on OTs in the first round between picks 5 and 21 — where Washington didn’t have a pick — meant that the Commanders missed on the first-tier prospects, and ended up drafting Brandon Coleman with the 67th pick. Post-draft, Adam Peters said that the team tried to trade up into the first round but was unable to get a deal done. We’ve had at least one report that the team tried to trade with the Steelers for the 20th overall selection, targeting Troy Fautanu, the precise player that Pittsburgh took with that very pick.
In May, a number of fans turned their sights to the post-draft free agent market. There was some frustration expressed as players like Mekhi Becton signed with Philadelphia, Andrus Peat signed with the Raiders, and Chris Hubbard joined the 49ers. Of course, no one signed with the Commanders.
Hope then seemed to shift to free agents who would be cut by their teams later in the offseason. One problem highlighted by critics of this strategy was that players who get cut usually aren’t very good.
That gave rise to discussion of high quality veteran players with high cap hits who would be released by teams looking to save cap space. The thinking put forward here was that teams would be waiting until after June 1st to make those cuts in order to spread the cap hit over two seasons.
This is a confusing rule in the NFL that, because the name includes the specific date, isn’t always easily understood. With the end of May fast approaching, I wanted to address the issue in a 5 O’Clock Club article.
The Post-June 1st designation is exactly that — a designation. A team is allowed to release up to two players early in the offseason (almost always in early March, prior to the start of veteran free agency) but carry the player’s salary ‘on the books’ until June 1st. When the accounting entry is finally put through for salary cap purposes on June 2nd, the cap hit is spread over two seasons instead of hitting all at once in this season. Teams who have plenty of space in this season’s salary cap don’t really need to make use of this designation.
A brief explanation of how the Post June 1st designation works
The NFL salary cap makes distinctions between player moves that happen before June 2 and after June 1 of any given year. Removing a player from the roster, whether by cutting said player or trading him, prior to June 2 results in the acceleration of all remaining prorated bonus money into the current year. One thing to note here is that the Post-June 1 designation applies to trades as well as cuts, though Post-June 1 cuts are all we are likely to hear about in salary cap discussions.
The Post-June 1 designation changes the accounting for signing bonuses (and ONLY for signing bonuses; accounting for all other compensation remains the same under the cap). If a cut or trade happens after June 1, then only the prorated amount for the current year counts against the current year’s cap, while the remaining prorated amount accelerates into the following year.
A player can be cut as soon as the new league year begins in March and he can still be designated a Post-June 1 cut, thus saving some cap space in the current year while pushing some of the hit into the following year; however, no more than two players per year can be designated as Post-June 1 cuts. It is unusual for a team to use its full allotment.
The purpose of this rule, which is part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, is to allow teams to release players who would prefer to be available in free agency immediately rather than waiting until June 1 when many teams have already used most of their cap space to build the roster. Teams can make use of the relief available under the salary cap rules without causing disadvantage to the player(s) being released.
So, if a team has a veteran that it plans to release in an effort to create cap space, that team doesn’t wait until June 2nd to process the release, which would be unfair to the player, who would miss the entire March free agency period when teams are loaded with cap space; instead, the team releases the veteran in March, using the Post-June 1 designation.
That means that when June 2nd arrives this weekend, there won’t be a frenzy of releases for salary cap purposes. In fact, if recent history is any guide, there won’t be any high-salaried or highly-talented players released in the month of June at all.
Here’s the list of all the vested veterans released in June 2023
All of these guys are currently free agents or else they are playing football in Canada or the UFL.
The only player on the list who might have been seen as a quality player released as a cap cut in June last year is Dalvin Cook. The Vikings tried to trade him, but got no takers. They finally released him on June 9th. He did sign with the Jets for $7m, but he ran for only 214 yards before being released near the end of the season. Cook signed with the Ravens, who were in the playoffs, and rushed 9 times for 23 yards. This was not a success for Cook or the Jets.
There might be an offensive tackle on an NFL team who is paid a lot of money and on the trading block at the moment. We could see a Dalvin Cook-like situation develop in which the Commanders could grab an offensive tackle who is just too expensive for his former team and untradeable, but having looked through a lot of rosters, I don’t know who that player or team would be.
In case the Dalvin Cook example raised any hopes, here’s the list of veterans released in June 2022:
What about a June trade?
Personally, I have been advocating for Washington to pursue a trade. My target is the Pittsburgh Steelers, who, as mentioned above, just drafted Troy Fautanu, and who have a 3-year starter at left tackle — Dan Moore — entering the final year of his rookie contract. There is no reason to suppose that the Commanders front office is reading my comments here on Hogs Haven or taking account of my opinions, so don’t plan on Moore lining up at Left Tackle for the Commanders this season based on my suggestion;
How often do such trades happen in the month of June, and how successful are they?
I looked at the transaction wire for the month of June for the past five seasons (2019-2023) and found ONE trade.
In 2021, the Falcons traded Julio Jones to the Titans, who paid the wide receiver $15.3m for 434 yards and 1 TD reception. He was cut at the end of the season. It seems that successful June trades for veteran talent are as rare as hens’ teeth.
tl;dr
In practical terms, there is little to no hope that an NFL team will make the decision, in the coming month of June, to release a veteran offensive tackle with the skill to start in the NFL.
If any team is planning to offload a player, he will be shopped on the trade market first.
The only cap casualty released in the past two seasons who did anything significant in the NFL following his release was Dalvin Cook in June of ‘23, and what he accomplished wasn’t impressive. Cook is now an unsigned free agent desperately hoping for one more contract.
The only June trade in the past 5 seasons was for Julio Jones, and — knowing what they know now about how it turned out — I don’t think the Titans would make that trade again.
July?
In case you’re wondering whether the team might be able to grab a quality offensive tackle in early July, just ahead of training camp, here’s a list of all veteran players released in July over the past three seasons:
2023
- Andy Isabella
- Andrew Norwell
- Mike Badgley
2022
- Bryan Cox
- Dee Ford
- Maurice Canady
- Trey Edmunds
- Alex Ellis
- Dallin Leavitt
- Craig James
2021
- Bennie Fowler
- Kelvin Benjamin
- Devin Smith
- Blake Bortles
- Willie Henry
- Rashard Robinson
- Barkevious Mingo
None of them have gone on to do anything of note in the NFL following his July release, and most of them are out of the NFL entirely.