as league focus is rightly of the bowl game,the bell prepare themselves for the week that will shape their season,the end of season rollover.everyone knows about bells cap woes gardiner has voiced his concerns since day 1.they carry 38million deadwood this year and 19 million next season.so in theory bell are 19 million better off this year,but not so fast gardiner has 18 veteran players(9 yrs or over) still on the books,they are wide variety of durations and contracts but an unfavorable amount of retirements would mean another reduced wage bill this season..

season pro name position retirement probability cap hit
14 b.enriquez punter 30% out of contract
14 l.ashlock left end 40% out of contract
14 a.peterson def tackle 40% $4,111.362 1 yr
12 d.dahlquist full back 40% $1,370,964 1 yr
12 d.campos centre 10% out of contract
11 c.lewis left end 10% $4,874,026 3 yr
11 d.wilcox right end <1% $4,549,091 4 yr
10 s.moore quarterback <1% $3,420,483 1 yr
10 e.gerhardt tight end 20% $1,856,406 4 yr
10 r.munz receiver 20% $4,206,656 3 yr
10 j.gilmer receiver 30% $1,659,001 2 yr
10 j.coltrane right tackle 20% $3.000,784 3 yr
10 b.sylvester def tackle <1% $5,823,374 4 yr
9 m.schneider full back 10% $628,752 1 yr
9 c.worthy receiver 10% $2,881,108 2 yr
9 j.nicholls receiver 10% out of contract
9 j.mccauley centre <1% $4,353,251 3 yr
9 r.albertson kicker <1% $1,500,000 4 yr

Hopefully you can fix this cap problem lol

Oh dear

Don't worry about dead cap, that's money you already spent...a sunk cost. I have done a few rebuilds and the first thing I do is get rid of players I don't want, the more they make in base salary the better (frees up more cap room). The dead cap is immaterial to me, I'm trying to free up as much room as possible so I can sign better players. My most recent rebuild https://marvel-football.myfootballnow.com/team/16 if you want to check my transactions, we just had free agency, draft and late FA.

You'll have to sign several players to thrifty deals, and a lot of those may also be undesirable, but less so than who you cut. Then in a couple of seasons, you'll have plenty of space to make a splash.

As it stands now, you have nearly $22 million to sign free agents and still have room to sign your draftees.

im looking forward to it greg,ive got 2 options as far as i can see.like you said take the plunge now cut all undesirables now and put up with this season and next season with little cap but after that its a fresh start.or the other option would be too continue and let players retire in their own time so hopefully cap hits wont be as drastic but it might space out over next few seasons.decisions decisions :)