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As far as I can tell, trading or releasing Samuels prior to June 1st would generate an $8.796 million cap charge in 2004, due to unamortized signing bonus. The net cap hit for 2004 (subtracting his base salary for 2004-- $5.132 million-- from the signing bonus charge) would be $3.664 million.
However, that would free up $9.643 million in 2005, and a whopping $11.32 million in 2006. Considering Smoot will be a free agent in 2005, and Arrington's cap hit for 2006 is slated to be around $12.414 million, eliminating Samuels' big numbers would help tremendously in retaining those two players.
Samuels may have angered Snyder by refusing to re-work his deal, but I have a feeling the motives for drafting Gallery and moving Samuels would be more salary cap-related than anything personal against Samuels. Though Gallery would certainly demand a huge contract, the numbers of the first 3-4 years would likely be rather cap-friendly-- certainly nowhere near as damaging as Samuels' numbers over the same timeframe.
Now, I may have totally screwed up those cap numbers, so I'd appreciate it if Crazy Canuck-- or somebody with more cap-savvy than me-- would enlighten us on the cap stats for moving Samuels.
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