Cap Space Not There After All?

In the midst of the citywide effort to get Brian Westbrook more money, we've all been assuming that these numbers were a reasonable approximation of the Eagles' cap situation.  According to Les Bowen in today's Daily News, that's not the case:

"Tuesday's 'Bottom line' column advocating a look at revising Brian Westbrook's contract apparently misstated the Eagles' 2007 salary-cap situation. Team sources say the Birds are about $1.7 million under the current cap..."

I emailed BJ the cap maestro to see if he had any insights.  The numbers on his page say that Reggie Brown and Trent Cole received about $11 million in guaranteed payments this year that were converted from roster bonuses to signing bonuses, which spreads out the proration.  If that's not actually right, that would mean that money would count against this year's cap, which gets us pretty much the difference between what we thought they had and what they actually had. 

It's also possible that Bunkley's contract had a significant second-year roster (rather than signing) bonus. 

Either way -- and I'm just making stuff up -- it's good to know the Eagles haven't lost their touch when it comes to helping the future by cramming every bit of salary into their allotted space each year.