No, never. This one's better than usual because Lee is actually good, young, and basically essential.
The structure is now known and is much better than initially reported though. If he plays well and if they don't restructure him in 2014, it will work out.
However the 2014 salary cap obligations are sitting at $149m today, more than $20m over what it's expected to be. That's with Spencer, Hatcher off the books as well as the kicker, punter, Will Allen unsigned, as well as some backups. Then the rookie class contracts, then replacement players. The need to open major space.
If you want to know where they can save money, check the dead money versus cap charge
here. Looking pretty tight though. I don't see too many players they can save much of anything by letting go of.
They can roll over money unused from this season, which presently is about $7.2m. More or less depending on who doesn't make the roster, and what kind of replacements they hire over the course of the season. I doubt that figure is over $3m by season's end.
But I'll just save you the suspense, they're going to have to restructure the biggest deals again whether they play well this year or not and there will be cuts post June 1. Expect another quiet free agency for sure if you're hoping for some stud signings to fill holes.