The NFL will announce the new salary cap for 2012 in the coming days, but no matter what, the Oakland Raiders are looking to be significantly over the number. Based on early estimations, the Raiders could be as much as $22 million over the coming salary cap, which means they will need to do plenty of work to get under the cap by the start of the league year.
They began their work by releasing cornerback Stanford Routt, and they may be moving on to bigger contract issues. Linebacker Kamerion Wimbley is due to make $11 million this season and has a chance to trigger as much as $19 million in future guarantees if he is not released by March 13 (the start of the league year). He already has $6.5 million in guarantees, but that $4.5 million difference would certainly help get closer to the cap. Either way, given the Raiders cap situation they need to move a sizable chunk of that money off the table this year.
Wimbley was second on the team in 2011 with 7.0 sacks and fourth with 52 total tackles. He also had one interception and seven tackles for a loss.