Cutting Ray Rice Will Cost The Ravens Millions

Before he crashed out of the NFL in disgrace, Ray Rice was a star running back that the Baltimore Ravens invested millions in, and it will end up costing the team in a big way.

Rice will count $4.8 million against this year's salary cap and $9.5 million against the cap in 2015, according to Sportrac, even though he's not on the team anymore.

In the summer of 2012, Rice was coming off his fourth season in the NFL and had just rushed for 1,364 yards, scored 15 touchdowns, and led the NFL with 2,068 yards from scrimmage.

The Ravens rewarded Rice with a five-year contract worth up to $40 million.

More importantly, the Ravens gave Rice a whopping $17 million in the first year of the contract, including a $15 million signing bonus - something teams only do if they are expecting a player to be around for a while.

In addition, the Ravens just paid Rice a $7 million option bonus last season. By getting cut, Rice loses $9.5 million in salary for the final three years of his deal, but that pales in comparison to the $25.0 million he received in the first two years of his new contract, much of which was essentially a down payment on the final three years of the contract.

The Ravens will get a little bit of salary cap relief this season for Rice's $3.5 million salary. However, because of all the bonus money they gave him early in the deal, they will still be charged $4.8 million against this year's salary cap and $9.5 million against next year's cap according to Spotrac.com.

Obviously the Ravens are not the true victim in this horrible situation and it can certainly be argued that the Ravens deserve some of the blame in this situation for defending their player, and deserve having this suspension come at the worst possible time for the team.