I previously posted a suggested offseason plan (link) and had wanted to revisit this once the first wave of free agency was complete. I had hoped this would include resigning Andre Smith but this doesn’t seem to be happening in the near future. Rather than wait for this to happen, I thought a recap would help clear up a lot of confusion that is surrounding the team’s cap room and how the NFL salary cap works in general.
We started the offseason with $55,319,197 in cap room and 53 players under contract or tendered as restricted free agents. Prior to the start of free agency the team made the following transactions:
Player |
Date |
Contract |
2013 Cap Hit |
Net Cap Change |
DE Michael Johnson |
3/1 |
Franchise tag |
$11.175M |
$10.770M |
3/8 |
5 yr, $14M, $2.8M avg |
$2.720M |
$2.315M |
|
LS Clark Harris |
3/8 |
5 yr, $4.79M, $0.96M avg |
$1.340M |
$0.935M |
3/8 |
2 yr, $2.515M, $1.26M avg |
$1.115M |
$0.710M |
|
3/10 |
2 yr, $3.5M, $1.75M avg |
$1.600M |
$1.195M |
|
3/11 |
3 yr, $6.3M, $2.1M avg |
$2.550M |
$2.145M |
|
3/12 |
3 yr, $9.0M, $3.0M avg |
$3.250M |
$2.845M |
The sum of the 2013 cap hits is $23.750M but with the Top 51 rule in place the real change in cap room was only $20.915M. Total cap room at this point was $34.404M.
The next wave of signings was less exciting although not without controversy:
Player |
Date |
Contract |
2013 Cap Hit |
Net Cap Change |
LB Rey Maualuga |
3/18 |
2 yr, $6.5M, $3.25M avg |
$2.625M |
$2.220M |
3/22 |
1 yr, $0.78M |
$0.620M |
$0.215M |
|
QB Josh Johnson |
3/23 |
2 yr, $1.545M, $0.77M avg (est) |
$0.765M |
$0.360M |
3/23 |
1 yr, $0.715M |
$0.555M |
$0.075M |
|
CB Adam Jones |
3/25 |
3 yr, $8.9M, $2.97M avg (est) |
$2.950M |
$2.470M |
WR Brandon Tate |
3/25 |
1 yr, $0.715M |
$0.555M |
$0.075M |
The sum of cap hits was $8.070M but only lowered the cap room by $5.365M, leaving the room at $28.989M. Assuming we don’t make any trades during the draft, our 10 picks will have total $6.355M in cap hits but again only about $2M in cap room reduction.
So at the end of the day, $38M in cap hits only cost $28M in cap room. Magic right? No, that’s the benefit of the Top 51 rule. But what happens when the Top 51 rule is no longer in effect? Not a major difference really. You add two more base salaries to round out the active roster (bonuses were already included in the Top 51 calculation) plus the cap hits of players who land on injured reserve and practice squad players. The remaining room will be used to sign injury replacements and/or carried over into 2014 as excess cap room.