Post-June 1 Means Relevant NFL Free Agency

There has not been much movement in NFL free agency over the past two months. Part of that had to do with the NFL Draft, but another big reason was the post-June 1 date.

In short, teams are now able to sign free agents without having it affect their potential compensatory selections in 2015.

Over the Cap did a full breakdown of what June 1 means to NFL free agents:

"The biggest impact for teams involves the modification of salary cap accounting rules for players whose contracts will be terminated after June 1 or whose contracts were terminated with the "Post June 1" designation.  Prior to June 1 any player removed from a teams roster, either by release or trade, will have all their remaining salary cap allocations accelerate into the current League Year. For example a player with $1 million in prorated money from 2014 to 2017 whose contract is terminated will carry a "dead money" charge of $4 million in 2014.

"However, after June 1 that "dead money" charge now splits between two seasons.  Once released the team only needs to account for the current years prorated money in their 2014 salary cap accounting. All future years' prorated money will now land as "dead money" in 2015. So for the example player above the "dead money" charges will equal $1 million in 2014 and $3 million in 2015. In practice this rule allows teams with underperforming, high priced players to release players before the season and remain salary cap compliant. If such a rule did not exist many teams would have a difficult time, with their salary caps often tight, to release a player with high prorated charges."

Because the Cincinnati Bengals lost Michael Johnson and Anthony Collins, they figure to get at least a compensatory third-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. There's already been several signings by other teams since June 1 came, including the Browns signing former Jets cornerback Aaron Berry.

That caused them to be reluctant to sign anyone in free agency that cost significant money. That probably won't change now, but depending on how OTA progress, they may feel the need to add another body from the free agent market.