2017 Salary Cap Update (Cap Space: $18.78M)

[Seahawkfan80]

Thanks Hawkstorian. It is important to understand where the team is going into the draft. That may mean we rosterchurn for a few second/third rounders instead of jumping for a 50/50 first rounder.

 

[jammerhawk]

John, thanks for your post, you have always been the man as far as the cap. I agree with your observation that it is unlikely the Seahawks will be big players in FA and several faces we know of may leave in FA.

I'm curious where you see the difference between the OTC.com estimated available number of $32,879,707 and the $28 million number you advise of above?

 

[mikeak]

A big difference this year is in the dead money that is disappearing. 2016 dead money was roughly 14 million, including 5 million to Lynch, 2.3 million to Williams, and 2.2 million to Webb. 2017 dead money is currently 828 thousand, with Webb occupying 600 of that. With all the roster churn this org does, we can expect that number to rise a bit. Maybe reach 2-3 million, but barring an epic FA failure (Harvin/Webb/Williams style), that number won't be huge.

There will be about $4.5 million in dead cap to Kearse as well........ :stirthepot:

(I know he won't be cut next year due to the minor difference between deadcap and salary)

 

[brimsalabim]

The last two years there has been significant increases to projected salary cap. Really intrigued to see what happens this year. Wouldn't be surprised if another $5MM showed up

TV ratings down means tv revenues are likely down as well. Haven't the recent cap increases been tied to that?

 

[ivotuk]

John, thanks for your post, you have always been the man as far as the cap. I agree with your observation that it is unlikely the Seahawks will be big players in FA and several faces we know of may leave in FA.

I'm curious where you see the difference between the OTC.com estimated available number of $32,879,707 and the $28 million number you advise of above?

I believe he answered that in his last post.

"Not true. You read here that it's more like $28M.

OvertheCap.com is inflated right now because they only show 41 contracts for the Seahawks. Once they update their info that projection will come way down."

 

[jammerhawk]

Thanks Ivotuk, missed that explanation.

 

[Timmahawk]

Everything I am reading is 35-38 million free space.

Not true. You read here that it's more like $28M.

OvertheCap.com is inflated right now because they only show 41 contracts for the Seahawks. Once they update their info that projection will come way down.

Good Call -

With 41 guys listed, we currently will be $25mil under the 2016 cap number.

Assuming we add 10 guys at $500k to get to 51 guys, we will have $20mil available by my count. Then you have to add in the extra cost of the draft class which will eat away about 2 mil, so lets call it $18mil available. The RFA's are a question mark, but we could let them walk, so I'm going to forget about them for now and figure out the final number we will have before we start discussing who we will tender. We also don't know the impact of Bennett's extension, so lets leave that out for now.

So once you account for a full roster of 51 players (your top 51 guys are what is used to for the cap), and assuming a new cap of $168mil, I'm coming up with $31mil available give or take.

Remember, this number includes the rookies, but doesn't include the add't cost to tender a player.

All the tender will do in this case is add the difference between their new salary and the hypothetical $500k that I'm using for the baseline for the last 10 added, ex: If we tender Gilliam for 2mil, this tender will add 1.5mil to our cap and leave us with $29.5mil available.

Does 31 mil give us enough to play a bit with? perhaps, but going by past history, this team is one to pay its own guys and not dabble too much with chasing the guys wanting big money.

 

[jammerhawk]

By my calculation the team presently has 29 FAs (UFA,RFA, ERFA players) and 52 players under contract for 2017.

These numbers 52 although not 42 as described in OTC.com still include a large number of Reserve Futures Contract signings. I still wonder about the difference between Hawkstorian's starting number of $28 million and the $32.8 million number as indicated by OTC. The 10 players cannot count for $4.8million as they will all be contracts at the low end of the scale, can they? I do however understand the team will likely try to re-up players like Reece or possibly Damontre Moore and maybe Tony McDaniel and therein could be the difference but these are not calculated in Johns numbers.

 

[QuickLightning]

2 million for draft picks? Are you planning to only sign ~3 of your picks?

 

[sondevil89]

2 million for draft picks? Are you planning to only sign ~3 of your picks?

The sum total of the salaries doesn't count against the cap, it's the effective cap cost. Last year our rookie effective cap cost was approx 2.2 mil out of a total rookie pool of 6.2 million.

Here's a link to how it works: http://overthecap.com/rookie-contracts-nfl-draft/

 

[Popeyejones]

When figuring out available cap the only addition I'd make (the excellent calculations being done in here) is that you want to shave off about another two million or so, as every team goes into the season with at least a little room left for maneuvering.

As for why this cap room is coming from and the Seahawks salary cap strategy, that's a tougher story.

Basically, this *surprise* cap room in the Hawks strategy is the money that was supposed to go to re-signing guys from the 2013 draft class and extending guys from the 2014 draft class (who are now eligible to be extended).

It's room the Hawks weren't expecting to have because they weren't expecting to not have anyone from those two draft classes who are worth meaningful second contracts. So, for fans of the Hawks it's a nice surprise because the team is still good and they can now play around in FA a little bit, but from the perspective of the front office, having room now is actually not that great (given what that money was supposed to go to).

Edit: Worth saying that the 9ers are an even more extreme example of this, and why having a ton of cap room is usually a signal of a *problem* for a front office rather than something to be excited about. The 9ers have more cap room than they know what to do with due to 1) unexpected losses of high-priced players (Willis, Aldon, soon Kap) and drafting like absolute dog crap and not having any homegrown talent to give that money to.

 

[bigskydoc]

We don't have a huge amount of cap space, but we do have some nice cap flexibility, should we need it. We haven't mortgaged the future like some teams. We also have a good free agency distribution of our big stars, with some flexibility to part ways.

2018 Graham, Chancellor, Richardson, Britt
2019 Thomas, Sherman, Avril, Kearse, Lockett, Rubin
2020 Wilson, Wagner,. Ryan, Lane, Reed, Prosise
2021 Bennett, Baldwin

It wouldn't surprise me at all if we carry over a significant amount of our free cap space this year and next, in order to have it available in 2019.

Seahawks are in a developmental model now. I expect we will be drafting to develop players who will take the field in 1-2 years so we can replace more expensive players, more like a typical college team. I'm convinced that this is what they are trying to establish with the offensive line with drafted and UDFA players being prepared for 1-2 years before playing, and keeping no more than one second contract on the line.

 

[onanygivensunday]

We also don't know the impact of Bennett's extension, so lets leave that out for now.

Bennett's new contract extension is already accounted for at overthecap.com.

Link to Seattle's 2017 list of contracted players

Click on his name and you'll see his numbers through 2020.

 

[Timmahawk]

We also don't know the impact of Bennett's extension, so lets leave that out for now.

Bennett's new contract extension is already accounted for at overthecap.com.

Link to Seattle's 2017 list of contracted players

Click on his name and you'll see his numbers through 2020.

Thank you - I was on Spotrac and they don't have it yet, I cant stand the format of OTC on my phone as there are too many ads and I can never get it to load properly.

 

[Timmahawk]

2 million for draft picks? Are you planning to only sign ~3 of your picks?

The sum total of the salaries doesn't count against the cap, it's the effective cap cost. Last year our rookie effective cap cost was approx 2.2 mil out of a total rookie pool of 6.2 million.

Here's a link to how it works: http://overthecap.com/rookie-contracts-nfl-draft/

Correct - we will be replacing someone at the league minimum of 465k, with a slightly higher rookie contract. Thus the cap hit will only go up by about 2.18mil by my count.

Based on OTC's current numbers, and assuming we don't lose our 2nd round pick, we should have about 26.5mil available after draft picks are accounted for, but before we tender any RFA's and offer extensions to JG, Kam and Britt.

Kam and JG extensions can save us cap space this year, a Britt extension will surely cost more.

We should have room to go after 1 big name guy, or spread it out to 2-3 guys like we have in the past.

 

[QuickLightning]

2 million for draft picks? Are you planning to only sign ~3 of your picks?

The sum total of the salaries doesn't count against the cap, it's the effective cap cost. Last year our rookie effective cap cost was approx 2.2 mil out of a total rookie pool of 6.2 million.

Here's a link to how it works: http://overthecap.com/rookie-contracts-nfl-draft/

Ugh... Please don't spread this misinformation. That's only before the season starts... The rule of top 51 goes away after the last preseason game. EVERY dime paid to the players hits the cap and you must be under the cap after that.

Here's what the Seahawks' rookie class actually costed in cap dollars:

Germain Ifedi
$1,502,746

Jarran Reed
$889,025

C.J. Prosise
$623,116

Nick Vannett
$614,220

Rees Odhiambo
$611,355

Alex Collins
$496,096

Joey Hunt
$475,089

Or.... Over $5.2 million. Plus some dead money for the 3 other guys who were signed and didn't make the team.

 

[sondevil89]

We should have room to go after 1 big name guy, or spread it out to 2-3 guys like we have in the past.

Just give me two decent offensive tackles and 80% of the Seahawks' problems are covered. Need immediate help before our core players are past their prime. This is such a no-brainer but I'm worried FO doesn't get it.

 

[Hawkstorian]

Ugh... Please don't spread this misinformation. That's only before the season starts... The rule of top 51 goes away after the last preseason game. EVERY dime paid to the players hits the cap and you must be under the cap after that.

This is true, but we're talking now about the top-51 deals so the immediate cap impact is more like $2M.

After final cuts, teams have to adjust their cap to take into account all deals, and USUALLY their cap utilization goes up, but not always. Sometimes higher cost veterans get cut and the overall cap use goes down. It can work both ways.

So spare us your Ugh.

 

[theincrediblesok]

If the Patriots win this year, I'm pretty sure Martellus will be chasing the money, knowing the Hawks they might actually pull the trigger, and then restructure Graham's contract as well. If so then they will probably let Luke Willson go.

Be kind....I really like Luke Willson!

In second thought, I bet you we can still have Luke Willson, Martellus Bennett, and Graham getting his contract restructured. Even some contract extension to some folks, the rest of the group we will have to get from the draft.

Can you imagine a 3 TE set, who's blocking and who's actual going to get the ball....at least I hope Bevell would be able to use them that way.

 

[BadgerVid]

By my calculation the team presently has 29 FAs (UFA,RFA, ERFA players) and 52 players under contract for 2017.

These numbers 52 although not 42 as described in OTC.com still include a large number of Reserve Futures Contract signings. I still wonder about the difference between Hawkstorian's starting number of $28 million and the $32.8 million number as indicated by OTC. The 10 players cannot count for $4.8million as they will all be contracts at the low end of the scale, can they? I do however understand the team will likely try to re-up players like Reece or possibly Damontre Moore and maybe Tony McDaniel and therein could be the difference but these are not calculated in Johns numbers.

Rookie minimum for this year ('16) is $450K, so 10 rookies would be $4.5M....and I believe at least a few of the futures will be for players with a few years in. I see no problem at all with that representing at least $4.8M