PLAYERS UNDER CONTRACT
player, (salary, etc), cap savings, post 6/1
QB: Geno Smith, (22.3), 13.8, 22.5
QB:
RB: Kenneth Walker
RB: Charbonnet
RB: McIntosh
RB:
WR: Metcalf, (13.0), 1.5, 13.0
WR: JSN
WR: Lockett, (15.3), 7.1, 17.0
WR: Bobo
WR: Young
WR: Eskridge, (1.5), 1.5
TE: Dissly, (7.0), 7.0
TE:
TE:
LT: Cross
LT:
LG:
LG:
OC: Olu
OC:
RG: Bradford
RG:
RT: Lucas
RT: Forsythe
IDL: Jones, (11.5), 4.8, 11.5
IDL: Mone, (5.9), 5.9
IDL: Young
IDL: Morris
IDL:
IDL: Bumphus, 0.8
EDGE: Nwosu
EDGE: Mafe
EDGE: Hall
EDGE:
EDGE:
ILB:
ILB:
ILB: Bellore, 2.8
ILB: Thomas
ILB: O'Connell, 0.9
S: Adams, (16.5) 6.1, 16.5
S: Diggs, (11.0), 11.0
S: Love (5.7), 5.7
S: Reed
S: Okada, 0.9
CB: Bryant
CB: Witherspoon
CB: Brown
CB: Woolen
CB: Whitaker, 0.8
K: Myers
P: Dickson
LS: Stoll
I included 54 roster spots and 41 players under contract. #'s of players retained at each position varies, but this is close to what they usually keep (-1 spot somewhere).
OTC.com shows 41 players under contract with $1.3M in 2024 cap space (using $248.3M estimated cap). Spotrac shows 39 players under contract with $4.4M in 2024 cap space (using $249.6M estimated cap). Neither has accounted for the rookie pool or the minimum ~$10M needed as reserve for in-season replacement signings. This puts effective cap space at ~-$12M to -$18M. Significant cuts and/or restructures must be made just to fill out the roster. Some of the roster will be filled out with the included rookie pool. With seven picks (16, 78, 81, plus 1 each in rounds 4, 5, 6, and 7) they should get ~5 players that make the 53. Add in a UDFA or two and subtract a few camp fodder players currently on the roster and the Seahawks will probably need to sign 8-10 free agents PLUS the number of players that they release for cap purposes (Mone, etc.).
SEAHAWK FREE AGENTS
QB Lock
RB Dallas
TE Fant
TE Parkinson
TE Russell*
LG Lewis
OC Brown
RG Haynes
OT Curhan*
OT O'Neil
OT Peters
OT Curtis
IDL Williams
IDL Edwards
IDL Adams*
EDGE Taylor*
ILB Wagner
ILB Brooks
ILB Bush
CB Jackson*
CB Burns
* - RFA or ERFA.
DEAD MONEY AND RESTRUCTURING
I did not include dead money in the conversation because it is both a distraction and irrelevant. Dead money is simply money that has already been paid to the player but has not yet been accounted for in the cap. It almost exclusively consists of pro-rated signing bonuses and prior restructures. It is going to hit the cap whether the player is retained or released. Sometimes SOME of the dead money would be accelerated into 2024 cap (2 players can be released without acceleration using post 6/1), but that clears it off of the future years cap. Cap savings is cap savings.
Restructures are almost always when a team converts salary to bonus to push the cap hit to future years. It creates future dead money. That is why Adams and Diggs have such huge cap hits this year. PCJS kept pushing their prior year cap hits forward and will now pay the price whether they are retained or cut. If you want to see an extreme example of this, go look at the cap implication of Stafford's contract cap management - that's a real nightmare. The decision to retain/cut should only be made on their current and future contract price (salary, bonuses, escalators. etc). If the dead money is too much to absorb this year the books can be balanced by doing a restructure on another player to push cap hits to future years. The whole question should be whether or not a player's contribution to winning will be equal to or greater than his current and future year's contract.
In other words, teams have a lot of options to push to cap to future years. BUT they do eventually have to account for it. All teams do this and it is a narrow view when you take each year in isolation. The Seahawks have pushed a lot of money into 2024 and beyond. Even though they aren't nearly as mortgaged as many other teams, they're still not in a great place. They have the option of digging the hole even deeper this season so they can end up creating enough cap to do whatever they want. A quick glance shows at least $100M they could push into the future, but then 2025 or 2026 or eventually they would be limited to a 2-14 season with a roster filled with scrubs. Unless they have a coach that can take a roster chock full of minimum wage players and succeed (Rams?).
Sorry, I've spent too much time on this way-too-long post. I'll be back later to show what I'd like to see happen this off-season to address roster construction.
player, (salary, etc), cap savings, post 6/1
QB: Geno Smith, (22.3), 13.8, 22.5
QB:
RB: Kenneth Walker
RB: Charbonnet
RB: McIntosh
RB:
WR: Metcalf, (13.0), 1.5, 13.0
WR: JSN
WR: Lockett, (15.3), 7.1, 17.0
WR: Bobo
WR: Young
WR: Eskridge, (1.5), 1.5
TE: Dissly, (7.0), 7.0
TE:
TE:
LT: Cross
LT:
LG:
LG:
OC: Olu
OC:
RG: Bradford
RG:
RT: Lucas
RT: Forsythe
IDL: Jones, (11.5), 4.8, 11.5
IDL: Mone, (5.9), 5.9
IDL: Young
IDL: Morris
IDL:
IDL: Bumphus, 0.8
EDGE: Nwosu
EDGE: Mafe
EDGE: Hall
EDGE:
EDGE:
ILB:
ILB:
ILB: Bellore, 2.8
ILB: Thomas
ILB: O'Connell, 0.9
S: Adams, (16.5) 6.1, 16.5
S: Diggs, (11.0), 11.0
S: Love (5.7), 5.7
S: Reed
S: Okada, 0.9
CB: Bryant
CB: Witherspoon
CB: Brown
CB: Woolen
CB: Whitaker, 0.8
K: Myers
P: Dickson
LS: Stoll
I included 54 roster spots and 41 players under contract. #'s of players retained at each position varies, but this is close to what they usually keep (-1 spot somewhere).
OTC.com shows 41 players under contract with $1.3M in 2024 cap space (using $248.3M estimated cap). Spotrac shows 39 players under contract with $4.4M in 2024 cap space (using $249.6M estimated cap). Neither has accounted for the rookie pool or the minimum ~$10M needed as reserve for in-season replacement signings. This puts effective cap space at ~-$12M to -$18M. Significant cuts and/or restructures must be made just to fill out the roster. Some of the roster will be filled out with the included rookie pool. With seven picks (16, 78, 81, plus 1 each in rounds 4, 5, 6, and 7) they should get ~5 players that make the 53. Add in a UDFA or two and subtract a few camp fodder players currently on the roster and the Seahawks will probably need to sign 8-10 free agents PLUS the number of players that they release for cap purposes (Mone, etc.).
SEAHAWK FREE AGENTS
QB Lock
RB Dallas
TE Fant
TE Parkinson
TE Russell*
LG Lewis
OC Brown
RG Haynes
OT Curhan*
OT O'Neil
OT Peters
OT Curtis
IDL Williams
IDL Edwards
IDL Adams*
EDGE Taylor*
ILB Wagner
ILB Brooks
ILB Bush
CB Jackson*
CB Burns
* - RFA or ERFA.
DEAD MONEY AND RESTRUCTURING
I did not include dead money in the conversation because it is both a distraction and irrelevant. Dead money is simply money that has already been paid to the player but has not yet been accounted for in the cap. It almost exclusively consists of pro-rated signing bonuses and prior restructures. It is going to hit the cap whether the player is retained or released. Sometimes SOME of the dead money would be accelerated into 2024 cap (2 players can be released without acceleration using post 6/1), but that clears it off of the future years cap. Cap savings is cap savings.
Restructures are almost always when a team converts salary to bonus to push the cap hit to future years. It creates future dead money. That is why Adams and Diggs have such huge cap hits this year. PCJS kept pushing their prior year cap hits forward and will now pay the price whether they are retained or cut. If you want to see an extreme example of this, go look at the cap implication of Stafford's contract cap management - that's a real nightmare. The decision to retain/cut should only be made on their current and future contract price (salary, bonuses, escalators. etc). If the dead money is too much to absorb this year the books can be balanced by doing a restructure on another player to push cap hits to future years. The whole question should be whether or not a player's contribution to winning will be equal to or greater than his current and future year's contract.
In other words, teams have a lot of options to push to cap to future years. BUT they do eventually have to account for it. All teams do this and it is a narrow view when you take each year in isolation. The Seahawks have pushed a lot of money into 2024 and beyond. Even though they aren't nearly as mortgaged as many other teams, they're still not in a great place. They have the option of digging the hole even deeper this season so they can end up creating enough cap to do whatever they want. A quick glance shows at least $100M they could push into the future, but then 2025 or 2026 or eventually they would be limited to a 2-14 season with a roster filled with scrubs. Unless they have a coach that can take a roster chock full of minimum wage players and succeed (Rams?).
Sorry, I've spent too much time on this way-too-long post. I'll be back later to show what I'd like to see happen this off-season to address roster construction.
Last edited:
