Hawkstorian
Well-known member
This is for cap nerds mostly so if you are part of the 94% of folks who really don't care you can move on.
Once the off-season ends, the makeup of the salary cap changes. Right now only the top-51 out of 92 contracts count towards the salary cap. After final cuts ALL contracts count, including injured players and practice squad players. The final roster totals 65 - 70 players. However, among the cuts are players with higher salaries, which will bring the dollars down. This leads some amateur capolgoists to try to project what the final cap total will be once the season starts.
In order to do this you must make guesses about a couple of very important things:
1) Who will make up the final 53 man roster
2) Who will be put on injured reserve.
Both of these things can swing very dramatically. Take for example Patrick Lewis. HIs salary is $1.67M, which is pretty substantial compared to some of the other o-linemen competing for a spot. So just that one position could make a $1,000,000 or bigger swing on the final cap total. Lewis could end up our starting center, or he could be released. We don't know just yet.
To me, it's an issue of over thinking things. Right now the team sits at $9.2M or so in cap room after Clemons left. The Seahawks have enough room to make whatever roster moves they need to throughout the camp and into the season. They could even do a deal with Michael Bennett if they were so inclined. The Seahawks have flexibility.
By comparison, the Chiefs have about $225K in cap room. They have no flexibility unless they change an existing contract.
Or you could be the 49ers. They have over $49 MILLION in cap space, and a shitty roster. I'm much happier rooting for a team that puts it's money on the field.
In the end, the Seahawks could have $3M left going into the season of they could have $8M+. It doesn't really matter in the end. The important thing is they have the tools to get through the season, and probably carry a good chunk of change into 2017.
When you look at Spotrac or OTC or any other site with cap info it helps to put that information into some sort of context. Cap totals are like wins and losses. We can predict and speculate but we don't ever know for sure what the future holds.
Once the off-season ends, the makeup of the salary cap changes. Right now only the top-51 out of 92 contracts count towards the salary cap. After final cuts ALL contracts count, including injured players and practice squad players. The final roster totals 65 - 70 players. However, among the cuts are players with higher salaries, which will bring the dollars down. This leads some amateur capolgoists to try to project what the final cap total will be once the season starts.
In order to do this you must make guesses about a couple of very important things:
1) Who will make up the final 53 man roster
2) Who will be put on injured reserve.
Both of these things can swing very dramatically. Take for example Patrick Lewis. HIs salary is $1.67M, which is pretty substantial compared to some of the other o-linemen competing for a spot. So just that one position could make a $1,000,000 or bigger swing on the final cap total. Lewis could end up our starting center, or he could be released. We don't know just yet.
To me, it's an issue of over thinking things. Right now the team sits at $9.2M or so in cap room after Clemons left. The Seahawks have enough room to make whatever roster moves they need to throughout the camp and into the season. They could even do a deal with Michael Bennett if they were so inclined. The Seahawks have flexibility.
By comparison, the Chiefs have about $225K in cap room. They have no flexibility unless they change an existing contract.
Or you could be the 49ers. They have over $49 MILLION in cap space, and a shitty roster. I'm much happier rooting for a team that puts it's money on the field.
In the end, the Seahawks could have $3M left going into the season of they could have $8M+. It doesn't really matter in the end. The important thing is they have the tools to get through the season, and probably carry a good chunk of change into 2017.
When you look at Spotrac or OTC or any other site with cap info it helps to put that information into some sort of context. Cap totals are like wins and losses. We can predict and speculate but we don't ever know for sure what the future holds.
