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

Hi all --

I'm sort of on the Aros plan these days ... really staying out of the day to day drama of the main board but I still value the community so I don't want to disappear completely. Also, until someone else really deals with salary cap issues I guess it's up to me.

A big question each off-season is HOW MUCH CAP SPACE DO WE HAVE and there isn't a simple answer. There are many factors that we don't know the answer to (for example, what is the league wide cap for 2017). There are also many adjustments that happen between now and the start of free agency.

My best guess is we're sitting at about $28M in available space for 2017. Bear in mind we have several 'restricted' free agents but it's hard to say what kind of tender offers they get. Gary Gilliam will probably get some kind of tender which will bring that figure down. Brock Coyle and Steven Terrell probably will be allowed to explore true free agency. Deshean Shead is definitely a victim of bad timing and won't get any tender.

If we start at $28M in available space, I would set aside about $2.2M for draft picks and another $5M or so for injuries so that really puts us at $20M in 'usable' space. When you start looking at the roster holes (DB, LB, OL) that money can disappear FAST. Also, the team will have to consider extending vets like Kam, Graham, Britt. Bottom line there isn't going to be any major FA adds.... also consider that we lose any true bidding war because a ton of teams have way more space than us.

When you think about the cap going into the off-season, try not to focus too much on available space, but do try to temper your expectations about how much of a player the team will be in free agency.

Of course, if the team wanted to really target a DUDE and manipulate other contract in order to make that happen, they could very well choose to do that, but that has not been something this regime has done in the past.

If you have cap questions, feel free to PM me or answer in this thread.

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

Thank you Hawkstorian.

I'm terrible when it comes to cap stuff, so I'm going to ask a dumb question here if that's ok: Has Marshawn Lynch's contract officially come off the books, or is his contract still effecting the team's cap number in any way?

Not a dumb question at all. Marshawn is off the books as of 2017.

Thanks Hawkstorian!

It's amazing how little 28 million gets you these days. :lol:

Wondering where the 28 mil number comes from. Is this assuming we resign some of our restricted free agents?

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

We have about 25mil before they bump up the cap.

Bennetts ext might effect the number a bit.

Extending Graham could give us more space depending on how it's structured.

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.

Wondering if you think Seattle might make a play for Martellus Bennett in FA and offer around 8.5 per year over 2 years. A year younger than Graham, a better blocker than Graham. They could cut Graham, and save 1.5 against the cap, or trade him for a 4th-5th round pick and still save the 1.5 of course that is if they came to terms with Bennett.

Screw that, let's have Graham AND Bennett

20m should get us a rt and lt and get some more oline depth

ringless":1hqtxmdd said:

Wondering if you think Seattle might make a play for Martellus Bennett in FA and offer around 8.5 per year over 2 years. A year younger than Graham, a better blocker than Graham. They could cut Graham, and save 1.5 against the cap, or trade him for a 4th-5th round pick and still save the 1.5 of course that is if they came to terms with Bennett.

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Is Bennett a better blocker? If so, I'd say it would make a lot of sense for this current coaching staff. Of course e could extend Graham and structure it to save $1.5m if we want to keep seeing Wilson to Graham, it has been a reliable combo I'm not sure we can afford to lose.

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Wenhawk":1enhxxx5 said:

ringless":1enhxxx5 said:

Wondering if you think Seattle might make a play for Martellus Bennett in FA and offer around 8.5 per year over 2 years. A year younger than Graham, a better blocker than Graham. They could cut Graham, and save 1.5 against the cap, or trade him for a 4th-5th round pick and still save the 1.5 of course that is if they came to terms with Bennett.

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Is Bennett a better blocker? If so, I'd say it would make a lot of sense for this current coaching staff. Of course e could extend Graham and structure it to save $1.5m if we want to keep seeing Wilson to Graham, it has been a reliable combo I'm not sure we can afford to lose.

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Graham is the least of our problems. And if you wanted to let him leave after next year you are probably looking at a 3rd round comp anyway. I think an extension is much more likely.

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.

theincrediblesok":1b9yyb9f said:

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.

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

ringless":1p9c5uk7 said:

Wondering if you think Seattle might make a play for Martellus Bennett in FA and offer around 8.5 per year over 2 years. A year younger than Graham, a better blocker than Graham. They could cut Graham, and save 1.5 against the cap, or trade him for a 4th-5th round pick and still save the 1.5 of course that is if they came to terms with Bennett.

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??? You cut a player who caught 65 passes 923 yds so you can save a paltry 1.5 mil?

Even worse, trade him for a 4th-5th round pick?

Insanity.

seahawkfreak":1nr73ndu said:

Wondering where the 28 mil number comes from. Is this assuming we resign some of our restricted free agents?

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I don't assume that we're re-signing any in my calculation, so if they do tender Gilliam, that space will come down.

stang233":k73iyib6 said:

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

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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.

Timmahawk":245ydpk8 said:

We have about 25mil before they bump up the cap.

Bennetts ext might effect the number a bit.

Extending Graham could give us more space depending on how it's structured.

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I agree the cap seems to keep going up. My figures assume the cap will be $168M which seems to be the prevailing assumption these days.

As for the TE discussion, I don't pretend to know one player's true value over another, but i think it's fair to say the team will look to bring Jimmy's cap number down through some sort of contact extension. There aren't really any obvious veteran cuts looming, although there' an outside shot Jeremy Lane could get the ax shortly after the SB.