How the draft has changed the salary cap

With the draft done and over with for another year, I thought I’d turn my attention to the ever important salary cap and, specifically, how the draft has affected it.

Firstly, let me explain how the salary cap for NFL teams works in the offseason. As I’m sure you know, during the regular season teams have 53 players on the active roster (plus the practice squad), during the regular season, every single one of those players counts towards the cap.

In the offseason, however, teams are permitted to carry up to 90 men on their team. It wouldn’t be fair to expect the teams to be able to account for all 90 within the salary cap, some teams struggle to fit 53 under it, let alone nearly doubling it so the ‘rule of 51’ was created.

The rule of 51 is pretty self-explanatory, the top 51 contracts count towards the salary cap, however, any prorated bonuses of players that aren’t in the top 51 also count.

Let’s take a look at each rookies contract and where it fits into the cap.

Rashaad Penny

His 4-year rookie contract is worth a total of $10,801,574 which includes a signing bonus of $5,935,688.

His cap hits in the following years are as follows -

2018 - $1,963,922
2019 - $2,454,903
2020 - $2,945,884
2021 - $3,436,865

As you can see, his 2018 cap hit of $1,963,922 will put him into the top 51 therefore the full cap hit will count during the offseason.

As Penny was a first round selection, the team will also have the option to have him signed through the 2022 season as well, an option that is exclusive to first round picks. It’s very handy with positions like quarterbacks and pass rushers, not so valuable with running backs, but it’s nice to have the option. The team will have to decide after the 2020 season if they wish to exercise his option for the 2022 season so you can’t simply decide at the end of his contract, it has to be in the offseason before a players third and fourth year.

Rasheem Green

Green will sign a 4-year $3,376,616 contract including a signing bonus of $916,616.
His cap hits in the following years are as follows -

2018 - $709,154
2019 - $799,154
2020 - $889,154
2021 - $979,154

As his cap hit in 2018 is $709,154, that will also be high enough to count, in full, against the cap during the offseason.

Will Dissly

Dissly will sign a 4-year contract worth $3,113,164 including a signing bonus of $653,164.

His cap hits in the following years are as follows -

2018 - $643,291
2019 - $733,291
2020 - $823,291
2021 - $913,291

His 2018 cap hit of $643,291 is also enough, albeit only just, to count fully during the offseason (for Seattle, the cut off is $630,000 so Dissly is $14,291 over that amount).

Shaquem Griffin

Shaq will sign a 4-year $2,779,036 deal with the Seahawks which includes a signing bonus of $319,036. I bet his pay checks with Seattle are a fair bit smaller than all the endorsement deals he is going to get over the next few years!

His cap hits in the following years are as follows -

2018 - $559,759
2019 - $649,759
2020 - $739,759
2021 - $829,759

As his cap hit in 2018 is only $559,759, his contract will not count towards the cap during the offseason. Well kind of, the prorated amount of his signing bonus will. So, during the offseason, Shaquem Griffin will account $79,759 towards the cap. This is his singing bonus of $319,036 divided by 4.

Tre Flowers

Flowes will sign a 4-year deal worth $2,760,056 including a signing bonus of $300,056.

His cap hits in the following years are as follows -

2018 - $555,014
2019 - $645,014
2020 - $735,014
2021 - $825,014

Like Shaquem, Tre Flowers will only have his prorated signing bonus count towards the salary cap during the offseason. That amounts to exactly $75,014.

Michael Dickson

Our newest punter will sign a 4-year deal worth $2,751,444 including a signing bonus of $291,444.

His cap hits in the following years are as follows -

2018 - $552,861
2019 - $642,861
2020 - $732,861
2021 - $822,861

Again, Dickson will not have his base salary count towards the cap in the offseason, only his prorated signing bonus which comes to $72,861.

Jamarco Jones

Jamarco will sign a 4-year deal worth $2,706,092 including a signing bonus of $246,092

His cap hits in the following years are as follows -

2018 - $541,523
2019 - $631,523
2020 - $721,523
2021 - $811,523

Jamarco will only have his prorated signing bonus count towards the cap, therefore, his cost during the offseason will be $61,523.

Jacob Martin

Jacob will sign a 4-year deal worth $2,622,756 including a signing bonus of $162,756.

His cap hits in the following years are as follows -

2018 - $520,689
2019 - $610,689
2020 - $700,689
2021 - $790,689

Only his prorated signing bonus will count this offseason, which amounts to just $40,689.

Alex McGough

Alex will sign a 4-year deal worth $2,564,152 including a signing bonus of $104,152

2018 - $506,038
2019 - $596,038
2020 - $686,038
2021 - $776,038

As with all but the top 3 guys, only his signing bonus will count during the offseason, which amounts to a very reasonable $26,038.

So, now that we’ve worked out who will and won’t count fully against the cap we can work out the real cost.

We know that Rashaad Penny, Rasheem Green and Will Dissly are the only 3 players that will count in full, so if we add up all three of their cap hits for 2018 the total is $3,316,367.

With the cap sitting at $7,531,107 before the draft, accounting for all the players signed and cut, except Byron Maxwell (his contract doesn’t appear to be available as yet), adding the above 3 mentioned names will take the cap down to $4,214,740.

As we’ve also mentioned above, although the remaining 6 drafted players won’t count in full against the cap in the offseason, their prorated signing bonus will. Adding up all the prorated signing bonuses of those six players totals $355,884.

So lets take that off the cap as well, we’re now down to just $3,858,856 in available space.

With reports that Byron Maxwell’s contract being worth up to $3,000,000 on a one-year deal, this is alarming, right? Not really. The deal is worth ‘up to’ $3,000,000. There will likely be some signing bonus in there at around $1M, plus his base salary and probably a bonus if he makes the 53-man roster. I’d expect his cap hit to be around $2-2.5M in 2018.

Also, as we have added 3 drafted players into the top 51, we also need to take the bottom 3 off (otherwise we’d have 54!).

Those bottom 3 players all had base salaries of $630,000 with no signing bonus attached so the full amount comes off the cap. $630,000 + $630,000 + $630,000 comes to $1,890,000. So we need to add that on to the cap. $1,890,000 + $3,858,856 = $5,748,856.

As of right now, excluding Byron Maxwell, Seattle has $5,748,856 in available space.

When you consider that Seattle will have to also account for the following once the regular season rolls around they are pretty close to the limit, but not dangerously so –

Practice squad
Keeping some money back for in-season signings due to injury
2 extra players (51 up to 53)

So, what players can Seattle cut to improve their cap position?

Lets look at some obvious ones –


Russell Wilson

Only joking, the team would only get $2,313,234 in cap relief by cutting him.

Cliff Avril – Cap savings of $7,125,000

With Cliff’s future uncertain following a neck injury last season, I’d expect him to either retire or be cut.

Jon Ryan – Cap savings of $2,000,000

With the drafting of Michael Dickson, it’s the perfect opportunity to get younger, cheaper and better at the position. He’s as good as gone.

With both of these two guys gone, Seattle would end up with an impressive $14,873,856.

They could comfortably extend Frank Clark and Duane Brown with that money. A Duane Brown extension may even lower his 2018 cap hit (currently set to be $9,750,000) whilst Frank Clark (current cap hit of just $1,187,527) will 100% result in a higher cap hit.

If both are extended, I’d expect Seattle to have somewhere in the region of $6,000,000 to $8,000,000 in available space if the two listed players are cut and the two listed players are extended.

But, as with every single year, there are always surprise cuts and I’m sure 2018 will be no different.

Lets look at some players that would make sense from a cap perspective only, in other words, that have a lot of cap savings, if cut, in 2018. Please note, I’m in no way advocating these players be cut, merely that it would make sense from a financial standpoint only.

Earl Thomas - $8,500,000 savings
K.J. Wright - $7,200,000 savings
Justin Coleman - $2,914,000 savings
Neiko Thorpe - $1,850,000 savings
Tyler Lockett - $1,907,000 savings
Dion Jordan - $1,907,000 savings
Marcus Smith II - $1,010,945 savings
D.J. Fluker - $1,068,750 savings
Dontae Johnson - $950,000 savings
Mike Davis - $887,500 savings
C.J. Prosise - $486,884 savings
Rees Odhiambo - $482,645 savings
Austin Davis - $630,000 savings
Maurice Alexander - $630,000 savings
D.J. Alexander - $714,000 savings
Jason Myers - $705,000 savings
Jalston Fowler - $705,000 savings
Isaiah Battle - $704,000 savings
J.D. McKissic - $630,000 savings
Joey Hunt - $630,000 savings
Tre Madden - $630,000 savings
Tanner McEvoy - $630,000 savings


Now, it’s abundantly clear that some of those names have an almost zero chance of being cut. Lets get that list of names down to a reasonable amount.

All the players below are, in my opinion, on the outside looking in with regards to making the 53-man roster.

Dontae Johnson - $950,000 savings
Mike Davis - $887,500 savings
Jason Myers - $705,000 savings
Jalston Fowler - $705,000 savings
Isaiah Battle - $704,000 savings
Joey Hunt - $630,000 savings
Tre Madden - $630,000 savings
Maurice Alexander - $630,000 savings
C.J. Prosise - $486,884 savings
Rees Odhiambo - $482,645 savings

Just about every single one of the above can easily be replaced by cheaper and better guys.

If I was one of those 10 guys, I’d be working my absolute arse off this offseason and praying for a strong preseason. Nothing is a given in the NFL, and even those that push themselves till they’ve got nothing more to give often don’t make it.

It will be an especially interesting preseason in 2018, and an even more exciting regular season.

I would say this team is on an upward trajectory, not a downward one that they’ve been on for the last couple of years. This year may not be our year in terms of the ultimate goal, but it’s close, trust me.

Quality stuff OP. Thanks. Great reading material with my morning cup of joe.

Mistashoesta":8yp1s27f said:

Quality stuff OP. Thanks. Great reading material with my morning cup of joe.

Click to expand...

Very welcome sir

Awesome breakdown OP, thanks for doing the homework.

Very welcome!

Maurice Alexander - $630,000 savings
C.J. Prosise - $486,884 savings

These two I think stick, Alexander is the back up to McDougal right now unless Hill really steps up, they are still enamored with Prosise and what he can bring when healthy, not to mention he could really be moved to a WR spot as well.

Fantastic stuff, OP. It helps answer my question about cap value left over for in-season trade(s)/injuries, etc.

This is the kind of quality post that keeps me coming back to .NET. Thanks OP! Well done.

Great great post but one thing I would note that I didn't see there is the third option to reduce cap in 2018

It is not cutting nor extending it is simply taking any 2+ year agreements and converting an amount of the 2018 salary into signing bonus. That will divide that amount over the remaining years left.

It is a real viable option which I believe they used once or twice last year and that some teams use all the time. Chicago even has it as a standard clause that they can do this at any time without approval of the player (who would say no I don't want more cash right now but would rather wait to later...)

Nice post. I wish the NFL would dump the salary cap. I get why it is there, but I would like to see old school dynasties again.

chawx":3f77peat said:

This is the kind of quality post that keeps me coming back to .NET. Thanks OP! Well done.

Click to expand...

And that's the exact reason why I do them, thanks

mikeak":3f77peat said:

Great great post but one thing I would note that I didn't see there is the third option to reduce cap in 2018

It is not cutting nor extending it is simply taking any 2+ year agreements and converting an amount of the 2018 salary into signing bonus. That will divide that amount over the remaining years left.

It is a real viable option which I believe they used once or twice last year and that some teams use all the time. Chicago even has it as a standard clause that they can do this at any time without approval of the player (who would say no I don't want more cash right now but would rather wait to later...)

Click to expand...

It's actually a pretty bad way of managing the cap. Teams that are run poorly do it all the time, teams that have made mistakes and need to dig themselves out of a hole do it as well but it's really not best practice.

In 9 instances out of 10, it just screams 'I didn't get the contract right in the first place'. John has done it a few times unfortunately. I'd hope he doesn't have to do it for a good couple of years.

It's simply an accounting tool to shift cash from one year to another, robbing Paul to pay Pete if you will, it's a credit card.

impressive.
Do you know what the league minimum is for URFA and a Vet FA.
I had heard it was around $680,000. I am thinking that not true after seeing some of your yearly break down salaries.
Also that could be because of a Vet non vet minimum.

The league is slowly working themselves into very deep water with the cap with today's announced signing of Atlanta's QB.

5 years $150 million/ $100 million guaranteed, Holy Moly! $30 million/yr. , Yowsers. Pretty soon the league will need to reign in these QB salaries or it will soon be the case there will be 32 franchise QBs and rookies at every other position.

original poster":2xqhyx9r said:

chawx":2xqhyx9r said:

This is the kind of quality post that keeps me coming back to .NET. Thanks OP! Well done.

Click to expand...

And that's the exact reason why I do them, thanks

mikeak":2xqhyx9r said:

Great great post but one thing I would note that I didn't see there is the third option to reduce cap in 2018

It is not cutting nor extending it is simply taking any 2+ year agreements and converting an amount of the 2018 salary into signing bonus. That will divide that amount over the remaining years left.

It is a real viable option which I believe they used once or twice last year and that some teams use all the time. Chicago even has it as a standard clause that they can do this at any time without approval of the player (who would say no I don't want more cash right now but would rather wait to later...)

Click to expand...

It's actually a pretty bad way of managing the cap. Teams that are run poorly do it all the time, teams that have made mistakes and need to dig themselves out of a hole do it as well but it's really not best practice.

In 9 instances out of 10, it just screams 'I didn't get the contract right in the first place'. John has done it a few times unfortunately. I'd hope he doesn't have to do it for a good couple of years.

It's simply an accounting tool to shift cash from one year to another, robbing Paul to pay Pete if you will, it's a credit card.

Click to expand...

OP-You keep outdoing yourself..
Glad to enjoy it while it lasts..Anyway I bolded the above because JS should never do that again.
Learn from the past that keeping vets for a 3rd contract is not good (most) of the time as you get
a bloated cap with the team being on the stale side.I want hungry players wiho play hard.

SeahawksRawk":qunngmmd said:

impressive.
Do you know what the league minimum is for URFA and a Vet FA.
I had heard it was around $680,000. I am thinking that not true after seeing some of your yearly break down salaries.
Also that could be because of a Vet non vet minimum.

Click to expand...

Assuming you mean UDFA (im guessing you do, apologies if not) their minimum base salary is $480,000 for 2018 (same as drafted rookies). The main difference being they’ll get 3 year deals as opposed to 4 years for drafted players.

Veteran minimums actually depends on how many years they’ve been in the NFL, here’s the breakdown -

0 years service - $480,000
1 years service - $555,000
2 years service - $630,000
3 years service - $705,000
4 - 6 years service - $790,000
7 - 9 years service - $915,000
10+ years service - $1,015,000

There’s also something pretty cool that was introduced in the 2011 CBA called the ‘Minimum Salary Benefit’ (MSB).

The MSB is designed to encourage teams to sign veteran players.

It means teams can sign veterans for one year deals, pay them the vet minimum according to how many years service they have AND give them a signing bonus up to $90,000 and their cap hit will only be for 2 years service (plus the signing bonus).

Seahawks have done it with a couple of guys, off the top of my head Austin Davis is one of them.

He’s paid a base salary of $790,000 for 2018 with a signing bonus of $90,000. Usually that would equate to a cap hit of $880,000 however as his contract qualifies for the MSB his cap hit is only $720,000 (2 years service is $630,000 + his $90,000 signing bonus).

SeahawksRawk":3khcotlz said:

impressive.
Do you know what the league minimum is for URFA and a Vet FA.
I had heard it was around $680,000. I am thinking that not true after seeing some of your yearly break down salaries.
Also that could be because of a Vet non vet minimum.

Click to expand...

Vet minimums vary by the amount of time they've been in the league. There is also a salary cap savings for signing vets with 4+ years experience to one year deals (at least there was previously under the current CBA, so I assume it's still intact), so the number they'd be signed for may not be their actual cap number.

Edit: Found a couple of links that show Veteran Salaries and Rookie Contracts.


Veterans: [urltargetblank]http://www.spotrac.com/blog/nfl-minimum-salaries-for-2018/[/urltargetblank]

Rookies: [urltargetblank]https://overthecap.com/draft/[/urltargetblank]

(Also noted that OP got more information in faster than I could type mine)

Question for OP

You mentioned Seattle has $5,748,856 in available space.

What is the max amount of money a team can save that cap and use it for next year?

"The league is slowly working themselves into very deep water with the cap with today's announced signing of Atlanta's QB."

Actually it is the opposite.

By assuring QBs are tremendously expensive, it balances the league out a lot more effectively.

The league needed a way to prevent teams from tanking to get one of the few Elite QBs (which only come around every 3-5 years), one way is to assure that teams with the Elite QBs have a harder time being competitive in other areas of the roster.

By making the QB so expensive, it becomes a tradeoff between having a great QB or a great defense, for example.

Back to topic,

Really exceptional work on breaking down the cap OP.

The NFLPA was worked by the last CBA. They thought that teams would spend more of the rookie money on more veteran players in practice teams just load up on rookies and pay QB’s/DE’s. The old way a team would trade out of the top 10 just because they did not want to pay the silly amount of money needed to sign those rookies.

original poster":1k8q5bem said:

chawx":1k8q5bem said:

This is the kind of quality post that keeps me coming back to .NET. Thanks OP! Well done.

Click to expand...

And that's the exact reason why I do them, thanks

mikeak":1k8q5bem said:

Great great post but one thing I would note that I didn't see there is the third option to reduce cap in 2018

It is not cutting nor extending it is simply taking any 2+ year agreements and converting an amount of the 2018 salary into signing bonus. That will divide that amount over the remaining years left.

It is a real viable option which I believe they used once or twice last year and that some teams use all the time. Chicago even has it as a standard clause that they can do this at any time without approval of the player (who would say no I don't want more cash right now but would rather wait to later...)

Click to expand...

It's actually a pretty bad way of managing the cap. Teams that are run poorly do it all the time, teams that have made mistakes and need to dig themselves out of a hole do it as well but it's really not best practice.

In 9 instances out of 10, it just screams 'I didn't get the contract right in the first place'. John has done it a few times unfortunately. I'd hope he doesn't have to do it for a good couple of years.

It's simply an accounting tool to shift cash from one year to another, robbing Paul to pay Pete if you will, it's a credit card.

Click to expand...

I don’t understand how you think it is “not getting the contract right”. It is less about the contract and more about your second point of borrowing from one future year to this year

I see it more as a risk money now to win vs having it in later years. Look at the Saints. It brought them to cap hell but how quickly were they competitive again and doing ok? They had a great team last year

Obviously best if you don’t have to do it, but I think it is a valuable tool that should be used sparingly when you deem it worth it