The Seahawks Have More Cap Space Than You Think in 2020

Overthecap.com has the the Seahawks right now at $95,159,669 in space with a projected $200M cap in 2020.

But it doesn't factor in rollover which would put them at $105,378,774 in projected space.


Here is where it gets crazy. Looking at the guys that have a cap hit of $4M or more that could be cut, or there will be a strong consideration for them to be cut at the very least.

2020 Roster Potential Cap Casualties

Kam Chancellor -$14.5M- if cut $12M savings.
Doug Baldwin -$14.1M- if cut $11M savings.
Justin Britt -$11.67M- if cut $8.75M savings.
K.J. Wright -$8.5M- if cut $6.5M savings.
Ed Dickson -$4.3M- if cut $3.4M savings.

2019
Mingo getting cut this year adds another $4.1M in savings.


Adding the cost of two more rookie classes, and vet mins to fill out the 2020 roster,
practice squad, IR, etc., Approximately $25M will be needed on the safe, and conservative side.


Total approximate cap space = $125M in 2020.


Now of course they are not cutting everyone of these players. And some guys I would think are going to be extended. So this number is going to shrink over the next 12 months.

I'm just putting it out there for people to see. The Seahawks have a lot of money to play with. If they can't build a championship contender, It's on them. They have plenty of resources, and a Franchise QB to build around.

And possibly less than we think since Wilson, Wagner, Clark, Reed aren't on there and that alone is around $88M per year average salaries (yes 88M is a WAG)

Seymour":2lulp9y9 said:

And possibly less than we think since Wilson, Wagner, Clark, Reed aren't on there and that alone is around $88M per year average salaries (yes 88M is a WAG)

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They have plenty of space to do it too.

That will not be what they count against the cap in year 1 (2020) as well.


Some Examples. The highest paid players at there positions.


Khalil Mack $23.5M APY extension signed in 2018. (FRANK CLARK)

2019 cap hit = $11.9M


Aaron Donald $22.5M APY extension signed in 2018 (JARREN REED lol)

2019 cap hit = $17.1M


Aaron Rodgers $34M APY extension signed in 2018 (Russell Wilson)

2019 cap hit = $26.5M APY



So let's now plug in those numbers in for the Seahawks + $1M APY over on each making them the highest paid players at their positions. Which isn't happening besides Wilson.

12.9
18.1
27.5

58.5M against the cap, and Bobby Wagner will not be counting $30M against the cap in 2020. So your salary cap numbers are not structured in a realistic way whatsoever for the 2020 season.

Fade":211juuvo said:

I'm just putting it out there for people to see. The Seahawks have a lot of money to play with. If they can't build a championship contender, It's on them. They have plenty of resources, and a Franchise QB to build around.

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Not sure why you're going with this "if they can't build a championship contender it's on them" stuff. They've been in the playoffs almost every year of Carroll's tenure, which means they have been in position to contend for the championship all those years. They one won, and almost won another.

Sometimes it just comes down to who's left over at the end of the year. While this has to with bankroll tangentially in terms of quality of depth, repetitive injuries at a particular position can still let a team down, regardless of how much money they throw at it. Sure it's important to get the right guys in the right places, but it's also a matter of luck. If enough key guys get hurt, you're pretty much done.

I'm not saying it's a crap shoot, but to win a Super Bowl you have to be both talented AND relatively healthy, and only one of those can money really fix.

Point is, they can build a championship contender because they DID build a championship contender and have consistently been a championship contender.

I sometimes wonder if you guys were here through the 7-9, 8-8 seasons and the NFL's longest playoff drought, because if you were I expect you' have more respect for where we are now.

KiwiHawk":b6rwfu1v said:

Fade":b6rwfu1v said:

I'm just putting it out there for people to see. The Seahawks have a lot of money to play with. If they can't build a championship contender, It's on them. They have plenty of resources, and a Franchise QB to build around.

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Not sure why you're going with this "if they can't build a championship contender it's on them" stuff. They've been in the playoffs almost every year of Carroll's tenure, which means they have been in position to contend for the championship all those years. They one won, and almost won another.

Sometimes it just comes down to who's left over at the end of the year. While this has to with bankroll tangentially in terms of quality of depth, repetitive injuries at a particular position can still let a team down, regardless of how much money they throw at it. Sure it's important to get the right guys in the right places, but it's also a matter of luck. If enough key guys get hurt, you're pretty much done.

I'm not saying it's a crap shoot, but to win a Super Bowl you have to be both talented AND relatively healthy, and only one of those can money really fix.

Point is, they can build a championship contender because they DID build a championship contender and have consistently been a championship contender.

I sometimes wonder if you guys were here through the 7-9, 8-8 seasons and the NFL's longest playoff drought, because if you were I expect you' have more respect for where we are now.

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People are concern trolling over Seattle's cap space. Seattle's cap is fine and has been managed very well. That is all.

"concern trolling"..LMAO
Someone said in another post that we have like over 30 players
who's contracts end next year?I'm not sure if that is correct but
if it is wow..
Lots of players to resign,sign and yada yada that cap space dries
up quick especially if we sign the three Fade mentioned but he
forgot Wags in that mix so how much will those 4 take up?
We could act like Cowboys I suppose and just spend it all.

KiwiHawk":1oh8oo4j said:

I sometimes wonder if you guys were here through the 7-9, 8-8 seasons and the NFL's longest playoff drought, because if you were I expect you' have more respect for where we are now.

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Hell, we used to think 8-8 was a GOOD year. Just be in the wildcard conversation entering December, that's how low our expectations used to be.

These are the salad days, that's certainly not lost on me. I highly doubt we'll ever see a Seahawk run like this ever again. Enjoy it.

Thanks for posting, excellent post Fade.

Another factor to consider however is the incredibly high number of contacts the team presently has, 32 up to now, which will expire at the end of this season making it a need to redo many of them to keep a roster. This will reduce the available cap a many other contracts will require fair market payment if the players are to be kept.

In the roster thread each of the 'one year guys' are identified with italics. One year contracts are short term advantageous and reduces the cap cost of players but exposes the team to constantly redoing contract and having to pay bonus money where players are kept over a longer time window. at present this seems to be a present modus operandi, whether it serves a long term advantage remains to be seem if the team can't take advantage of comp picks. They failed at that last season but seem presently determined not to repeat.

I'm quite unsure of the team's desire to axe all those you mention with high cap numbers but I could see a contract like Britt's being traded.

Fade":1v0g6m66 said:

Seymour":1v0g6m66 said:

And possibly less than we think since Wilson, Wagner, Clark, Reed aren't on there and that alone is around $88M per year average salaries (yes 88M is a WAG)

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They have plenty of space to do it too.

That will not be what they count against the cap in year 1 (2020) as well.


Some Examples. The highest paid players at there positions.


Khalil Mack $23.5M APY extension signed in 2018. (FRANK CLARK)

2019 cap hit = $11.9M


Aaron Donald $22.5M APY extension signed in 2018 (JARREN REED lol)

2019 cap hit = $17.1M


Aaron Rodgers $34M APY extension signed in 2018 (Russell Wilson)

2019 cap hit = $26.5M APY



So let's now plug in those numbers in for the Seahawks + $1M APY over on each making them the highest paid players at their positions. Which isn't happening besides Wilson.

12.9
18.1
27.5

58.5M against the cap, and Bobby Wagner will not be counting $30M against the cap in 2020. So your salary cap numbers are not structured in a realistic way whatsoever for the 2020 season.

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That depends largely on prior contract amounts and at what point in the contract they sign. Pushing money down the road ends up catching up to every team sooner or later. I find it 'safer" to simply go with the average per year which ultimately is what the player costs you unless it ends early for some reason.
That said, likely it will be less then I stated on cap hit, I agree.

jammerhawk":17pweunq said:

Thanks for posting, excellent post Fade.

Another factor to consider however is the incredibly high number of contacts the team presently has, 32 up to now, which will expire at the end of this season making it a need to redo many of them to keep a roster. This will reduce the available cap a many other contracts will require fair market payment if the players are to be kept.

In the roster thread each of the 'one year guys' are identified with italics. One year contracts are short term advantageous and reduces the cap cost of players but exposes the team to constantly redoing contract and having to pay bonus money where players are kept over a longer time window. at present this seems to be a present modus operandi, whether it serves a long term advantage remains to be seem if the team can't take advantage of comp picks. They failed at that last season but seem presently determined not to repeat.

I'm quite unsure of the team's desire to axe all those you mention with high cap numbers but I could see a contract like Britt's being traded.

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I factored that in.

Fade":17pweunq said:

Adding the cost of two more rookie classes, and vet mins to fill out the 2020 roster,
practice squad, IR, etc., Approximately $25M will be needed on the safe, and conservative side.

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And yes I pointed out not all of those players will be cut. Kam is a given. Baldwin is looking extemely likely, and I would be very surprised if Ed Dickson makes it. The other guys it will come down to how they play in 2019.

Britt is a guy that has two back up's at least behind him and I could see as part of the mix to trade for picks if we had to. They are also looking at a lot of LB's now as well. Again mileage on Wagner. Clark if not careful could talk himself out of town for the right price, I know they like him but the depth behind him may step up and we have the draft. Wilson is the only guy that we don't have a Red Shirt for really. That speak for itself.

A lot of this is about cycling off a lot of the big contracts that haven't worked out the last few years. Once those deals are gone we should finally be in good cap space after a 2-3 period of relative austerity.

Seymour":51s1m2nd said:

That depends largely on prior contract amounts and at what point in the contract they sign. Pushing money down the road ends up catching up to every team sooner or later. I find it 'safer" to simply go with the average per year which ultimately is what the player costs you unless it ends early for some reason.
That said, likely it will be less then I stated on cap hit, I agree.

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This is how a typical big NFL contract extension goes.

The first 2 years is the real money. 100% guaranteed. It is paid out by a fat signing bonus, and $1M and change Base Salary.
Year 2: The base salary / roster bonuses get you the rest of the way there (To what you agreed to on the first 2 yrs.)

Year 3 is injury guaranteed only, and is the big hump year, that will be biggest strain on your cap % wise, as the player will have a very big base salary / roster bonus + proration still remaining from that signing bonus.

Year 4: by then the cap has gone up significantly since when they first signed (40M+), and now the player begins to look like a bargain, though the cap number is still pretty high (similar to year 3). Proration still remains.

Year 5: Same song and dance.

Year 6: Proration no longer remains (only allowed up to 5 years.) Big base salary.



Frank Clark as an example in a very flat structure. Which Seattle tends to lean towards. So more than a $1M base in the 1st year.

4yrs 80M = 20M APY

first 2 years 40M dollars

yr 1 a 6.5M base + 20M Signing bonus = 26.5M

yr 2 13.5M base = $13.5M

= 40M in the first 2 years.

THIS IS HOW IT WOULD LOOK IN SALARY CAP FORM

2019 yr 1: 6.5M base + 5M signing bonus proration = 11.5M Cap hit (Lowers Clark's cap hit in 2019 by almost $6M)

2020 yr 2 13.5M base + 5M signing bonus proration = 18.5M Cap hit

That is with a very aggressive shorter (Only 4 years), which creates higher proration. 5 yrs it would be 10.5M + 17.5M

Which reminds me.

I should point out that if Wilson, Clark, or Wagner should sign extensions this off-season. They will have a lower cap number than they have now, for 2019. Thus giving Seattle even more salary cap dollars to rollover into the next season.

As I illustrated with Clark. His cap hit right now in 2019 is $17.1M. But that fat signing bonus payout allows for a lower base salary in the first 2 years, and creates lower cap numbers.

I don't know how you figure out the rollover amount (realistically) before the season starts. Lots that can (and likely will) happen before then

Dickson - trying to decide if he is more waste of money than Percy. I mean seriously everyone except PC knew he was overpaid when signed

How many players do we currently have signed through 2020?

If we sign any three of Wilson, Wagner, Frank and Reed, we will be spending more on 3 players than ANY OTHER team spends on their highest 4. There's no way that even with signing 3 of them, that we are going to be cap-rich.

Tical21":6cdkpkgo said:

How many players do we currently have signed through 2020?

If we sign any three of Wilson, Wagner, Frank and Reed, we will be spending more on 3 players than ANY OTHER team spends on their highest 4. There's no way that even with signing 3 of them, that we are going to be cap-rich.

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But we might be talented.

The main reason there are so many contracts up is that the team has signed a ton of players to 1 year deals.

It's actually a brilliant scheme and has kept the team competitive in a market of Brinks trucks being delivered loaded to elite players.

Tical21":2ukqqrcs said:

How many players do we currently have signed through 2020?

If we sign any three of Wilson, Wagner, Frank and Reed, we will be spending more on 3 players than ANY OTHER team spends on their highest 4. There's no way that even with signing 3 of them, that we are going to be cap-rich.

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Again, how did they sign the LOB, Wagner, Bennett, Avril, Pay the RB, Pay Jimmy Graham $10M, Pay Doug Baldwin, and pay their QB the 2nd highest contract in the NFL.

You were probably also saying back then they couldn't pay Sherm, Kam, Earl, and the QB.

How did they do that?

I have crunched the numbers, they fit, comfortably. Play around with the calculator yourself, and you will see.

This team has a ton of cap space. It comes down to if Seattle feels like the players are worth investing in for the long term. And getting their numbers just right. Schneider is also on record stating they can fit everyone in. And he referenced those LOB days.

They did it by backloading and guaranteeing contracts of Britt, Wilson and Baldwin. They were in cap purgatory and had to release Richard Sherman in his prime.

Over half your cap for four players? Plus Brown, Lockett, McDougald. 7 players for 70% of your cap? That's like 40% higher than their previous generation 8 highest. I do not believe for one second that you have played with the numbers. You can barely give the other 45 guys minimum contracts.

Tical21":pibhz2q9 said:

How many players do we currently have signed through 2020?

If we sign any three of Wilson, Wagner, Frank and Reed, we will be spending more on 3 players than ANY OTHER team spends on their highest 4. There's no way that even with signing 3 of them, that we are going to be cap-rich.

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We have 27 guys signed through 2020, second lowest in the league. As of right now we have about 90 million in cap space, assuming you resign Russ at his current rate, that drops to 65 million for 25 players.