Hawkstorian
Well-known member
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.
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.