It's nice to see some people that know quite a bit on this. Some people like to take the "who cares, it's not my money" and "let the team handle the cap" approach but for some of us this is fun to look at because knowing the cap well can help you see the road the team is trying to follow and gives you an idea of what they may do going forward.

We're not in as good of shape as most casual fans believe. As others have said, if not for the rolled over money we'd actually be over the cap this year. To add to that, The rolled over money is different than actual "cap space". The rolled over money is gone once it is spent this year, unlike cap money that is there every year (reoccurring money)

According to the spotrac website, our cap is at $109,135,140

According to the overthecap website our cap is at $123,607,144

Over the cap doesn't factor in the $13,200,000 in rolled over cap money, so if we factor that in, that would put us at $110,407,144

So that puts us at a range of $12,500,000 - $13,800,000 in cap room. Not sure how much Hawkstorian has figured in for restricted free agents, but hopefully he can add that back in. Best I can guess on that is between $3 million and $4 milllion. If we take the higher of that amount for RFA and the lowest amount of cap room between the two sites, we should have at least $8,500,000 left in cap space, and we still have Obamanu's $2 million+ expected to be cut or restructured eventually.

As far as my understanding goes the rolled over money is not subtracted to the current cap number but just added on top.

So the cap is 123M + 13,200,000 that was rolled over giving us a cap number of 136.2M this year.

It probably doesn't make a difference as they both accomplish the same thing in the end but adding at the end and showing in dwindling down as it gets spent might be a little easier to comprehend? I'm thinking that is the way Overthecap.com has it configured which is why they show the full 123M spent...

Doesn't make a difference you are correct there. It's just how you do the math, it comes in the same total both ways. You can add the rollover to the cap and subtract cap values or you can subtract it from the cap values, either way you get the difference which is what we have left on the cap and that number should be a minimum of $8.5 million right now, and could be closer to $10 million depending on what numbers you read, but somewhere in that range is reasonable to figure.

I think we're at $10-$11M after moves so far but I need to dive back into the weeds to sort it out.

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That number makes sense. My $8.5 was figuring worst case scenarios. My best case scenario was at $11 million. I think anything in there would be reasonable, but look forward to find out what you come up with as that is generally more reliable than my guesstimating.

I actually show a little above $11M at the moment, factoring in RFA tenders. That will go down dramatically with Avril probably at $5-$6M in cap.

Cutting Obomanu is the only obvious move to add space back -- but I just have a feeling something will happen with Clemons. Restructure or cut.

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I think with Clemons it will come down to where he was at with his injury. I don't think they'd restructure, because doesn't that put the original signing bonus into instant dead money? To do that and re-sign him wouldn't save us much. It might save some cash, but not much on the cap.

In theory they could restructure and just reduce his 2013 salary. Let's say he goes from $6M to $2M. That doesn't change the bonus at all and adds $4M to cap.

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True, I'd not thought of it from that angle.

Either case, I still think we have the money to get the players we need, and Clemons' fate is likely tied to their faith in his return from a torn ACL

I'm trying to add up signing Avril & Bennett and I'm basically at ZERO for remaining cap space.

In other words -- someone is getting cut or restructured very soon.

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Or they've already restructured or cut and we haven't heard about it, which wouldn't surprise me either.

Just looked at the Spotrac website, and using their figures, which don't yet include Avril, but do include Bennett, we are about $9.5 million under the cap. If they balance Avril at 2 years, that leaves us $2 million. Figuring we have RFA's to put in, which will knock a few of the 480,000 contracts off the list, I'd say we are at about zero, so we should look to see a cut of Obamanu, a trade of Flynn or a restructure somewhere to get more names. Otherwise we'll stay pretty quiet in free agency from here on out.

Cut Obomanu. That is 2+ million of wasted money and I am a staunch supporter of Obomanu after being the only dude that did not quit trying in the playoff loss against Green Bay.

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With Obomanu gone -- I'm calculating cap space at under $2m. If nothing else takes place, that money would need to be used to sign the eventual draft picks. If the Seahawks are to do anything else this off-season they will need to cut or re-structure some more deals.

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Just looking through Spotrac's list now. They still have Obo in there and don't have details yet for Avril, so this is what I see from the top 51 listed there

Top 51 contracts (not counting Avril signing or Obo cut): $125,697,830

Rolled over Cap space: $13,200,000

Leaves us: $112,497,830

Dead Money: $891,000

Total cap used: $113,388,830

If you remove Obo's salary and leave in his dead money, you subtract $2.3 million

After Obo cut: $111.088,830

Add in Avril to keep the top 51 figure it's exactly half of the money in his contract ($7,500,000)

After Avril: $118,588,830

Add in $3 million for Restricted Free Agents (best guess)

After RFA: $121,588,830

Total Cap: $123,000,000

Leaves us: $1,411,170 under the cap.

There are a slew of guys in the $480,000-$555,000 range so it should even out pretty close when we sign our rookies to contracts, because we don't have a first round pick, and compensation drops pretty fast with each round.

The $1.4 million isn't enough though to re-sign our own free agents, so we will need to make some space. I can see a few restructures coming, but not sure from where.

I have issues with Spotrac -- they don't really look at every deal, they just bring in pubished information from other sources.

That said -- you're at $1.4M and I'm more like $1.8 -- virtually the same in the big picture.

Can we re-name this thread -- "Dave and John talk about cap space" ?

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I don't mind if they aren't actually using their own source for the information, as long as the information they provide is correct. I do go to places like over the cap as well, but I just like the way spotrac is formatted for doing quick analyses.

Nobody seems to have the Avril information yet. It will be interesting if they made that deal more cap friendly this year or if they split it down the middle, but as far as I can see out there, nobody has that detail yet.

And yes, that would be an appropriate title, but hopefully it helps those out who have questions and at least we can just point here instead of explaining everything over and over each time someone new asks

It helps us. Keep talking. We'll keep eavesdroing.

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How in the hell are we going to sign rookies with that amount of money?

Well, I think the earlier discussion was pre-Obo release. That would boost us to around $4m, I guess. Which should be plenty, especially without Rd 1 pick.

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