Looking for some clarity on roughly how much we have available to spend in 2021.
I'm new to NFL finances, but cannot accept some posts that say that "we dont know"....every business has an an idea.
Using OVER THE CAP, this is what I think we've got (will have):
1) 2020 - we've under spent by $11.25m which can be carried over to 2021.
2) The CAP is calculated each March, based on 48% of certain NFL revenues.
3) Before the virus hit, OVER THE CAP calculated that there would be an increase of $17m in 2021 to $215m
4) Using these pre virus calculations, we only have $36m (plus whatever's carried over of the 2020 $11m).
5) Whilst some positions can possibly be filled in the draft, we are lacking:
- 2 Safeties
- 3 LB's (hoping Gifford develops)
- 2 CB's
-1 Center
- 2 DE's
-2 QB's
All out of the $47m........is that basically correct?
I appreciate the following but is it wishful thinking?
- Extend but aging contracts (Martin / Smith) until they're in the late 30,s
- Restructure bad contracts (guaranteeing money to DLaw/Zeke and Coops)
- Release bad contracts - cant happen in 2021 .... the cheapest would be Zeke (Dead Money = $13m)
- Deferred contracts to FA's - BUT ..... limited CAP Space (with increases) 2022 = $54m and 2023 = $84m (last in the NFL)
The salary cap is a touchy subject at CZ.
They have not under spent yet, because the season has not started.
- The rule of 51 is in place during the off-season (only the top 51 contracts count against the cap).
- When the season starts the 52nd and 53rd contracts plus the practice squad plus any players on IR.
- There are normally a few players cut after training camp that had some (usually small amounts) of guaranteed money. That hits the cap also.
Projecting the cap in future years become very difficult.
- Comparing future cap space of different teams is almost meaningless because some have more players under contract for those future years than others.
- Teams like the Cowboys don't have any cap hit shown in future years for certain big contracts like Dak.
- Other teams (Chiefs) do have their big contract on the books now.
I'm not clear how much you understand out restructuring contracts to push money into future years.
- If Dak signs a 5 year contract for 35M per year, but the cap hit in year 1 is 10M, then that means they've pushed 25M into future years.
Looking at this year's cap or even next year's cap space gives limited information because you con't know how much cap space was pushed forward.
- The pushed forward amount can be calculated for each player but doing it for all players on a roster would be difficult.
Example of calculating money pushed forward (Zack Martin's contract):
If he plays to the end of his contract, his total career earning will have been: 102.33M
His current contract is 6 years, 84M and the 1st of the 6 years started in 2019.
That means that 102.33M - 84M = 18.33M was the amount he earned in the first 5 seasons (rookie contract plus 5th year option).
Prior to 2019, they had taking cap hits of 14.99M on his contract.
That means they pushed forward 18.33M - 14.99M = 3.34M from his first 5 years into the the future.
Starting in 2019 with the new contract averaging 14M per plus 3.34M of cap hit from the previous contract.
If they wanted to "pay as you go" then they would take a cap hit for the new contract of 14M per season.
In 2019 they did take a cap hit of 14M. That means they only pushed forward the 3.34M from his previous contract again.
In 2020 they're scheduled to take a cap hit of 15M on this contract. That means they're taking the 14M cap hit for his new contract and paying off 1M of the 3.34M they "owe" to the cap bank.
That is the scheduled cap hit for 2020. They could at anytime, restructure his contract to push more money forward.
- They could convert his 2020 base salary of 11M into a 1M base salary plus a 10M restructure bonus.
- The bonus cap hit would be divided over 2020 to 2024 (5 years) for a cap hit of 2M per year.
- His 2020 cap hit would then be reduced by replace in the 11M salary with a 1M salary plus 2M cap hit for the bonus. That's 11M - 3M = 8M "saved".
- His 2020 cap hit would then be 15M - 8M = 7M.
You would need to do the calculations for all players on all rosters in order to really be able to compare the cap situations of all teams.
Recap:
Other than the QB position, the Cowboys and Chiefs might have the exact same number of players under contract at all of the exact same positions.
If UnderTheCap had the Cowboys and Chiefs
both with 35M of cap space in 2021, it would be misleading because the Cowboys would be missing the 35M average salary for Dak.