Plenty of salary cap room all around NFL
By Tom Silverstein of the Journal Sentinel
Feb. 25, 2009


With just two days remaining before free agency starts, I thought I'd address the salary cap position of the Packers and the rest of the NFL.

I was able to track down some numbers that were good as of today and don't include some of the blood-spilling that has gone on in the last 24 to 48 hours.

For starters, the Packers rank seventh in the NFL in available cap room with $28.2 million. This is the adjusted amount, which means it includes the money the Packers were able to carry over from 2008 through phony incentives.

It does not include the restricted free agent tenders the Packers intend to submit by tomorrow's 3 p.m. deadline. The Packers have seven restricted free agents: CB Jarrett Bush, S Atari Bigby, DE/LB Jason Hunter, FB John Kuhn, TE Tory Humphrey, WR Shaun Bodiford and WR Ruvell Martin.

Depending on how they choose to handle the tenders, they could commit more than $7 million to them, which would be taken off their current cap number. (Further detail is located at the bottom of this post).

The teams with the most cap room as of Wednesday are: Tampa Bay ($42.3 million), Philadelphia ($41.4 million), Kansas City ($39.5 million), Denver ($33.6 million), Minnesota ($29.4 million), Detroit ($28.7 million) and Green Bay ($28.2).

Earlier in the day, the Buccaneers purged their roster of high-priced players Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn, Joey Galloway, Ike Hilliard and Cato June, giving htem an additional $18 million of cap room. They know have $60 million available and have positioned themselves to go after Tennessee defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth.

Why exactly they went so far with their cap is unknown. They had enough to go after Haynesworth without cutting all those veterans.

Kansas City and Denver have also sliced their payroll considerably with veteran cuts.

As for the bottom feeders, the team's with the least amount of cap space are the Indianapolis Colts (minus-$7.2 million), Carolina (minus-$5.6 million), New England (minus-$141,000), Washington ($1.2 million) and Pittsburgh ($1.5 million).

Those numbers do not include the $7 million the Colts gained by releasing receiver Marvin Harrison or the Panthers gaining $4.7 million with the release of receiver D.J. Hackett, running back Nick Goings and offensive lineman Jeremy Bridges.

As of Wednesday there was a total of $555 million of cap room available in the NFL, which averages out to $17.3 million per team. That's a lot of cash, although some of it will be eaten up by restricted free agent tenders and money spent to re-sign teams' own free agents before Friday.

Expect the signings to be hot and heavy over the weekend and then stall out as teams regroup and begin to cycle through to the mid-range free agents. There is a pretty strong pool of released players joining the unrestricted free agents, so there will be a lot of options.

There just won't be many big-time difference makers.

As for restricted free agency, there are five available tenders the Packers can use: right of first refusal ($1.01 million), second-round ($1.545 million), first-round ($2.198 million), first- and third-round ($2.792 million) and non-franchise first and third ($3.292 million). The rounds refer to the compensation the Packers would receive if the player signed with another team.

more...

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/40312077.html

I don't know how in the hell the Redskin's are going to offer Haynesworth a contract of 15-16 mil a year plus some 30-35 million guaranteed being that close to the cap so we'll see if those reports are in fact true. Looks like the Buc's will be poised to make a serious run at him and other FA's if they wish.

As for the Packers, little surprise they are sitting as well as they are. I'm sure Jennings deal will get done soon.

Let the spending sprees begin at 12:01am tonight.

We now have 36 mill. http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/ic/blogs/insider/index.shtml



Seems like a lot, but with Collins, Clifton, Jennings, Spitz, Colledge, Bigby, and Kampman all coming up next year, well we definitely need to get going on some extensions before we try to make it rain for all the pretty girls with the fancy makeup out on the F/A market. Let's also not forget the money needed to Pay for draft picks (#9 won't be cheap) and the tenders we will put forward for the restricted free agents will take a significant bite out of our cap room.

It's almost as if some people spend way too much time thinking and worrying about available cap space. If most teams have plenty of room, and the few that don't seem still to be in the mix for the marquee free agents, what difference does it make? Sure looks like most teams have plenty of room, and if they don't they can go and cut a 36-year-old wideout to find it.

Similarly, you hear a lot about the Packers being the "youngest team." Do you know what the average age of the youngest team's roster was in 2008?

25.5 years.

Do you know what the average age of the OLDEST team's roster was?

27.5.

Lions' fans should be thanking Millen for the fine job he did in leaving them cap space this year. Maybe they could bring him back.

I'm wondering how accurate Mr. Silversteins numbers are?

quote:

Originally posted by Max:
It's almost as if some people spend way too much time thinking and worrying about available cap space. If most teams have plenty of room, and the few that don't seem still to be in the mix for the marquee free agents, what difference does it make? Sure looks like most teams have plenty of room, and if they don't they can go and cut a 36-year-old wideout to find it.

Similarly, you hear a lot about the Packers being the "youngest team." Do you know what the average age of the youngest team's roster was in 2008?

25.5 years.

Do you know what the average age of the OLDEST team's roster was?

27.5.

You o.k.?

Do you need a cool towel maybe?

I'm good.

You just let me know. I've got some nice cold Fresca you can have if need be.

The age issue really doesn't mean squat but I think people looked at it more when the team first started rebuilding and the possible long term growth as a team. Youth is nice, talent is better.

As far as the cap, I look at it as a hangover from years past. FA isn't as big a factor as it was pre-cap/beginning of cap era and teams today have manipulated the cap to a degree where there is little backlash for a turd signing. Most people are stuck with Joe Johnson deal in their minds.

I personally like the approach simply because I believe it's better to have the ability to sign young guys if they do really shine. No method is perfect but I like the steady approach.

It just seems like the cap has become irrelevant. In 2005 it was around $80 million. Today it's $127 million. Have salaries really grown by 50 percent since then?

Three weeks ago the Jets were "in cap hell." Favre retires, they cut Coles, they convert a couple of roster bonuses into signing bonuses -- spreading them out over the length of the contract -- and suddenly they're $26 million under. Things were different back when the Packers were trying to fit Joe Johnson under, what, a $60 million cap.

True. Let's see what Haynesworth signs for.

edit: Looks like Carolina is hurting. Tried to trade Ken Lucas to Detroit.

quote:

Originally posted by Max:
It just seems like the cap has become irrelevant. In 2005 it was around $80 million. Today it's $127 million. Have salaries really grown by 50 percent since then?

Three weeks ago the Jets were "in cap hell." Favre retires, they cut Coles, they convert a couple of roster bonuses into signing bonuses -- spreading them out over the length of the contract -- and suddenly they're $26 million under. Things were different back when the Packers were trying to fit Joe Johnson under, what, a $60 million cap.

You just don't hear the phrase "cap hell" as often as you did 7-8 years ago.
I think it's as simple as teams have learned to work with the cap. There was a learning curve for a while, but now teams have become quite proficient.

I think you may be right re: the relevancy.....to an extent. The cap at least prevents the Snyder's of the NFL from pulling a Yankees every off-season.

A lot of teams including the Packers got a nice bailout a few years ago when teams that were tight against the cap had the windfall of a huge jump in cap space. Since then teams have been smart about how they spent their money.