Category: 2024 salary cap

Miami Dolphins’ best draft sleeper pick: Malik Washington, WR, Virginia

The Dolphins just got even faster and more dynamic with Virginia rookie receiver Malik Washington.

The Dolphins are the NFL’s conceptual answer to the question, “What if they build the entire plane out of the black box?” Head coach Mike McDaniel wants speed on the field no matter what, and that’s what he got in Virginia receiver Malik Washington. McDaniel was really happy to get Washington with the 184th pick in the sixth round, to the point where he had been bugging general manager Chris Grier to make that selection for a while. 

When you watch Washington’s tape, the excitement is easy to understand. The 5′ 8½”. 191-pound receiver ran a 4.47 40-yard dash at the scouting combine, but he’s much faster on the field, especially the middle of the field, and especially after the catch. Washington led all receivers in the 2024 draft class with 710 yards after the catch, and now, McDaniel gets to envision Washington doing his thing with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle burning opposing defenses with vertical routes. Opposing defenses won’t be quite as excited about all that.

“I think the way that they run their offense, the motions, the different ways they use people to get open and allow them to be themselves, allow them to work, I think that is very beneficial to me,” Washington said of his new team after he was selected. “Just getting a chance to find some underneath routes, find some ways to get open and let that YAC – a big piece of my game – and let that shine through.” 

Buffalo Bills’ best sleeper pick: Daequan Hardy, CB, Penn State

The Bills got a sixth-round sleeper in Penn State cornerback Daequan Hardy, who could help redefine Buffalo’s rebuilding secondary.

We’re not sure how the Steelers missed out on Hardy; the Pittsburgh native played 7-on-7 football as a kid with Joey Porter Jr. and Mike Tomlin’s son, Dino. In any event, a Bills secondary that got old seemingly overnight will benefit from Hardy’s presence. Last season for the Nittany Lions, Hardy allowed 26 catches on 48 targets for 318 yards, 164 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, two interceptions, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 71.4. Not bad for a player selected with the 219th overall pick in the sixth round.

At 5′ 9⅜” and 178 pounds and a wingspan that’s in the first percentile for cornerbacks since 1999, Hardy is absolutely a slot defender at the NFL level, but he has the potential to be a good one.

2024 NFL Mock Draft: Pre-combine first-round projections with scouting reports

Before the 2024 scouting combine begins, here’s one first-round mock draft that takes tape entirely into account before the rumor mill gets rolling.

The scouting combine begins in earnest early next week, and for the coaches and executives who go, it’s just as much about discussing potential trades and free agency signings over shrimp cocktails at St. Elmo’s as it is about watching the draft prospects on hand to show their talents at Lucas Oil Stadium.

For the prospects themselves, it’s all on the line. Not only in the workouts (for those who are working out), but also in the round-robin 15-minute meetings with those coaches and executives. Basically, this is where you might secure your next domain as a player.

With all that in mind, here’s one first-round projection just before the scouting combine rolls around. This is the last mock draft of the year that’s based primarily on tape, as the rumor mill starts hard and heavy once boots are on the ground in Indianapolis.

A couple notes:

— The Chicago Bears stick with Justin Fields, and start to surround him with much more credible weapons.

— The Denver Broncos trade with the New England Patriots to move up from the 12th overall pick to the third overall pick to take their next franchise quarterback, hoping that works better for them than it did for the San Francisco 49ers and Trey Lance a few years back.

— We also have thumbnail scouting reports for a lot of these prospects; that library will grow and be added to this mock over the next few days.

Now, let’s get to the pre-combine mock!

Salary cap space for every NFL team coming into the 2024 season

The 2024 NFL salary cap has been set at $255.4 million per club, so let’s look at how every team stands in terms of cap space for the 2024 league year.

NFL teams must deal with all kinds of deadlines, and there’s no more important deadline than the one which signifies the new league year. In 2024, that hits on Wednesday, March 13 at 4:00 p.m. EST. When that happens, all NFL teams must be at or under the new salary cap.

On Friday, the NFL made this statement:

The NFL announced today that the 2024 Salary Cap will be $255.4 million per club, with an additional $74 million per club payment for player benefits, which includes Performance Based Pay and benefits for retired players. Total 2024 player costs will be $329.4 million per club, or more than $10.5 billion league-wide.

The unprecedented $30 million increase per club in this year’s Salary Cap is the result of the full repayment of all amounts advanced by the clubs and deferred by the players during the Covid pandemic as well as an extraordinary increase in media revenue for the 2024 season.   

This will give some teams the freedom to start stacking their boards with potential free agents, as the money is flowing. For other teams, it will be a case of despondent window-shopping as they just scramble to get under that cap number.

The NFL’s top 101 free agents in 2024

Per OverTheCap.com, here is how every NFL teams stands in terms of salary cap space now. Here, we are using Effective Cap Space, which is a team’s salary cap number after signing at least 51 players and its rookie class. Our list goes from the most to the least cap space available; totals in parentheses represent negative amounts.