The big waves of free agency are behind us. That doesn’t mean there are no more free agents out there, it just means for the most part, teams are focused on the draft to try to improve the team. Then based on who they come out of the draft with, they could revisit free agency afterward.
How set up are the Raiders for this? Well, they’re not completely out of money.
Currently the Raiders sit at $3.5 million under the cap, which is among the least amount of money in the NFL. Only six teams have less.
A look at where all 32 NFL teams stand in salary cap space: pic.twitter.com/1e8ZKMlAzG
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) April 5, 2023
Then the question is how much of that $3.5 million must be allocated to their draft class.
According to numbers at OvertheCap.com, the Raiders’ rookie draft pool is $6.17 million. But that doesn’t mean that’s how much cap space they will need to have in order to sign their class.
That’s because not all of their draft picks will land in the Top 51 which count against the cap. In fact, only their top two picks will make the Top 51, bringing the total they will need to $4.5 million.
That means they’re within $1 million of what they will need for their draft class. That is, of course, barring any draft trades. That amount is easy enough to come up with through restructures.
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