Tag: 2023 salary cap

Jets’ biggest salary-cap hits following 2023 NFL Draft

A look at the top cap hits moving more into OTAs.

The roster for the 2023 New York Jets is just about set. They could still make some roster moves, but the bulk of free agency and the draft are in the rearview mirror. With that, we also have an idea of which players will be topping the salary cap for the Jets this season.

Things will certainly change, such as the restructuring of Aaron Rodgers’ contract and the potential extension for Quinnen Williams. We’ll update you when those events happen.

Using the current numbers from Spotrac at the time of this writing, here’s a look at the top 20 cap hits for the New York Jets for 2023.

Updated look at the Eagles salary cap ahead of the 2023 NFL draft

The Philadelphia Eagles are among the teams with the most available salary cap space ahead of the 2023 NFL draft

Business is booming in Philadelphia, and with two first-round picks in this month’s draft, Howie Roseman has the ammo to add even more talent to a Super Bowl roster.

The Eagles entered the new league year with about $8 million in cap space and several questions, including how to formulate a massive contract extension for quarterback Jalen Hurts.

After retaining Darius Slay and James Bradberry, along with contract options for A.J. Brown, Lane Johnson, and Haason Reddick, the Birds have about $20 million in cap space.

With the draft just three weeks away, here’s a breakdown of Philadelphia’s salary cap.

Updated look at the Eagles salary cap after the first wave of NFL free agency

We’re taking an updated look at the Philadelphia Eagles’ salary cap and dead money hits after the first wave of 2023 NFL Free Agency

The Eagles will have two first-round picks in April’s NFL Draft, and as Howie Roseman efficiently works through the first wave of free agency, the team’s most significant needs have somewhat changed.

Philadelphia is middle of the pack regarding current salary cap space, and the team can create more room by picking up options for Haason Reddick and A.J. Brown.

With the first wave of free agency now complete, here’s an updated look at the Eagles’ salary cap space.

Here’s how Cowboys can responsibly create over $40 million in cap space

Recommendations on how Dallas can respect their vets while creating cap room, along with other ways to shave space before the new year. Trade away candidates included. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys made a couple of moves on Friday which didn’t impact the state of the current roster but instead paved the way for some potential returns or additions. They’ll need to make more, however, if they are to be involved in free agency starting on Monday. Mind you, this isn’t even discussing being real players in the race for talent; that feels like chasing a unicorn.

This is in regards to doing much of anything, including their annual sign-their-own-bargain-shop-other-teams strategy. Converting base salary to bonus, Dallas shaved a little over $30 million to their cap space with the adjustments to Dak Prescott and Zack Martin’s deals. But because they were already over the cap, Tony Pollard’s pending franchise tag put them even more in the red. Dallas was $16 million over, according to Over the Cap; the moves gave them just $14.5 million in usable space and that’s not enough.

Dallas will want to carry at least $5 million worth of space into the regular season, and the draft class will take away another $3 million. That’s $8 million the club needs to earmark, meaning that they’ll only have $6.5 million of effective cap space to use.

Dallas currently has 57 players under contract, so they are already above the Top 51 threshold. 51 players of the 90-man offseason roster count against the salary cap, which is $224.8 million in 2023 (plus the Cowboys’ 2022 rollover of another $5.5 million). Each player they sign for more than the minimum will knock someone out of the Top 51, so their impact on the cap will be slightly less.

For instance, if Dallas signs a player to a one-year, $6.75 million deal it would use up $6 million of cap space because they’d be pushing a player making $750,000 out of the Top 51.

That’s not giving Dallas much of an opportunity to do anything, so here are five ways they could create more cap space. They don’t have to make these moves now, but could pull the trigger next week, next month or even after the draft.

Bucs restructure multiple contracts, create $44 million in salary cap space

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made a flurry of contract restructures Friday, clearing a ton of much-needed salary cap space

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have made some serious progress on their salary cap woes with additional contract restructures on Friday.

Tampa Bay has restructured three other players’ contracts after doing so for defensive tackle Vita Vea, according to FOX Sports writer Greg Auman.

The team has also reportedly restructured with cornerback Carlton Davis, center Ryan Jensen and wide receiver Chris Godwin. Combined, the four restructures create 44 million dollars in cap space for 2023.

The space is sorely needed for the Bucs, who entered the offseason $55 million over the cap, and it has been hard at work making moves to get under it. Tight end Cameron Brate, tackle Donovan Smith and running back Leonard Fournette are set to be released, which should clear space, and these latest restructures will do quite a bit more to get under the cap to ensure the team can operate with its roster and sign its upcoming draft picks in the 2023 draft.

Quite a few other players on the roster could be potential cuts, so it will be interesting to see what else general manager Jason Licht does to alleviate his team’s situation in the coming weeks toward free agency.

Here’s why the Cowboys adjusted salary cap is $230.3M in 2023

A look at the Cowboys’ new cap number and how the league goes about the offseason adjustments to the standard salary cap. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The NFL has done their number crunching. Earlier in the offseason, the league announced what they projected the 2023 salary cap baseline to be; $224.8 million. It’s a baseline because a few CBAs ago, the league and the NFLPA agreed that the classic Cingular Wireless perk of rollover minutes was coming to football.

Salary cap space was no longer use or lose like your PTO near the end of the fiscal year. Instead if a team didn’t use all of the cap space from the prior year, they simply added it on for additional space in the coming season. Due to some intricate factors in determining just how much that was, it takes until close to the start of the new league year for all the calculations to be completed and now that it has, Dallas gained an additional $5.5 million of space.

The delay in reveal is primarily centered around bonus and incentive calculations. There are basically two types; likely-to-be-earned (LTBE) and not-likely-to-be-earned (NLTBE), and they are treated very differently.

The distinction is based on past performance. Say a player has a clause in their contract where each season they receive $1 million in bonus money for getting to 10 sacks.

Player X had eight sacks the year before signing the contract. Because they failed to reach that milestone the season prior, that bonus is categorized as NLTBE. It won’t count against the team’s in-season cap calculation (teams have to remain compliant every day of the league year). But if that player gets 12 sacks, at the end of the year that bonus is added to the cap.

This is one reason why teams always keep a couple million of space throughout the year, in addition to needing to be able to sign injury replacements.

But back to Player X.

When the cap calculations for the next season come around, he’s hit the marker of double-digit sacks. That $1 million potential bonus for the following year is now classified as LTBE and hits the cap immediately.

But Player X suffers an unfortunate injury, plays in 10 games and only has seven sacks. At the end of the year, that $1 million hit is removed from the cap calculations.

So after the season is over, the league and their teams goes through the lengthy process of reviewing every players’ LTBE and NLTBE hits and misses to finalize just how much cap room they ended up leaving on the table, and that’s what is used to adjust the current season’s cap for each team.

As for the Cowboys, even with the adjustment they are still over the cap right now. After franchising Tony Pollard they need to create $16 million worth of space before the league year starts, just to avoid the league cancelling some of their contracts.

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Packers restructure contract of OLB Preston Smith, save $6.7M on salary cap

The Green Bay Packers restructured the contract of outside linebacker Preston Smith and saved almost $6.7 million on the salary cap in 2023.

The Green Bay Packers restructured the contract of outside linebacker Preston Smith and saved almost $6.7 million on the salary cap in 2023, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.

Smith had a $7.5 million roster bonus for 2023 in his contract, which was reworked last offseason. The Packers can convert the roster bonus into a signing bonus and prorate the sum over the length of the deal, creating immediate savings in 2023 but adding to cap hits in future years. Teams can also convert base salary and add void years.

Smith’s cap hit was scheduled to be a little over $13 million before the restructure. His deal was tailor-made to be restructured this offseason given the roster bonus and the Packers’ need for cap space.

Smith is under contract through the 2026 season.

Last season, Smith delivered 8.5 sacks, 20 quarterback hits and nine tackles for loss over 17 games. He turns 31 in November.

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15 potential salary cap casualties the Eagles could target in NFL free agency

With more than half the teams around the NFL looking to cut salary, here are 15 potential salary cap casualties that the Philadelphia Eagles could target in free agency

The NFL offseason is just weeks from officially getting underway and as teams look to cut costs and get under the salary cap, several big names could land in new places.

Teams cut salaries each and every offseason, with some key names landing in the perfect spots for success, while others are just starting the spiral of a career decline or potential retirement.

James Bradberry was a salary cap casualty of the Giants in 2021, with the new head coach Brian Daboll and GM Joe Schoen needing to trim $12 million of cap space.

Bradberry signed in Philadelphia for $7.5 million, turning that opportunity into an All-Pro season and a chance for a huge payday on the open market.

With the new league year fast approaching, here are 15 potential salary cap casualties the Eagles could target in NFL free agency.

10 biggest salary cap hits for Dolphins in 2023 before free agency

Some of these numbers are huge.

Free agency has yet to begin, but the Miami Dolphins will need to be active players in the market again this offseason if they want to compete for a Super Bowl in 2023.

At this point, the Dolphins are $12.67 million over the salary cap, so they’ll need to be creative with other management in order to get under and create space to make signings.

With that said, now is a great time to take a look at some of the higher cap hits of players of Miami’s roster for the 2023 season before they start making some of these transactions.

Salary cap numbers courtesy of Spotrac

NFL 2023 salary cap gets big jump to $224.8 million

NFL has announced a $ignificant jump in this year’s $alary cap

It’s time to adjust your thinking as to what each position on the field should be making. That’s because as of next season, there will be a lot more money to go around.

The NFL informed teams today that the salary cap for next season will be a whopping $224.8 million. That’s a jump of $16.6 million from last season’s figure of $208.2 million.

It means every team is suddenly looking at having a lot more money to spend.

With this new number, the Raiders sit at just over $22 million in available cap space — a number that will go up another $30 million with the cut or trade of Derek Carr.

Based on current cap figures at overthecap.com, that would make this the top five teams in terms of cap space:

  1. Chicago Bears $92M
  2. Atlanta Falcons $56.5M
  3. Las Vegas Raiders $52M
  4. New York Giants $45M
  5. Cincinnati Bengals $44M

It’s going to be a crazy free agency period with some big contracts thrown around. I mean, bigger than usual.