2024 salary cap – Syndication Server

Mike Williams to count less than $6 million against salary cap for 2024

Mike Williams estimated to count less than $6 million against salary cap for 2024

The Jets and general manager Joe Douglas have become big fans of void years lately. The latest example comes from their contract for their new wide receiver Mike Williams.

It was reported earlier Saturday that Williams signed a one-year deal worth $10 million that could become $15 million via incentives from receiving yards, receptions and touchdowns.

Over the Cap is currently estimating that the team added four void years to Williams’ contract to spread out the cap hit of Williams’ $3.3 million signing bonus. That means just $660,000 gets charged for 2024. Over the Cap is likely estimating that three of the 17 games for the per-game roster bonus of $1.7 million is “likely to be earned”, as that is how many games Williams played last season before his ACL injury.

As a result, that would only charge $300,000 against the cap in 2024 and anything after that would be charged to the 2025 salary cap. Using that, Williams’ cap number for 2024 would come to just $5.96 million. He’ll leave at least $2.64 million in dead money for 2025 plus any other additional charges that the Jets would incur if they happen.

Overall, a small risk for a potential big reward with Williams and another example of the Jets placing all their eggs into the 2024 basket.

Contract details for backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor

Tyrod Taylor is set to count just $2.8 million against the cap in 2024.

The Jets needed to come away from free agency with a veteran backup quarterback. They didn’t have to look very far, just to the other side of the town. New York signed for Giants quarterback Tyrod Taylor.

Contract details were shared by Dan Duggan of The Athletic. The deal is for two years and $12 million with $8.5 million guaranteed and a $4 million signing bonus. There are also $6 million tied into incentives, which would bring the total value of the contract to $18 million.

The Jets also added three void years to spread the signing bonus out. That amounts to just $800,000 per season. Taylor will count just $2.8 million against the salary cap in 2024 and $6.8 million in 2025. He’ll leave $2.4 million in dead money in 2026.

For comparison, Zach Wilson’s cap hit was $9.5 million in 2023 thanks to his signing bonus cap charge and his roster bonus.

A good deal at a spot the Jets desperately needed an answer at. They count afford another season like last year where they neglected the position and it cost them big time. Now they at least have a reasonable fallback option.

Compensation updates for Isaiah Oliver, Chuck Clark, Kenny Yeboah, Jake Hanson

Thanks to ESPN’s Rich Cimini, we have dollar figures for a handful of recent signings for the New York Jets.

The Jets gave one-contracts to the following players:

CB Isaiah Oliver
Safety Chuck Clark
TE Kenny Yeboah
OG Jake Hanson

The total compensation for all four players is only about $6 million. Here are those figures:

Oliver: $2.5 million ($2.2 million guaranteed)
Clark: $2 million ($705,000 guaranteed)
Yeboah: $1.4 million ($225,000 guaranteed)
Hanson: $1.1 million ($45,000 guaranteed)

With those deals now included, Over the Cap has the Jets sitting at about $22 million in cap space. Keep in mind, this is still without the numbers for Tyron Smith and Tyrod Taylor, so that number will change very soon.

Here’s where 49ers rank in 2024 salary cap space

The 49ers aren’t in too bad a spot salary cap-wise.

The NFL’s $255.4 million salary cap for 2024 was certainly helpful for a 49ers club that needed as much wiggle room as possible this offseason. That $255.4 million number came in almost $14 million above the projection from Over the Cap and put San Francisco in a more advantageous spot to have an effective offseason.

Still, the 49ers are one of a few teams with a little work to do to get under the cap per OTC.

Here’s the cap space for each team and where San Francisco ranks going into the 2024 league year:

$255M salary cap gives Cowboys new flexibility in Prescott negotiations

Prescott had leverage on multiple levels, including timing. The new cap takes some of that away and provides the Jones family with more comfortable chairs at the negotiation tables. Here’s how, from @KDDrummondNFL.

It’s now easier for the Dallas Cowboys to walk away from Dak Prescott. On Friday, the NFL released the figures for the 2024 salary cap, $255.4 million, steamrolling past previous projections. Originally the number was rumored to be between $240 million and $245 million. The actual number comes in $13 million above the median of that range and Stephen Jones has to be ecstatic.

Why? Because it keeps them from being strong armed in the Dak Prescott contract negotiations. Don’t get it twisted, Prescott still has like 80% of all of the leverage here, but blowing things up just became a little bit more palatable for the Jones family. Even if they do end up signing Prescott long-term, the extra room means they don’t have to resolve Prescott’s situation before addressing other needs. If nothing else, the additional cap space buys the Cowboys time.

Prescott currently sits with a $59.5 million cap hit that can be easily reduced in many ways. The most likely way is that the team works out an extension that makes him the highest paid player in league history, but reduces the 2024 impact on the cap. But now, with this extra $13 million in space they can play a little more hardball because it’s not as catastrophic to their offseason to not get space from Prescott’s deal.

NFL bumps salary cap above $255M, helping Cowboys

The big bump in salary cap means Dallas is in a much better position as the league year is about to begin.

The Dallas Cowboys can always move money around. There was a time at the beginning of last decade when the general football public had a poor understanding of the salary cap and contracts. The idea a team was up against the salary cap in a given year was met with hand wringing and flower bringing. Yet those who studied the cap carefully during the early 2010s saw that teams routinely were able to avoid the fictitious hell and someone get under the cap.

Only the most dire of situations really caused a team to implode their rosters, but most teams used several NFL-allowed accounting methods to circumnavigate one year’s cap. That was likely going to be the plan for the Dallas Cowboys in 2024 when the cap was projected to be around $242.5 million. But now that the number has skyrocketed to $255.4 million, the Cowboys are in a much better position.

Dallas has just under $254 million in cap hits from their top 51 players; the accounting measure the league uses during the offseason when rosters can be up to 90 players. They also have around $14.8 million in dead money hit from players no longer on the roster, such as Ezekiel Elliott. After factoring in the remaining unused space from the 2023 season, Over the Cap estimates the Cowboys are now just $8.3 million above the cap.

They will easily be able to create additional cap space through a variety of moves, and the additional $12 million means they gain some flexibility.

The $30 million-plus increase is by far the biggest jump in cap space of league history, save for the bump after the 2021 cap was lowered after the pandemic season of 2020. The cap dropped $16 million then bounced back $36 million in 2022.

The added revenue from a 17th game and the league getting in bed with legalized gambling is now hitting the bottom line and teams are more profitable than ever.

The salary cap is a percentage of certain aspects of league revenue as outlined in the CBA between the league and the NFL Players Association.

NFL sets salary cap at $255.4 million, giving Jets more cap space

The Jets have more money to work with as the salary cap for 2024 makes a big jump.

The NFL officially set the salary cap for the 2024 season at $255.4 million, an incredible $30 million increase from 2023, thanks to media revenue and the teams fully repaying advances from the COVID pandemic.

As a result, the Jets now have more room to work with. Based on numbers from Over the Cap, the Jets now have about $15 million in cap space with the additional space. OTC initially projected about $256 million for the salary cap but recent news caused projections to be lower, at around $242 million.

The Jets will also still have plenty of moves to make to create much more room for themselves. Perhaps this will give them a better chance to keep Bryce Huff. Speaking of which, with the salary cap set, the franchise tag numbers are also set. Placing the franchise tag on Huff would be worth about $21.3 million.

49ers should be hoping for highest possible salary cap in 2024

The #49ers could get some offseason assistance from a higher-than-projected salary cap.

The 49ers aren’t in salary cap hell thanks to some savvy contract gymnastics and a quarterback room that costs something just north of minimum wage, but a higher-than-projected cap number for 2024 would be extremely helpful for them.

Over the Cap projects the 2024 salary cap to be $242 million. By that number the 49ers are $12,375,835 over the cap, but they’ll have more than $35 million rolling over from restructures in 2023 that should give them a little bit of wiggle room under the cap. A couple of other contract maneuvers could put them far enough under the cap to be real players in free agency.

That’s all true with a $242 million cap, but multiple reports from Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio indicate the number could be closer to $243 million, and perhaps as high as $250 million.

Every dollar counts in a hard-capped league, and the 49ers are going to be living on the edge of that cap for the foreseeable future with most of their big contracts restructured to kick the money can down the road. They’ve likely been operating around that $242 million number. If it gets up to or near $250 million, it could mean a more comfortable and aggressive offseason for the 49ers instead of one where they’re just trying to ensure they’re under the cap.

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Ranking all 32 teams (including the Jets) by cap space going into 2024

A listing of each team’s cap space to get a sense of where the Jets currently stand before getting the work begins in the offseason.

The offseason means fans get to take a hard look at what a team’s salary cap situation looks like at the outset and how much room they have to work with for free agency and the NFL draft. Obviously, the more room the better but we also need to keep in mind that restructures can and will happen to create more space. Teams must be under the salary cap — currently projected to be around $242 million — by the start of the new league year in March. This is just a starting point for the Jets and all teams.

This will be a list of each team and how much cap space they are currently looking at as we enter the offseason. Again, just a starting point but a good starting point. This will give you a sense of where the Jets stand compared to other teams nearing the end of January. All numbers of courtesy of Over the Cap.

Ranking all 32 teams (including the Cowboys) by cap space going into 2024

A look at how each NFL club is situated against the 2024 salary cap heading into the offseason. | From @KDDrummondNFL

Dallas’ ownership went to work on Tuesday, trying to convince Cowboys Nation not to throw in the towel. Speaking from the Senior Bowl in Mobile, AL, both Jerry and Stephen Jones spoke words in an effort to mitigate the frustration and disappointment in the club’s early playoff exit, in an embarrassing double-digit defeat at the hands of the Green Bay Packers.

Dallas became the first No. 2 seed to lose to a seven, and they were the only home team to lose in the wild-card round. Fans, en masse, have let it be known they are not going to buy in to regular season success any longer. The Joneses decided to retain head coach Mike McCarthy and run it back, and that caused even more angst. On Tuesday, ownership vowed to go all in this offseason, hinting they wouldn’t be frugal in free agency.

But the Cowboys will have to do plenty of work even before free agency in order to be a part of the first wave; something they’ve avoided for over a decade. Dallas doesn’t spend on big-name free agents since they gave Brandon Carr a huge cornerback to entice the corner to join their club in 2012. To do so, they’ll need cap space, something they don’t have at the moment.

Dallas is one of 11 clubs over the expected $242 million cap for 2024. It’s going to take quite a few moves, a combination of restructures, extensions and possibly releases, for Dallas to get below the cap and start handing out deals to outsiders.

Here’s a look at how all 32 teams rank in terms of available cap space entering February. All cap space figures are courtesy of Over The Cap, and will be adjusted once all likely-to-be-earned and unlikely-to-be-earned incentives are adjusted.