cap space – Page 7 – Syndication Server

7 teams that could sign pending free agent QB Jameis Winston

Jameis Winston shouldn’t lack for suitors in free agency. Quarterback upheaval is taking place across the league, and these 7 teams could try to recruit him:

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The New Orleans Saints chose to retain offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael after spending a week or two searching for his replacement, and his return to that job should make it more likely that Jameis Winston re-signs with the team. But he’s still a pending free agent, and after playing for two years on a fraction of a starter’s salary (and suffering a season-ending knee injury in the process) Winston owes it to himself and his family to go looking for the best offer on the market.

Maybe the best offer comes from the Saints. But there are isn’t a dearth of quarterback-needy teams — far from it. Half a dozen or more squads may be starting new passers in 2022, and enough of them have enough money to throw around to where we shouldn’t assume Winston stays in New Orleans. If he’s at all open to leaving (or if the Saints instead choose to go in a different direction), he should have other options. Let’s explore:

13 most reasonable ways the Packers can create salary cap space this offseason

Here are the 13 most reasonable ways the Packers can clear salary cap space before the start of the new league year in mid-March.

Brian Gutekunst, Russ Ball and the Green Bay Packers are about to have a busy month or two. According to Over the Cap, the Packers are currently (as of Feb. 3) around $50 million over the 2022 salary cap, and this figure doesn’t even include the $20 million franchise tag expected to be given to All-Pro receiver Davante Adams.

Long story short: Like last offseason, the Packers must make a number of moves to fix their salary cap situation before the start of the new league year on March 16.

The team is in a difficult spot, but you can bet there’s been a thorough plan (and many backup plans) in place for months. In fact, it’s clear the Packers have a number of logical ways to dig their way out of this hole without completely gutting the roster and starting over in a rebuilding year in 2022.

Of course, Aaron Rodgers’ decision weighs heavily on the immediate future. What he decides may shape the entire offseason.

So, how can the Packers pull it off? Here is an in-depth breakdown of the most reasonable ways the Packers can reasonably clear cap space this offseason, using Ken Ingalls’ salary cap insights as a guide.

Poll: Should the Jaguars retain Brandon Linder?

The Jags are set to owe Linder $10 million in 2022, per Spotrac. When considering his injury history, could they look to shed that salary this offseason?

As the Jacksonville Jaguars enter the 2022 offseason, they’re set to have among the most cap space in the league to spend once again. Per Spotrac, the Jaguars are slated to have the fourth-most cap space in the league with the projection sitting at just over $61 million.

While that gives the team a lot of options in free agency, it may look to shed more money. After all, this is shaping up to be a transitional offseason with a new head coach and possibly a new general manager at the helm. As a result, the Jags could reexamine some of their pricier contracts on the books, and that could lead to tough questions involving some of the team’s veterans, such as Brandon Linder.

The center has been a franchise centerpiece for nearly the last decade. A third-round pick out of Miami in 2014, he has started all 88 games he’s appeared in over the last eight seasons. He’s under contract through 2022 on a five-year, $51.7 million extension which made him the highest-paid center in the league when he signed it in 2017.

At one point, he was living up to that contract. But after an injury-plagued season in 2021 in which he missed eight games, it may be time to reconsider. The final year of his deal is set to be one of the most expensive with a projected cap hit of $10 million.

Injuries have been a recurring theme throughout his career, as he’s missed 41 games since entering the league. His play has also dropped off a bit. Once among the NFL’s best centers, he graded just 25th out of 38 centers for the 2021 season, per Pro Football Focus.

Moving on from Linder with one year left on his deal would leave the Jags with yet another important position to address this offseason, but they could almost certainly find a cheaper option who, at the very least, would be able to stay on the field. If that’s the route the team wishes to go down, its choices regarding Linder could be limited.

Given the eight-figure salary in 2022 and his injury history, Jacksonville would probably be hard-pressed to find a trade suitor for him. Realistically, if it wanted to save that cap space this offseason, it would likely need to cut him.

He’s one of several players that could become a cap casualty this offseason, but with that being said, the Jaguars aren’t exactly pinching pennies and could afford to keep him around if they wanted to.

Should the Jags keep Linder for the final year of his contract and reevaluate next offseason when he becomes a free agent? Or should they make a move now and release him to give the team more to spend? Let us know in the poll below.

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Seahawks have a tough decision to make on Bobby Wagner this offseason

Bobby Wagner has been a force to be reckoned with throughout his long and storied career. The tenth-year linebacker has earned a reputation as the most consistent defensive player for the Seattle Seahawks over the past decade in a sizable quantity of such players. A six-time First-team All-Pro, two-time Second-team All-Pro, eight-time Pro Bowler, and a key contributor to Seattle’s Super Bowl run and sustained success, there is no doubt he will be headed to Canton when all is said and done.

With that said, the Seahawks must make a decision on Wagner’s future this offseason along with that of numerous other key players. As it stands, Wagner is a potential cap casualty; he has a cap hit of over $20 million in the final year of his current contract and the Seahawks could save $16.6 million in cap space by releasing him, according to Spotrac.

The team possesses approximately $51 million in available cap space for next season per OverTheCap.com but the Seahawks could spend a good portion of it on free agency and at least a small portion will be necessary to sign the players they draft in 2022. They could create a good chunk of additional cap space by cutting Wagner. Despite his career-high 170 tackles (93 solo) in 15 games in 2021, he only accumulated three tackles for loss and his decline in athleticism has been more obvious this season. Wagner will turn 32 years old this offseason and Jordyn Brooks looks to take over as captain of the defense soon while Cody Barton has shown some promise at the linebacker position as well.

So what is the argument for keeping Wagner onboard for 2022? He is a future Hall of Famer and just because he has lost a step does not mean he is not a competent player anymore. The stats he posted this year are not entirely empty and he can still be a contributor, especially if both parties agree to restructure his contract, but the cost may be too high.

Regardless of the outcome of Wagner’s situation, he will be remembered as one of the greatest linebackers and Seattle Seahawks in NFL history.

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2022 salary cap space: How much are Chargers rolling over from 2021?

The Chargers have the sixth-highest cap space rollover in the NFL.

The salary cap for the 2022 season is expected to jump to around $208 million, $25 million more from last season for the Chargers and the other 31 teams in the NFL.

At the moment, Los Angeles’ salary cap situation looks good heading into 2022, but it’s only going to get better.

ESPN’s Field Yates took a look at what NFL teams rolled over in cap room and L.A. saved $9.05 million to add to the estimated $68 million that it will have available when the new league year begins.

The Bolts have 20 free agents that they will have to decide whether or not they feel are worth some of that money before diving into the free agency pool to find talent at positions of need.

Jags set to have among most cap space in NFL once again

The Jaguars are currently projected to have the third-most cash to spend in the NFL this offseason.

This time last year, the Jacksonville Jaguars sat with the most available cap space in the entire NFL. General Manager Trent Baalke went for a value strategy instead of using that space to spend big on top-tier free agents, but that tactic looks questionable in hindsight, to say the least. The team didn’t improve much from its 1-15 finish in 2020, going 3-14 and picking first overall once again.

However, the team may have a chance to rectify that mistake this offseason. Once again, the team has among the most available cap space in the league. Though the official number isn’t yet known, Over the Cap predicts that Jacksonville will have about $61.2 million to spend this offseason.

That would rank third in the NFL behind only the Miami Dolphins and Los Angeles Chargers. The overall cap number for each NFL team hasn’t been determined, but it’s expected to be boosted to around $208 million after it was reduced due to COVID-19.

The Jaguars don’t have a lot of big contracts on the books, but the players with the biggest cap hits (and the only ones in eight figures) will be cornerback Shaquill Griffin ($16.5 million) and linebacker Myles Jack ($13.2 million).

However, they do have several decisions to make with impending free agents, namely receiver DJ Chark Jr. and offensive tackle Cam Robinson. Chark has been productive throughout his career despite poor quarterback play, but he missed almost the entire 2021 season with an ankle fracture. He could be a franchise tag candidate, but regardless of how the Jags do it, they need to keep him around. The receiving corps this year struggled mightily without him, and Jacksonville can’t afford to move on from a promising young receiver.

Robinson, meanwhile, played under the franchise tag in 2021. He was solid if not overly impressive, but he did make a decent case for sticking around. The Jaguars could tag him again, but that would make his 2022 deal even more lucrative than it was this season. If they choose to offer him a long-term contract, he will likely want a big deal in line with the other top tackles in the league.

Still, even if the Jags offer both Chark and Robinson multi-year extensions, they should have plenty of cap space to work with. After last year’s offseason proved to be disappointing, it seems likely the team will be a bit more aggressive in pursuing talented players in free agency this time around.

Here’s how the NFL’s projected $208 million salary cap will impact the Jaguars

The Jags are currently projected to have the third-most cap space in the league in 2022.

Jacksonville had the most salary cap in the league last offseason, and after pinching pennies for the most part with value signings over big splashes, the team is expected to have a similarly large amount of cap space again this season.

And according to a report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero, the league’s total salary cap is set to increase from $182.5 million to $208.2 million, quite a large increase after the cap has fallen the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Over The Cap, the Jaguars are expected to have $70.2 million in cap space, which would rank third in the league behind the Dolphins and Chargers. Jacksonville is going to have a lot of money to work with this offseason, which will make decisions on players like left tackle Cam Robinson, receiver D.J. Chark Jr. and defensive tackle Taven Bryan a bit easier.

It could also open the door for the Jags to go after a top player in free agency, such as receivers Chris Godwin or Allen Robinson. However, the Jags are projected to have the third-most dead money in the league at $17.8 million.

After a value-based approach didn’t seem to help much this offseason, Jacksonville will likely try a splashier strategy this time around. However, the people making those decisions could change. General manager Trent Baalke could find himself on the hot seat, as could head coach Urban Meyer, considering the team is currently 2-10 and did not take much of a step forward despite acquiring a generational quarterback talent in Trevor Lawrence.

Though the Jags won’t have quite as much cap space as they did last time around, they’ll have another opportunity to improve quite a bit this offseason.

Saints dead cap: 58 players account for over $42.9 million

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It’s tough to field a competitive roster when over 23% of your salary cap commitments are going to players not on the roster, but the New Orleans Saints have done it anyway. They’re right in the thick of the NFC playoff picture with a 5-4 record, coming off of two extremely tight losses, and there isn’t a team in the NFL eager to suit up against them.

But who is all of that money going to? And why?

Dead money is the salary cap dollars left over from previous contracts. Whenever a player signs a deal with a signing bonus or partially guaranteed salary and ultimately gets released, traded, or chooses to retire, some of those contract guarantees are left behind. These aren’t new checks the Saints have to sign and cut each week — these bills have already been paid, but for accounting purposes they’re left on the books until the contract as written has expired.

But some players currently under contract are technically still counting towards that dead money total, because they were released and returned on a new deal. Fullback Alex Armah Jr. is a good example — his initial Saints contract, signed early in the offseason, carried $234,000 in partially-guaranteed salary and $137,500 in its signing bonus when the team cut him in August. But he returned to the practice squad a few days later and was then signed to the 53-man roster, so the Saints ended up paying him twice (even if the total amount is negligible).

This is the closest the Saints have been to “salary cap hell” in some time, but it’s only temporary. They’re already on the hook for more than $12.4 million in 2022 and almost all of that is tied up in their final cap hit for Drew Brees ($11.5 million), with another $850,000 accounting for Latavius Murray’s terminated contract. A handful of rookie contracts that had small signing bonuses make up the rest. That number will change in the offseason once the team begins to make cap cuts and potentially offload veteran contracts (trading Michael Thomas, for example, would leave at least $8.9 million on the books if done after June 1, 2022) but we shouldn’t see anything quite this distract again for some time.

Four other NFL teams currently have more resources tied up in dead money than the Saints right now: the 7-3 Los Angeles Rams ($45.5 million), the 5-5 Carolina Panthers ($50.5 million), this week’s opponent, the 4-6 Philadelphia Eagles ($62 million), and the 0-8-1 Detroit Lions ($63.1 million). Here is the full list of 58 contracts currently accounting for $42,948,318 against the Saints salary cap:

Updated Saints draft picks, salary cap situation after Bradley Roby trade

The New Orleans Saints traded a pair of draft picks to the Texans in exchange for CB Bradley Roby on a discount, but what do they have left?

There we go: the full details of the New Orleans Saints’ trade with the Houston Texans for cornerback Bradley Roby has now been clarified and made official on the daily NFL transactions wire.

In exchange for Roby’s services, the Saints swapped a third round pick in 2022 and a conditional sixth rounder in 2023. The conditions tied to that late-round pick are unknown just yet, but they’re likely tied to playing time or postseason honors like Pro Bowl or All-Pro team placement.

But the Saints included multiple picks for good reason — to convince Houston to take on $7 million of Roby’s base salary this year, meaning he gets onto their books for just $1.8 million. The Saints will have to figure out a solution to his non-guaranteed $9.5 million salary next season, but that’s a problem for another day.

So how does this move impact their resources now? Let’s dive in:

Why the 2022 free agent market could be dry

Many players are signing veteran extensions and avoiding free agency, making an already dry free agency market even more of a drought.

The 2021 offseason went from being very hyped to a being very slow one relative to the past few years. Barring a trade or two involving a couple of all-stars, Kyle Lowry may have been the biggest name to change teams this offseason. Despite there being more projected cap space this offseason than in 2020, several teams like Dallas, Miami, Toronto, and New Orleans all opted to operate over the salary cap at the last minute. The lack of marquee names led teams to decrease their spending power which overall depressed the market.

Can we expect a more robust market in 2022? It seems as the opposite is happening with many veterans are rushing to lock down their money now through extensions to avoid free agency. This was an expected consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of revenue it caused. The rate that the salary cap rose prior to 2020 made potential earnings in the free agency market significantly exceed what players can get through their maximum veteran extension amounts. Now players are incentivized to stay with their teams and earn more with them, especially maximum players.

Where does this leave the amount of potential cap space teams? As of now, only four teams are projected to generate maximum cap space, and it’s possible most of these teams eliminate theirs if they extend certain key players on their roster.