Tag: Contracts

Where the Saints rank in positional spending across the NFL

Where have the Saints invested most on their 2022 roster? Here’s where they rank in positional spending across the NFL, via @DillySanders:

There has been a lot of arguing about how the New Orleans Saints approached the offseason. Should they have blown it up? Did they do the right thing in doubling down and trading next year’s first round pick?

Whatever side you fall on, the season is nearly here and the final say on the roster is about to be made. Money is also a huge talking point with New Orleans. According to Over the Cap, here is where the Saints rank in positional spending across the league for 2022, with $11.28 million left to spend.

Raiders opening window on 3-year plan

Raiders embark on 3-year plan

This offseason the Raiders have been busy locking up their own players on extensions and adding other players on long term deals. But a closer look at the deals they’ve made reveals a specific timeline.

The first deal the Raiders made was the one they gave Davante Adams after acquiring him in trade from the Packers. 

That deal initially had everyone freaking out about how big it was. A five-year, $140 million deal. But it’s really at most a three-year deal. At signing, only one year is fully guaranteed. The next two years are guaranteed if he’s still on the roster come March. After the third year of his deal, he has no guaranteed money and his cap hit jumps to over $40 million. In other words, he will never see that money.

The way Adams’s contract maps out is nearly identical to that of his quarterback.

Derek Carr’s deal is only fully guaranteed for this season. And if he’s on the roster on the third day of the 2023 league year (three days after the Super Bowl) his salary for 2023 and a portion of his contract for 2024 will be guaranteed as well. So, once again, a three-year deal.

Even Maxx Crosby’s deal is on a three-year plan. Same as Carr and Adams where his salary for the 2023 and 2024 seasons will have guarantees that kick in if he’s on the roster come next March.

Another of Carr’s targets got a new deal this offseason. Hunter Renfrow signed an extension. His deal is more straightforward. It’s simply a two-year extension for a total of three years.

Likewise Chandler Jones signed a three-year deal. Additionally, Kolton Miller and Daniel Carlson will have no more guaranteed money on their contracts following the 2023 season.

The one man still looking for a contract is Darren Waller. It will be interesting to see what kind of deal they give him, but I’d bet his contract that it will have no guaranteed money past 2024.

Let’s be clear here, that this is not to say the Raiders are headed for blowing up the team in three years. If all goes well, many of these guys will get new deals after their guarantees are up. But if all does *not* go as hoped, they will have put themselves in position to go back to the drawing board and start building toward another window.

Contract details on Chiefs’ recent signings in free agency

A look at contract details for six of the #Chiefs’ recent signings/re-signings in free agency.

The Kansas City Chiefs continue to be active in the NFL’s free agency period, making several new additions to the team while also bringing back some of their own players.

Below you’ll find an updated look at the contract details for several players who have recently signed or re-signed with the team. We still await the full contract information for some recently-signed players like Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Deon Bush, Austin Reiter and Ronald Jones. We already have covered the contract details for Justin Reid and JuJu Smith-Schuster.

All that said, there are a number of players whose contracts have been agreed upon and released publicly. All contract details below are courtesy of Over The Cap.

Comparing contract projections for top Saints free agents

What contracts for Saints’ Jameis Winston, Terron Armstead, Marcus Williams, and Deonte Harty could look like based on expert projections, via @RossJacksonNOLA:

The New Orleans Saints have several important outgoing free agents this offseason. While the salary cap situation is not as dire as one may expect upon first glance, the Saints may have to make some tough decisions based on spending vs. player value. Part of what will dictate that spending will be the market for their top free agents. That market will be defined by what teams outside of New Orleans are willing to spend. To get an idea of what those markets could look like, here are projections from various outlets for four of the Saints’ top free agents.

Chiefs sign 13 players to reserve/future contracts

The #Chiefs signed 13 of their 16 practice squad players from 2021 to reserve/future contracts.

The Kansas City Chiefs have signed the majority of their practice squad players from the 2021 NFL season to reserve/future contracts per the NFL’s personnel notice for Wednesday.

Like clockwork, at the end of every NFL season, the Chiefs often re-sign the majority of their practice squad players on reserve/future deals. This means they’ll be a part of the 90-man offseason roster when it opens in March and they’ll have a chance to compete for a roster spot in 2022 during the course of the offseason.

Only three players from the practice squad, DT Andrew Billings, DE Joe Jackson and RB Darwin Thompson, were not retained. Here’s a look at the 13 players signed to reserve/future deals by Kansas City and their outlook for 2022:

Cowboys sign last two rookies on 1st day of 2021 training camp

A quirk in the CBA leaves most 3rd-rounders unsigned until right before camp. Here’s why two of Dallas’ three picks that round waited until the last, last minute.

The roster is complete. The Dallas Cowboys trimmed the group down on Saturday, but the core of the 90-man offseason roster has been known for months now.

Following the 2021 draft, the club agreed to terms with a series of undrafted free agents and while the rookie pool pretty much outlined the parameters of each selection’s deal, the third rounders were slow to put ink to paper. That’s to be expected, as the third rounders have the most wiggle room within the collective bargaining agreement’s rookie wage scale. As is often the case, the Cowboys and their third rounder went to the deadline as camp approached. Well, two of their three third rounders. On Wednesday morning, prior to the training camp pressers, it was announced Nahshon Wright and Chauncey Golston were finally under contract.

What took them so long? There’s a little bit of wiggle room for third-round draft picks when it comes to negotiating their rookie deals. While the first round draft picks get fully guaranteed deals, the second rounders get partially guaranteed base salaries, the third rounders do not. The only thing guaranteed is there signing bonus.

More to the point, third rounders fall in the sweet spot of the 25% rule. This rule maxes out the year-to-year raise players can get.

Each year of a CBA has a minimum salary associated with it based on years of service in the league. Third-round draft picks can increase their salary year-to-year up to the 25% rule, meaning they can make more than minimum base salary. Because of this, they are the only draft picks whose contracts aren’t already set in stone. There’s room to negotiate, and negotiate the players and teams do.

The difference can amount to as much as $500,000 over the course of the four years, and for players with no guarantees outside the initial bonus, this is a big deal.

What made things even crazier is that year by year, the average third round is getting closer and closer to making the maximum amount. Until this year, when Houston’s Nico Collins got the full 100% of the maximum. Naturally, players drafted earlier in the round than Collins’ No. 26, wanted this deal if they hadn’t signed yet.

It should be assumed the reps for Wright and Golston waged war on this level as well.

Regardless, the Cowboys entire draft class is now under contract and ready to start practice on Thursday.

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Tyron Smith, Michael Gallup pegged as Cowboys’ most underpaid players

With Dak Prescott now earning market value, two stars in Dallas could lay claim to the title of biggest bargain, based on their play.

For most of his pro career, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has been the most outrageous bargain in the game. That will change when he steps onto the field in 2021; under his new contract, No. 4 will be finally be earning the market rate for his elite-passer skills.

But that begs the question: who now assumes the role of the team’s most underpaid talent? John Owning of the Dallas Morning News has opened up the books and double-checked the game film to identify two players who could make a legitimate case for that crown.

It may be difficult for some to look at the 19th-highest-paid tackle in the league as undercompensated, but that’s exactly what Tyron Smith is.

As Owning points out using Over the Cap’s numbers, Cam Robinson, Dion Dawkins, Jack Conklin, Taylor Decker, Donovan Smith, Jake Matthews, Taylor Moton, Kolton Miller, and DJ Humphries are just some of the tackles currently making more than Smith’s $12.2 million per-year average. All fine players, to be sure, but “they can’t hold a candle to Smith when he’s healthy,” Owning notes.

Injury has indeed been a concern for Smith of late, but head coach Mike McCarthy is encouraged by Smith’s recovery from his recurring neck issue, saying the seven-time Pro Bowler looks to be “in great shape” as training camp approaches. And despite missing 14 games last season, ESPN’s slate of players, coaches, executives, and scouts still places Smith in the top 10 at his position.

And don’t forget Smith is still just 30 years old (he was drafted at age 20), so there’s ostensibly plenty left in the tank for the Cowboys’ O-line stalwart, whom Owning calls “a top-tier tackle for just pennies on the dollar.”

The other top value for the Cowboys? Wide receiver Michael Gallup. The fourth-year star “would be identified as the future No. 1 receiver” on most other teams, Owning suggests, but sharing the stage with Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb means Gallup will almost certainly always play second fiddle (at best) in Dallas.

Gallup notched an 1,100-yard season in 2019 and likely would have repeated the feat last season with Prescott throwing to him all year. As it was, he finished the 2020 campaign with 843 receiving yards from a revolving cast of backup passers.

The former third-round pick will count just $2.6 million against the team’s cap in 2021, according to Owning, “which is chump change compared to the tens of millions that receivers of Gallup’s caliber usually make.”

Gallup will no doubt cash in with a fat new contract for 2022, though realistically, it may not come from the Cowboys. This year, however, he remains a top-flight talent at a bargain basement price.

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How much salary cap space do the Saints need to sign their draft picks?

Only 4 of the New Orleans Saints’ 6 picks in the 2021 NFL draft are projected to count against the salary cap, and at a very affordable rate

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Some analysts and fans on Twitter love to use this topic like a cudgel, but no one is sweating the salary cap hurdles between the New Orleans Saints and signing their draft picks less than the team itself. While the Saints are kind of strapped for cap space right now, it’s only a matter of time until enough resources are freed up to ink their rookie draft class.

The first step towards that goal will happen soon with Drew Brees’ $1.075 million base salary reverting to New Orleans after June 1.

Rookie contracts are planned out under the new NFL collective bargaining agreement, so those deals are now tied to draft slots and are easier to project and plan for. The team over at Over The Cap have put together estimates of what each Saints draft pick will count against the 2021 salary cap once they’re signed. I’ll reference those projections often, but keep in mind nothing is official until contracts are signed and the Saints report their cap numbers to the league.

Because only the top 51 contracts are factored against the cap during the offseason, not all of New Orleans’ draftees will even be counted. Remember, whenever a new cap hit is added to the books, it pushes lesser-valued deals below that top-51 threshold. Some of the Saints’ draft picks will carry 2021 cap hits that don’t even meet that bar. After factoring in which cap hits will be displaced, only the Saints’ top four draft picks will rank among the top 51 contracts, at a combined cost of roughly $1.94 million.

Let’s run through the estimates from Over The Cap and consider how each of them factors in to the salary cap:

Saints salary cap update before the 2021 NFL draft

The New Orleans Saints do not have much salary cap space to work with before the 2021 NFL draft, but that isn’t really a concern anymore.

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Look around the NFL Twitter community or its subreddit and you’ll see a lot of pearl-clutching going on about the Saints salary cap, but there isn’t much worry going on in New Orleans. The Saints have stuck to their plan every step of the way to get here, hours before the 2021 NFL draft begins, and they’ll continue to be mindful of how to best maximize their resources. So how much cap space do they have anyway?

There are a lot of moving parts at this stage in the offseason so numbers are very much in flux, but the latest report from the NFL Players Association lists the Saints with $529,494 in breathing room beneath the cap, and 63 players under contract (of a possible 90). The experts at Spotrac have New Orleans with 62 contracts filed with the league, and with a more-generous $848,486 left to burn. On the other end of the spectrum, Over The Cap’s Jason Fitzgerald has the Saints with just $219,354 available to them, and 63 contracts signed.

The good news is that the Saints know exactly how much every draft pick will count against the cap, and those rookie contracts are quite affordable under the recent collective bargaining agreements. And because the Saints are over the top-51 threshold already, any new players signed will push less-valuable cap hits off the books. So if a rookie is brought on at, say, a $2.3 million cap hit (which is what Cesar Ruiz was owed last year), it would ultimately cost only $1.5 million to sign the player by negating a smaller contract.

So, sure, the Saints need more cap space. They’ll get more once Drew Brees’ post-June 1 retirement comes into effect, and they can find even more cap space by working out long-term extensions with key players like Ryan Ramczyk ($11 million cap hit), Marcus Williams ($10.6 million), and Marshon Lattimore ($10.2 million). They’ve got the means to make moves. For now, fans just have to be patient.

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Saints salary cap update before the 2021 NFL draft

The New Orleans Saints do not have much salary cap space to work with before the 2021 NFL draft, but that isn’t really a concern anymore.

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Look around the NFL Twitter community or its subreddit and you’ll see a lot of pearl-clutching going on about the Saints salary cap, but there isn’t much worry going on in New Orleans. The Saints have stuck to their plan every step of the way to get here, hours before the 2021 NFL draft begins, and they’ll continue to be mindful of how to best maximize their resources. So how much cap space do they have anyway?

There are a lot of moving parts at this stage in the offseason so numbers are very much in flux, but the latest report from the NFL Players Association lists the Saints with $529,494 in breathing room beneath the cap, and 63 players under contract (of a possible 90). The experts at Spotrac have New Orleans with 62 contracts filed with the league, and with a more-generous $848,486 left to burn. On the other end of the spectrum, Over The Cap’s Jason Fitzgerald has the Saints with just $219,354 available to them, and 63 contracts signed.

The good news is that the Saints know exactly how much every draft pick will count against the cap, and those rookie contracts are quite affordable under the recent collective bargaining agreements. And because the Saints are over the top-51 threshold already, any new players signed will push less-valuable cap hits off the books. So if a rookie is brought on at, say, a $2.3 million cap hit (which is what Cesar Ruiz was owed last year), it would ultimately cost only $1.5 million to sign the player by negating a smaller contract.

So, sure, the Saints need more cap space. They’ll get more once Drew Brees’ post-June 1 retirement comes into effect, and they can find even more cap space by working out long-term extensions with key players like Ryan Ramczyk ($11 million cap hit), Marcus Williams ($10.6 million), and Marshon Lattimore ($10.2 million). They’ve got the means to make moves. For now, fans just have to be patient.

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