With among least available under the cap, Raiders will need to clear space if they want to sign any more free agents (cough-Marcus-Peters-cough)
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Exactly a month ago, the Raiders hosted free agent cornerback Marcus Peters for a visit. He left without a deal. And though recent reports say the Raiders are still interested in signing him, it has yet to happen. Based on how much money the Raiders have available to spend, you can see why.
Peters is one of the top free agents out there yet to be signed, which means in order to sign him, the Raiders would need to have to have cap space to do it.
Currently the Raiders sit with just $2.8 million in available money under the cap — the third lowest cap money available in the NFL.
Only the Buccaneers ($1.7M) and Chiefs ($393K) have less available money.
If we’ve learned nothing else about the salary cap, we’ve learned that finding a few more dollars to free up isn’t all that difficult. Usually it comes in the form of restructuring a player’s contract to convert part of his base salary into a signing bonus. If it’s a player they are pretty sure they want to keep several more years, it’s nice little hack to get around the salary cap restrictions.
There is also, of course, the route of cutting a trading a high priced player. Though often times that route also leaves behind dead money.
