FanPost

Salary Cap Update 3-24-12

Okay here is the jest. I got some more info for the cap and other info. Lets first start off with what is the cap number since everybody has been hearing a lot of different numbers. First and foremost is the cap this year has multiple parts. The base cap that everybody knows about is the 120.6 million. On top of that the teams carryover the remainder of the previous years cap space so that is 1.3 million. Then we get the gift, that uhm was an interesting read#, of 1.6 million from Dallas and Washington. On top of that the Lions can borrow up to 1.5 from the 2014 cap number. So that is the jest of the cap info so we are sitting at 125 million for the cap.

Now lets talk players. We have 7 picks in the draft as Seattle is giving us a 6th or 7th rounder for a previous trade. That means we are likely getting 5 underpaid players on our roster of 53 players. So the remainder of the players are going to come from the 63 players we currently have signed. Of these we have 2 QBs, 7 RBs, 6 WRs, 4 TEs, 11 OL, 12 DL, 6 LB, 6 Saf, 5 CBs, and 4 ST. Its a good 30 Offense, 29 Defense, and 4 ST setup which is right where we should be at. We still need another Kicker for the off season. Needless to say we are still 10 players away from a full roster as the 7 draft picks will fill out the rest. I should also point out that the practice squad will need roughly 6 camp bodies to fill out plus the 2 late draft picks. Overall I think we are close to being done with roster moves. I see just a handful of selections coming forward.

Now lets talk cap space. Under the 51 player rule we are currently at 120,375,530 for total salary. That means we honestly have roughly 3 million left to give out. I should point out that any new player signed that has played under 3 seasons signing at the minimal will not impact our cap space. I should also point out that the Leshoure got a 1 milion dollar SB last year as a draft pick late in the 2nd round. Titus got nearly a 2 million dollar SB as a mid 2nd rounder.

Now for our picks I can postulate what our costs are going to be roughly. 1st round - 1.9 to 2 million for this year, 2nd round - roughly 1.5 million, 3rd round - maybe 500k, 4th round - 500k again and probaly going down to 400k by the 7th round. Needless to say only the 1st and 2nd round picks are going to show up on our cap space. That is provided we do not get a credit for keeping rookies. Not sure if that is under the new CBA yet. In any case we are going to need 2.5 million for signing our rookies so that means with the 120.4 million current cap space plus the 2.5 needed for signing the rookies we have a cap hit of roughly 123 million. Given that I do not think the boys in the office want to continue to moving cap space around I would expect them to hold off on any more multiple million dollar contracts right now. The only saving grace for us is if they can get Cliff's deal done this week. If they can that could save the team 5 million roughly and give us some breathing room to sign another LB and another CB.

# see the yahoo article about that one. Here is the jest, the NFLPA was told either accept the sanctions and get 120.6 as the cap or do not accept them and see the cap end up going down to 116 million or so. It was interesting to say the least.

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