Ten-million dollar club By Jason Cole, Yahoo! Sports June 29, 2007 Code: [B]TEAMS WITH $10 MILLION-PLUS OF CAP ROOM [/B] 1. Cleveland $22 million 2. Buffalo $21 million 3. Minnesota $20 million 4. Jacksonville $16.5 million 5. Kansas City $16.2 million 6. Green Bay $16 million 7. Tennessee $15.3 million 8. Dallas $13.8 million 9. Oakland $12.5 million 10. Philadelphia $11.5 million 11. St. Louis $11.5 million 12. New Orleans $11.2 million 13. Seattle $10.5 million 14. N.Y. Jets $10 million – Source: NFLPA One of the biggest offseason free-agent spending sprees still wasn't enough to eat up much of the NFL's available salary-cap space. As a result, the league could be in for another significant rise in player salaries this year and next. Fourteen of the NFL's 32 teams have not used at least $10 million of the $109-million salary cap, according to figures from the NFL Players Association. And of those 14, seven have at least $15 million in cap space. That means contracts for average players will continue to rise as they did at the start of free agency this year when offensive linemen such as Derrick Dockery and Eric Steinbach received deals that averaged $7 million a year. "There's no way to eat up all the money that's out there this year," said one agent. "Teams are going to do everything they can to sign their young guys to long-term deals, but it still isn't going to be enough. When teams start to roll over money to next year, it's going to be unreal what some guys are going to get." The Cleveland Browns lead the league with $22 million in available cap space followed by the Buffalo Bills ($21 million) and Minnesota Vikings ($20 million). The Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers each have at least $16 million, followed closely by the Tennessee Titans with $15.3 million. The New York Jets, who are in the middle of a contract dispute with guard Pete Kendall over a $1 million raise, rounded out the group with $10 million in space. The San Francisco 49ers, who already have locked up starting running back Frank Gore to a contract extension and spent heavily on free-agent cornerback Nate Clements, just missed the $10-million club at $9.8 million. The New England Patriots, who are in difficult negotiations with cornerback Asante Samuel over a long-term deal, have $8.4 million in cap space. The Patriots could actually increase to more than $10 million free if they agree to a long-term deal with Samuel, who counts for $7.8 million against the cap this season after being franchised in February. Although teams have to account for unsigned draft picks (no first- or second-round picks have signed), that won't have an overwhelming impact on cap space. The average rookie cap for each team is only $4.27 million this season. Likewise, teams generally average about $4 million in incentives and other bonus payments earned during a season. In other words, even if the Buffalo Bills use all of their rookie cap money and their players earn around $5 million in bonuses, they would still have more than $12 million in cap space remaining and could roll that into their 2008 allowance. As one NFLPA executive said: "I'd say it's going to be another good year for players next year." Jason Cole is a national NFL writer for Yahoo! Sports. Send Jason a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
probably nothing...they might re-sign a few good players, but i don't think the FO is gonna bring in anyone new. they're saving it for next off-season...we will soon become equal with the pats in talent level
Of that $10 mil, I believe like $2.5 mil of it is allocated to the draft picks. I'd say some of the $7.5 mil will go to locking up Rhodes and Hobson to contract extensions. The rest I think is insurance in case a player gets injured (think Barlow a year ago).
When 14 of the 32 teams have 10M+ it makes it less meaningful guys... All of a sudden, the Jets aren't the only team who can pay a guy who gets cut in TC....
Do not believe that surplus of salary cap can be rolled over to next year. I think the cap is set by the NFL at the beginning of the off season & all teams are allocated the exact same cap
We got a young team, many good players are still in thier rookie contracts. If we would Pay big Money in FA, we would go to cap hell in the next 2-3 years, and couldn?t afford to give good Players a extention after their rookie contracts. Its not like we could bring in big names without paying for it in the future.
H'mm you consider Barton as being "young" How about Barrett? Kendall qualifies as being "young"? Would you say Ellis is now on the other side of his career & certainly does not qualify as a "young" player? That's only a few without having to scour the roster. These are all starters that I mentioned kindly remember also. Even Tom Jones is not a youngster
i thought about guys like E. Coleman, Miller, Rhodes or Vilma and maybe guys like Chatham, A. Jones, Kassell or Pouha can show up and be players, you don?t want to loose. think of thomas and cotchery
Well Chatam & Kassal were quite disappointing last year. Poula believe it is already 27 & coming off another knee injury so I would not qualify him as "young" except that he has been hurt so much that if he stays healthy this maybe like his rookie season. JV sorry to say will continue to be a disappointment in the 3-4 just not strong enough to ward off blockers & as I said Thomas is 29 already!
what ai wanted to say is, that Bryan Thomas and Cotch are good examples, for players, that were considered Bust already, and came up big to earn a extention. I?d hate to see guys like that walk away in FA since we don?t have the cap room to to give them their well earned extention.
I'm pretty sure if the Jets win another Superbowl within Champs lifetime his onboard pessimism circuit would overload and melt his brain.
Chatham was quite instrumental on STs , I think he was named as a captain ( yeah I know , so what). Kassell I believe will be gone , as you've pointed out he was a disappointment last year , and all the others IMO. Pouha has it all to do this season or he too will be gone , at 27 though I don't think retirement is imminent!!! Thomas (B) has loads of miles left , hes still quick and as we witnessed grabbed his oppertunity well. I have a question , is it better to use all your cap room every season or can it be carried over?
No it cannot be carried over to the best of my knowledge. I believe the unused money trickles down in to Woody's bank account. The cap is set each year by the NFL at the beginning of the off season & all teams work with exactly the same #
With creative deals, that money can come back to next year. When you sign a guy to a deal with possible incentives, you take the cap hit this year, and if the player does not meet the inventives, you get that back the next year. So teams will give a player a 5 mil bonus if he gets 250 tackles or something like that, and they get the cap space back the next year when the incentive is not met. The Vikings did that with Brian Russel a few years ago-- set some absurd incentives that he would never reach, and they got the space back the next year. I am pretty sure that's the case anyway. However, I'm pretty sure the guy writing the artical was not thinking about that, and was just being stupid thinking the space rolls over to next year.
