http://www.askthecommish.com/salarycap/numbers.asp For the sake of this installment, we have designated teams that are less than $5M under the cap in RED. These are teams that have little money to sign free agents and may need to make cuts or restructure salaries in order to sign all of their draft picks. Teams in BLACK, which are between $5M and $20M under the cap, are teams that look to be in pretty good shape in terms of adding more veterans and signing all of their rookies without having to take drastic measures. Teams in GREEN are teams that are well under the cap and should have plenty of room to sign free agents and rookies. Note that for the first time in years, almost every team in is very good cap shape. With the latest extension to the CBA, the 2007 salary cap is approximately $109 M, which represents a nice increase over last year's $102 M figure. (Note that the cap was "just" $85.5 M in 2005, the final season prior to the CBA's extension.) Keep in mind that these numbers remain tentative -- and are changing on a daily basis. These "unofficial" figures are approximate as of January 3 , 2007. Projected 2007 NFL Salary Cap Space for Each Team Rank Team $ Under the Cap 1 San Francisco 49ers $42.1 M 2 Buffalo Bills $39.7 M 3 Arizona Cardinals $36.7 M 4 Tennessee Titans $36 M 5 Cleveland Browns $33.305 M 6 St. Louis Rams $31.98 M 7 Minnesota Vikings $31.5 M 8 Jacksonville Jaguars $31 M 9 Cincinnati Bengals $28.8 M 10 NY Jets $28.455 M 11 Green Bay Packers $28.36 M 12 New England Patriots $26.98 M 13 Chicago Bears $26.9 M 14 New Orleans Saints $26 M 15 San Diego Chargers $24.6 M 16 Tampa Bay Buccaneers $23.985 M 17 Seattle Seahawks $21.9 M 18 Dallas Cowboys $21.5 M 19 Houston Texans $19.8 M 20 Miami Dolphins $17.8 M 21 NY Giants $15.7 M 22 Detroit Lions $15.1 M 23 Oakland Raiders $14.105 M 24 Philadelphia Eagles $12.4 M 25 Atlanta Falcons $11.5 M 26 Denver Broncos $7.6 M 27 Kansas City Chiefs $7 M 28 Baltimore Ravens $5.7 M 29 Indianapolis Colts $4.9 M 30 Pittsburgh Steelers $1.44 M 31 Carolina Panthers $-3.1 32 Washington Redskins $-2.388 M We're in very good shape to sign some people this off-season
I'd be curious to see what the effect is on each team of signing their own free agents. We know that the Jets have very few free agents that they must sign, but other teams cap situation may be less favorable because of current players they have to sign. Does anyone have a team by team analysis of free agents (Restricted and Unrestricted)?
Unfortunatly with so many teams having a healthy amount of cap space the price for premeir or even average free agents is likely to skyrocket like the market for pitchers has in baseball.
You're right on this. I was under the impression that we were in a somewhat exclusive position as far as the Cap room goes... that there weren't many other teams as healthy as we are. But with so many other teams obviously in as good a shape as we are, this will only tend to drive the market prices higher, I'm afraid. The best strategy might be to seek out people early and try to sign them even if the price seems a bit high at the time, rather than waiting. By signing earlier, we may hope to avoid a later, got-to-have-this-guy-at-any-price bidding war thing that's sure to happen after things heat up. Tannenbaum is a pretty smart guy and I'm sure he's already thinking this way too. Look for us to go after the guy we want and get him signed pretty early, IMO.
Sucks to be Herm Edwards. Only $7 million to play with. I wonder if that takes into account Tony Gonzalez's new contract?
Kansas City is a team in decline. Being 6th from the bottom in salary cap will be the final nail in their coffin for '07. I hope the fans enjoyed seeing their team in the playoffs this year and took plenty of pictures.
Although it took a few years, most teams have finally figure out how to manage the cap. I would imagine that the trend going forward would be teams extending players well before they are scheduled for free agency (like the Eagles do now). I agree that FA contracts will skyrocket this year and the next few. It will interesting to see which players leave guaranteed early money on the table (by not signing early extensions) for a chance at the big payday in FA.
It will be interesting to see what Washington does. The team needs a lot of work and they have no cap room at all. Maybe Portis really will get traded.
This is actually the key point. Many people were trumpeting the Jets having $28M to spend, but that is obviously not incredibly high. What could make a difference, however, is how few of their own free agents the Jets will sign compared to other teams, but there's no way of knowing right now how that will shake out. The team that seems to be completely sunk is Washington - over the cap and a lousy team. The Jets have the most cap room of any team with 10 or more wins this year, which is a good sign, but New England, Chicago, New Orleans, and San Diego are all within $4M, so we shouldn't get too excited.
We're in good shape, not awesome shape. Let me explain why. It's missed in the article. There are TONS of teams in the green. Sounds like lots of teams in position to get players, right? NOT SO FAST. It also means a lot of BIDDING WARS. If we're true to our beliefs, we may lose a lot of those.
Hahahahahaaa....! A "Bail Bonds Superfund," that's what they need! An amount held in escrow for the inevitable! Hahahahhaaaaaa......! Tooo much.
But 2004, sometimes it's GOOD to lose these. In fact, I commend Tannenbaum for not getting involved in the final bidding in some of this stuff (Ty Law, for a most recent example)! So far he's exhibited an uncanny ability to stay as far away from these Bidding Wars as possible and that's not always a bad thing. I prefer to spend our money wisely, as they've been doing. Besides, after the season we've just had and the direction this team looks like they're headed in, we don't need to get involved in no stinkin' Bidding Wars.
Yeah, you're right. The big free agents--a la Samuel, Thomas, etc--that we could perceivably go after are going to get offered big money by a lot of teams... Yikes! for Washington. They're in shambles and are over the cap. I bet they'll try to trade Portis and others, while, of course, Snyder tries to get half his team to restructure their contracts.
I agree too, but that's not to say that you can't spend money. I think the Patriots have taken it to an extreme and, while I can't argue with the results, I have no problem paying a lot for a young player who fills a position of need that you have a reasonable belief will succeed, like oh say, Asante Samuel or Michael Turner. (Coaching staff familiarity means the risk of signing is somewhat lessened)
So much for the Redskins spending loads and loads...poor fans :lol: The 49ers are already an alright team...spend some money and they could be SB contenders no doubt.
