2018 salary cap projections

[Prime Time]

Plenty of Aaron Donald contract money here.
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2018 salary cap projects somewhere between $174.2 million and $178.1 million
Posted by Charean Williams on December 12, 2017

NFL teams saw projections for the 2018 salary cap during the league meetings Tuesday.

The NFL projects the cap to fall somewhere between $174.2 million and $178.1 million for next year, via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media. The league will reveal the exact number before free agency begins in the spring.

It will mark the fourth consecutive year the salary cap has increased.

This year’s salary cap is $167 million.

Kirk Cousins, Drew Brees, Case Keenum, Jimmy Garoppolo, Trumaine Johnson, Le'Veon Bell, Jimmy Graham and Sam Bradford are among the players scheduled to become free agents.

 

[Ram_Rally]

Niners are gonna be flush with cap space

 

[OldSchool]

It's been going up lately by $10 million so lets use that figure. We currently have $5 million available to roll over if we add that we're looking at roughly $56 million in cap space next year. Rookie class would take approximately $6 million leaving $50 million.

Do people understand now why AD hasn't been signed yet? We have $5 million available now which he would take all of with an extension and it still wouldn't cover a prorated portion of his signing bonus. So unless the deal had no signing bonus, yeah he'll agree to that right , he isn't getting signed in this calendar year. But his $6.9 million salary next year is already figured in so if we gave him a $60 signing bonus guaranteed along with the first couple years guaranteed you can give him oh say a 6 year $120 million dollar deal with $75 million guaranteed. His first couple years cap hit will be manageable with it escalating as the contract progresses. By waiting you can put say $15 million of the guaranteed signing bonus in his 2018 salary thereby reducing the actual six years of the deal to 6 for $115M. Even make it so the last year or two there is no guaranteed but a higher base pay thereby giving him an incentive to restructure and resign in say 2023 or 24 for another few years when he's roughly 32 or 33.

 

[OldSchool]

Niners are gonna be flush with cap space

They and the Browns will be at about $117 million and Indy will be about $90 million. Those numbers are before any roll over.

 

[PhillyRam]

It's been going up lately by $10 million so lets use that figure. We currently have $5 million available to roll over if we add that we're looking at roughly $56 million in cap space next year. Rookie class would take approximately $6 million leaving $50 million.

Do people understand now why AD hasn't been signed yet? We have $5 million available now which he would take all of with an extension and it still wouldn't cover a prorated portion of his signing bonus. So unless the deal had no signing bonus, yeah he'll agree to that right , he isn't getting signed in this calendar year. But his $6.9 million salary next year is already figured in so if we gave him a $60 signing bonus guaranteed along with the first couple years guaranteed you can give him oh say a 6 year $120 million dollar deal with $75 million guaranteed. His first couple years cap hit will be manageable with it escalating as the contract progresses. By waiting you can put say $15 million of the guaranteed signing bonus in his 2018 salary thereby reducing the actual six years of the deal to 6 for $115M. Even make it so the last year or two there is no guaranteed but a higher base pay thereby giving him an incentive to restructure and resign in say 2023 or 24 for another few years when he's roughly 32 or 33.

The 56 million is before any roster cuts/restructuring for Austin or Quinn or even Barron.

I would think Quinn would consider a pay cut since he will not get huge money on the open market so if he likes it here, could reduce his cap number with a restructuring... maybe sane with Barron, but Austin should be gone.

 

[OldSchool]

The 56 million is before any roster cuts/restructuring for Austin or Quinn or even Barron.

I would think Quinn would consider a pay cut since he will not get huge money on the open market so if he likes it here, could reduce his cap number with a restructuring... maybe sane with Barron, but Austin should be gone.

Yeah we can add more. I didn't want to include that conjecture because as we've seen a simple suggestion to cut people like you made will lead to 10 pages of arguments

 

[Riverumbbq]

Good time to also extend Saffold & reduce his overall 2018 CAP hit as he's scheduled to become a free agent in 2019.

 

[TexasRam]

50 million + 11.4 (Quinn) + 7 (Barron) + 3 (Tavon) = 71.4

71.4 cap space

Donald (6.8) gets another 13M in 2018 on a 20m per year contract

58.4 cap space

Free agent CB to replace Tru 12M, re-sign Joyner 10M, re-sign NRC 10M

26.4 cap space

Sullivan 7m

19.4 cap space

Free Agency I try to sign some LBer's or DT. Need two OLB one ILB and one DT.

I am not re-signing Watkins.

Draft 0-Lineman and Linebackers depending on what I did in Free Agency.

 

[Mackeyser]

The 56 million is before any roster cuts/restructuring for Austin or Quinn or even Barron.

I would think Quinn would consider a pay cut since he will not get huge money on the open market so if he likes it here, could reduce his cap number with a restructuring... maybe sane with Barron, but Austin should be gone.

Agree on all of it, but Barron.

Barron has been putting up Pro Bowl numbers and will DEFINITELY get attention if we try to ask him to take a pay cut. He won't and shouldn't.

Quinn should. I dunno if he will, but he should.

Austin should as well. I would rather he stayed at a pay cut than left.

 

[Mackeyser]

50 million + 11.4 (Quinn) + 7 (Barron) + 3 (Tavon) = 71.4

71.4 cap space

Donald (6.8) gets another 13M in 2018 on a 20m per year contract

58.4 cap space

Free agent CB to replace Tru 12M, re-sign Joyner 10M, re-sign NRC 10M

26.4 cap space

Sullivan 7m

19.4 cap space

Free Agency I try to sign some LBer's or DT. Need two OLB one ILB and one DT.

I am not re-signing Watkins.

Draft 0-Lineman and Linebackers depending on what I did in Free Agency.

Hmmm...

I dunno if I agree with you on Watkins.

I might rather have Watkins and not have Quinn.

Also, unless we get a stud to replace Barron on the inside, people forget that Barron's putting up Pro Bowl numbers as well as being the saving tackle on too many plays to count. Just watch our run D and you'll find that on nearly half of the tackles, it's Barron saving a long gash run, sometimes by a shoelace. No way I get rid of Barron unless I can get a tackling machine to replace him which isn't easy.

I'll say that whether we end this season with a bang or a whimper, I'll be excited to find out what happens this off-season.

I think it's gonna be pretty crazy because we're still in a bit of transition and both McVay and Wade have a MUCH better idea of what they need to make things work better...HERE.

 

[TexasRam]

Hmmm...

I dunno if I agree with you on Watkins.

I might rather have Watkins and not have Quinn.

Also, unless we get a stud to replace Barron on the inside, people forget that Barron's putting up Pro Bowl numbers as well as being the saving tackle on too many plays to count. Just watch our run D and you'll find that on nearly half of the tackles, it's Barron saving a long gash run, sometimes by a shoelace. No way I get rid of Barron unless I can get a tackling machine to replace him which isn't easy.

I'll say that whether we end this season with a bang or a whimper, I'll be excited to find out what happens this off-season.

I think it's gonna be pretty crazy because we're still in a bit of transition and both McVay and Wade have a MUCH better idea of what they need to make things work better...HERE.

I would consider keeping Barron, I agree he is playing at a high level. But outside of Quinn who is definitely gone, there are no other big contracts to unload if we have to. But we have to consider some other big payouts coming up in 2019 as well like Gurley and Saffold.

I was mainly showing how a Donald deal fits in easily while keeping our core players. But I would consider keeping Barron.

 

[Ram_Rally]

They and the Browns will be at about $117 million and Indy will be about $90 million. Those numbers are before any roll over.

Wonder if they try to get it all right in one free agency period.....

 

[Legatron4]

I don’t like the idea of Quinn leaving. The guy is finally healthy and producing. 4 sacks in his last 3 games. That’s the Robert Quinn of old. I think he can be a wrecking ball next year with another season in Wades system.

 

[fearsomefour]

Niners are gonna be flush with cap space

As are the Rams, although not as much.
Sadly the Whiners have their QB.
My best hope is Tru can be resigned at a lower number than what the tag has been.
Rams need to keep Joyner and two of the CBs. There can be some reasonably priced OLB FAs.
Barron needs to stay.
At a cap savings of $11M it's hard to imagine Quinn staying, but, who knows.
Sure would like to get Joyner, Donald, and a CB done before FA period starts.
Watkins? Don't know.
How much to keep him? He may command #1 money on the market but probably not with the Rams. With this offense I don't know that anyone would.
Finding affordable depth on the DL, LB and OT is a goal too.

 

[fearsomefour]

Wonder if they try to get it all right in one free agency period.....

This is how massively overpaying for players happens.
Need to make sure we keep Joyner off the market and Williams.

 

[OldSchool]

From the source I read and used.

The amount a player's contract counts against the salary cap in a given year represents base salary plus prorated portions of bonus money. Any bonuses paid for being on a team's roster ("roster bonuses") count in full during the year they are paid.

So for it not to count for this current season they could have made it a roster bonus for 2018. Problem I've seen with that is roster bonuses aren't guaranteed but they become guaranteed on a certain day. Just like with Tavon this year he's due a roster bonus but if they cut him before a certain day it is voided so it's not guaranteed. That was what we know AD wanted was more guaranteed money and more money up front. At least those are the reports we've had leaked to us anyways. So to my knowledge the best way for a player to actually have money guaranteed is for an up front signing bonus to be guaranteed or to have base salaries to be guaranteed. I could be wrong and I could be reading old info but that article ,crap I closed the link, was from 2013 so just a year after the current CBA went live.

 

[OldSchool]

Wonder if they try to get it all right in one free agency period.....

To my recollection Dorsey has never been a big free agency guy. He's a great talent evaluation guy and has made his mark that way. That said the CBA mandates all teams have to use a certain percentage of cap over a three year time frame so he will have to spend most of that or use it as long term bonuses for any extensions.

 

[Noregar]

I am sort of surprised the cap is going up this much. Game attendance is down and TV ratings are down significantly. Unfortunately I think the NFL is hitting a period decline so I worry there will be point where the cap may actually become static or start to decrease. These type of cap increases are not really sustainable especially with the dip in revenue. Once the peak has passed some of these long-term contracts become more problematic because the contracts were negotiated with both GM's and agents still expecting continual cap increases.

 

[OldSchool]

I am sort of surprised the cap is going up this much. Game attendance is down and TV ratings are down significantly. Unfortunately I think the NFL is hitting a period decline so I worry there will be point where the cap may actually become static or start to decrease. These type of cap increases are not really sustainable especially with the dip in revenue. Once the peak has passed some of these long-term contracts become more problematic because the contracts were negotiated with both GM's and agents still expecting continual cap increases.

Current attendance and ratings won't affect the cap until the next tv deals hit. These raises were pretty much set when the last deals were made.