NFL Salary Cap Figures

These are the Salary Cap figures for each team as of June 2nd. A few notes:

• The Chiefs and Packers have an absurd amount of room with nobody to spend it on. Look for them to shift more 2009 money to this year.
• The Steelers are going to need to restructure some deals to get their rookies signed.
• The Patriots' near $10,000,000 in cap room should be enough to maintain some flexibility this year, and won't require a re-working of Brady's contract.

Kansas City Chiefs $36.57 million
Green Bay Packers $32.08 million
Tampa Bay Buccaneers $28.21 million
New Orleans Saints $25.88 million
Buffalo Bills $23.86 million
Philadelphia Eagles $18.39 million
Chicago Bears $17.95 million
San Diego Chargers $15.28 million
Jacksonville Jaguars $13.26 million
Miami Dolphins $13.06 million
Tennessee Titans $12.86 million
Atlanta Falcons $11.49 million
Cincinnati Bengals $10.44 million
San Francisco 49ers $10.40 million
Carolina Panthers $10.18 million (received $7,450,000 credit 6/2)
New England Patriots $9.97 million
New York Jets $9.85 million
St. Louis Rams $9.83 million
Cleveland Browns $9.15 million
New York Giants $8.95 million
Seattle Seahawks $8.77 million
Washington Redskins $8.52 million (received $2,405,000 credit 6/2)
Indianapolis Colts $8.47 million
Denver Broncos $6.62 million
Houston Texans $6.11 million
Minnesota Vikings $5.50 million
Dallas Cowboys $5.34 million
Detroit Lions $4.39 million (received $4,000,000 credit 6/2)
Arizona Cardinals $3.64 million
Baltimore Ravens $2.91 million
Oakland Raiders $2.15 million
Pittsburgh Steelers $980,000
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NFL: Putting Girls through Med School

Ever wonder what happens with your money when you buy an NFL ticket? We'll be showing you how buying an NFL ticket can impact so many lives.

The Ticket
Meet Joe Six-Pack, a worker in Dallas. According to the US Census Bureau he probably makes about $47,000 a year. When he buys a ticket for $85 (the average Cowboy ticket) that represents about 10% of his weekly paycheck -- a pretty good chunk if you ask us. Let's see what happens to that $85 dollars.

The Owner
NFL ticket sales are split 60% for the home team and 40% for the visitor so Jerry Jones gets to keep $51 initially. Teams like the Jaguars and Cardinals must love playing the Cowboys and other high-revenue teams.

The Team
NFL Players receive 60% of revenue, so forgetting about expenses the Cowboys players would receive $31 of the original $85. The owners are going to try and lower that percentage by opting out of the CBA, but that is going to be easier said than done. This year the salary cap clocks in at $116,729,000, but each team has a slightly different number due to incentives. Dallas, for example has $117,727,443 in space for 2008.

The Player
Pacman Jones will earn an average of about $3,000,000 per year during his four contract years in Dallas, provided that he is reinstated prior to the 2008 season. That is 2.5% of the Cowboys' cap room, so Jones would receive about $1 of the original money that Joe Six-Pack

The Girl
We all know what Pacman Jones likes to do with $1 bills, and most girls that would receive that buck are studying for Med School, so I hear. So there you go Joe Six-Pack, keep buying those tickets!

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Matt Ryan > Tom Brady

Why would I say that Matt Ryan is better than Tom Brady? Well, according to the AP, the Falcons QB just sigend a 6 year, 72 million dollar contract. He is set to receive 34 million in guarantees over the life of the contract, almost five million more than Jake Long, the first pick in the draft. Both Chris Long and Darren McFadden should be very happy with what just transpired. Tom Condon, Ryan's agent, should be buying tonight...

Tom Brady, however, is sitting here making a paltry salary of 5 million dollars, with a 3 million dollar roster bonus, although due to prior bonuses, his cap number is nearly 15 million dollars.

How can a rookie QB that has never taken a snap in the NFL be making more than arguably the greatest QB of all time? Moreover, why is Gene Upshaw and the NFLPA okay with this? If I were a veteran NFL player, I would be clamoring for my piece of the pie, rather than idly watching GM's throwing cash at unproven rookies.

Think that the NFL owners voting to opt-out of the CBA had anything to do with this?

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2008 NFL Rookie Salary Cap

The Patriots will have just over 4.3 million dollars of room to sign their rookies, both drafted and undrafted, this summer. The Rookie Pool was created to slot 1st round selections and keep rookie contracts under control, but agents have countered with option bonuses and escelators. The Patriots rank 14th out of the 32 NFL teams in Rookie Salary Cap space. Expect all the 2nd-6th round choices for the Pats to sign first, therefore allowing Scott Pioli to know what he has to work with to sign Jerod Mayo.

KC $8,221,790
ATL $7,918,670
MIA $6,538,400
STL $5,997,510
CHI $5,791,190
CIN $5,555,750
CAR $5,371,570
BUF $5,351,820
BAL $5,045,770
NYJ $4,903,030
DEN $4,877,060
DET $4,815,910
WAS $4,543,890
NE $4,344,990
NO $4,295,240
PHI $4,256,320
OAK $4,119,700
DAL $4,095,120
GB $4,076,190
ARI $3,919,230
TEN $3,822,960
JAX $3,721,960
PIT $3,719,450
TB $3,699,370
SEA $3,674,960
NYG $3,521,820
HOU $3,477,820
SF $3,413,020
IND $3,305,300
SD $2,627,940
MIN $2,055,780
CLE $1,789,980

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NFL Draft: Mayo on Sale

Looking at the salary cap implications of moving down from number seven to number ten, Patriots fans have to be very happy with their team's savvy moves on day one of the NFL Draft. Last year, these are how the surrounding picks made out in terms of money.

• 7 - Adrian Peterson - 6 years / 40.5 million
• 8 - Jamaal Anderson - 5 years / 31 million
• 9 - Ted Ginn - n/a
• 10 - Amobi Okoye - 6 years / 15.4 million
• 11 - Patrick Willis - 5 years / 16.65 million

Willis will probably be the closest proxy for Mayo, as he plays the same position. If we can expect a five percent increase from last year, we are looking at a contract somewhere in the vicinity of 5 years for 20 million dollars. A number seven pick is looking at a 6 year, 42 million contract this year, so the Patriots got quite a deal. Many people wonder why Belichick had to throw in a 5th round pick to get the deal to work, as the points chart says the 3rd round pick they received from New Orleans is a fair deal. Well, the salary cap says it all.

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Salary Cap: Got Savvy?

Randy Moss and Tom Brady get all the headlines, but do they get all the money? Let's see if the heralded Patriots Front Office staff lives up to the billing in looking at the distribution of how they spend their cap dollars. Let's start with the offensive numbers:

Offense

• Line - 14 %
• QB - 12.4%
• WR - 11.9%
• RB - 6.9%
• TE - 2.1%

You can see how the Patriots have leveraged well constructed rookie contracts with their offensive linemen and running backs to keep their cap numbers. Tom Brady eats up 12% of the cap number himself, but it is still a good deal. Moss and Welker both have cap-friendly deals that spread the hits pretty evenly.

Defense

• Line - 15.8%
• LB - 11.1%
• DB - 8.3% (Fernando Bryant not included)

Bill Belichick likes big guys. There are less linemen on the roster, but they make substantially more on average than their defensive counterparts. Three first-rounders manning the trenches contributes to this, but even two of the backups, Mike Wright and Jarvis Green, either make more or as much as guys like Tedy Bruschi. With Asante gone, the DB number has gone substantially.

Others

• K/P - 1%
• Dead Money - 7.4%
• Cap Room - 9%

Corey Dillon's generous contract contributed 3.85 million to the "dead money" amount, while Roosevelt Colvin and Kyle Brady contributed 1.8 and 1.0 million respectively. The 10+ million dollars of cap room should be enough to sign our rookies, but look for a creative deal if we end up picking at #7.

Tom and Randy got theirs, but you can see that the Patriots' priority lies within inches of the ball on the offensive and defensive line. Mr. Pioli and company have lived up to their reputation.

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Tom Brady's Cap Number

As of March 6th, the Patriots were 10.8 million dollars under the cap. After signing rookies, there won't be much room for flexibility. Many pundits have stated that to free up some cash for flexibility, the easiest way would be to extend or modify Tom Brady's deal. Let's check to see if that is feasible at this time.

In 2008 and 2009, Brady is due 5 million in base salary, 6.6 million in pro-rated signing bonuses, and a 3 million dollar roster bonus. This makes for a staggering cap number of 14.6 million dollars. An extension (to create cap space anyway) at this point is out of the question, unless it would be extremely creative. The Patriots can't do anything about the 6.6 million dollars that will be on Tom's cap number the next two years. If they added another pro-rated bonus, plus even a minimum salary, we're right back where we started.

Modifying the existing deal is a little more interesting. The Patriots could convert approximately 4 million dollars of Brady's 2008 salary into a signing bonus, which would be prorated over the next 3 years. This would save 2.7 million dollars for this year, but add a little over a million dollars to the next two years.

If we're in a jam near the end of Week 12, look for Pioli and Brady to come together on a modification to free up some room.

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Pats v Colts - Cap Style

1. Tom Brady - 14.6 million


2. Richard Seymour - 6.8 million


3. Randy Moss - 6.0 million


4. Adalius Thomas - 5.4 million


5. Matt Light - 5.0 million


6. Ty Warren - 4.3 million


7. Mike Vrabel - 3.8 million


8. Wes Welker - 3.7 million


9. Kevin Faulk - 3.5 million


10. Jarvis Green - 3.3 million

As you can see the Patriots have commited just over $56 million dollars in cap room to their top 10 players. Leaving around $63 million in adjusted cap room to fill out the remainin pieces of our roster. Now take a look at the Colts:

1. Peyton Manning - 17.8 million


2. Marvin Harrison - 12.0 million


3. Bob Sanders - 8.2 million


4. Reggie Wayne - 6.7 million


5. Robert Mathis - 6.6 million


6. Ryan Diem - 6.3 million


7. Dwight Freeney - 5.8 million


8. Jeff Saturday - 5.2 million


9. Raheem Brock - 4.7 million


10. Dallas Clark - 3.0 million

They have committed over $76 million in cap room, leaving them $47 million dollars in adjusted cap room. (the Colts have $123 million compared to the $119 million for the Pats)

This really shows how the Patriots strive to have the best guys in the 30-53 man positions on their team, while teams like the Colts go more top-heavy with starting talent. Which way works better? We shall see in about 8 or 9 months.

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Uncapped Season Good for Pats?

The possibility of an uncapped season in 2010 has been steadily growing over the last few weeks. According to ESPN's Lester Munson the owners feel like they gave up too much in the 2006 bargain and wish to get back some of the revenue they are spending. If the current Collective Bargaining Agreement is allowed to expire, the last year of the deal will be uncapped -- the first uncapped season since 1993.

The Patriots--as well as the Giants, Redskins, and Cowboys--seem to be in a great position to take advantage of the situation. Our pockets are much deeper than the Jaguars, Bills, Titans, and Vikings. High dollar 1-year deals would be the norm in a time when only the present matters, and similar to baseball, the best teams would only get better. The owners and players wouldn't know what the next CBA would bring, so nobody would want to get locked into a bad deal.

Here's to labor peace preserving the competitive balance in the NFL.

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Patriots Cap Strategy

With the Gaffney, Williams, and Webster signings, the Pats Free Agency moves may have come to a a close.

According to Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports, the Pats are approximately 10.8 million dollars under the Salary Cap, with 58 players signed. With the rookie cap projected for us at around 6-7 million dollars, it doesn't seem like we'll be major players the rest of the way in Free Agency. If we can get out of the #7 Pick however, that could free up some cash to get another role player or ILB.

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NFL Team-By-Team Salary Cap

This is how much each NFL team can spend in 2008.

Due to credits/charges from LBTE and NLTBE incentives, each team has a different Salary Cap for 2008.

Minnesota $135,161,577
Philadelphia $130,816,449
Tampa Bay $130,035,634
Buffalo $129,442,009
Cleveland $129,362,503
Jacksonville $128,649,898
Kansas City $128,387,373
Green Bay $126,159,581
Carolina $125,655,802
New Orleans $124,746,003
Seattle $124,115,108
Indianapolis $123,230,115
Tennessee $122,220,147
N.Y. Jets $121,781,789
Oakland $121,069,722
Miami $120,673,997
New England $119,325,078
Baltimore $119,261,265
San Francisco $119,039,787
Washington $118,550,260
Dallas $117,727,443
Chicago $117,455,231
Denver $117,389,000
St. Louis $117,361,320
Arizona $116,729,000
Cincinnati $116,729,000
Atlanta $116,378,426
San Diego $116,131,353
Pittsburgh $114,818,226
Houston $114,521,131
N.Y. Giants $113,632,488
Detroit $111,380,935

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