Salary Cap 2023

The War Room Detroit Lions — The Den
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This includes the Reserve/Futures signings and extending ERFA tenders to our 7 ERFA’s. I’ve also put in the 2023 rookie draft picks and processed the release of Michael Brockers. Cap space would be $13M, but I think we’ll add quite a bit more and once again, borrow from the future to field the 2023 team.

Roster Signing
Signing/ Base Workout Cash Bonus Salary
Option Salary Bonus Due Amortization Cap Charge
Jared Goff - 20,975,000 5,000,000 25,975,000 5,000,000 30,975,000
Taylor Decker - 13,700,000 250,000 13,950,000 5,400,000 19,350,000
Frank Ragnow - 11,550,000 100,000 11,650,000 4,800,000 16,450,000
Romeo Okwara - 11,000,000 - 11,000,000 3,500,000 14,500,000
Halapoulivaati Vaitai - 9,400,000 100,000 9,500,000 2,948,194 12,448,194
Tracey Walker - 8,950,000 50,000 9,000,000 2,321,667 11,321,667
Jeff Okudah - 1,010,000 4,172,072 5,182,072 5,486,096 10,668,168
Aiden Hutchinson - 870,000 1,458,336 2,328,336 5,788,343 8,116,679
Charles Harris - 6,000,000 - 6,000,000 1,988,333 7,988,333
Penei Sewell - 940,000 1,910,824 2,850,824 3,721,649 6,572,473
2023 Draft Pick #6 18,750,288 750,000 - 19,500,288 4,687,572 5,437,572
Jameson Williams - 1,148,718 350,000 1,498,718 2,469,871 3,968,589
Josh Reynolds - 1,800,000 1,450,000 3,250,000 750,000 3,929,412
Jack Fox - 2,115,000 1,100,000 3,215,000 350,000 3,565,000
Jonah Jackson - 2,995,000 - 2,995,000 262,141 3,257,141
Kalif Raymond - 1,950,000 450,000 2,400,000 625,000 3,025,000
2023 Draft Pick #18 8,304,136 750,000 - 9,054,136 2,076,034 2,826,034
D’Andre Swift - 1,774,399 - 1,774,399 942,530 2,716,929
Jason Cabinda - 1,900,000 165,000 2,065,000 500,000 2,512,059
Levi Onwuzurike - 1,300,808 100,000 1,400,808 821,617 2,222,425
Josh Paschal - 1,056,621 - 1,056,621 701,483 1,758,104
Julian Okwara - 1,282,456 - 1,282,456 286,607 1,569,063
2023 Draft Pick #48 2,633,364 750,000 - 3,383,364 658,341 1,408,341
Alim McNeill - 1,101,290 25,000 1,126,290 272,578 1,398,868
Ifeatu Melifonwu - 1,070,078 25,000 1,095,078 210,154 1,305,232
Logan Stenberg - 1,010,000 - 1,010,000 185,411 1,195,411
2023 Draft Pick #59 1,642,472 750,000 - 2,392,472 410,618 1,160,618
Kerby Joseph - 870,000 64,314 934,314 212,255 1,146,569
Amon-Ra St. Brown - 940,000 - 940,000 196,315 1,136,315
Derrick Barnes - 940,000 - 940,000 195,302 1,135,302
Quentiz Cephus - 1,010,000 - 1,010,000 76,073 1,086,073
2023 Draft Pick #81 1,070,128 750,000 - 1,820,128 267,532 1,017,532
James Houston - 870,000 75,000 945,000 - 945,000
Jerry Jacobs - 940,000 - 940,000 1,167 941,167
Tom Kennedy - 940,000 - 940,000 - 940,000
Jarren Williams - 940,000 - 940,000 - 940,000
Craig Reynolds - 940,000 - 940,000 - 940,000
Benito Jones - 940,000 - 940,000 - 940,000
Shane Zylstra - 940,000 - 940,000 - 940,000
Tommy Kraemer - 940,000 - 940,000 - 940,000
Brock Wright - 940,000 - 940,000 - 940,000
Scott Daly - 940,000 - 940,000 - 940,000
Anthony Pittman - 940,000 - 940,000 - 940,000
James Mitchell - 870,000 - 870,000 60,639 930,639
Malcolm Rodriguez - 870,000 - 870,000 46,982 916,982
Chase Lucas - 870,000 - 870,000 24,820 894,820
Khalil Dorsey - 870,000 - 870,000 - 870,000
Kayode Awosika - 870,000 - 870,000 - 870,000
Maurice Alexander - 870,000 - 870,000 - 870,000
Stanley Berryhill - 870,000 - 870,000 - 870,000
Brady Breeze - 870,000 - 870,000 - 870,000
Jermar Jefferson - 870,000 - 870,000 - 870,000
Demetrius Taylor - 870,000 - 870,000 - 870,000
Jarren Williams - 870,000 - 870,000 - 870,000
2023 Draft Pick #152 344,892 750,000 - 1,094,892 86,223 836,223
2023 Draft Pick #182 211,428 750,000 - 961,428 52,857 802,857
2023 Draft Pick #193 190,300 750,000 - 940,300 47,575 797,575
Greg Bell - 750,000 - 750,000 5,000 755,000
Obinna Eze - 750,000 - 750,000 - 750,000
Darrin Paulo - 750,000 - 750,000 - 750,000
Derek Deese Jr - 750,000 - 750,000 - 750,000
Top 51 32,400,388 129,639,370 16,845,546 178,885,304 58,245,324 204,606,711
DJ Chark - - - 2,988,333 2,988,333 5,976,667
Michael Brockers - - - 3,975,000 - 3,975,000
James Houston - - - 33,003 66,006 99,009
John Penisini - - - 42,794 - 42,794
Jermar Jefferson - - - 19,581 19,581 39,162
Jason Cornell - - - 21,133 - 21,133
AJ Parker - - - 3,333 (3,333) -
Other 102,454
Cap Charges 214,862,930
2023 Base Bap 225,000,000
Cap Adjustments -
Carried Over from 2022 2,672,102 227,672,102
2023 Cap Space 12,809,172
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Difficult decisions on Walker, Vaitai, and Okwara and to a lesser degree Okudah. Not sure of the dead cap hit so those numbers may answer those questions.

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So the estimate for our rookie pool is $14,286,752 but we get credit based on the 8 who drop out of the top 51 so about 802M. That 8.2M has to come out of that figure too. Is that CORRECT?

This doesn’t account for any restructuring either or future cuts past Brockers correct? for example Big V would add 6.5M

Thanks for posting this as it gives us (who worry about the cap) a foundation to go by.

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Walker and Okudah’s salaries are guaranteed. So are all 1st round picks (Hutch, Jamo, Penei) plus Ragnow’s and Fox’s

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Okudah is 10.6M to keep…10.6M to cut so he will be here next year.
The 5th year option is debated in another thread

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Yes on Rookie pool figures. I’ve already factored in Brockers as being cut. Vaitai I haven’t, ($6.5M is correct).

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I changed the format a little. I added in the Rookie draft picks projected 2023 cap hits and removed Brockers. I also bumped up Jonah Jackson’s salary that he earned through the Proven Performance Escalator $1.6M

It shows that we have $13M of cap space and traditionally, we’ve used roughly $10M on in season moves and practice squad, so that would leave us at about $3M cap space before re-signing any of our UFA’s or any outside UFA’s.

I fully expect us to spend at least $40M on players ($37M over the cap) and borrow from the future to field the 2023 team.

I don’t expect this to change much from now until the start of UFA. At the end of February, we will get the year end adjustments, where the NFL reconciles Incentives, Injury settlements and other period data to come with a beginning adjustment to the 2023 season. This is usually a positive adjustment.

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Trading out of #6 could save us a couple of million and add a pick into next year. Thanks for the work, I highly doubt that other teams get this kind of breakdown done in house, correctly by the way, like we do.

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9

So we’d create 8M or so by getting to 51 correct?

So that 8M plus the other 13M gives us 21M… but that’s with a full roster and a fully signed draft class….

I will continue advocating that C Harris, Bell,
Cabinda, Berryhill, Big V are coming back… this would create another 14.5 and give us 5spots to fill…

So we’d have 35.5 MM

So that would allow us to sign Buggs, Swaggy, Commish, W Harris, and AA….

Buggs- 3 yrs 11M (5M G) w yr 1 of 2.5M
Swaggy- 3 yrs 15M (6M G) w yr 1 of 3.5M
Commish- 4 yrs 25M (12M G) w yr 1 of 4M
AA- 3 years and 12M (5M G) w yr 1 of 2.5M
W Harris- 2 yrs 6M (3M G) w yr 1 of 2.5M

  • that’s 15M….

Back to 51 man roster…. Correct? 20.5M left-

Assume 3 more outside free agents…. But that also means 3 more salaries off the bottom of the roster- adds 2.5M gets us to 23M

So we have 23M to add 3 outside free agents, and bring some extra in 2023 in season. Let’s say we save 6M for in season, and restructure if we need more.

That gives us 17M for 3 signings…

I’m thinking CB, SS, and CB

Jamel Dean- 4 years 40M? Yr 1 of 7M
A Amos- 3 years 20M with yr 1 of 5M
Dalvin Tomlinson- 3 years 21M? Yr 1 of 5M

Hutch/Houston/Romeo
Tomlinson/Buggs
McNeill/Levi
Commish/Paschal

AA/Woods
Rodrigo/Barnes

Okudah/Harris/Lucas
Dean/Jacobs
Joseph/Iffy
Amos/Walker

Dalvin Tomlinson- 6’2” 320 gives us a consistent 75 PFF score type run stuffer who gets 3-4 sacks a year- if we get Levi O back at any level of use, then our DT position would be at least solid.

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No, not sure what you’re saying . . . we are at 51 with $13M in cap space.

I assume you mean not coming back. Bell and Berryhill?? . . . They aren’t even counting in top 51 calc, so they are irrelevant.

But this is what I’d show as a summary, You are adding 8 new contracts and removing 3 contracts, so net you would be adding 5 new contracts, so you would need to remove the bottom 5 from the top 51 calculation:

2023
Cap hit APY
C Harris (4,011,666) (6,500,000)
H Vaitai (6,551,806) (9,000,000)
J Cabinda (2,012,059) (2,050,000)
I Buggs 2,500,000 3,666,667
J Williams 3,500,000 5,000,000
J Cominsky 4,000,000 6,250,000
A Anzalone 2,500,000 4,000,000
W Harris 2,500,000 3,000,000
J Dean 7,000,000 10,000,000
A Amos 5,000,000 6,666,667
D Tomlinsn 5,000,000 7,000,000
19,424,469 28,033,334
Remove 5 players
from Top 51 (4,350,000) (4,350,000)
Roster moves 15,074,469 23,683,334
Cap space before
roster moves 12,925,172
Cap space after roster
moves (over) (2,149,297)
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12

Thanks for putting this out
I much prefer this approach because inflated (unadjusted) cap space numbers create false expectations.

The Lions will again, not go as far as some will hope in FA.

Will be interesting to see how it all comes together

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He sucked in todays game we don’t need him he is slow. We need a quick fast DT not a 330 pounder who if you watch game today was slow an jo0gged a lot.

We also don’t nee to spend cap money of a safety.

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The bulk of the info comes from overthecap.com. Jason really has put together a very nice website and has some great info there. It makes it so much easier to find and use good info. I used to spend so many hours trying to make guesstimates on contracts.

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Well, thanks for moving it from there to here and breaking down the possibilities for players who may stay or go.

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Going by Over the Cap if we cut Vaitai, Romeo, Harris, Brockers, Cephus, and Stenburg we would save 30 million in cap space.

I hope we resign 75% of our free agents. Sounds like it could be expensive but I would like to keep the core of the team together.

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17

Why not Cabinda?

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18

I overlooked him. Saving 2 million for cutting Cabinda is a good move.

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Unless we are planning to not even field a full back then you have to figure back in the replacement cost for a cabenda which even as a draft Pick or a veteran minimum will be half to 3/4 of a million.

Plus you get a guy that has no connection to The system or the culture And therefore introduces risk

I think the coaching staff looks at it more this way than a strict dollars and cents approach some of these low value low salary but hirgh risk replacement positions

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20

Cabinda was a LB before we made him a FB, and he ran once for 4 yards and had a catch I believe. Use a 6th round pick on Josh Whylie, TE who converted to FB and still caught over 30 passes I believe. It isn’t just about saving a few bucks, it’s also about upgrading the position and getting a player who can play more than 1 position.

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