Teams with the most cap space heading into free agency

Monday March 14th is the start of the legal tampering period. We should start hearing then that teams and players have agreed to terms.

The 16th at 4p is the official start time of Free Agency. Teams will have 208 mil to spend on their roster. Here’s a look at where the Lions stand.

Top 10 #NFL Teams Currently with Cap Space:
#Colts $69.8M
#Seahawks $49.9M
#Jets $48.5M
#Dolphins $48M
#Jaguars $39.6M
#Bengals $34.6M
#Bears $28.5M
#Steelers $27M
#Panthers $26.5M
#Lions $25.7M (Trey Flowers release pending) $41M

So after Flowers is cut the Lions will have the 5th most cap space.

The Lions do not have many of their own to resign either. The two biggest are Harris and Walker. We should know soon if either will be back but at this stage It’s not looking good for either to return. I think Harris maybe a bigger priority for us.

Just think if we lose both Harris and Walker…. We will be looking for two starting safeties and 3 holes to fill along our front (Flowers, Williams and Harris)

Not to mention it appears we maybe over hauling our LB group as well. Anzalone is unlikely to return and JRM is a toss up.

We may have a decent amount of cap space but we have a ton of holes to fill with it.

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I feel those cap numbers have to be put in context every time — something like …. # of Players likely to count in top 51 … haven’t thought about it much but raw cap numbers lack context (in my mind).

Lions will be at $35.4M after Flowers release. Looks like you probably didn’t factor in accelerating his 2023 SB proration into the current year.

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My guess:

RFA - Evan Brown $4M APY, $4M 2022 Cap Hit
UFA - Charles Harris $10M APY, $6M 2022 Cap Hit
UFA - Tracey Walker $5M APY, $3.5M 2022 Cap Hit
UFA - S $10M APY, $6M 2022 Cap hit
UFA - WR $10M APY, $6M 2022 Cap hit
Half a dozen one year contracts ranging from vet min to $1.8M

This will put us down to around $10M under the cap . . . enough to sign our rookies that will factor into the top 51. Will need to restructure someone to get enough cap space to handle in season transactions.

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That lays out reality nicely
Thing is, who is really in a position to restructure?
More likely to sign Hock to a new deal? That could free up a few $$$
I think a reasonable injury reserve is around $5m or so — yes?

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I copied that off a paid site. So I assume they have it correct.

Goff/Decker/Romeo - restructure, not extend - could also June 1 Flowers, but only have $26M to use in UFA and pick up $15.3M on June 1 to use for rookies ($10M and $5M for in-season)
Hockenson only has cash above minimum of $2.4M . . . extension wouldn’t save money, next year it would. They’ll likely look at maybe extending him this summer, but it won’t be to save money on this years cap. Also could look at extension next year, doesn’t matter.

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Might want a refund. It’s wrong.

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Air’s site must’ve added 15.3 to the 26 to get 41

Yea, they only did two parts to the calculation.

$25,700,000 Cap before Flowers Release
$16,000,000 Base Salary saved from release
($825,000) Flowers salary removed from Top 51 calculation, #52 added

$40,875,000 Cap space after Flowers release and before acceleration of Flowers 2023 SB proration into current season (this is where the pay site stopped and rounded).

($5,614,000) acceleration of 2023 SB proration

$35,261,000 Cap space after Flowers release.

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Here’s what Dave Birkett is reporting.

The move to cut Flowers will save the Lions $10 million against the salary cap. The Lions could have saved $16 million had they waited to cut Flowers, but they made the move to move on with the likely knowledge that they needed the money quicker for fixes.

Clearly Birkett is rounding off the numbers.

So I assume the site was expecting the Lions to designate it a post June 1 cut and it appears the Lions are planning to just flat out cut him.

That’s probably the difference.

We really won’t know which report is accurate until it’s official but I’d assume Birkett (and Deadstroke) are likely right.

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Yep totally agree

Silly me on Hock — yes, next offseason more likely

Yes, those are the names for restructure
Not sure how attractive they are as restructure candidates—

Will be interesting…

Even if Flowers was designated June 1, you wouldn’t have the cap space savings until June 1. Only $25.7M to use in UFA, not $41M.

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Flowers still hasn’t been cut. I wonder why?

It will happen at the start of the new league year. Its just a timing thing.

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Makes sense.

Calculating Oh No GIF by MOODMAN

Who said Anzalone is unlikely to come back?

Anzalone had a cryptic tweet that sounds like he’s moving on.