2012 NFL Salary Cap Projections

[MoLewisrocks]

Very interesting that by restructuring brady's contract and aportioning some of his 2012 salary into a signing bonus we could free up almost 9 million next year. Couple that with the 20 million of cap space and the estimated 6 million that can be carried over from this year. Leaves us with "potentially" about 35 million dollars to sign our FA (Anderson, Branch, Carter, Connoly, BJGE, Ihedigbo, Koppen, Slater and The big one Wes Welker). Sign rookies and then have Money left for taking a splash at the big FA we want in #1 WR and Mario Williams.

Take away the Franchised number for Wes of 9.5 (or you can look at a contract of 7-8 mil) and then around 5-6 for rookies. Thats leaves about 20 million potentially left for the FA signings. If you assume the pats want a buffer like usual of say 5-6 mill. That leaves us with potentially14-15 million for free agents not names Wes Welker.

When i look at it like that it's going to be interesting to see if we have enough money in the bank to take a shot at Mario Williams AND crowd favorite Brandol Lloyd

Yeah, and all it would cost us is $22M+ QB cap hits in his last two seasons...and the flexibility to extend him or the two TE's...:bricks:

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Great link! Thanks to the OP. Here's one way to look at it.

He's got three categories: Teams with Room to Make a Splash, Teams that are OK but have to be careful, Teams that have to tighten their belts.

If we look at the Playoff teams in each category, this is what we see:

"Room to Make a Splash"
Bengals, Broncos, Falcons, 49er's, Patriots (I like where we are)

"OK, but Have to be Careful"
Packers, Ravens, Saints, Texans

"Tighten their belts"
Giants, Lions, Steelers

If you look at the teams that were below .500 last season, you get:

"Room to Make a Splash"
Browns, Buccaneers, Chiefs, Redskins

"OK, but Have to be Careful"
Bills, Colts, Dolphins, Jags, Seahawks, Vikings

"Have to Tighten their Belts"
Panthers, Rams

 

[jsull87]

Yeah, and all it would cost us is $22M+ QB cap hits in his last two seasons...and the flexibility to extend him or the two TE's...:bricks:

Thats one way you could look at it... if you wanted to be negative.

The other would be they would know this going into that season and act accordingly.

All i was doing was putting together the scenario which puts the most money on the table this year if we wanted the big FA.

You can do tonnes of other things to reduce bradys cap hit down from 22 mill... plus by that stage the cap should have risen due to the new tv rights deal. Soooo might not be as big a deal as you make it out to be. But thanks for the :bricks: ... appreciated

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

I think TB is going to go after everyone..hell with $60 mill..why not

 

[DaBruinz]

I spent hours yesterday correlating a bunch of sites and trying to account for the Patriots reported cap number.

1. Miguel's site was last updated 8/13/2011, hope he is OK.
2. NY Jets cap site didn't have all of our players accounted for and had several players listed below the league minimum salary based on their years of experience (mostly toward the bottom of the roster)
3. Googled just about every player on the roster looking for contract details.

As near as I can figure we have 52 players signed so far. I did list all the players recently signed to futures contracts.

A couple of players (Lousaka Polite and Donald Thomas) I listed at $525,000 instead of their salaries since I think they both qualify for the veteran's exemption.

I'm within a few hundred thousand of the Maimi Sentinel figure.

Also, Profootballtalk just had a story indicating the Patriots can automatically carry forward their unused cap space from this season which they listed as $6.66 million. It is likely that several Patriots earned incentives which will be paid and count towards the 2011 cap reducing the amount we can carry forward.

Give it a look and let me know if you spot anything inaccurate or missing. Not sure I got all the 2012 dead money.

New England Patriots 2012 Salary Cap

Just an FYI - Chad OchoCinco has a 1.5 mill Roster Bonus in 2012 and 2013. That bumps his cap number up. Also, I believe that if players have a workout bonus in their contract, that they don't get an additional workout bonus of $8,120, though I could be wrong on that.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Just an FYI - Chad OchoCinco has a 1.5 mill Roster Bonus in 2012 and 2013. That bumps his cap number up. Also, I believe that if players have a workout bonus in their contract, that they don't get an additional workout bonus of $8,120, though I could be wrong on that.

Chad doesn't have any roster bonuses in 2012 and 2013. Just salary. $3M per, plus meaningless incentives he will never reach. Mike Reiss initially mis-stated his deal. It was a 3 year $12M deal with a $4.5M signing bonus.

 

[DaBruinz]

Chad doesn't have any roster bonuses in 2012 and 2013. Just salary. $3M per, plus meaningless incentives he will never reach. Mike Reiss initially mis-stated his deal. It was a 3 year $12M deal with a $4.5M signing bonus.

Then I stand corrected.. Thanks Mo..

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Thats one way you could look at it... if you wanted to be negative.

The other would be they would know this going into that season and act accordingly.

All i was doing was putting together the scenario which puts the most money on the table this year if we wanted the big FA.

You can do tonnes of other things to reduce bradys cap hit down from 22 mill... plus by that stage the cap should have risen due to the new tv rights deal. Soooo might not be as big a deal as you make it out to be. But thanks for the :bricks: ... appreciated

You can't do tonnes of other things to reduce bradys cap hit when he only has 2 years left on the deal... And the more dead cap amortization you pile up in the last year or two of a big deal the harder it is to do a cap friendly extension before the end of it...or use a franchise tag to retain the player.

 

[Spiral]

Chad doesn't have any roster bonuses in 2012 and 2013. Just salary. $3M per, plus meaningless incentives he will never reach. Mike Reiss initially mis-stated his deal. It was a 3 year $12M deal with a $4.5M signing bonus.

I hope he invested that bonus wisely.

 

[jsull87]

You can't do tonnes of other things to reduce bradys cap hit when he only has 2 years left on the deal... And the more dead cap amortization you pile up in the last year or two of a big deal the harder it is to do a cap friendly extension before the end of it...or use a franchise tag to retain the player.

You do make a good point about the franchise tag. I am not sure we would find ourselves in that position with brady but i am sure thats what the colts thought too.

I guess i am predicating thi on the fact that the cap is going to burst outward in the next few years and trying to work contracts accordingly.

 

[skinnydog]

Does anyone know how this years FA group compares to the last couple of years?? Seems like the class is above average and that more teams than usual are up against the cap. With the cap essentially flat for he last 3 years, the Pats should be able to land a couple of quality free agents. Am I missing something a pout the market or can teams simply backload deals to hand out some guaranteed money in a couple years when the cap is projected to increase a lot.

 

[DaBruinz]

Does anyone know how this years FA group compares to the last couple of years?? Seems like the class is above average and that more teams than usual are up against the cap. With the cap essentially flat for he last 3 years, the Pats should be able to land a couple of quality free agents. Am I missing something a pout the market or can teams simply backload deals to hand out some guaranteed money in a couple years when the cap is projected to increase a lot.

Over a third of the league are UFAs this year. Which is a lot different than previous years. Much of it is because of CBA situation..

Teams can not simply backload deals. Players don't want them like that. plus the league has put a limit on how long you can amortize SBs for.

 

[skinnydog]

So it seems to me that a lot of the free agents won't be getting the deals they want.

 

[Ring 6]

BB got stung with Bodden after 09. I don't see him throwing that sort of money on a FA in the secondary that soon again.

Huh? You sign a guy who gets injured so that means you eliminate his position from consideration? Thats crazy.

 

[Ring 6]

I think TB is going to go after everyone..hell with $60 mill..why not

How many players and returning staters do they have under contract? They have a boatload of needs even if everyone was signed.

 

[jason423]

I spent hours yesterday correlating a bunch of sites and trying to account for the Patriots reported cap number.

1. Miguel's site was last updated 8/13/2011, hope he is OK.
2. NY Jets cap site didn't have all of our players accounted for and had several players listed below the league minimum salary based on their years of experience (mostly toward the bottom of the roster)
3. Googled just about every player on the roster looking for contract details.

As near as I can figure we have 52 players signed so far. I did list all the players recently signed to futures contracts.

A couple of players (Lousaka Polite and Donald Thomas) I listed at $525,000 instead of their salaries since I think they both qualify for the veteran's exemption.

I'm within a few hundred thousand of the Maimi Sentinel figure.

Also, Profootballtalk just had a story indicating the Patriots can automatically carry forward their unused cap space from this season which they listed as $6.66 million. It is likely that several Patriots earned incentives which will be paid and count towards the 2011 cap reducing the amount we can carry forward.

Give it a look and let me know if you spot anything inaccurate or missing. Not sure I got all the 2012 dead money.

New England Patriots 2012 Salary Cap

Hi micronin. I wanted to PM you but until my post count is higher I cant do that so anyway I figured I would post this here.

I run the New York Jets Salary Cap website. I wanted to say I was impressed with your blog and thought it was a good start to a cap page. The cap is a pretty difficult thing to do and I struggled with alot of it for the Jets for a few years before getting much better with it and now expanding it to the 4 teams.

Feel free to use the site for any salary data for New England. I can get official base salary data (the other numbers come from sources, published reports, and educated guesswork the same as yours) so those numbers should always be correct. The reason some of the minimum salaries were off on my site was because the league had yet to increase them per the CBA(which is why some of the 2013 salaries are also low). Though I know the players will make more it makes it easier for me to reconcile my numbers with published reports since all those reports are using the unadjusted salaries.

In the case of Polite and Thomas they wont count for the minimum salary benefit. In order to qualify you have to be on a 1 year contract and both should be on multi year deals. If the Pats intend to keep Polite Id imagine they would cut him and re-sign him in order to reap that benefit.

If you ever have any questions just email me or drop me a note on Twitter.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Welcome to the board Jason. Join fellow welcome Jets fans like Gunnails.

Just avoid the "Jets Suck" thread and there'll be no abuse here

 

[ivanvamp]

Hi micronin. I wanted to PM you but until my post count is higher I cant do that so anyway I figured I would post this here.

I run the New York Jets Salary Cap website. I wanted to say I was impressed with your blog and thought it was a good start to a cap page. The cap is a pretty difficult thing to do and I struggled with alot of it for the Jets for a few years before getting much better with it and now expanding it to the 4 teams.

Feel free to use the site for any salary data for New England. I can get official base salary data (the other numbers come from sources, published reports, and educated guesswork the same as yours) so those numbers should always be correct. The reason some of the minimum salaries were off on my site was because the league had yet to increase them per the CBA(which is why some of the 2013 salaries are also low). Though I know the players will make more it makes it easier for me to reconcile my numbers with published reports since all those reports are using the unadjusted salaries.

In the case of Polite and Thomas they wont count for the minimum salary benefit. In order to qualify you have to be on a 1 year contract and both should be on multi year deals. If the Pats intend to keep Polite Id imagine they would cut him and re-sign him in order to reap that benefit.

If you ever have any questions just email me or drop me a note on Twitter.

Two quick things:

(1) micronin - unbelievable site...tons of great stuff there. Excellent work.

(2) jason - welcome to the board (I say this in a totally unofficial capacity), and I've used your site before and it, too, has great info on it. Thanks to you guys for putting in hard work to help neanderthals like me get a better grasp on what's going on.

 

[Rob0729]

Does anyone know how this years FA group compares to the last couple of years?? Seems like the class is above average and that more teams than usual are up against the cap. With the cap essentially flat for he last 3 years, the Pats should be able to land a couple of quality free agents. Am I missing something a pout the market or can teams simply backload deals to hand out some guaranteed money in a couple years when the cap is projected to increase a lot.

Due to the uncapped year and last year's lockout, this is easily the best free agent class in years. What also helps is the fact the cap isn't growing this year and players who would have been franchised in other years like Mario Williams, Sihone Pouha, and Mike Wallace (athough he will get at RFA tender) will not be tagged because their teams don't don't the cap space to do so. There are several positions where there are a lot of quality free agents to hit the market, most notably the WR position.

It is great that the Pats have plenty of cap dollars and hated rivals like the Jets who has a lot of needs don't and will have to be quite in free agency.

 

[Rob0729]

Hi micronin. I wanted to PM you but until my post count is higher I cant do that so anyway I figured I would post this here.

I run the New York Jets Salary Cap website. I wanted to say I was impressed with your blog and thought it was a good start to a cap page. The cap is a pretty difficult thing to do and I struggled with alot of it for the Jets for a few years before getting much better with it and now expanding it to the 4 teams.

Feel free to use the site for any salary data for New England. I can get official base salary data (the other numbers come from sources, published reports, and educated guesswork the same as yours) so those numbers should always be correct. The reason some of the minimum salaries were off on my site was because the league had yet to increase them per the CBA(which is why some of the 2013 salaries are also low). Though I know the players will make more it makes it easier for me to reconcile my numbers with published reports since all those reports are using the unadjusted salaries.

In the case of Polite and Thomas they wont count for the minimum salary benefit. In order to qualify you have to be on a 1 year contract and both should be on multi year deals. If the Pats intend to keep Polite Id imagine they would cut him and re-sign him in order to reap that benefit.

If you ever have any questions just email me or drop me a note on Twitter.

I will also welcome you. I personally like it when Jets fans can actually come here and talk informatively without the trash talk. We had a few good, civil debates on Jets Insider.

Can you clear up a debate on another thread. You were the first to report that dead money accrued by a certain date before the lock out would be wiped from the books. The Jets clearly benefited from that clause and seemed prepared for it by cutting three players with a lot of dead money right before the lockout. You seem to have a lot of contacts within the Jets' organization. Was this a clause in the CBA that the Jets' championed? Did they just know that the league were going to include this clause? We they just lucky.