It’s Salary Cap Preview Time!
March 6, 2024
by Steve Thomas
This weekend was my annual, dreaded slog into the Redskins’ Washington Football Team’s Commanders’ Washington’s offseason salary cap, which takes quite a bit of time to get through. It’s one of those things that makes life dramatically easier once it’s done, because now all I need to do is update it from here on out, but getting to that point is long weekend project. You can go to our salary cap page on The Hog Sty by clicking here. Since I went through this effort, I thought that I’d also do a quick write up about the status of Washington’s cap space and spending by position group. Without further ado, let’s dive right in:
Overall cap picture
The NFL’s salary cap this year is $255.4M. Washington also has a little over $12M in rollover space from last year’s salary cap, which puts their adjusted salary cap number at just less than $267.5M. Currently Washington has 47 players on the roster, and 48 if you count the suspended Shaka Toney, whose salary counts no matter what, for a total combined cap hit of about $143M. However, Washington is burdened with $27M in dead cap space from players who they’ve recently cut, including Charles Leno, Logan Thomas, and Nick Gates. This brings the team’s total occupied cap space to approximately $171M, which means that Washington currently has more than $96M free. Right now, the Rule of 51 is inapplicable since they currently do not have more than 51 players under contract, but it will apply until the regular season. For those who aren’t aware, this is an offseason rule that allows teams to only count the 51 highest cap hits against the cap in order to get teams to the full 90-player offseason limit without violating the cap.
However, Washington needs to account for their incoming draft picks. Adjusting the probable cap hits of the rookie contracts based on standard slotting value puts the combined rookie pool cap hit at just under $14M. That puts the effective cap space at about $82M. Keep in mind, though, that the team wouldn’t have to actually account for the rookie contracts until they are signed, so they could technically use this space at free agency and then free up enough room to sign the rookies later in the offseason by cutting some veterans. I’m just trying to give you a realistic view at approximately how much Washington actually has to spend.
As I said, Washington isn’t going to spend every single available dime; they’ll want to leave a little bit of a cushion in place just in case it’s needed due to injury or some other sort of unexpected event. The $12M rollover space I mentioned above was 2023’s free space, so let’s use that number again for this year’s emergency fund. That puts the practical, realistic free cap space that the team can freely spend at around $70M. Keep in mind that this isn’t a hard and fast line in the sand; rather, it is an estimate of the maximum approximate amount that the team can spend in free agency.
Quarterback
Combined position group cap hit: $2.06M
Percentage of salary cap: 0.77%
Players with large cap hits: None
This is a very small amount of cap space considering the importance of the position, so if Washington doesn’t spend their #2 overall pick on a quarterback, then expect them to spend big on a free agent.
Wide Receiver
Combined position group cap hit: $34.3M
Percentage of salary cap: 12.84%
Players with large cap hits: Terry McLaurin ($24.1M), Jahan Dotson ($4.1M)
Cap-wise, Washington can probably bring in at least one more experienced but mid-priced veteran without overspending on a percentage of cap basis.
Running Back
Combined position group cap hit: $2.3M
Percentage of salary cap: 0.87%
Players with large cap hits: None
Washington can definitely afford to spend some money on this group. Considering that they currently only have 2 running backs on the roster, Brian Robinson Jr. and Chris Rodriguez, they definitely will bring on several.
Offensive Tackles
Combined position group cap hit: $13.5M
Percentage of salary cap: 5.06%
Players with large cap hits: Andrew Wylie ($9.4M)
Wylie is a gigantic, hulking anchor in this group, considering his large cap hit and poor performance. Washington could release him as a pre-June 1 cut and save more than $1.5M, and they should. The rest of the tackles are low-salaried players who will compete for backup jobs. There’s no question that Washington can and needs to spend big here.
Interior Offensive Line
Combined position group cap hit: $6.8M
Percentage of salary cap: 2.54%
Players with large cap hits: Samuel Cosmi ($3.6M)
Cosmi is . . . adequate at best, but thankfully still on his rookie contract. The rest of this group are low-salary backups. The interior offensive line needs tons of help, so expect Washington to spend big here as well.
Tight End
Combined position group cap hit: $5.36M
Percentage of salary cap: 2.0%
Players with large cap hits: John Bates ($3.3M)
None of these three players – Bates, Armani Rogers, and Cole Turner – seem to be above-average NFL starters, so I’d expect a mid-priced free agent signing here.
Defensive Line
Combined position group cap hit: $50.7M
Percentage of salary cap: 18.98%
Players with large cap hits: Jonathan Allen ($21.4M), Daron Payne ($21.6M), Phidarian Mathis ($2.05M)
Washington has spent a fortune on this position group, but lacks any starting-quality edge rushers. Unfortunately, though, they probably can’t spend big here and still maintain a reasonable sense of cap sanity and balance, so I expect a couple of signings around the edges, so to speak, for this group to avoid racking up big dollars. As a result, edge rusher seems like a good candidate for a high draft pick.
Middle Linebackers
Combined position group cap hit: $0
Percentage of salary cap: 0.00%
Players with large cap hits: None
Hahahahahahahahahahaha . . .
The team could probably play at least one of the players who I’ve classified at outside linebacker in the middle / inside position, but still: hahahahahahahaha . . .
Outside Linebackers
Combined position group cap hit: $6.1M
Percentage of salary cap: 2.28%
Players with large cap hits: Jamin Davis ($4.4M)
Davis, who was a bust at the position for which he was drafted, middle linebacker, has found a home as at least an average NFL outside linebacker, but he needs help here. Expect a mid-level signing or two at the outside linebacker position.
Corners
Combined position group cap hit: $12.3M
Percentage of salary cap: 4.61%
Players with large cap hits: Emmanuel Forbes ($3.5M), Benjamin St-Juste ($3.4M), Jartavius Martin ($1.7M)
Considering that the team’s first and second round picks are both corners, this group may be set by necessity, even though Washington hasn’t spent huge money on this group.
Safeties
Combined position group cap hit: $4.38M
Percentage of salary cap: 1.64%
Players with large cap hits: Darrick Forrest ($3.19M)
Considering that Washington currently only has two true safeties on the roster, they will almost assuredly spend some fairly big free agent money on this position group, including a starting-level talent.
Specialists
Combined position group cap hit: $4.7M
Percentage of salary cap: 1.77%
Players with large cap hits: Tress Way ($3.75M)
Washington currently doesn’t have a kicker on the roster, so that will obviously be a signing.
By taking a look at salary cap usage in this fashion, it seems fairly obvious where the team’s big money may go: quarterback, linebacker, interior offensive line, and if they get can rid of Andrew Wylie, tackle.
What do you think? Let me know in the comment section below.