Our cap space and why we can afford a top tier free agent

[grimesgoat]

39 minutes ago, AU-panther said:

The dead money should be included in those totals, I just typed in a number wrong so it might seem the dead money was left out.  

As far as the cushion goes there doesn't seem to be any standard amount.  I've seen plenty of teams go into the season with a lot less then $5m.  You  have to make sure you have enough to cover guys that go on IR.  

We actually have several players with large base salaries in the current year that could easily be converted to bonuses which would free up cap space if we need to.

You are correct. Thank you for pointing it out.  I edited the original post to reflect that.  Hopefully are commitments are closer to what overthecap.com has listed.  Also I hope guessed high on Peppers and any free agent we sign.

Either way we can fit a $12 million dollar a year type of player into our cap this year if we so decide, and it wouldn't ruin us in the future either.

Yep - your numbers are lining up with mine now with your edits.  I suppose it is somewhat moot now with the addition of T Smith.  Get Peppers for 4-5m, re-sign Byrd for 1m, give 2-3m for a decent QB2 and Punter, and lets hit the draft.

[Beast_3000]

19 hours ago, Adb6368 said:

This may be cliche but he really doesn't seem to be the guy that is in it for the money. If he is coming back it is for 1 reason only: to win a ring. He took less to come back to Carolina last year and I don't think anything changed since then.

Well I definitely hope so

[falconidae]

19 hours ago, Khyber53 said:

What is reported as, or more often referred to, as pay cuts are often just rearrangements of contracted money into backloaded contracts or conversions to signing bonuses. Altruistic pay cuts by a player are a very, very rare thing. 

 

You're right about that, just wanted to point out that , in this case, they are straight pay cuts.

Levitre has only a year left on his contract, there's no way it can be anything but a straight cut. By all reports, Reed is  a straight pay cut as well. Which is unusual. Both of them do have incentives that will allow them to make a chunk of the money back, but, because of they way the incentives are set up, that money would come off of next years cap.

Will say, I don't think they're altruistic, think the option for both those players was being cut, and they decided staying in the same situation for less money was better than finding a new team. 

[MHS831]

Thanks for the work putting this together.  I know it took some time.  However, If we had 3--5 needs, I would say "Grab that $10m player."  But we have about 9 needs.

Here is how I see free agency:

FA has some decent players at G, S, and MAYBE CB.  We will probably try to sign Peppers back for under $5m; if not, our draft changes a lot. So say we have $15m.  (of course, after some cuts like Sheperd and restructuring like I hope we do with Torrey Smith), this goes back up to $20m, but lets say it is $15m:

• I would not mind signing Justin Pugh for about $6m.   He is a great LG.
• I think McDouglad or Brooks (SS) would be interesting at about $3.5 to $4m.  That gives us competition for Adams or the opportunity to cut him.
• Finally,  a backup QB is needed.

So in free agency we address G, DE, SS, and QB.

That leaves a lot of needs for the draft.  FS, CB, WR, TE, RB, and DT.  FS and CB are bold because that is where we need starters.  They are musts. 

So in the first---CB or S; in the second, S or CB.

The third round: WR and RB or TE.

That is how I see this going down.