Tuesday, January 27, 2009

I Thought Ted Never Spends Any Money?

I'd like to temper the excitement of delusional Packers fans who suggests Green Bay should go out an dump heaps of money to Albert Haynesworth, Terrell Suggs, Julius Peppers, Jordan Gross, Reggie White, CC Sabathia, etc... They can't. The common myth is that the Packers are boatloads of money under the cap. While they do have a nice chunk of change - it will shrink as soon as they extend Greg Jennings and Nick Collins.

Here's a list of available cap space in 2009 for every NFL team. The link has an explanation for each team, but I'll only show Green Bay's comments or this post becomes gigantic. From DraftSharks.com via FootballGuys.com.

** All 32 teams ranked by current salary cap space against the 2009 limit of $123 million per club. They are ranked from most cap room (Tampa) to least (NY Jets). These figures are not exact, but after weeks of exhaustive research at the NFLPA website, NFLMedia, ESPN, FOX, & local newspaper sites, they are pretty close. Detailed free agency & contract info included.

By John Miller, Draftsharks.com

1. Tampa Bay -- $42m under
2. Arizona -- $41m under
3. Denver -- $34m under
4. Kansas City -- $33m under
5. Tennessee -- $31m under

6. Miami -- $28m under
7. Buffalo -- $27m under
8. Detroit -- $26m under
9. San Francisco -- $26m under
10. Houston -- $25m under
11. Philadelphia -- $25m under
12. Cincinnati -- $22m under
13. New England -- $21m under
14. Minnesota -- $20m under
15. Atlanta -- $20m under
16. Pittsburgh -- $19m under
17. Baltimore -- $19m under
18. Chicago -- $19m under

19. Green Bay -- $18m under - Getting rid of Brett Favre and his $12 million salary for a 3rd-round pick turned out to be the right move. Then they signed Aaron Rodgers to a cap-friendly 6-year, $65 million deal on Oct. 31 – shoveling $12 million onto the 2008 cap before the league deadline. If they waited another 24 hours the entire pay increase would have to be treated as a signing bonus -- and pro-rated over the length of the contract for cap purposes. Now they have cap room to extend WR Greg Jennings, S Nick Collins, and S Atari Bigby.

20. Cleveland -- $17m under
21. Jacksonville -- $16m under
22. San Diego -- $14m under
23. New York Giants -- $11m under
24. Dallas -- $10m under
25. Carolina -- $9m under
26. Seattle -- $9m under
27. St. Louis -- $8m under
28. Oakland -- $4m under
29. Indianapolis -- $2m over
30. Washington -- $3m over
31. New Orleans -- $5m over
32. New York Jets -- $7m over

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

They'll still have plenty of money under the cap.

IF Jennings signs an extension, the bonus will be pro-rated and I can't imagine Collins getting that much considering he's had 6 good games in 3 years.

I love how the excuses are starting already.

Anonymous said...

"Excuses" or "reality?" You think Tennessee ($41 mil under) is going to let Big Albert walk? And Peppers isn't a good fit in the 3-4 anyway. Suggs isn't leaving one of the best defenses in the NFL - unless it's to Arizona (he went to ASU).

I would like a Bart Scott-type guy.

Not making excuses, just talking in reality.

Anonymous said...

Why the hell is the concept, "Free Agency is Dangerous" so damn hard for people to figure out?

1. Scout college prospects
2. Develop them in your own program
3. If they're worth paying after their first contract, cut them a check.

THERE'S A REASON TEAMS LET FREE AGENTS GET AWAY

Anonymous said...

I'm not saying sign a Haynesworth or a Peppers.

But Brandon Chiller worked out pretty good, didn't he? Why can't he target players that aren't "big names" for depth purposes? Teddy's supposed to have a scouting background, how about scouting some other NFL teams?

And what's so "dangerous" about NFL free agency? The Patriots signed a lot of free agents for depth purposes and won 3 Super Bowls. Ron Wolf signed Reggie, Sean Jones and Santana and had himself a pretty good d-line. I know there's not a Reggie White out there, but how "big" of a name was Santana Dotsun?