Giants Salary Cap update

The Giants are approximately $575,368 under the salary cap today, as per the latest figures from the NFLPA's League Cap Report website. The only true official team salary cap figures though are those which are maintained by the NFL Management Council. Jason Fitzgerald pointed out in his overthecap.com podcast last weekend (click HERE to listen to it). The NFLPA's figures have been known to be off due to lack of updating their figures, which occurred rather frequently towards the end of the summer.

There is no perfect way to get numbers that exactly correct--close, yes---exact, not really, unless one can obtain a report from the NFL Management Council, which is very hard to do. Fortunately, Jason from overthecap.com was able to do just that. He obtained figures accurate to the hundreds of thousands of dollars (not exact to the dollar), as of  September 6th. He revealed these accurate estimated figures which he obtained from a league source below:

• Official Salary Cap Space Update - by Jason Fitzgerald of overthecap.com | September 10, 2013

Here's the list of transactions that Giants have made since September 6th, up until today (click HERE for the source):

Here's how things worked out this past week with respect to how the Giants got to where they are now regarding their current overall team salary cap status:

• Jason had the Giants listed as being approximately $490,000 under the cap, as per his source with the figures from the NFL Management Council.
• I upped that figure a bit using some reverse-engineering to $492,802 (you'll see why shortly).
• I then subtracted Ojomo's remaining cap number (and salary) after having played a week.
• Ojomo only counted $28,235 against the cap last week.
• His $480K salary was prorated for 16 of 17 weeks, to equal $451,765.
• This amount of $451,765 is what the Giants gained in cap room as a result of waiving Ojomo.
• This brought the Giants' cap number up to $944,567.
• The signing of RB Brandon Jacobs took up $522,353 in cap space.
• It was a Minimum Salary Benefit (MSB) deal.
• He has the minimum salary designation of $840,000 for players with 7 to 9 accrued years (Jacobs has 8 accrued seasons).
• This is prorated for 16 weeks instead of the full 17 since he signed to play beginning in week 2.
• His actual salary for the year (provided he plays throughout the entirety of the season), is going to be $790,588. What counts though is his cap number stated above, not his salary.
• Once you subtract Jacobs's cap number of $522,353 from $944,567 you get a cap number of $422,214---which was the Giants' cap number on Tuesday, September 10th (even though the signing was announced the next day, his cap number was on the books apparently by the end of business at 4 pm NY time on Tuesday).
• This figure of $422,214 is what I used to reverse engineer the figure of $492,802 above (accounting for the extra $2,802 I added to the estimate of $490,000 that was given in the NFL Management Council figures that Jason reported.
• To this cap figure of $422,214 I added cap credits for two players whose contracts were terminated off of Injured Reserve, and were instead given Injury Settlements: Ramses Barden & Selvish Capers.
• The cap numbers for Barden was $620,000 and the one for Capers was $303,000 (Capers's salary split as a result of his injury, and reduced it to this figure; if he made the team this season without the injury--or any other for that matter--his salary & cap number would have been $480,000).
• The Giants gained $616,190 in cap space as a result of these transactions moving Barden and Capers off of IR & giving agreeing to Injury Settlements with them instead. As a result both parties gained: the Giants got added cap room, and both players got the freedom to sign with other teams this season.
• After these moves were made, the Giants were $1,038,404 under the cap on the morning of Wednesday, September 11th according to the NFLPA's Cap website--that's how I got the net gain figure of $616,190 that I noted above.
• WR Kris Adams is also on IR (he was hurt in the first preseason game in Pittsburgh on August 10th), & is likely to receive an Injury Settlement like Capers and Barden did; if this is done soon, it would free up somewhere between an added $100,000 to $200,000 in salary cap space, so keep an eye out for that move possibly being made soon as well.
• On Thursday, September 12th the Giants placed Dan Connor on IR for the season due to a neck burner suffered in the Dallas game (he also suffered one during the preseason as well).
• This necessitated a move on the Giants' behalf, which resulted in them scanning the waiver wire and landing MLB Allen Bradford from the Seahawks.
• Bradford's cap number is prorated for 16 weeks, instead of the full 17 since he wasn't on the roster in week 1 (Bradford's cap number is $451,765 (he has 1 accrued season).
• After subtracting Bradford's cap number of $451,765 from the figure of $1,038,404 the result is $586,639.
• This figure of $586,639 is a little off ($11,271 to be exact) of the figure of $575,368 that the NFLPA currently the Giants listed as being under the salary cap. I'm not sure what this is due to, but it could be one of a combination of things (a data entry error by the NFLPA folks, or some bonus money that wasn't reported).

Here are the contractual breakdowns for Allen Bradford & Brandon Jacobs (ranked 51st and 47th respectively for the former and the latter on the roster cap number-wise) courtesy of overthecap.com.

• Click HERE to see the salary cap page from overthecap.com with all the contracts & 2013 cap numbers for each player on the Giants.
• Click HERE to see overthecap.com's salary cap estimates for all 32 teams in the league.
• Take a look below at Bradford's contractual breakdown first, followed by that of Jacobs:

The Giants should be okay going forward with regard to the salary cap from an in-season standpoint. The key is avoiding players going on IR for the season who need to be replaced (other than DTs prior to week 7, since that is when Markus Kuhn is eligible to return to the team's active 53-man roster again off of the PUP List). The way things look now, and projected going forward later into the season, the Giants could probably stomach up to 1 or two more players going on IR from from the space they presently have under the cap now--they already lost Connor, so the cap move count is up to one, with room for one or two more before they have to make more space under the cap.

If they need more money, then can gain as much as another $1,743,750 in extra cap room from restructuring the contracts of Snee and Weatherford to the absolute limit that their contracts will allow (Snee can give them an extra $1,680,000 and Weatherford can give them $63,750 as I wrote about in THIS previous post from 9 days ago). I doubt they will need this help from them though, especially as we proceed past mid-season, but it's comforting to know that they can get it from them if they need it--hopefully they won't though of course.

They'll also gain some money off of the player they release to make room for Will Hill's return after he serves his 4-game suspension. Hill's cap number of $480,000 was reduced to $367,059 if he is returned to the 53-man roster again in about 2 and a half weeks for week 5. Hill doesn't count against the cap for the duration of his suspension, as a result when he returns for week 5--assuming that he does--his originally scheduled cap number/salary of $480,000 will be prorated for 13 weeks instead of the full 17, hence the $367,059 adjusted cap number he'll have when he returns to the team. This would be the lowest on the team, and the Giants will gain extra cap space as a result of cutting someone on the roster to make room for him (probably in the $100,000 to $150,000 vicinity). My guess right now would be that McBride is cut after week 4, in time for the game in week 5 to make room for Hill again, in which case the Giants would gain $114,706 in additional cap room.

The Giants should gain even more cap room (somewhere between $200K to $300K) right after week 8, when they have to make a roster move to make room for the return of RB Andre Brown off of short-term IR. Barring any injuries---which might seem like asking for a lot since injuries are eventualities for all 32 teams to some extent, especially the Giants---the Giants will probably cut a RB: either Da'Rel Scott or Brandon Jacobs. My guess is that it'll be Scott, especially since he survived not getting cut by the skin of his teeth after the 4th preseason game in New England. Another reason is because Jacobs is termination pay eligible (25% of his cap number would count against the cap since he wasn't on the opening-day roster---that's $130,588 cap dollars).

Cutting Scott right after week would result in $293,824 in added cap room. Cutting Jacobs right after week 8 would result in the same figure as Scott, only it cost more if Jacobs opts to use his termination pay option, which he likely would do, especially since a player can only opt for once in his career (something Jacobs would have undoubtedly if he was cut by San Francisco by mid-season last year as he wanted to be). This would cost the Giants $424,412 against their cap--not the best move. Scott makes the most sense to get axed at that point.

These moves that include cutting McBride for Hill, & then cutting Da'Rel Scott for Andre Brown would result in the Giants being $983,898 under the cap. Of course, this all factors the Giants not having any added cap expenses cutting into their remaining room. Odds are that something else will happen. We'll see as they go, but as the season proceeds past week 8, the chances of an in-season move such as further restructuring Snee & Weatherford being made to accommodate the Giants' cap situation will seem less and less unlikely.