Salary Cap update for all 32 teams as of today (August 4th)

As I stated in my previous post, the salary cap updates on the NFLPA's Salary Cap website have been wacky the last week or so to say the least in terms of their updates. I fixed the Giants' cap number, but I'm not so sure about the rest. I wouldn't be surprised if there's an error or two in there somewhere, so please keep that in mind as you look at the numbers for each club.

Additionally, these figures should---I emphasize should---factor in the cap numbers for ALL the draft picks around the league at this point, since the last of the 254 draft picks chosen this past April signed six days ago on July 29th (Chance Warmack of the Tennessee Titans). Without further ado, here are the numbers:

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Here are the cap numbers listed in alphabetical order for the sake of convenience as well:

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Assuming that these numbers are correct, it is interesting to note that players on teams with less than $2 million dollars of cap room (teams ranked 28 through 32) are going to have to make more room under the cap before the Top 51 Rule expires in a little over a month on September 5th. Those five clubs are Chicago, Houston, Washington, Kansas City, & St. Louis.

The Giants may look to make more room themselves by possibly restructuring the contract of Steve Weatherford, which I had speculated about before on this blog. If they were to do so, then they could create an added $738,750 worth of extra cap space to add on to their figure of $2,656,846 that they currently have. That would in turn increase the Giants' overall cap space, making them $3,395,506 under the cap.

Once the Top 51 Rule ends in September 5th, so will a few rules that have to do with cap accounting. At that point, the 53-man roster will have been determined. Teams will have to include the cap numbers of the 52nd and 53rd players on the roster at that point. They will also have to count the players on IR, the Practice Squad, the PUP list, & those who have received Injury Settlements in training camp/preseason as the result of any injuries that prevented them from continuing to play (this is the case for Antonio Dennard & Jeremy Horne at this point).

Any additional Dead Money that results from players being cut in training camp will also factor into this equation. A conservative guess is that this will cost teams between 2 and 3 million dollars around the league depending on their specific situations. This is why late summer cuts, especially to middling veteran players on teams who still need to make cap room---like those 5 mentioned above---should not come as a surprise towards the end of August.

The Giants should be listed as being $2,656,846 under the cap, not the figure that the NFLPA website has up now

The NFLPA website (League Top 51 Cap Report) has the Giants listed as being $2,251,846 under the cap. This is flat out incorrect. Whoever is doing the inputting there counted Ryan Nassib's entire contract in the calculation when this should not be the case. Only the top 51 cap numbers factor into a team's overall salary cap figure. Nassib is ranked 59th on the team now. Click HERE to read about it.

I asked Jason Fitzgerald about this in an e-mail, and he explained to me that only portion of Nassib's deal that should count against the salary cap is his signing bonus proration for the 2013 season, which happens to be $113,400 as per his contractual breakdown from overthecap.com seen below:

Whoever was doing the data entry mistakenly subtracted Nassib's $518,400 cap number for 2013 instead of only his $113,400 signing bonus proration for this coming season. Dovetailing off if this point, I initially broke down the Giants' salary cap situation last Sunday as follows below:

• The Giants will have a different cap number either tomorrow or Tuesday - Sunday, July 28, 2013

I listed the Giants' cap number as being $2,770,246 under the cap last Sunday on account of the Pugh signing, Nassib signing, and release of K David Buehler & subsequent signing of FB Ryan D'Imperio. What I didn't include though was Nassib's signing bonus proration. Even though Nassib's 2013 cap number doesn't rank him in the Giants' top 51 list of cap numbers (he ranks 59th), his signing bonus proration for 2013 still counts towards this year's cap.

The same counts with regard to all players who aren't in a team's top 51 list of 2013 cap numbers. Their 2013 signing bonus prorations still count towards this year's salary cap during the top 51 phase on salary cap accounting that we are presently in (ending on September 5th) even if their base salaries do not.

Add to this that as Jason Fitzgerald & I were corresponding regarding this topic via e-mail that Jason also said that the NFLPA website was messed because these numbers didn't make any sense. I don't want to misquote him, so here's what he wrote me in response to my question about the Giants' salary cap number being off on the NFLPA's Top 51 League Cap Report website:

The NFLPA site is all messed up right now. I dont know if they are
updating the way they do something or if their data entry folks are on
vacation but things are all weird with the calculations. the only portion
for Nassib that should count is his signing bonus proration, but they are
counting the whole deal.

My guess is they will fix it in the next week or two but until then I
would trust whatever numbers you have rather than the cap report numbers.

Jason

This is why the Giants should be correctly listed as being $2,656,846 under the salary cap now instead of the incorrect figure of $2,251,846 listed above.


P.S. If you haven't yet, check out Jason's salary cap website (overthecap.com). It is bar none the absolute best website on the entire web with respect to not only quantitative analysis of the NFL's salary cap, but qualitative analysis as well. If you want to learn about how the salary cap works in the NFL, then go there often. I do everyday, and find something new and interesting all the time.