Salary Cap update for all NFL teams as of Dec. 18, 2013

The Giants rank 32nd out of 32 clubs. The Rams ceded the title of team with the least amount of available cap space to the Giants 3 days ago when they restructured the contract of DE Chris Long to the tune $200,000 to be able to make it through the rest of the regular season with respect to operational cap expenses sometimes known as "fudge money."

As per the NFLPA's League Cap Report website, the Giants are $41,888 under the salary cap. They placed Corey Webster on I.R. two days ago, and promoted WR Julian Talley to the 53-man roster from their Practice Squad, followed by signing RB Kendall Gaskins to fill the Practice Squad vacancy created by the promotion of Talley. Talley's cap number is $47,647. The Giants' cap number prior to these 3 roster moves was $89,535---also last in the league.

The Giants can't make any other roster moves this week without having to be forced to restructure a player contract in order to stay under the cap. As long as nothing freakish happens in practice injury-wise, and they get out of Detroit game reasonably unscathed, they'll make it through the season without having to tweak a contract in order to make it through the last 2 weeks of the season. They'll be able to I.R. someone next week (just 1) since the prorated cost to sign a player will decrease compared to this week. If Detroit lays a physical beating on the Giants, then things could get ugly. 

In a little less than two weeks, the final carryover figures for the 20 non-playoff teams will be in. I'll write up another league-wide team cap report update then in order to reflect those figures. Without further ado, here are the cap numbers for all 32 clubs in the league:



In order of most cap space to least cap space:

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Alphabetical Order:

Official overall Carryover figures from 2012 into 2013 for all NFL clubs

Carryover money is one of 5 variables that factor into a team's Cap spending limit each year (click HERE to read an article I wrote about in June). Besides Carryover cap money, the other four variables are Cap penalties, finalized grievances, LTBE bonuses, & NLTBE bonuses. Of these 5, the most significant from year to year, is Carryover cap money--make note that I did not write Carryover cash money (cap money is different than cash money in most cases). Unless you're the Dallas Cowboys or Washington Redskins, carryover money is the best chance for you to create a competitive advantage vis-a-vis the salary cap. The two aforementioned clubs lost whatever competitive advantage they had by succumbing to cap penalties from the 2010 uncapped season (read about it HERE). Every other team in the league benefited from these penalties that handcuffed the Cowboys and Redskins, except for the Raiders and Saints, who were guilty of minor infractions during the 2010 season. 

Last year, the Giants carried over exactly $1,000,000 from their leftover cap money from the end of the Super Bowl championship season of 2011 into the 2012 regular season. Philadelphia carried over the most, at $23,046,035. The other two NFC East teams finished ahead of the Giants in this category (Washington was 16th & Dallas was 24th). This year the Giants' leftover cap amount that will be carried over into next season will be significantly less. At the moment, the Giants are $41,888 under the cap (as per the NFLPA's League Cap Report website)---the lowest amount in the league. If the season ended today, that would be the amount that is carried over into next season's cap spending limit. They are dangerously close to having to restructure another contract in order to get by these last two games (Snee or Weatherford would be the guys they would go to).

As long as the Giants avoid any rash of injuries the rest of this week in Practice, through the Detroit game--which is questionable since they like to go QB hunting, and into practice next week, they'll be fine with what they have. The giants could only afford to put one player on I.R. this week, which is what they did, but no more than that. Next week, they'll only be able to place one player on Injured Reserve. As long as no more than 1 player is hurt, they'll be okay. It is something to keep an eye on though this week against an angry Detroit team in their own stadium playing for their playoff lives.

To start this season, the Giants had the 26th highest amount of Carryover money out of 32 clubs, with $1,000,000. That places them $5,283,520 below the league mean in this category, with the average being $6,283,520. They'll likely end this season dead last in leftover cap space at $41,888 or less than that figure if they place another player on I.R. next week. Here are this season's Carryover figures:

Greatest carryover amount from 2012 into 2013:

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Alphabetical Order: