Here are the official Cap numbers for teams around the league and the Giants:

This information is accurate as of today, this morning from the NFLPA's Top 51 Cap Report.

• The Giants are officially $3,312,849 under the cap at this time.
• My unofficial estimate of $3,461,340 (as of today's date) that I made was an overestimate.
• I overshot the mark by $148,491.
• My estimated figure listed above was 95.71% accurate when compared to the Giants' official cap number, for you geeks out there.

Ramses Barden signs with the Giants

This is as per Ralph Vacchiano's tweet:

Source: https://twitter.com/RVacchianoNYDN

The Giants did not have to cut anyone to sign Barden since they had an open slot on the roster. Prior to this signing, the Giants only had 89 players on the 90-man roster. It's probably just a 1-year deal for the veteran minimum, which for Barden would be $715,000 in base "paragraph 5" salary (since he has 4 accrued years).

 

As a result of him having at least 4 accrued years, Barden's signing will almost certainly qualify him for the Minimum Salary Benefit (MSB). He''' only count $555,000 against the cap + signing bonus money. The most that he can get and still qualify for the MSB is $65,000. The Giants will probably give him that, making his cap hit $620,000. It would fit into the Giants' top 51 cap numbers, thereby counting against the salary cap since the Top 51 rule is in effect until the start of the regular season.

Barden's cap number will displace the 51st ranked cap number, which belongs to OG Brandon Mosley at $555,146. The $64,854 difference between the two cap numbers ($620,000 - $555,146 = $64,854) will then count be subtracted from whatever cap room that the Giants have left--which I estimated to be $3,526,194.

*****

• In summary, Barden's signing will probably only cost the Giants $64,854 in cap room, and as a result their new estimated number would out to be $3,461,340
• As soon as the official numbers are released from the NFLPA, I'll confirm them here of course when that does transpire shortly, even though I'm 99.9% sure that this is what will happen considering the circumstances regarding the Giants' cap and the free agency market overall.

I'm on Twitter now too

Hooray! For those who are interested, you can now find me on twitter too. Here is link for that wonderfule place where I hang out in the fantastical twitterverse:

@NYGCapCentral

Feel free to reach me there if it so strikes you.

Giants sign rookie Guard Eric Herman, their first of two seventh round picks

Pro Football Talk is reporting that the Giants signed one of their three remaining unsigned picks from last month's draft (see story HERE). Herman (the 19th pick of the seventh round, and 225th overall pick in the entire draft) was their first of two seventh round selections, with Michael Cox being the other.

The Giants only have two more picks left to sign: fourth round pick Ryan Nassib, and first round pick Justin Pugh--both out of Syracuse University. Fifth round pick Cooper Taylor, third round pick Damontre Moore, second round pick Johnathan Hankins, & their second seventh round pick Michael Cox all signed during rookie camp, about a week and a half ago. Herman's official cap number has not been reported yet, but it's estimated to be $419,462 (I wrote about this in my previous post). I would expect Nassib to be signed next.

Pugh's agent will likely wait to see how other first round picks deviate from any anticipated signing parameters (the few there are, with the issue of a partially guaranteed salary in the fourth year of the deal). I wrote about this on my post this past Saturday. Click here to read it:

Update on 1st round pick signings: Kyle Long, the 20th pick in the draft, signed with the Bears late last night

 

As soon as I find out what his official cap number is I'll post it here, and update the Giants' cap chart. Any way you cut it, Herman won't count towards the Giants' cap number since his anticipated cap number doesn't fall into the team's top 51 cap numbers.

Here are the Cap numbers for players 52 through 86 on the Giants' 90-man roster

None of these players fall into the Giants' Top 51 ranked players with respect to cap charges. As a result, they don't count towards the Giants' salary cap (at least until the regular seas begins). Here are the figures:

The Giants' 3 remaining unsigned draft picks (Justin Pugh, Ryan Nassib, & Eric Herman) are on the 90-man roster roster (officially leaving only one vacant roster spot), but since Justin Pugh, Ryan Nassib, and Eric Herman haven't agreed to terms with the Giants as of this time, they can't be included in any cap calculations yet--although I have projected what the Giants' overall cap number would be if the Giants did sign Pugh in my previous post since his projected cap number would fit into the Giants' top 51 cap numbers.

Fourth round selection Ryan Nassib (the 110th overall pick) and seventh round draft selection Eric Herman's (the 225th overall pick) projected cap numbers--click HERE for the source of these estimated cap figures--do not fall into the Giants' top 51 cap numbers. Since that is the case, they would not count against the Giants' salary cap--at least until the Top 51 rule ceases, and the regular season begins (assuming they make the team, which Nassib most assuredly will, barring injury; with Herman it's a 50/50 type of proposition). Their projected cap numbers are as follows below:


Ryan Nassib (selected in the 4th round; 110th overall pick): $519,114
Eric Herman (selected in the 7th round; 225th overall pick): $419,462

According to my figures, the Giants' estimated overall salary cap number as of today is $3,526,194

Yesterday I addressed the issue of estimated dead money that the Giants' are on the books for cap-wise. Today I'm listing their overall estimated cap number (remember that the "Top 51 Rule" is in effect, as is deftly explained in the link that I provided from steelersdepot.com), this time without any projections like I did last time. Here goes:

*****

Here's the work that I did to calculate the estimated cap number of $3,526,194 that I came up with:

This number doesn't include 1st round pick Justin Pugh. His estimated cap number of $1,517,436 doesn't count yet simply because he didn't sign. Once he does sign, his slotted cap number listed above (sourced from the pick by pick rookie salary cap estimated for the 2013 draft HERE) will factor into the equation.

 *****

Since Pugh's estimated cap number fits into the top 51 cap numbers listed above, it will displace the 51st ranked cap number (currently belonging to Brandon Mosley). The difference between Pugh's cap number and that 51st ranked cap number will subtracted from the Giants' current overall cap number of $3,526,194.

If Pugh were to sign the Giants' cap number would be calculated as follows:

Pugh's est. cap number of  $1,517,436 - Mosley's 51st ranked cap number of $555,146 = $962,290

The Giants' current est. cap number of $3,526,194 - $962,290 = adjusted estimated cap number with Pugh $2,563,904

 

The Giants and (the walking) Dead Money

I've listed my estimates from time to time so far on this blog on the Giants' cap situation. What I haven't done is dive deep into the topic of "Dead money." Now, what exactly is dead money you may ask? Put simply, it is the portion of money that is still owed to a player after a team releases/cuts him. Non-guaranteed salary (a.k.a. "Paragraph 5" salary) is not part of this equation. Once a team lets go of a player he doesn't make this portion of his salary, and it does not count into the salary cap calculation. What does count is the signing bonus money.

When a player signs a contract, his signing bonus money gets paid upfront; however, for cap purposes, the signing bonus money gets prorated for however many years the players signs for. It should be noted that the most that signing bonuses can be prorated for is 5 years, even if the length of the contract is longer, as was the case with Chris Canty (his deal was for 6 years, but was prorated for 5; see HERE). When a team lets go of a player with years left of his deal, that signing bonus money gets accelerated to the most up to date figure for the year that he is cut, even though the player already received all the money upfront when he signed with the team.

If a team cuts a player on or after June 1st, then that leftover dead money gets spread out over the next two years, instead of the league year that the player is cut in. Check out this excellent article dating back about 3 months ago to February 19th on the subject by Jason Fitzgerald over at overthecap.com titled "Explaining the June 1st Designation". On a sidenote, teams are allowed to designate up to two players as June 1st cuts when they cut them prior to that date. IF they do, then when June 1st arrives, the team in question gets cap credit added on to it's cap number.

Listed below, are the Giants' estimated dead money figures that I compiled from mostly from overthecap.com (scroll to the bottom here). The only figure that I adjusted was that of Osi Umenyiora. When his deal was restructured last June for the 2012 season, I specifically remember that the Giants gave up $1 million in dead money for the 2013 season after they tacked on a voidable year to Osi's contract, not the $932,555 that Jason has down. For what it's worth, spotrac.com has Osi' dead money listed as $1 million dollars (click scroll to the bottom HERE). Without further ado, here are the estimated dead money figures for the Giants that I have for the 2013 season:

The total of amount of dead money listed to the left is $6,819,527. If Bradshaw and Canty are considered June 1st cuts, as Patricia Traina speculated in this article from insidefootball.com published back on March 7th (click HERE), then the Giants would stand to receive cap credits for them on June 2nd. I tweeted Jason Fitzgerald reading that possibility, and he said that they weren't to his knowledge, so I'm probably just hoping against hope, as I have deep respect and trust for Jason and his work.

Four teams received cap credit for this type of transaction last season (click HERE). They are the Cowboys for Terence Newman, the Colts for Gary Brackett, the Panthers for Travelle Wharton, and the Raiders for former Giants Kevin Boss. It'll be interesting to see who falls underneath that sub-category of cap saving cuts.