How do the Giants rank with respect to Dead Money in 2013 compared to the rest of the NFL?

According to the estimated figures below courtesy of OverTheCap.com, the Giants rank 10th out of the 32 clubs in the league.

• The average amount of Dead Money in 2013 for each club at this point in time according to these figures is $14,378,196.
• The Giants have $9,016,510 in Dead Money.
• This ranks them $5,361,686 below the mean.

I'll list the figures for all 32 clubs below, first in order of the least amount of Dead Money to the greatest amount of Dead Money, and then in alphabetical order for the sake of reference:



In order of least amount of Dead Money to greatest amount of Dead Money:

*****

In alphabetical order:

Giants' Dead Money totals for 2013 & 2014 as of Dec. 14, 2013

Soon, it will be time to focus fully on 2014, as post-season hopes for the Giants' 2013 season have officially gone down the tubes as of the conclusion of last week's game against the Chargers in San Diego. I'll start the process some by going over the Giants' Dead Money totals for this year, as well as next year. This year is not completely done, and it will have an effect on the amount of leftover cap dollars that are carried over into next year's cap.

As of today, the Giants have a Dead Money total of $9,016,510 for the 2013 season (source is OverTheCap.com). Before readers freak out, they should pause a bit and be thankful. There are teams that are FAR WORSE off in this department. The Oakland Raiders are an example (figures taken from OverTheCap.com). They have a little bit north of an $56 million in estimated Dead Money counting towards their salary cap this year (they're taking their medicine this year and will be able to spend a lot in 2014).

The Giants have 40 players who count towards the Dead Money figure of $9,016,510 mentioned above at the present time (this is still subject to change for another two weeks of course):

• 31 of these players are off the team completely
• 5 are on the Practice Squad at present
• and 4 are on the 53-man roster

*****

As of today, the Giants have a Dead Money total of $389,298 for the 2014 season (source is OverTheCap.com). They have 6 players who count towards this figure presently:

• 5 of them are off the team completely
• and 1 is on the Practice Squad at present

The 2014 Dead Money total will change of course as roster moves are announced with respect to the 2014 season beginning in January and/or February. I'll update them as cuts are made that affect this figure. Players like Chris Snee & Corey Webster, who are certain to be gone in 2014 are examples of players who will influence this fledgling figure, as it stands now.

If Snee is cut/retires, then his Dead Money total will be $4,500,000. If Webster is not back next year (2014 is a voidable year for him), then his Dead Money total for 2014 will be $1,250,000. Between Snee and Webster, that's a total of $5,750,000 in almost sure Dead Money that will be tacked onto the present Dead Money total of $389,298 that is already officially on the books for the 2014 season (that potential total with those 2 likely moves would increase this total to $6,139,298).

Keep in mind that players like Antrel Rolle and Brandon Myers could add to this total as well if they are cut (in Myers's case, 2014 is a voidable year just like Corey Webster). If the contract of Myers is voided, there would be $1,125,000 in Dead Money leftover that would count against the 2014 salary cap of the Giants. If Rolle is cut, then there would be $2,000,000 in leftover Dead Money that would count against the Giants' salary cap in 2014.

David Baas is another likely cut. He's an interesting case though because of his ultra high Dead Money amount in 2014 if he were to be cut in the normal fashion. However, if Baas is a post June 1st cut, then his remaining Dead Money amount left counting towards the Giants' 2014 salary cap will be $3,225,000 in 2014 & the same amount in 2015 (2014 Cap number of $8,225,000 and CAP SAVINGS totaling $5,000,000). If he is designated as a post June 1st cut at the start of Free Agency on March 11th instead of in June--teams can do this with up to two players each year--then there will be a catch: the team won't be able to benefit from the cap savings until June 2nd.

If Baas is a normal cut, then his remaining Dead Money will all count in 2014. That figure would be $6,450,000 (2014 Cap number of $8,225,000 and CAP SAVINGS totaling $1,775,000). I already wrote about what I would do with his contract in the Salary Cap section of BigBlueInteractive.com (click on the following link to read that article from about two months ago titled "Three ways of dealing with David Baas's contract"). I'd designate him as post June 1st cut. The Giants could use this extra cap room to sign their draft picks, and for the purpose of using it towards having extra freed up cap room for the purpose of regular season expenditures.

Two veterans who are dark horse candidates to be cut who could add to the 2014 Dead Money total are DE Mathias Kiwanuka & DT Cullen Jenkins. The 2014 Dead Money totals for each of these two players if they were to be cut would be $5,250,000 for Kiwanuka, & $1,333,334 for Jenkins. In my opinion, based on the Giants' present roster numbers at DE & DT, as well as the impending Free Agency of Justin Tuck and Linval Joseph, the Giants will probably hold off on cutting these guys next year. The cap savings of cutting each of these players prior to June 1st (in Myers's case voiding his contract) that I mentioned above next year would be as follows, as per OverTheCap.com:

*Note: the cap savings for Baas being a post June 1st cut would be $5,000,000---that's an additional $3,225,000 in potential Cap Savings that would be added to the total listed below:

Updated Cap numbers for all players counting against the Giants' salary cap as of Dec. 13, 2013

The NFLPA's League Cap Report website has the Giants listed as being $89,835 under the cap--dead last in the league now (the Rams actually renegotiated Chris Long's contract to give them enough room to survive the last 3 games with regard to regular season operational expenses; they were last in available cap space for a long time time before they ceded that distinction to the Giants).

This latest figure reflects the 4 roster moves that the Giants made 3 nights ago on, on Tuesday, December 10th, when they placed Brandon Jacobs on I.R., and subsequently made these 3 additional roster moves:

I mistakenly had slightly underestimated the Giants cap number as being $86,888--a difference of $2,647. I also mistakenly listed LB Marcus Dowtin's cap number as being $71,471 when it's actually $84,706. The proration of 3 weeks (3/17 = 0.176) wasn't incorrect, but his full yearly base salary rate was wrong.

Since Dowtin has 1 accrued year towards Free Agency instead of none, his proration rate for these last 3 remaining weeks should have been multiplied by $480,000 instead of $405,000; the former being the full yearly Paragraph 5 salary for players with 1 accrued season towards Free Agency, and the former being the league bare minimum for players with no accrued years towards free agency. See the chart below for reference for the full spectrum of base minimum rates:

Part of the cap equation is also Dead Money (money that counts against the salary for players who are either no longer on the roster, or who are still on the roster, but who have money left over from their previous contracts that still count against the cap). The Giants' Dead Money total thus far for 2013, as per OverTheCap.com, is $9,016,510 (at this point their 2014 Dead Money total is only $389,298).

*****

The Giants currently have 72 contracts that count towards their team cap number now. They break down as follows:

• the 53 players on the 53-man active roster
• the 11 players on season ending Injured Reserve
• and the players on the 8-man Practice Squad.

Here are the players on the 53-man roster:

• First, here is a positional breakdown of players on the 53-man roster

Here are the 11 players on Injured Reserve:

• Positional Breakdown:
• OL - 3
• RB - 3
• FB - 1
• CB - 1
• S - 1
• DT - 1
• WR - 1

Note: I adjusted the cap number for Brandon Jacobs based on what OverTheCap.com has it listed as now ($480,530 instead of the figure of $496,412 that I had calculated previously, as per this recent previous post).

Finally, here are the players on the 8-man Practice Squad:

• Positional Breakdown:
• OL - 2
• WR - 2
• CB - 2
• DE - 1
• S - 1

Note: Newly signed players Kendrick Adams and Chaz Powell will each count $18,000 each against the cap (at the Practice Squad minimum rate of $6,000 per week for the 2013 season).

Giants' cap situation after placing Jacobs on I.R.

The Giants placed Brandon Jacobs on Tuesday, December 10th. That was the first of four roster moves that were made that day:

Besides placing Jacobs on I.R., they also signed a player off of their Practice Squad to fill the open roster spot on the 53-man roster as a result (LB Marcus Dowtin--Vacchiano mistyped his last name). Additionally, the Giants terminated the contract of a Practice Squad player (LB Darin Drakeford), and signed two more players to their Practice Squad to fill the corresponding vacant Practice Squad spots that were created as a result as per this tweet by Ralph Vacchiano (DE Kendrick Adams & FS Chaz Powell):

Jacobs has a split in his contract, as a per a source of mine, so his cap number went down. His salary cap number will split at the rare of $408,000 prorated for the final 3 games of the year (instead of the full 17 weeks). Jacobs's cap number is now $496,412. Prior to being placed on I.R., his cap number was $522,353---a difference of $25,941. Here is the breakdown of what happened:

The cap number of LB Marcus Dowtin, signed from the P.S. to take Jacobs's place on the 53-man roster is $84,706 (he has one accrued year towards free agency). The Giants went from being $132,418 under the cap to being an estimated $86,888 under it. They had 71 player contracts counting towards the former figure, and 72 player contracts counting towards the latter (without counting the Dead Money of players no longer on the the 53-man roster, Injured Reserve, or the Practice Squad). As a result of these 4 roster moves, the Giants lost $45,530 in cap space.

Here is the list of the 11 player currently on Injured Reserve now, along with the updated 8-man Practice Squad:

Updated Cap numbers for all players counting against the Giants' salary cap as of Dec. 10, 2013

As of today, the Giants are $132,418 under the salary cap (as per the NFLPA's League Cap Report website). The NFLPA lists 71 players counting against the Giants' cap as of today, not including their estimated Dead Money total of $8,950,510 (courtesy of OverTheCap.com). The breakdown of the 71 who count towards the cap are as follows:

• all players on the 53-man roster
• the 8 on the Practice Squad
• and the 10 who are on season ending Injured Reserve

First, I'll list those who are on the 53-man roster:

• Note: the only player on this list who there is a discrepancy with with respect to the figures listed at OverTheCap.com is DT Markus Kuhn.
• Jason Fitzgerald has his cap number listed as being $429,003.
• I have the figures listed as $418,591.
• I wrote about how I got my figure for Kuhn in this post about a month ago on Nov. 12, 2013:
• Cap ramifications of placing Shaun Rogers on I.R., & adding Markus Kuhn to the 53-man roster

*****

Here are cap number for the 10 players who are on season ending Injured Reserve:

*****

Finally, here are the players currently on the 8-man Practice Squad:

*****

I'll list the Giants' Dead Money totals for 2013 and 2014 in a post later this week (see this link from overthecap.com in the meantime regarding those figures). Keep in mind that the players for each NFL team's Practice Squad change frequently. Some players are terminated and then re-signed several times over the course of an NFL season. The player currently on the Giants' Practice Squad who is an example of that is WR Marcus Harris.

Latest cap rankings for all 32 NFL teams as of Dec. 8, 2013

Here is an updated list for all 32 teams in the NFL, as of today (Sunday, December 8, 2013) according to the NFLPA's League Cap Report website.



The figures are listed below in order of most cap space to least cap space:

For the sake of reference, I'm also listing them in alphabetical order:

*****

As can be seen above, the Giants are $132,418 under the cap as of today. This ranks them 31st in the entire league. Only the Rams have less cap room than the Giants do (they are only $17,718 under the cap). If only one more player goes on I.R. for the Rams, then they'll have to make more room under the cap.

If the Giants sustained another two injuries at the present time that necessitated a player going on season-ending Injured Reserve, they could handle it cap-wise (provided that one of those two players who go on I.R. has a salary split like Brandon Jacobs or Terrell Thomas do). Another condition must be that the players who replace them have no accrues years of experience. This is why we see most in-season transactions that have to do with additions to the 53-man roster involve players with 1-3 accrues seasons of experience, especially for cap strapped teams like the Rams and Giants.

The Giants will have a healthy amount of cap room this coming off-season. This season's leftover cap room will carry over into next year's. We'll found out what that exact number is after the regular season, provided the Giants don't make the playoffs, which looks pretty likely to happen in the next week or two. Last season, the Giants carried over exactly $1,000,000 from their 2011 season "cap leftovers" into the 2012 salary cap pool.

This year's number promises to be significantly smaller than that. As mentioned above, the Giants are only $132,418 under the cap now according to the NFLPA's figures (keep in mind that the only truly 100% accurate figures are kept by the NFL Management Council, and they hardly ever are leaked). Incentives are going to factor in to the money left over at the end of the season to determine exactly how much is going to be carried over into the 2014 season's salary cap pool, so it's probable that even less than that $132,418 figure will carry over into the 2014 season's total.

Here are the 2013 cap numbers for the Giants' impending free agents

Here they are listed below:

• Note:
• Unrestricted Free Agents (UFAs) are highlighted in yellow.
• The players with voidable years in 2014 are highlighted in orange.
• Restricted Free Agents (RFAs) are highlighted in green.
• I didn't include Exclusive Rights Free Agents (ERFAs) on this list because they aren't a big enough factor into salary cap decisions (certain players with 2 accrued seasons towards free agency). 

• As can be seen, out of the 33 players on this list above, there are 24 UFAs (highlighted in yellow).
• 5 of these players who are UFAs are on season ending Injured Reserve now.
• The only players who have realistic chances to be re-signed by the giants next year are Stevie Brown and Aaron Ross (Rogers is too old and injury prone, while Adams and Scott are nothign more than camp fodder at this point).
• There are 2 players (highlighted in orange)--Webster and Myers--who have voidable years.
• It's doubtful that Myers & Webster will be on the team next year (especially Webster), as not bringing them back will result in a total of $4.25 million in cap savings: $1 million for Webster, and another $3.25 million for Myers.
• There are 7 RFAs (highlighted in green); all of these players will have to be tendered by the Giants if they intend to keep them in 2014. Listed below are last year's RFA tender rates:

• What the Giants do with their 7 RFAs tender-wise is going to be fascinating.
• 2 of these 7 impending RFAs are on season ending Injured Reserve: Hynoski & Cordle.
• They may or may not be tendered.
• Hynoski will probably be brought back to have a training camp battle with John Conner for the FB position (the Giants will only keep one heading into the 2014 season opener); the odds are against Hynoski based on Conner's excellent performance at the position thus far with the club.
• I suspect that Hynoski might just be signed to a deal similar to to the one Bear Pascoe signed last year; Pascoe wasn't tendered as a RFA, even though he was eligible to be one. Instead, the Giants and Pascoe agreed to a one-year deal that was less than the lowest tender amount, but higher than his previous year's salary (click HERE to see). 
• If Hynoski beats out Conner, then the carrot at the end of the stick for him makes sense to be a roster bonus, if he doesn't the Giants just cut bait on him, and eat the small amount of bonus money that he would be signed for ($65 K to $80 K).
• The other 5 RFAs are not all locks to be back next year, as they would all have to be tendered by the team first.
• Right now, my guess is that of these 7 (Hynoski, Cordle, Jernigan, Brewer, Williams, Herzlich, & Paysinger) only Williams and Brewer will only definitely be tendered.
• It would make sense to tender them at their original round tenders--the lowest.
• Last year, this figure was $1,323,000.
• Jacquian Williams was drafted in the 4th round in 2011, and James Brewer was drafted in the 4th round that same year. A second round tender might be considered for Williams though (the 2nd round tender amount last year was $2,023,000).
• In my opinion, Herzlich isn't worthy of being tendered at all.
• Paysinger probably does though, but it's not a surety (a Pascoe type of deal might also make sense with him).
• Cordle is an interesting case; he battled and improved enough to warrant a roster spot next year, but do the giants feel that he's worthy of taking up about $1 million in cap room because of it (almost double his cap number of $555,000 this season); the Pascoe treatment also seems logical for him in 2014.