State of the Franchise- The Salary Cap Edition

[bulldog]

I thought that since the final roster had been made up, we could take a look at the salary cap for 2012 and 2013.

**I am not claiming any of this information to be 100% accurate. It is my best effort to show what shape the Browns are in financially**

Most of this information has been taken from Spotrac.com. There's some other articles I used for clarification on the cap that I will list below.

There's been some moves this year that would free up some space in the Cap. The releases of Eric Steinbach, Evan Moore, and Seneca Wallace made a major shift in the amount of space the Browns have.

2012 Salary Cap- $120.6M

2012 Team Salary- $101.45M

2012 Cap Space- $17.11M

-This number reflects Chris Gocong being on I.R. His cap number ($5.01M) should not reflect onto the team salary.

-I didn't find anything about players being suspended or listed on the PUP effecting the salary cap. Phil Taylor's cap figure ($1.83) may not be accounted for by other sites. I'm going to count it here. Along with Fujita's cap number.

-There is a salary cap rollover that is taken into effect on the cap space figure. Thats why the numbers don't add up. The reported roll over for the Browns was $8.95M

-Remember, the reported salary caps were before the release of Wallace and Moore and before Gocong was listed on I.R.

-One other thing to take into account is the "dead money" the money that was guaranteed to players that were cut short of their contracts. This number in 2012 is ~$10.99M (Wallace, Moore, Steinbach, Robiskie, Rogers, Williams and Pashos are the major contributors)
------For those of you that don't know. If a player had a 4 yr/$20M contract with $10M guaranteed and the contract is set up like this (guarantees can come in any form i.e. salary, bonus...)

year 1 $3M guar.
year 2 $2M guar.
year 3 $3M guar.
year 4 $2M guar.

If this player gets cut after the first year, he would have $7M guaranteed still remaining on the contract. This is the number that results in "dead money" for a franchise. However, it is spread our over the life of the contract. So in this case, there's $7M left over three years. So a franchise will suffer a $2.3333M cap hit in dead money for three years. (guaranteed money/years remaining on contract)

Now lets look ahead to 2013.

2013 Salary Cap- $120.9M

2013 Team Salary- $78.83M

2013 Cap Space- $32.05M W/ Standard. $40.21M W/ Rollover

-First thing here that is unclear is the rollover. I'm assuming that the rollover will be the available difference between the standard Salary Cap and the total Team Salary + dead money from the previous year. that number is $8.16M. In the event this number isn't accurate, I will also record the standard cap space as well, thus the two numbers above. Its also unclear if this rollover accounts for the dead money in addition to the team salary in comparison to the salary cap. In this case, I accounted for it.

- The dead money for 2013 as of right now will be $10.02M (Wallace, Moore, and Steinbach, all of which will fall off after 2013 as well!! Also Patterson, Shaun Rogers, and Corey Williams)

For Patterson, his (2013) base Salary of $4.5M - $1.1M = $3.4M in cap savings.
----I can't find anything definitive on a waiver wire claim when it comes to a cap figure. So this is my best educated guess. Patterson's contract had $6M guaranteed, with a $3.3M in singing bonus. So this number for 2013 is either $0M, $1.1M, or $2M. I'm going with the 1.1 figure.

The other figures that go into the 2013 cap is Rogers and Williams, who's contracts were set to expire that year anyways. Since they are not longer with the team, its difficult to find how their contracts were set up exactly. So i'm just going to take their guaranteed money and divide it by the years. Williams is a littler more clearer, since he is still on the same contract.

Rogers= 6 yrs/ $42M/ $20M guaranteed = $3.3M cap hit for 2013
- This number is probably smaller, but since I have no way of knowing, this is what I'm going to use

Williams= 6 yrs/ $36M/ $16M guaranteed--- $1.53M cap hit for 2013. This may even fall off, several sites have him listed as a FA this year. So they may be some terms in his contract that effect this, but i'm going to include it.

----The Browns will have virtually no "dead money" in 2014, barring any cuts this year. The only notable player that may effect the cap moving into 2014 would be Patterson. Nearly that hole $10M figure in dead space will be gone. so they Browns will receive quite a bump in space in 2014, pending cuts from this point on (12/26/12)

- The salary cap may go up more than the reported $300K, but it wouldn't be by much.

Who are the Browns Free Agents in 2013?

Free Agents- 12
Sheldon Brown CB
Josh Cribbs WR
Mohamed Massaquoi WR
Phil Dawson K
Reggie Hodges P
Brandon Jackson RB
Kaluka Maiava LB
Scott Fujita LB
Alex Smith TE
Ben Watson TE
Rey Ventrone S
Jaqua Parker DE
Hall Davis DE

Restricted Free Agents- 6
Thad Lewis QB
Jordan Norwood WR
Chris Ogbonnaya RB
Craig Robertson LB
Emmanuel Stephens DE
Christian Young LS
Adrian Moten MLB
Prince Miller CB
Auston English DE
Eddie Williams FB

Who is a Free Agent in 2014? Players the Browns may want to extend contract or cut in 2013.

O'Neil Cousins T ($0.73M)
John Greco G ($0.73M)
Montario Hardesty RB ($1.41M)
Shawn Lauvao G ($0.80M)
Alex Mack C ($4.33M)
Colt McCoy QB ($0.76M)
T.J. Ward S ($1.34M)
Usama Young S ($2.00M)

How much money do the Browns HAVE to spend next year?

-This number is 89% of the salary cap. Which is $107.6M

-For the Browns, to get to that number, they would have to spend $28.77M base on the standard cap figure. That number is $18.75M taking into account the dead money.

-Also, remember, the Browns do not HAVE to spend this money, but if they don't they will have to pay the league the remaining figure.


http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d82a421db/article/available-salarycap-space-for-all-32-nfl-teams
http://www.fieldgulls.com/2012/7/16/3162617/nfl-salary-cap-rollover-cba-seahawks-pete-carroll-paul-allen
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d82a1b370/article/flat-salary-cap-will-force-nfl-teams-to-restructure-rosters
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7744901/nfl-soaring-revenues-coincide-salary-cap-growth


So there you have it. Hope you guys enjoy reading.

*Edited to include the contracts and cap figures/hit of Shaun Rogers, Corey Williams, and Dimitri Patterson.
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2013 First Ballot Recipient of the Joe Blackburn Award

[nugpimpen]

To bad we didn't overspend on Fa's these last 2 years. O wait
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IDOG_det on the incredible sig!

[candyman93]

Thank you Bulldog

I appreciate this write up
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[DawgX]

It will be interesting to see what the Browns do in free agency next year since they do have to spend that money and they don't have a second-round pick. As of right now, I'm assuming RG will be a big need and I kind of prefer for the Browns to sign a veteran free agent guard rather than draft one. The Browns have enough young linemen so they should bring in a veteran who is still relatively young.
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Cleveland Browns Forum Hall of Fame Inductee

[bulldog]

[nugpimpen]

[bulldog]

[candyman93]

[Dawgpoun8017]

[candyman93]

I feel like this thread deserves to be stickied for reference
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[DawgSoldier]

[bulldog]

I'll go back in an edit the salaries for Williams and Rogers if it gets stickied....Such a bad sounding word...
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2013 First Ballot Recipient of the Joe Blackburn Award

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

[Mastercheddaar]

Plenty of cap for Haslem to bring in his signature FA

that is all

Mastercheddaar
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[DawgSoldier]

what no sticky yet?
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