Salary Cap Flexibility

Edition #304

Good morning!

For me, the off-season officially starts today. I’m busy contacting college coaches to get some draft film and talk to them about some prospects, while also badgering the Jet’s communications department about some access to staff/players. Hopefully, I’ll be able to bring you some exciting features over the dark period of the NFL calendar.

Today I wanted to talk about the Jet’s cap situation. I work with numbers on a daily basis, and a lot of them are financial in nature, so the cap is something that interests me a great deal. It’s also one of the most important aspects of running an NFL franchise.

Today, that’s the focus. First, we’re going to get to our daily quick throws.

You’re going to start seeing me introduce some mock drafts into this section. Starting today with PFF who have the Jets making a very smart and logical pick.

Which is in stark contrast to this pick by CBS Sports. Another project QB in the first round? No thank you. Richardson completed just 54% of his passes in college and finished with 24 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. In no universe should the Jets draft Anthony Richardson.

On Monday Joe Douglas took to the stand to be interrogated by the New York sports media and one of the last things he said was: “As it pertains to our salary cap situation, which we feel like we still maintain a ton of flexibility”

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the Jets’ salary cap situation and their lack of flexibility, so what gives?

First of all, let’s just take a look at where the Jets are today in relation to both their 2023 and 2024 cap situation. General Managers never work based on a single year, and most will work with a 5-year plan on how to utilize their available cap space.

2023 NFL Salary Cap

How much will it be? Right now nobody knows. Reports came in over December that it will easily eclipse the $220 million mark, some believe it will be over $225 million and others believe it’ll be closer to $230 million. Either way, it’s going to rise from the 2022 number of $208.2 million.

With that uncertain number in mind, according to OTC the Jets will have $15.275 million in cap space (16th highest) before the league year starts based on them doing absolutely nothing. However, their effective cap space will be just $2.2 million (18th highest). This is based on the cap being $225 million according to the chart.

The Bears lead the league with $101 million of effective cap space with Tampa Bay at the bottom of the ladder with minus $55 million of effective cap space.

But what the hell is effective cap space? How does it differ from your standard cap space?