The Salary Cap 📈

Edition #583

Good morning! ☕

This week General Managers, coaches and executives will head to Indianapolis for the annual scouting combine. Robert Saleh will stay back at 1JD to continue his preparations for the season, he’s never attended the combine as a head coach so this isn’t surprising. He isn’t alone, Mike McCarthy won’t attend from Dallas and Sean McVay from LA won’t be there either. Saleh will still take part in the interview process through Zoom, and with everything being filmed you don’t lose much by not attending.

⬛ There’s been some talk of the Vikings trading Justin Jefferson, but the origin of that rumour is murkier than Joe Duglas’s free agency record. Jefferson is 24 and already one of the best receivers in the league, there is little logic to trading him unless he wants out and he’s made that clear. I don’t think that’s happened, so this may just be someone trying to fill column inches.

⬛ Sauce Gardner had all his social accounts and email hacked over the weekend. Then the hacker emailed him to warn him about his IT security issues. Strange world we live in, but there you go.

⬛ In one of my least liked mock drafts I’ve seen recently, Tony Catalina of Pro Football Network has the Jets drafting Keon Coleman. “Adding Keon Coleman to a receiving corps with Garrett Wilson and an offense helmed by Aaron Rodgers is an excellent situation for the former Seminole. Coleman begins to climb draft boards, and for the first time for me, I see him sliding into a top-10 spot.”

⬛ Mecole Hardman was asked about his free agency plans, and it’s safe to say he won’t be returning to the Jets. Not that anyone thought he would.

⬛ It was revealed this weekend that the Bengals were planning to use the franchise tag on Tee Higgins. The Cincy receiver has two 1,000-yard seasons on his resume in four years and already has 24 receiving touchdowns. A lot of people expected this so it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

⬛ Taliese Fuaga has consistently been linked with the Jets and former NFL tackle Geoff Schwartz had some thoughts on him over the weekend:

“Taliese Fuaga film review is finished.

He’s an a** kicker in the run game. Hard to find a better film of an OT who moves defenders like he does. He’s quick and powerful off the ball. Understands angles in the zone game. Hand placement matched w/his hips is excellent. He’s never on the ground.

Pass protection he’s smooth w/o wasted movement.

He’s got to clean up his outside hand and setting too far on defenders. It’s a concern of mine for him at OT at the NFL level. However, his punch is powerful and his base is strong. Moves feet well. It’s a great foundation to build on.”

🟢⚪ Over the weekend the NFL announced the salary cap number for the 2024 season, for teams struggling for wiggle room, and for players looking to get paid, it was good news.

The 2024 cap number has been set at $255.4 million, an unprecedented $30 million increase from 2023.

That number is based on new media rights income as well as teams having paid back their advances from the COVID pandemic.

Original projections had the cap at around $242 million so this is quite the increase. It also means the Jets have around $12.7 million to work with according to Over The Cap.

While there is excitement that we have more space, it’s also worth noting that every team has more space. So with more money to spend, prices usually go up, or at least the asking prices usually go up.

So while it helps a little bit, it’s more useful to teams at the foot of the cap table, struggling to get under the threshold.

That Jets number is 21st in the league. Washington has more cap space than anyone else at $79.6 million and the Bills have the least, currently finding themselves $43.8 million over the cap, a significant number.

The Saints had found themselves at the foot of the cap table, but after re-working Derek Carr’s contract, they now find themselves sitting 31st, $39.8 million over the cap.

$12.7 million is a good starting point for the Jets, but they’ll need to free up more space if they really want to put an SB contender on the field next year.

When Joe Douglas first arrived he had to clear up a lot of mess with the cap, the Jets had one of the highest dead money numbers in football. Over the last year or so, the Jets have had one of the lowest numbers in football, but not in 2024.

When you miss on free agent signings, when you defer money, then dead money hits on the cap increases. Right now, the Jets are slated to have the 5th highest dead money number in 2024, with $18.3 million going to players who won’t be contributing.

Here’s how that number breaks down. That restructure of Carl Lawson will hurt the Jets considerably, but at the time it looked like a prudent move. Duane Brown…less so.

But if the Jets want to create cap space they can.

Trading Zach Wilson will open up $5.4 million, cutting Uzomah will save $5.3 million and we already spoke about the options with Laken last week. But, all of those players come with considerable dead cap hits. Uzomah’s restructuring last year was a bad idea and limited the financial flexibility this year, but he should really be moving on this off-season.

Over the Cap has looked at all potential possibilities and according to their calculations, the Jets can get to $79.1 million with simple restructures. Here’s how they define a simple restructure

• A simple restructure converts payments into prorated signing bonuses within the confines of the remainder of the contract. Teams typically have the ability to unilaterally execute simple restructures without any action necessary from the player.

If the Jets wanted to clear more space. They could get all the way to $93.2 million with what they call their max restructure capability, defined as:

• A maximum restructure increases the amount of cap space via conversion into prorated signing bonuses by either extending the contract or by adding void years to a contract, years that do not extend the contract but are only used as placeholders for the proration. Maximum restructures are typically considered a renegotiation of the contract that requires the player's consent to execute.

So while it doesn’t look like we have a lot of cap space, we have the potential to create the space needed to sign multiple tackles, a wide receiver, a defensive tackle and a safety.

Players who will likely be restructured in some way include C.J. Mosley, Quinnen Williams, D.J. Reed, John Franklin-Myers, Quincy Williams, and Tyler Conklin. Some will be restructured, some will be extensions that lower the immediate cap hit.

Reed in particular has been an outstanding player for the Jets and with him entering his final year on his deal, the Jets can extend him and lower his $15.6 million cap hit for 2024.