As most of the prominent free agents have been signed and much of league-wide salary cap space has been spent, today I will examine the ramifications the transactions have had on Commitment Index and True Cap Space for 2017.
Commitment Index:
Commitment Index measures net future salary cap commitments (prorated signing bonus amounts and guaranteed base salaries net of current salary cap space) relative to the average net future cap commitments of all teams. The primary concepts are as follows:
- Only actual commitments are relevant to evaluating future spending capacity (as opposed to scheduled salary cap numbers of existing contracts).
- Committing future salary cap space is only potentially detrimental to the extent the team does not possess at least an equal amount of current salary cap space available to be carried forward to future years to negate the future cap commitments.
- Net future salary cap commitments should be measured on a relative basis because a team only disadvantages itself in terms of future spending capacity to the extent it makes more net future cap commitments than the other teams in the league (if every team “mortgages its future” to the same degree, then no team has really “mortgaged its future” at all).
- Scoring highly in Commitment Index is not necessary a “bad” situation to be in, but it indicates a lack of flexibility in comparison to other teams. In that sense, whether or not the team is in long-term salary cap trouble depends in part on the strength of the roster to which the team has committed.
These numbers are based on what is included on Over The Cap as of the evening of Sunday March 20th. The following contracts are known to not be included: Ian Williams, Steve McLendon, Zane Beadles, Kelvin Beachum, Tyvon Branch, Jarvis Jenkins and Quinten Coples.
Commitment Index as of March 21, 2016 | ||||||
Team | Proration | Guarantees | Cap Space | Net Commitment | Index | 3/9/16 |
PHI | 73,317,683 | 48,173,488 | (12,595,358) | 108,895,813 | 240% | 419% |
BAL | 112,662,692 | 2,844,759 | (7,555,014) | 107,952,437 | 238% | 492% |
DAL | 87,750,575 | 16,476,625 | (10,670,381) | 93,556,819 | 206% | 409% |
KC | 66,814,590 | 22,448,220 | (6,293,708) | 82,969,102 | 183% | 240% |
HOU | 50,170,219 | 41,111,182 | (9,829,389) | 81,452,012 | 180% | 50% |
ATL | 57,380,148 | 31,074,756 | (9,498,064) | 78,956,840 | 174% | 166% |
NYG | 69,296,396 | 25,079,872 | (18,844,166) | 75,532,102 | 167% | -55% |
BUF | 65,868,911 | 16,138,491 | (7,034,472) | 74,972,930 | 165% | 368% |
PIT | 66,723,176 | 4,092,128 | (2,186,807) | 68,628,497 | 151% | 275% |
MIA | 58,863,893 | 22,396,267 | (18,031,807) | 63,228,353 | 139% | 299% |
NO | 50,693,999 | 11,178,913 | (817,519) | 61,055,393 | 135% | 209% |
NE | 59,063,518 | 3,627,112 | (13,445,157) | 49,245,473 | 109% | 143% |
CAR | 68,284,691 | 1,235,794 | (20,581,131) | 48,939,354 | 108% | 236% |
SEA | 55,457,814 | – | (8,823,186) | 46,634,628 | 103% | 148% |
SD | 48,216,832 | 11,544,945 | (13,287,533) | 46,474,244 | 102% | 73% |
ARI | 45,669,675 | 2,745,192 | (6,183,618) | 42,231,249 | 93% | 157% |
WAS | 49,929,992 | 6,191,735 | (14,494,604) | 41,627,123 | 92% | 161% |
NYJ | 24,287,718 | 19,192,007 | (2,281,841) | 41,197,884 | 91% | 144% |
DEN | 34,342,748 | 10,763,990 | (5,567,446) | 39,539,292 | 87% | 108% |
GB | 48,268,889 | 1,933,146 | (12,692,706) | 37,509,329 | 83% | 157% |
LA | 20,745,398 | 23,019,620 | (15,226,577) | 28,538,441 | 63% | -95% |
TB | 14,613,157 | 32,276,265 | (18,995,430) | 27,893,992 | 62% | -95% |
OAK | 17,156,122 | 28,578,528 | (18,395,641) | 27,339,009 | 60% | -173% |
DET | 39,275,635 | 3,302,633 | (18,014,864) | 24,563,404 | 54% | -16% |
TEN | 35,572,237 | 16,859,313 | (31,348,573) | 21,082,977 | 46% | -50% |
MIN | 21,271,013 | 9,369,662 | (12,427,111) | 18,213,564 | 40% | -15% |
CIN | 33,029,402 | 2,392,790 | (20,083,041) | 15,339,151 | 34% | -33% |
JAX | 33,832,835 | 34,945,255 | (57,587,270) | 11,190,820 | 25% | -280% |
CHI | 23,447,215 | 9,375,284 | (23,948,272) | 8,874,227 | 20% | -125% |
IND | 26,113,143 | 1,174,582 | (21,198,459) | 6,089,266 | 13% | 43% |
CLE | 27,093,070 | 8,712,917 | (42,181,184) | (6,375,197) | -14% | -28% |
SF | 33,315,621 | 3,106,960 | (58,843,242) | (22,420,661) | -49% | -132% |
2017 Salary Cap Commitments | |||
Team | Proration/Dead Money | Fully Guaranteed | 2017 Commitment |
BAL | 51,951,069 | 2,844,759 | 54,795,828 |
DAL | 42,528,751 | 16,476,625 | 59,005,376 |
BUF | 32,718,233 | 12,888,491 | 45,606,724 |
CAR | 31,527,901 | 1,235,794 | 32,763,695 |
NE | 31,280,863 | 3,627,112 | 34,907,975 |
PIT | 31,163,847 | 2,989,828 | 34,153,675 |
ATL | 30,789,294 | 28,663,134 | 59,452,428 |
GB | 30,598,267 | 1,933,146 | 32,531,413 |
PHI | 29,926,997 | 47,037,488 | 76,964,485 |
KC | 29,555,772 | 20,706,288 | 50,262,060 |
NYG | 27,344,882 | 22,682,365 | 50,027,247 |
DET | 25,498,346 | 3,302,633 | 28,800,979 |
NO | 25,345,184 | 9,190,255 | 34,535,439 |
ARI | 25,103,564 | 2,745,192 | 27,848,756 |
WAS | 24,898,404 | 2,863,694 | 27,762,098 |
SEA | 24,633,601 | 0 | 24,633,601 |
HOU | 24,311,411 | 39,305,809 | 63,617,220 |
MIA | 23,699,144 | 20,478,103 | 44,177,247 |
SD | 20,769,907 | 9,654,978 | 30,424,885 |
TEN | 19,754,806 | 10,122,408 | 29,877,214 |
CLE | 18,173,498 | 4,961,181 | 23,134,679 |
CIN | 17,822,791 | 1,282,790 | 19,105,581 |
SF | 17,136,557 | 1,329,784 | 18,466,341 |
DEN | 15,842,839 | 9,763,990 | 25,606,829 |
JAX | 15,023,477 | 31,307,041 | 46,330,518 |
NYJ | 14,262,314 | 16,216,433 | 30,478,747 |
CHI | 13,064,580 | 6,681,686 | 19,746,266 |
STL | 12,763,322 | 20,699,642 | 33,462,964 |
MIN | 12,292,930 | 7,169,522 | 19,462,452 |
IND | 11,361,666 | 1,174,582 | 12,536,248 |
OAK | 10,612,258 | 25,053,102 | 35,665,360 |
TB | 8,848,510 | 28,384,273 | 37,232,783 |