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Seahawks Open up $14.1 Million in Cap Space

The Seattle Seahawks have restructured the contract of defensive lineman Leonard Williams, opening up just over $14 million in cap room. As part of the restructured contact the Seahawks converted $18.745 million of Williams’ salary to a bonus and added two void years to the contract. The move dropped Williams’ salary cap number from $29.1 million to $14.06 million.

The restructure increases Williams’ 2026 salary cap figure to $29.6 million and would leave the Seahawks with $9.372 million in dead money in 2027 if they allow Williams’ contract to void prior to an extension that year. Williams is coming off a career year at the age of 30, justifying the Seahawks decision to sign Williams to a $64.5 million contract last offseason following a surprising mid season trade to acquire Williams in 2023.

Seattle still has plenty of work to do with the salary cap. The team is now estimated to be about $14 million over the salary cap in 2025. That is currently the 3rd worst number in the NFL for the season.

The Costs of Trading Cooper Kupp

Star wide receiver Cooper Kupp has been informed by the Rams that they will be looking to trade him once free agency begins next month. Kupp still has two years remaining on a three year contract extension that was signed back in 2022 which made Kupp which made Kupp among the highest paid receivers in the NFL.

Kupp earned his 2022 extension following a superb 2021 season in which he led the NFL with 145 receptions and nearly 1,950 yards to go along with 16 touchdowns and then capped the year off by being named Super Bowl MVP. Kupp’s numbers the last two years have dropped back down to his prior norms, averaging about 60 yards a game, and he has slid down the depth chart, becoming a secondary option in the offense. Kupp’s availability has been a concern the last three years. He played just 9 games in 2022, and has played 12 games in each of the last two years.     

The Rams will need to spend the next month gauging interest in Kupp and weigh the benefits of potentially paying extra money for draft picks versus releasing him. Kupp’s contract calls for him to receive a $7.5 million roster bonus on the 5th day of the league year. $5 million of that roster bonus is guaranteed and is subject to offsets. Kupp would certainly sign a contract that pays more than $5 million in 2025 and the Rams would get their full amount back.

Delaying the trade until after the roster bonus is due would mean that the Rams would pick up $7.5 million of Kupp’s $20 million salary leaving an acquiring team with just $12.5 million to pay in 2025. That could be enticing to other teams and perhaps up the trade value, but given that the Rams are the ones under the time constraint here I am not sure it would really increase the value that much. Kupp has played his entire career in LA

Recent trades of receivers who were past their peak but still considered potential top talents would include DeAndre Hopkins (2nd round pick), Julio Jones (2nd round pick and a 4/6 swap) and a half year of Davante Adams (3rd round pick). Hopkins and Jones had multiple cost effective years remaining on their contracts while Adams was mainly a one year rental. If the market for Kupp is a 2nd round pick it would be worth eating the roster bonus.  If it is lower, I think you can make an argument that the team should consider moving on, saving the money, and letting Kupp choose his own destination. I don’t think it would be fair to Kupp, and the Rams are one of the better organizations in the NFL when it comes to relationships with their players, to just keep him on the roster for months until they can find a trade partner in the summer.

The cost to trade Kupp on the salary cap for the Rams would be $17.26 million if traded before the roster bonus is due and $24.76 million if traded after the roster bonus is due. Kupp currently has a $29.8 million cap charge so in both cases the Rams would create some cap room and they are not hurting for cap room anyway to where the cap savings are of that much of a concern. If the Rams cut Kupp the charge would be $22.76 million with the team receiving up to a $5 million offset credit in 2026.

For the team acquiring Kupp the cap charge would be $12.5 million for the year if the Rams pick up the roster bonus and $20 million if the trade is made prior to the bonus being due. Kupp has a non-guaranteed salary of $19.85 million next year, $5 million of which is due in March. For an acquiring team there is no real impact beyond this season due to the contract having no guarantees remaining.

If the Rams do pick up the roster bonus this year, Kupp’s contract will sneakily go down as one of the great player contracts of all time. The Rams would have wound up paying Kupp $47.75 million for completing just one year of his three year extension where he tallied a stat line of 67/710/6. While it is not entirely fair to look at the contract through that lens (unlike many other extensions Kupp had clearly outplayed his prior deal) it is still an example of a player being able to use every bit of leverage to his advantage to make certain he maxes out his compensation.

The Salary Cap Impact of Trading Myles Garrett

Myles Garrett has requested a trade from the Cleveland Browns, basically indicating that the team is not contending for a Super Bowl. Now many trade requests sound ominous and often are solved with a contract extension, and Garrett is one of the most underpaid veterans relative to production at this point, but let’s assume that the request is genuine. Can the Browns afford to trade Garrett?

The Browns salary cap situation is among the worst in the NFL. They have followed a similar model as the Philadelphia Eagles regarding cap management but have not had the same success stories in player acquisition as the Eagles. Currently the Browns are estimated to be about $30 million over the salary cap and rank 4th in the NFL with 40% of their players with at least a $2M cap charge having a low P5 on the books, meaning they can’t create cap room with those players.

The Browns will easily become salary cap compliant with the restructure of Deshaun Watson’s contract which will open up $36M in cap room. They will save about $9M with a restructure of Denzel Ward. After that the cap savings are small. Cutting Jack Conklin saves $4M. Restructuring Joel Bitonio opens up $4M. Restructuring Wyatt Teller is also about $4M. There are minimal players to cut for cap relief and most other restructures will open up a few million here and there.

The cost on the cap to trade Garrett would make things difficult for the Browns. Garrett currently counts for $19.722M on the cap and a trade would leave the team with at least $36.2M in dead money, a loss of $16.5M in cap room, basically negating three of the moves mentioned above and leaving the team with a pretty rough cap situation. To keep the number at $36.2M the team would need to modify Garrett’s contract to remove the option bonuses he has for this year and shift the money to 2026. If that was not done then the dead money would increase due to the option prorations with an offset to that money coming in 2026. There is precedent to do such a renegotiation to avoid the option acceleration as Aaron Rodgers and the Packers did a similar move when he was traded to the Jets.  

The easier path for the Browns would be to wait until after the draft to make a trade when they can use the rules for June 1 salary cap treatment to their advantage. The problems with that are that they would have to pay him $5 million as an option bonus in the interim and they would receive zero compensation this year for him. For a rebuilding team that might not be an issue but the Browns don’t likely look at themselves as rebuilding, they simply see themselves as needing a QB with a pulse to compete with a pretty expensive roster.

If the Browns opted for that path the cost to trade would be either $15.6M in dead money if the remainder of the option was removed from the contract or $18.43M if it was not removed with an offset of the difference coming in 2026. The team would then defer $25.5M of dead money to 2026 when it will be easier to digest on the cap.

The team acquiring Garrett if a trade was made in the summer would be responsible for $14.8M this year and $25M next year. In theory they can manipulate the cap hits however they want, but in reality they will likely be extending Garrett. A market for a player like Garrett is a bit of an unknown. He is the best defensive lineman in football but will turn 30 at the end of the 2025 season. In the interim some data points could be found if the Steelers extend TJ Watt, but given the recent contracts signed by Aaron Donald and Chris Jones my expectation would be in the ballpark of $35 million a season on a three year extension.

Given the nature of the trade request, age, and likely extension that would come with this I doubt that the Browns would be looking at a massive haul of multiple 1st round picks. They certainly should get one first round pick for him but after that it is probably a mid round pick with some kind of escalation conditions.  

It is really hard to make a compelling case for the Browns to consider this trade. It really isn’t good for the short term health of their salary cap and really isn’t in the interest of their long term healthy either given his production relative to the low salary in his deal. The Browns should believe they are a playoff contender regardless of how bad things have been. You don’t move players like Garrett on a contending team. This will likely take awhile to sort itself out but I would expect the Browns to hold onto a no trade stance at least until we hit some type of significant hold out portion of the offseason or a team really blows them away with a trade offer.  

NFL Teams Finalize 2025 Salary Cap Carryover

Each of the NFL teams has officially submitted to the NFL the amount of 2024 salary cap space that they will carry over to the 2025 season. At the top of the list is the 49ers who will carry over $50.097 million to 2025. The 49ers created this much cap room by design through restructures in 2024 that were almost solely done to aid the team’s potential salary cap crunch in 2025. The Browns were 2nd with $41.951 million and they led the NFL in restructured contracts in 2024 for the same reason as the 49ers.

At the low end of the numbers were the Jets who only had $345,919 to carry over to 2025. They used up some cap room at the last minute to prepay some incentives, but in general they went all in on the year and had little to show for it. Carolina was next with $490,368 as they are still dealing with the fallout from decisions made in the past. The average carryover was $11,584,981 and the median was $6,348,893.

We have been using estimates for the carryover for all of our cap figures for 2025 and those have now been updated to reflect the real numbers. We will be adding in some estimated adjustments in the coming weeks and then change those when the NFL makes the numbers official. Here is the amount of carryover for each team:

TeamCarryover
49ers$50,096,964
Browns$41,951,049
Patriots$34,855,309
Raiders$33,565,351
Lions$23,732,763
Commanders$19,832,564
Cowboys$18,842,847
Jaguars$15,890,203
Packers$15,110,980
Titans$14,723,876
Cardinals$11,377,187
Colts$10,099,589
Seahawks$8,421,062
Steelers$6,831,465
Eagles$6,806,524
Buccaneers$6,629,378
Falcons$6,068,408
Vikings$5,936,235
Bengals$5,935,175
Bears$5,084,460
Chargers$4,893,894
Texans$4,811,487
Chiefs$3,145,013
Dolphins$3,001,697
Saints$2,929,173
Rams$2,749,703
Ravens$2,136,843
Broncos$1,911,639
Bills$1,340,227
Giants$1,172,048
Panthers$490,368
Jets$345,919

Saints Clear $16.7M in Cap Space

The New Orleans Saints have begun their annual cleaning of the salary cap by finalizing the expected restructure of OT Ryan Ramczyk’s contract to pave the way for Ramczyk to officially retire this summer. Ramczyk, who had an outstanding seven year run with the Saints, is one of the players who paved the way for right tackles to be paid closer to the level of left tackles when he signed his $19.2 million per year contract extension in June of 2021. At the time the only right tackles who were paid closer to the left tackle level were those who teams felt would be able to market themselves as a left tackle in free agency. Ramczyk spent all of 2024 on the PUP list and many expected that he would retire this year.

To help the Saints salary cap, Ramczyk agreed to eliminate his $18 million base salary for 2025 and reduce it to the minimum of $1.255 million. This frees up $16.745 million in cap room, allowing the Saints to carry him on the roster at a $12.33 million cap figure until June 2nd at which point he should likely retire. Prior to this the Saints would have had to carry his cap figure at a $29 million number if they wanted to use the June 1 cut.

Ramczyk’s contract still has $23.066 million in dead money and by using the June 1 release the Saints will be able to split that up across two seasons at $11.083 million in 2025 and $11.983 million in 2026. Overall this puts the Saints in about a $12 million better position with the salary cap than if they released him or allowed him to officially retire in March.

The Saints still have a ton of work to do for 2025. Following this restructure they are still approximately $50 million over the 2025 salary cap, $27 million worse off than the next closest team.

The Cost to Trade or Cut Tyreek Hill

Tyreek Hill seemed to indicate that he is unhappy with the state of the Dolphins after the team failed to make the playoffs and he suffered his worst year since he was a rookie. Hill apparently made himself unavailable late in the loss against the Jets which could possibly void guarantee’s in his contract but let’s assume that does not happen and take a look at what it would really cost Miami to move Hill.

Miami signed Hill to new three year, $90 million contract in early August when Hill was unhappy that his contract had been surpassed by so many others in the league. The numbers, however, sound bigger then they really are. Miami was going to pay Hill $22.935 million in 2024 and the new deal gave him a raise of just $3.315 million this year. They did, however, guarantee $27.7 million for 2025 when his prior contract had no guarantees in 2025.

The structure of the contract was unusual for a star player extension and indicated that Miami’s front office understood that this could be more of a one and done scenario. While the guarantee is large for 2025, the salary itself is somewhat reasonable, ranking 5th among receivers in the NFL which makes it tradeable. Miami did not include a large roster bonus in 2025 as part of the deal and they lowered his salary cap charge through the use of an option bonus worth $15.85 million, but with a date that is basically tied to the start of the regular season. Normally such bonuses would be paid in March when used early in a contract. That option date gives Miami a long time to work out a trade for Hill while keeping him at a cap number under $28M and forcing all of his guarantee onto a trade partner. Hill has no injury protection for 2026.

Cutting Hill outright is not feasible for Miami unless he gives up his guaranteed salary. The cost to cut Hill would be $55.95 million on the salary cap if Hill was a straight release. They could opt for a post June 1 cut but the dead money next year would be either $40.4 million if they did not exercise the option or $27.7 million if they did. Exercising the option would reduce the ability for Miami to offset that guarantee when Hill signed elsewhere.

Trading Hill would be reasonable as the dead money is just $28.3 million, which is about his current cap number. If they waited until the summer to execute a trade the number would drop to only having to account for $15.9 million in 2025 and the rest of it in 2026. That might give the Dolphins whatever cap room they need to function for the 2025 year since they have a bad salary cap situation where they project to be around $11 million over the salary cap.

For all of the grief that Miami gets about their contract decisions and what they have done with their cap their last few years, this is one where Miami left themselves a lot of opportunity to get out of a contract if things went sideways. Now we will see if they take advantage of the situation they created for themselves.

2025 Salary Cap Space Update

With the regular season over more than half of the league is already looking ahead to the draft and free agency. Here is an updated look at where teams stand with the salary cap next year as well as how many UFA’s the team has next year. These salary cap numbers include estimated carryover from 2024 but do not include estimated adjustments or escalators which will reduce some teams cap room while increasing others. We will update those in the coming weeks. These numbers do include the minimum salary required to reach 51 players for each team which is why the numbers will look different than the salary cap page.

TeamCap RoomUFAs
Patriots$126,129,22010
Raiders$97,799,84016
Commanders$81,745,03128
Cardinals$77,264,28320
Bears$66,627,54321
Vikings$65,166,34723
Chargers$61,881,89427
49ers$54,591,12924
Titans$52,602,83420
Packers$52,482,83411
Bengals$51,942,96318
Lions$51,250,62924
Rams$50,305,45416
Giants$46,556,67221
Steelers$45,360,79122
Broncos$45,254,37013
Jaguars$39,672,68410
Colts$38,702,79719
Jets$26,253,27723
Eagles$23,598,94514
Panthers$22,736,52621
Buccaneers$16,622,04022
Cowboys$11,493,77722
Ravens$9,496,64417
Chiefs$8,286,50620
Texans$4,680,20221
Bills$3,287,32513
Falcons($7,168,688)22
Dolphins($10,813,196)26
Seahawks($12,304,010)10
Browns($24,536,142)21
Saints($66,027,944)17