[Chaka]

Originally Posted by sherck

I don’t have a ton of time but here is a quick and dirty on JAX cap situation:

$188.200m = NFL 2019 Salary Cap
$011.600m = Rollover from 2018 for JAX
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$199.800m = 2019 JAX Salary Cap

$197.057m = Current contracts for top 51 players
$005.515m = Projected draft pool (projected draft cap hits minus 7x players make cap minimum)
$002.478m = Dead money
$001.200m = Spots 52 / 53 on regular season roster
$001.200m = 10-man practice squad
$003.000m = 2019 in season “churn” space
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$210.450m = 2019 JAX Obligations

Free Cap Space = - 10.650m

Obviously, right now, every projection is going to show them under the salary cap because the draft class, spots 52 & 53, practice squad and churn space don’t count yet. But they will…..they will.

So, to realistically sign Foles, they need to account for all their 2019 expenditures AND have a minimum of $20m in free cap space to sign him….all without wrecking the team.

Top JAX 2019 free agents:
WR Donte Moncrief
TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins
TE James O’Shaughnessy
RB Corey Grant
RB T.J. Yeldon
OG A.J. Cann

Some guys there that are probably starters if they had not ended the season on IR (Moncrief, Seferian-Jenkins, Cann) so if they re-sign any of those guys, they need to create more space to do so.

Top 10 cap savings if cut:
$11.000m = DT Malik Jackson
$09.500m = DE Calais Campbell
$09.406m = CB A.J. Bouye
$07.450m = FS Tashaun Gipson
$06.000m = RT Jermey Parnell
$05.781m = OC Brandon Linder
$04.700m = RB Carlos Hyde
$04.500m = QB Blake Bortles
$04.130m = LB Telvin Smith
$04.000m = DT Taven Bryan

Cutting folks outright saves the most cap space but also wrecks the team.

They can do more of what they did with Marcell Dareus. They converted $5.000m of his 2019 salary into a signing bonus in order to spread it over the 2 remaining years of his deal (2019 and 2020) in order to spread the cap hit evenly and save $2.500m against the cap. That got them under the salary cap at the start of the NFL season (barely).

Andrew Norwell – 4 years remaining on contract. Convert $10m of his $13m 2019 salary into signing bonus and spread for an additional cap hit of $2.5m in 2019/2020/2021/2022 while saving $7.5m in 2019.

A.J. Boyue – 3 years remaining on contract. Convert $12m of his $13m 2019 salary into signing bonus and spread for an additional cap hit of $4m in 2019/2020/2021 while saving $8m in 2019.

Blake Bortles – 2 years remaining on contract. Convert $10m of his $14m 2019 salary into signing bonus and spread for an additional cap hit of $5m in 2019/2020 while saving $5m in 2019. OR….cut to save $4.5m.

Malik Jackson – 3 years remaining on contract. Convert $12m of his $13m 2019 salary into signing bonus and spread for an additional cap hit of $4m in 2019/2020/2021 while saving $8m in 2019.

That is around $28m in cap space created to get them out of the hole and sign Foles. There is more they would have to do in order to keep their team intact, but you get the point.

Obviously, this is only making the problem worse into the future but I think that JAX could chose to do this for 2019 and 2020 before it all falls apart in 2021 and you are looking at a MAJOR salary and talent dump and rebuild. 2 year window for them to compete with their current talent.

So, if JAX wants Foles, they can afford him by pushing a lot of cap obligations into the future while at the same time keeping their team together. For one or two seasons.

Walk Worthy,

Take note - JAX is an example of why you don't build your team through free agency. Several here were touting JAX as an example of successfully utilizing free agency to make a competitive team, and while they looked good for a year or two, but they're now dealing with the consequences of all of that spending. Keep in mind that just 2-3 years ago JAX was leading the league in available cap space, just like the Colts are now.