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The Money Clip: Baltimore Ravens Salary Cap Analysis - Baltimore Ravens Salary Cap Update
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Posted On: 9/28/07
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Disclaimer: Collecting Salary Cap data is truly an inexact science. It is especially so for a team like the Ravens, who rarely give out any contract details. As such, it is left to Pro Football 24 x 7 to obtain the details of contracts from various local media sources and football-related websites (ESPN, KFFL, NFLPA, USAToday, etc.).
Recently FoxSports.com1 ran a story updating the salary cap status of all 32 NFL teams as of the beginning of the 2007 season. According to that story, the Ravens were $4,319,866 under the 2007 salary cap of $109M as of kick-off weekend. A couple of minor adjustments to the Ravens cap have occurred since then: (1) Kyle Boller’s re-signing actually reduced his cap number a bit; (2) Corey Ross was elevated from the Practice Squad to take B.J. Sams spot on the 53-man roster (Sams, while on Injured Reserve, still fully counts against the cap) and (3) the team released Dennis Haley and signed Linebacker Nick Greisen. Because of the reduction in Kyle Boller’s base salary by around $1M, the net effect of these moves was the creation of around $200K in additional cap space. Therefore, based on the FoxSports numbers, the Ravens should have around $4.5M in cap space.
At this time, the numbers compiled by ProFootball 24x7 have the Ravens at $4.854M under the salary cap2. This number appears to be fairly accurate based on FoxSports report. This amount gives the Ravens more than enough cap space to go through the balance of the season, since it is very unlikely that the team would sign anyone new to anything more than a minimum salary contract. As such, with each new signing, only a couple hundred thousand would be added onto the cap, and even then, the amount would be prorated based on the remaining games left in the season at the time the new player was signed. For example, Nick Greisen was signed after the second week of the season, so even though his base salary is listed at $545K, he will only count 15/17th of that amount (assuming he remains with the team for the balance of the season).
One other transaction that is hopefully going to impact this year’s cap is the re-signing of Terrell Suggs (again, hopefully). If that happens, the new deal will likely free up some additional cap space, since his base salary of $5M would likely be reduced down to the minimum base salary of $545K. That savings would then be reduced by this year’s pro-rata share of Suggs’ new bonus money, but since his bonus money would likely be in the form of a split bonus that the Ravens usually favor (say $15M this year, $10M next year, maybe a smaller amount in 2009), the impact would likely be to create close to $2M in additional cap space for the team.
If the team does still have excess cap space as the season starts to wind down, it will allow them to take advantage of a salary cap loophole that was first exploited by the Philadelphia Eagles several years ago via the use of unattainable “likely to be earned” incentives. That sounds kind of contradictory – and it is - but the trick is that any incentive added during the season is considered to be a “likely to be earned” incentive, regardless of how likely, or unlikely, it is to happen3. As such, the amount of the incentive counts immediately against the present year’s cap, but if it is unearned, it acts as a credit against the following year’s cap. As such, teams can essentially trade this year’s unused cap space for additional space the following year. So, while next year’s cap is likely to be set at $116M, many teams will actually have more cap space than that.
The Ravens actually used this maneuver last season with Matt Katula. Late in the year, they wrote a phony incentive into his deal (say, for example, that he would earn $1.2M if he kicked 10 Field Goals). Since it was written in during the season, it was deemed to be a likely to be earned incentive – however unlikely it was to occur – so it counted immediately against the 2006 cap and essentially ate up the Ravens’ remaining cap space. When the season ended, and Katula hadn’t kicked 10 FGs, the incentive was credited against this year’s cap and the Ravens had an additional $1.2M to spend this year.
So, this year, with any unused amount remaining in late December, it is likely that the Ravens will use this maneuver again. It also should be noted that an additional $4M, or so, may go a long way toward making it possible for the Ravens to use the Franchise Tag on Terrell Suggs if he remains unsigned. The Ravens are going to be tight against the cap next year again, but unlike this past year with Adalius Thomas, they are more likely to use the tag this time around and that extra cap space will allow them to more comfortably franchise Suggs, if it ends up coming to that.
Photo by Sabina Moran
Ravens Salary Cap Spreadsheet HERE
1 http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7205896
2 Link to Spreadsheet
3 Incentives that are already written into a contract prior to the start of the season are deemed “likely” or “unlikely” based on whether they would have been reached based on the prior year’s performance. If the answer to that is “yes”, then the incentive is “likely to be earned” and they count against the present year’s cap. If they are then not reached, then a credit is given against the following year’s cap. If the incentive was not attained in the prior year, then it is deemed to be “unlikely to be earned” and it only counts in the following year if reached during the year in which the incentive applies.
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