•The Top 51 salaries of players are what count in the NFL with respect to the salary cap for teams during the offseason, until the regular season begins.
•Rosters balloon up to 90 players at various points throughout the offseason, especially at training camp, so it would be unfair to count the salaries of all players on the roster until the season actually starts, which makes the "Top 51" rule practical in the offseason.
•Here is where I got my information from with regards to the Giants' roster, and top 51 salaries:
New York Giants 2013 Salary Cap
•I didn't have enough time to make a table with the updated list of players on the roster, so I just linked the source for my information (see above).
•I added the CAP HITS of 5 of the players listed at the top of this post; the only 2 that I didn't do that for--Aaron Ross and Josh Brown--are already included on the top 51 list of salaries in the Giants' salary cap link.
•I'll try to update and make a chart the top 51 list of Giants salaries for a post on the weekend (it looks like things have slowed down sufficiently enough activity-wise on the free agency market to do that).
•What I did was, I included the CAP HITS of K. Rivers, R. Mundy, D. Connor, B. Myers, and Louis Murphy (Murphy's is an educated guess that I'm 95% sure is correct).
•I inserted Murphy as Minimum saary guy, since that's what the players comparable to him on this list of newly acquired FAs signed for (see A. Ross, K. Rivers, & D. Connor--they all count only $555 K against the cap).
•I took the CAP HITS each of the following and subtracted them from the number that they displaced on the Top 51 list according to CAP HIT in piecemeal fashion:
•I then added up these figures and got the number highlighted in light blue below:
•I then took this figure of $1,020,000 and subtracted it from the amount of money that the Giants were estimated to be under the cap before most these players' contracts were figured into the cap (save for A. Ross & J. Brown); that figures was estimated to be $2,683,780:
•The new figure that I came up with of $1,663,780 was not complete.
•Keep in mind that that the carryover money that the league lets teams use from the prior season, if teams want to (who wouldn't), which in the Giants' case was $1 million.
•I also factored into this equation the salary of the Exclusive Rights Free Agent (ERFA) who signed with the team, Justin Trattou: his salary is part of the top 51.
•The Giants have two other ERFAs: Jim Cordle and Adrian Tracy.
•Once Cordle and Tracy sign their tenders, as Trattou did, they'll count against the cap if they're in the top 51 (this is done by adding onto the salary cap the difference of the salary that each player's cap it displaces).
•If neither Cordle nor Tracy count in the top 51, then they won't be factors.
•At this point I subtracted $504,000 from the cap to bring that number down even more due to the accrual of workout bonuses for each team that kick in once he new league year started at 4 pm ET on March 12th this year.
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•This is the number (highlighted directly below in green) that I got as being the Giants' salary cap number as of now:
•Remember that this estimated figure of $1,159,780 is in flux, and is just a pretty educated guess.
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•I'll try to bring things up to date this weekend even more hopefully (pardon the split-verb infinitive).
•The money for Rookies was not affected greatly by the compensatory selection that the Giants were awarded last night (7th rounder, 47th in the round, and 253rd overall--next-to-last pick in the entire draft).
•The amount that the Giants have to make room under the cap to sign the rookies as of now, is estimated to be $4,614,587, as indicated below:
•The Giants will need to pay 2 more players at the end of the 53-man roster, as well as the 8 players on the practice squad, once the "Top 51 rule" ceases to be in effect for this offseason and the games start again.
•The last two guys at the back end of the 53-man roster will probably be rookies making the absolute league minimum of $405,000, so after you multiply that figure by 2, you'll have to create another $810,000 in cap space when it's time to begin the season.
•As far as the Practice squaders are concerned, they make $5,700 a week (1 player making that rate x 17 weeks = $96,900---Multiply that by 8 players and you get $775,200).
•If you add the CAP HIT money for the last 2 men on the 53-man roster and the practice squad, you get another $1,585,200 that you have to account for AT MINIMUM when the bullets start flying again.
•It should be noted, however, that teams are allowed to pay their pay their "taxi squaders" more than the weekly rate of $5,700 if they so choose.
•The Patriots are an example of a team that pays their practice squaders generously, as indicated in the article below.
Quote:
"Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Markus White is currently (beginning the 2012 season) the NFL's highest-paid player on a practice squad, earning $17,647 per week, or $300,000 over the season. (see the article below):
•"New England Patriots have top-paid NFL practice squad" by Brian McIntyre, Around the League writer | Published: Sept. 7, 2012 at 12:18 a.m. | Updated: Sept. 7, 2012 at 07:52 a.m.
•The Giants will need to clear some "fudge money" too later on this offseason; this is 1 to 2 million dollars left over in cap space which the Giants can use in case of an emergency.
•If you add this 1 or 2 million dollars to the amount mentioned of $1,585,200 for the last 2 men on the 53-man roster and the practice squad, then there will be between $2,585,200 and $3,585,200 that the Giants will have to be prepared to make room for under the cap when the season begins.
•Incidentally, Chris Snee agreed to restructure his contract at the beginning of last September to help the Giants create more room under the cap if they needed it.
•Whatever is left over can be carried over to the 2014 salary cap, like the 1 million dollars that was carried over from 2012 into the 2013 cap.
I recommend reading it in the BBI format as it's much easier to read and follow.
http://corner.bigblueinteractive.com/index.php?mode=2&thread=467786This post was edited by xnozx. on Mar 19 2013 05:34pm