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With the Green Bay Packers sure to sign some free agents (whether internal or external) in the next few days and weeks, the team's salary cap space will be a major talking point. We at Acme Packing Company are therefore going to attempt to keep everyone as up to date as possible on the team's cap room as signings start to roll in.
As of right now, the numbers indicate that the Packers have just over $15.5 million in cap space (now accounting for John Kuhn's re-signing).
Before we look at how much cap space the Packers have, though, let's revisit one more time what their effective cap number is for 2014. The team had just under $10 million in cap space at the end of the 2013 season, so that number gets rolled over into 2014 to give us an "Effective Salary Cap".
Quantity | Amount |
2014 NFL Salary Cap | $133,000,000 |
2013 Cap Carryover | $8,835,480 |
Packers' 2014 Effective Cap | $141,835,480 |
Now that we know the upper bound on the money that the Packers can spend, let's break down the charges that are currently applied to the cap. The top 51 highest-valued contracts count against the cap in the off-season, and we will update this number continuously through free agency to show how much space the Packers have. The other value, the Dead Money, is a result of releasing players who still had prorated signing bonus money or guaranteed contract money that has to be accounted for.
Quantity | Amount |
Packers' 2014 Cap | $141,835,480 |
Top 51 Contracts | ($123,529,646) |
Dead Money | ($2,677,484) |
Current Cap Space | $15,628,350 |
If and when the Packers sign any free agents (including their own players from 2013), we will update those below with estimated or confirmed contract details. We will then update the Top 51 Contracts and Current Cap Space fields in the above table to reflect these signings.
Player | Position | 2013 Team | Contract Details | 2014 Cap Hit |
Chris Banjo | S | Packers | 1 year, $495k | $495k |
Sam Shields | CB | Packers | 4 years, $39 M | $5.563 M (confirmed) |
Jamari Lattimore | ILB | Packers | 1 year, $1.431 M (RFA tender) | $1.431 M |
Mike Neal | DE/OLB | Packers | 2 years, $8 M | $3.75 M (confirmed) |
Andrew Quarless | TE | Packers | 2 years, $3 M | $1.25 M (confirmed) |
B.J. Raji | DT | Packers | 1 year, $4 M | $4 M (confirmed) |
Julius Peppers | DE | Bears | 3 years, $26 M | $3.5 M (confirmed) |
Letroy Guion | DT | Vikings | 1 year, $985k | $985k (confirmed) |
James Starks | RB | Packers | 2 years, $3.166 M | $1.37 M (confirmed) |
John Kuhn | FB | Packers | 1 year, $1+ M | $1.03 M (confirmed) |
Remember that the Packers' 2014 draft class is expected to occupy an additional $2 million of cap space, so the team will need to maintain no less than that at the end of free agency.
Note: dollar values come from Overthecap.com and are estimates only.