American Football: Salaries

"Here are the cap numbers as of Thursday, Jan. 15, for every team, as well as the number of players currently under contract for 2004. Keep in mind the Rule of 51, which says that in the offseason, the base salaries or tenders of players who aren't among a team's 51 highest cap numbers don't count against the cap. After a team has 51 players signed or tendered, each player added will knock the base salary of player with the team's 51st-highest cap number off the cap, meaning that a team can sign a player and use less of its cap room than the player's cap number (for example, a player with a $1 million cap number might reduce the team's cap room by only $770,000 because he knocked another player's $230,000 salary off the cap). Likewise, for a team that is over the cap with more than 51 players signed, the savings from cutting a player from its top 51 will be less than the cut player's cap number (for example, cutting a player with a cap number of $1 million and whose contract expires after 2004 -- thus no bonus acceleration -- might save only $770,000 of cap room because a player with a $230,000 salary might replace him in the team's top 51).

Also keep in mind that the numbers below still include any players whose contract will void on March 2 (such as Terrell Owens, Julian Peterson and Duce Staley), still include any players who will retire or be cut and do not include any adjustments carried over from 2003 (including earned NLTBE bonuses and unearned LTBE bonuses). They obviously also don't include tenders that will be made to exclusive-rights free agents, restricted free agents, franchise players or transition players.

The 2004 salary cap is projected to be set somewhere between $78.1 million and $79.2 million.

Baltimore (34) $55.060 million
New Orleans (55) $56.999 million
Minnesota (52) $59.525 million
Philadelphia (52) $60.358 million
Arizona (46) $61.553 million
Dallas (50) $63.223 million
St. Louis (37) $62.535 million
Carolina (42) $63.998 million
Detroit (48) $65.340 million
Houston (43) $67.040 million
Chicago (60) $67.229 million
Buffalo (51) $67.442 million
Seattle (58) $67.871 million
Jacksonville (40) $68.593 million
Cleveland (60) $70.446 million
Cincinnati (50) $71.231 million
Kansas City (40) $72.582 million
Washington (54) $73.056 million
Atlanta (51) $73.771 million
San Diego (45) $74.761 million
Green Bay (52) $77.755 million
Indianapolis (34) $77.815 million
San Francisco (50) $77.930 million
N.Y. Giants (48) $78.535 million
Oakland (56) $78.560 million
New England (45) $78.622 million
N.Y. Jets (51) $78.777 million
Tampa Bay (57) $80.214 million
Pittsburgh (49) $81.130 million
Denver (52) $84.723 million
Miami (54) $92.060 million
Tennessee (39) $95.134 million


As a reminder, here are some of the LTBE incentive credits that will be applied in 2004 (these teams might have other credits and/or charges, as well) --

Minnesota � $10 million (Everett Lindsay $6 million, Fred Robbins $4 million)
New Orleans � $3.75 million (David Sloan)
Philadelphia � $3.6 million (AJ Feeley $2.5 million, Bobbie Williams $1.1 million)
New England � $3 million (Brandon Gorin $6 million over two years)
Baltimore � $2.3 million (Mike Solwold)
Seattle � $2.1 million (Isaiah Kacyvenski)
Cincinnati � $1.75 million (Thatcher Szalay)
New York Jets � $1.09 million (Ken-Yon Rambo)
Detroit � $775,000 (Paul Smith)
Dallas � $700,000 (Jamal Brooks)
Chicago � $650,000 (Joe Tafoya)"

:source:KFFL:

Good work on that Dream, looks very impressive.....looks like some teams are going to have to make BIG off-season changes to get under that cap. While others are able to re-sign players and sign new players without difficulty. I would rather be way under the cap than over but i guess that is a given.

THat is a given but notice the teams that are over the cap are the teams in the playoffs.

a lot of teams are going to have to re-construct contracts and probably cut some big name players. TO from SF, and there will be plenty more

i'm glad the VIkes have a lot of room.

you think that they can pick up anybody?