DENNIS PITTA VERY LIKELY TO BE A RAVEN IN 2015

There has been a lot of recent discussion about whether TE Dennis Pitta will be able to return or whether the Ravens should even want him to return. Last week, Head Coach John Harbaugh indicated that he had been informed that doctors say Pitta can play again and that the 2010 fourth-round pick has indicated that he wants to play in 2015. Despite this, many believe that Pitta should retire and/or that the Ravens should release him.

The Salary Cap implications, though, pretty much guarantee that Pitta will return if he is healthy enough to do so. In fact, the Salary Cap implications make it such that, at worst, the Ravens will likely give Pitta the 2015 season to recover and prove he can play again.

Pitta’s 2015 base salary is $4M and he has a Cap Number of $6.2M. The key factor, though is that Pitta’s $4M base salary is guaranteed, so he will be owed that no matter what. As such, if Pitta is released prior to June 1st, the Ravens will have $12.8M ($4M base salary + $8.8M in bonus prorations) in dead money to account for. That means that he would actually count $6.6M more against the Cap if he’s not on the team than he would if he remains on the team. A post-June 1 release isn’t really of much help either because, due to the guaranteed base salary, he would still count $6.2M against the Cap in 2015.

Either way, though, since they are going to owe him the $4M base salary, there’s really no reason to release Pitta. It’s more likely that if he isn’t ready to return, Pitta could very well spend the 2015 season on PUP or IR, thereby delaying any decision until 2016 when the Cap implications are much more favorable to deal with. This would also give Pitta’s hip more time to heal and strengthen, as opposed to his quick 5 month return in 2013.

NOTE:  The above all presupposes that Pitta still wants to the play.  If Pitta decides to retire, then the team does not have to pay the guaranteed base salary of $4M and a pre-June 1 release would mean $8.8M in dead money against the 2015 Cap.  A post-June 1 release would means dead money of only $2.2M in 2015 (with a Cap savings of $4M) and dead money of $6.6M in 2016.

2014 SALARY CAP CARRYOVER

The Ravens would dearly love to carry over as much excess 2014 Cap space into 2015, but their continued bad luck with injuries is not helping much. Right now, barring more player transactions, the Ravens should have around $5.8M to carry over into 2015. They’ll need every penny of it.

2015 SALARY CAP COMMITMENT

The Ravens presently have a little over $137M committed to the 2015 Salary Cap (click HERE for details)  but it is important to remember that this number is based on only the 40 players that are presently under contract for 2015. Obviously, that is far from a full roster. Early estimates were that the Salary Cap would see another $10M increase to $143M, but recent reports indicate that the NFL has told teams to expect the Cap to end up somewhere in the $138.6-$141.8M range. That does seem a little low and last year the NFL made a similarly conservative estimate, only to see the Cap increase from $123M to $133M.

Needless to say, the Ravens are going to hope that the NFL estimate is too low and wish for something more along the lines of a $10M increase into the $143M range.

PLAYERS ON THE “BUBBLE” TO BE RELEASED?

To be clear, this should not be taken as advocating (or predicting) the release of any of the following players, but all have pretty much been tossed around as guys that could (or should) be released. So, without comment (mainly because it is way too early to make any reasonable predictions), below are the Cap implications of the releases of the certain players (some of whom may be candidates for extensions, as opposed to being cut):   • There are no other players whose release would provide any reasonable amount of Cap relief.

• There are certainly players under contract for 2015 that may not make the team, but that would be due to performance, and not Cap, reasons.