Ravens 2013 Free Agency Preview

NOTE: This is an early preview of the Ravens’ 2013 roster and offseason preview. Once the 2013 offseason begins, a more thorough preview and Salary Cap projection will be published.

PLAYERS UNDER CONTRACT:

The Ravens presently have the following 37 players under contract for 2013 (with base salaries indicated):

QBs (1): Tyrod Taylor ($555K)

RBs (3): Ray Rice ($1M), Bernard Pierce ($480K), Vonta Leach ($3M)

WRs (7): Anquan Boldin ($6M), Torrey Smith ($683K), Jacoby Jones ($3M + $1M Roster Bonus), Tandon Doss ($555K), LaQuan Williams ($555K), Deonte Thompson ($480K), Tommy Streeter ($480K)

TE (0):

OL (7): Michael Oher ($3.085M + possible $1M escalator), Marshall Yanda ($4.5M), Matt Birk ($2.75M), Jah Reid ($555K), Kelechi Osemele ($480K), Bobbie Williams ($1.2M), Gino Gradkowski ($480K)

DL (5): Haloti Ngata ($4M), Terrence Cody ($630K), Pernell McPhee ($555K), Michael McAdoo ($555K), DeAngelo Tyson ($480K)

LBs (5): Ray Lewis ($5.4M), Terrell Suggs ($6.4M), Jameel McClain ($3M), Courtney Upshaw ($631K), Brendan Ayanbadejo ($940K)

CBs (5): Lardarius Webb ($2.385M), Jimmy Smith ($1.05M), Cory Graham ($1.8M), Chykie Brown ($555K), Asa Jackson ($480K)

S (2): Bernard Pollard ($2M), Christian Thompson ($480K)

ST (2): Justin Tucker ($480K), Sam Koch ($1.9M)

These 37 players are under contract for a total Salary Cap commitment of just over $106.5M. (Link to 2013 Salary Cap Spreadsheet).

EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS FREE AGENTS (EFAs):

These players must be tendered contracts of the league minimum, based on the player’s length of service in the league (either $555K or $480K). Once tendered, these players are fully under the team’s control and are not free to negotiate with other teams.

The Ravens have 7 players who are Exclusive Rights Free Agents (EFAs):

RB – Anthony Allen

RB – Damien Berry

RB – Bobby Rainey

LB – Josh Bynes

LB – Albert McClellan

DT – Bryan Hall

S – Anthony Levine

RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS (RFAs):

These are players whose contracts have expired and who have 3 years of accrued service time. The team must tender the player with an RFA offer. Once done, another team can sign the RFA to an RFA offer sheet, but the Ravens then have 7 days to match that offer sheet and retain the player under the terms of that offer sheet. If the Ravens were to choose not to match the offer sheet, then they would receive compensation based on which level of RFA tender was made to the player.

There are 3 RFA tenders (the new CBA did away with the “high” tender of 1st and 3rd round draft picks as compensation):

1^st Round Tender: allows the team to receive the other team’s 1^st round – $2.879M (est)

2^nd Round Tender: allows the team to receive the other team’s 2^nd round pick – $2.023M (est)

Low Tender: allows the team to receive a draft pick equal to the round in which the player was originally drafted or the Right of First Refusal (ROFR) for an undrafted player – $1.323M (est)

The Ravens have 7 players who are Restricted Free Agents (RFAs)

TE – Dennis Pitta

TE – Ed Dickson

LS – Morgan Cox

DT – Arthur Jones

OL – Ramon Harewood

WR – David Reed

S – Emmanuel Cook

In the past, the Ravens have usually tendered all of their RFAs, but on occasion, the team has non-tendered some players and instead, offered them one-year veteran minimum contracts. The veteran minimum salary for those players would be $615K. This year, Emmanuel Cook could be a candidate for such a deal, if he’s even retained at all.

PRACTICE SQUAD FREE AGENTS (FAs):

In past years, the Ravens have usually re-signed their Practice Squad players for the following year.

Those 8 players are

S – Omar Brown

LB – Nigel Carr

OT – Jack Cornell

QB – Dennis Dixon

OLB – Adrian Hamilton

OLB – Sergio Kindle

G – Antoine McClain

TE – Alex Silvestro

Most will sign one-year contracts for $405K. Kindle and Dixon would receive contracts of $480K.

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS (UFAs):

The following 13 players are Unrestricted Free Agents (UFAs) and will be free to sign with other teams if they haven’t re-signed with the Ravens before Free Agency begins on March 13th at 4:00 p.m.:

QB – Joe Flacco

S – Ed Reed

LB – Dannell Ellerbe

CB – Cary Williams

DT – Ryan McBean

LB – Paul Kruger

OT – Bryant McKinnie

S – Sean Considine

DT – Ma’ake Kemoeatu

S – James Ihedigbo

LB – Ricky Brown

TE – Billy Bajema

CB – Chris Johnson

2012 SALARY CAP CARRYOVER:

Under the new CBA, teams can now carry over excess Salary Cap space from one year to the next. Unfortunately, though, the Ravens currently only have around $1M in available 2012 Salary Cap space, so whatever amount they will ultimately be able to carry over (depending upon further injuries in 2012) will be minimal.

PROJECTED SALARY CAP COMMITMENT:

At this point, it’s a little too early to project – especially without knowing what the 2013 league-wide Salary Cap is going to be – but, assuming the projections of a minimal increase in the Cap are correct, the Ravens will be very tight against the Cap heading into the 2013 offseason. Recent estimates of have pegged the league-wide Cap somewhere in the $122M range and, with only 37 players under contract for 2013, most of the team’s present Cap space will be eaten up by the contract tenders for the team’s RFAs and ERFAs.

The team will probably see some players retire and will need to release some others in order to create necessary Cap space, but, make no mistake, the Ravens – short of a possible long term deal for QB Joe Flacco – will not be big offseason spenders.