Disclaimer: Collecting Salary Cap data is truly an inexact science. It is especially so for a team like the Ravens, who rarely give out any contract details. As such, it is left to Pro Football 24 x 7 to obtain the details of contracts from various local media sources and football-related websites (ESPN, KFFL, NFLPA, USAToday, etc.).
All teams must be under the $109M salary cap as of 11:59:59 p.m. this Thursday night, March 1st. Free Agency and the trading period begin at 12:00:00 a.m., Friday, March 2nd. Various recent media outlets have reported the Ravens’ salary cap status to be anywhere from $3.6M-under (Scout.com) to $3.3M-under (John Clayton/ESPN/The Baltimore Sun) to $1M-over (ProFootballTalk.com). As such, the Ravens have anywhere from $105.7M to $110M presently committed to the cap. This variance could be due to the application of credits or debits for unearned or earned incentives from 2006 that will be included on the 2007 cap, data which some media outlets may have more current information on than others.
Regardless of which number is accurate, these numbers only include the 2007 cap numbers for the 45 players that are presently under contract. Players who are Restricted Free Agents (RFAs) and Exclusive Rights Free Agents (EFAs) will have to be tendered contract offers by the team prior to Thursday night deadline. The Ravens have 3 RFAs and 11 EFAs. Once tendered, those players will count against the cap at the contract tender amount. Presently, the Ravens do not have enough cap space to tender all of their RFAs and EFAs.
Yesterday the Ravens released Jamal Lewis, triggering a cap hit of $3.333M but while freeing up $8.334M. Depending on which media report is most accurate, there will be anywhere from $11.934M- to $7.334M of available cap space. Then the Ravens would have the necessary breathing room to tender their RFAs and EFAs. In the past, the Ravens have most often tendered all of their RFAs and EFAs.
The RFA and EFA tenders will likely be as follows:
RFAs (per Aaron Wilson, all will receive the lowest tender):
Devard Darling: Low tender of $850K (allows Ravens to match or receive a 3rd round pick – the round that Darling was drafted).
Clarence Moore: Low tender of $850K (allows Ravens to match or receive a 6th round pick – the round that Moore was drafted).
BJ Sams: Low tender of $850K (allows Ravens to match or receive no compensation since Sams was a UDFA).
EFAs (tender amount based on service time, with my best guess at the tenders):
Tender amount of $435K each: Brian Rimpf, Matt Katula, Mike Smith, Evan Oglesby, Dennis Haley, Aityyah Ellison, Jamaine Winbourne
Tender amount of $360K each: Cory Ross, Ronnie Prude, Ike Nduwke and Mike Kracalik.
With those players tendered, the Ravens would have 58 players under contract and tendered (with Jamal released), for a total cap number of somewhere from $4.999M-under to $399K-under. However, at this time of the year, the Rule of 51 applies and only the top 51 salary cap numbers count toward a team’s available cap space, so the 7 lowest cap numbers will be removed from the calculation (5 @ $285K, 2 @ $360K), thus increasing the available cap space to somewhere from $7.144M to $2.544M (again, depending upon which report is most accurate). So, barring the restructuring of any contracts, the Ravens will have approximately that amount of cap space entering Free Agency.
Here’s an update on the complete cap picture here: Ravens Salary Cap Spreadsheet
