1.  SALARY CAP ADJUSTMENT:  The final unknown in piecing the Ravens’ Salary Cap puzzle together was the adjustment carry over from last year’s earned and unearned incentives.  When a player has Likely To Be Earn Incentives that count against that year’s Cap, but aren’t earned, they are credited back to the team in the following year.  When a player has a Not Likely To Be Earned Incentive that doesn’t count against that year’s Cap, but is earned, it is charged against the following year’s Cap.  For the Ravens, that carryover was a charge of $739,833.  Therefore, the Ravens will have that amount less in Salary Cap space in 2009.    

2.  RESTRICTED FREE AGENT TENDERS:  Despite initial media reports to the contrary, it appears that the Ravens did not tender Safety Dawan Landry and Wide Receiver Demetrius Williams with the 2^nd round RFA Tender.  Instead, both received the low Tender of $1.01M.  As such, the Ravens retain the right to match any Offer Sheets signed by the players or receive a draft pick equal to the round in which the player was originally drafted.  In Landry’s case, that would be a 5th round pick, while Williams would garner a 4^th round pick as compensation if the team declined to match an Offer Sheet.

3.  DOMONIQUE FOXWORTH’S CONTRACT DETAILS:

Foxworth signed a 4 year, $27.2M contract that reportedly called for $16.5M in “guaranteed” money. 

However, the term “guaranteed” is a bit misleading in this case.  Foxworth will receive a signing bonus of $4M and an option bonus next year of $6M.  Foxworth will also receive a guaranteed reporting bonus of $3.38M in 2009.  His 2010 base salary of $3.2M is also guaranteed, but only against injury.  So, while $16.58M is “guaranteed”, only $10M of that is really bonus money. The $3.38M reporting bonus is essentially just 2009 base salary – and they are obviously not going to release him this year anyway – and the 2010 base salary of $3.2M is only guaranteed against injury, so if he is released for performance reasons, that $3.2M is not payable to him nor does it count against the Ravens’ Salary Cap.  Further, if he was released before 2010, the team would not owe him the $6M option bonus either.

Below is a yearly breakdown of Foxworth’s contract:

4.  SALARY CAP SPACE:  With the Cap adjustment now factored in, the signing of Foxworth and the release of Defensive Tackle Marques Douglas ($2.4M in Cap savings), the Ravens are now estimated to be $10.4M under the Salary Cap.