As the free agent period dawned on Tuesday afternoon, the Ravens’ roster looked to be in total flux, with key free agents like OT Eugene Monroe, LB Daryl Smith and WR/KR Jacoby Jones appearing to be on the verge of becoming ex-Ravens.
By late Friday, as the dust had settled on a very busy week, General Manager Ozzie Newsome and the Ravens’ front office had again shown why they are among the best in the business.
Monroe? Check.
Daryl Smith? Check.
Jacoby? Check.
And, while not on the same level, special teams stalwarts, LB Albert McClellan and S Jeromy Miles? Check and check.
WR Steve Smith? Wait…what?
Yes!
What a pretty incredible four days it was!
NEW CONTRACTS: While all of the details on the new contracts have yet to be reported, we do know most of the details:
Eugene Monroe: Signed a 5-year, $37.5M deal, with $19M guaranteed ($11M bonus, 2014 and 2015 base salaries and $2M of 2016 base salary).
His deal breaks down as follows:
Jacoby Jones: Signed a 4-year, $12M base deal, with $4.5M guaranteed ($3.5M bonus and 2014 base salary). An additional $2M is available via incentives based on receptions.
His deal breaks down as follows:
Albert McClellan: Signed a 2-year, $2.2M deal, with a $400K signing bonus.
His deal breaks down as follows:
Daryl Smith: Signed a 4-year, $16.1M deal that pays in $6.1M in 2014. The remaining details have yet to be disclosed.
Based on that, the estimate of 2014 would be:
Steve Smith: Signed a 3-year $10.5M deal, with a $3.5M bonus. He will make $4.5M in 2014 and there is a $1M playing time incentive included in the deal.
His deal breaks down as follows:
Jeromy Miles: Reportedly a 1-year deal, no terms have been disclosed. Estimated to be $1M.
PRESENT CAP SPACE: With all of the above factored in, the Ravens are estimated to be $8.8M under the Cap, with 57 players signed or tendered.
OZZIE WORKS HIS MAGIC: There was a lot of concern around Baltimore when the Ravens declined to use the $11.654M Franchise Tag on Monroe. Given the abundance of Cap space available at the time, many felt it was worth it to use the Tag to secure Monroe for 2014 and not risk losing him on the open market.
As always, though, Newsome stuck with his convictions and the value that he had place on Monroe. Clearly, he had no interest in clogging up the team’s Cap with that $11.654M Cap charge.
Now, it is pretty clear why Ozzie felt he wasn’t interested in using that $11.654M Franchise tag. If you add up the 2014 Cap numbers for 6 signings – Monroe ($3.2M), Jones ($1.875M), McClellan ($1M), Daryl Smith ($2.35M), Steve Smith ($2.167M) and Miles ($1M) – the total is $11.592M.
Clearly, given what they intended to accomplish, using the Franchise Tag would likely not have allowed them to do what they did over the first week of free agency.
ANOTHER CAP DEDUCTION: The Ravens had an additional Salary Cap deduction taken from them this week. After having a 2013 incentives carryover of close to $2.5M deducted from their Cap early last week, an additional $1.125M was removed on Friday.
This time, however, it’s self-inflicted – but for good reason.
When the 2011 lockout ended with the adoption of the new CBA, the Salary Cap was reduced from $132M in 2009 (and uncapped in 2010) to $120.6M in 2011. As a way to ease teams into this new, much lower Cap, the transition rules allow teams to “borrow” $4.5M over the first two seasons of the new CBA ($3M in 2011, $1.5M in 2012). Most teams, the Ravens included, took advantage of this extra Cap space. Under the transition rules, any money borrowed would have to be repaid, at the team’s discretion, at some point between 2014 and 2017.
It appears that the Ravens have decided to repay that amount in 4 equal yearly amounts of $1.125M from 2014-2017.
ROOKIE CAP: There have been a lot of questions about how much of the available Cap space will be needed to accommodate the Ravens’ draft class. This is a bit difficult to estimate at this time because the rounds of the 4 Compensatory pick the Ravens are expected to receive aren’t yet known. A fair guess would be that the Ravens will likely have a Rookie Cap of approximately $5-5.5M. However, since the Rookie Cap is a “Cap within a Cap,” the impact on the overall Cap will likely be more in the $1-2M range. For a detailed explanation of the interplay between the Rookie Cap and the team’s overall Salary Cap, see HERE.
15 Responses
Bravo!
Thank you
Fantastic as always Brian. Thanks
Great article but I’m a little confused about the bottom line. Is it that we have about 8.8M left and needed 5.5M or 1-2M for the rookies? What does it leave us to sign additional free agents.
GOOD WEEK THE SIGNED ALL THERE OWN PLAYERS AND THEY STUNK LAST YR . HOW R THEY ANY BETTER AND THEY SIGNED A PLAYER THAT’S OLD AND SLOW
Did you mean “their” own players? And you need to rewrite your sentences for proper grammar and sentence structure. You MUST be a Steelers fan…only they are this stupid.
LOOK AT THE REST OF THE DIVISION THEY ALL GOT BETTER THE RATBIRDS ARE NO BETTER THAN LAST YR’S 8-8 TEAM BE LUCKY IF THEY WIN 7 GAMES THIS YR
Wow Team, hate much. Who’s your team? The Squealers? whoever your team is I can guarantee you that they won’t be better than our Ravens and I’ll throw something else out there to. We make the playoffs. No doubt about it.
How did the Squeelers get better? You don’t sound very smart. Typical for a Squeelers fan. Bitter is more like it.
So to be clear, the current space available is $8.8 million, of which $1-2 million has to be dedicated to the rookie class. That leaves the Ravens, with around $7 million. They can make one or maybe two more signing, but for $2-3 million this year, probably in the later free agency waves, because they will want to carry $4-5 million into the season.
TERR. WEEK SIGNED THE SAME PALYERS ON A 8-8 TEAM AND A OVER THE HILL REC.
I can’t wait for the old and slow receiver to punk that old joke of a Squeeler defense. It’s going to happen.
Brian , I have a question I hope you can asnwer today for a few of us. Under the rookie contracts and the 2012 new CBA rules, can Torrey Smith who declined a one year extension be signed today long termt o a 50 million 5 year new conntract?
So, with $1-2 million spoken for, we are probably largely done. The team will want to carry between $4-5 million into the season, as an injury reserve, so there may be room for one or two more signings, but those probably won’t come until the later phases of free agency.
This team is already better than last year with the addition of Steve Smith to compliment Torrey Smith and Dennis Pitta back for a full season. Ozzie will make sure that the offensive line is better than last year through the draft and Ray Rice has lost weight increasing his overall quickness. I think Ray’s court case will work out to be a stiff fine and lengthy community service unless his fiancee pushes the issue, which i don’t think she will. Finally, i look for the Ravens to win 10 to 11 games in 2014 unless there are lengthy injuries to key players!
Man, I love knowing that the steeler trolls make time to come to a Ravens Fan site just to make themselves feel better about their old, withering team. Saying that, I lose no sleep over it. I think the Ravens will draft Swanson in the second rd. to compete with Gino @ Center. I like the Ravens drafting either Ebron or Evans if one falls our way. But wouldnt be surprised if the Ravens draft two offensive line players in the first two rounds. Possibly trading back into the second rd. to pick Swanson and get more picks. Either way, i rest easy knowing Ozzie is at the helm making the difficult decisions that usually end up working out for the team. If not for a porous offensive line, and injuries or Rice and Pitta, This squad easily makes the playoffs last year in a weak AFC. I expect the Ravens and Texans to bounce back and the Patriots to me much better then last year.