With the start of the 2023 league year now just two weeks away and with the Franchise Tag window now open, it’s time to take a deep dive into the Ravens’ present Salary Cap status and what moves the Ravens can make to get their Salary Cap in order.
This year, it is especially difficult to make any projections, given the specter of QB Lamar Jackson’s status as a pending Unrestricted Free Agent. Jackson’s status is the biggest domino to fall and will determine what else the Ravens can – or cannot – do this offseason.
So, as it always seems to be with the Ravens, they enter another offseason of change with a lot of issues to address and this year, there’s even more uncertainty than normal.
PLAYERS PRESENTLY UNDER CONTRACT
The Ravens currently have the following 53 players under contract for 2023 (with Cap Numbers indicated):
QBs (1): Anthony Brown ($870K)
RBs (3): Gus Edwards ($5.634M); JK Dobbins ($1.823M); Ricky Person ($872K)
FBs (2): Patrick Ricard ($3.905M); Ben Mason ($750K)
WRs (7): Devin Duvernay ($4.53M); Rashod Bateman ($3.436M); Tylan Wallace ($1.111M); James Proche ($1.052M); Andy Isabella ($940K); Mike Thomas ($940K); Shemar Bridges ($750K)
TE (3): Mark Andrews ($13.658M); Charlie Kolar ($1.406M); Isaiah Likely ($996K)
OL (9): Ronnie Stanley ($23.668M); Kevin Zeitler ($9.475M); Morgan Moses ($5.46M); Patrick Mekari ($6M); Tyler Linderbaum ($3.009M); Ben Cleveland ($1.315M); Daniel Faalele ($1.07M); John Simpson ($1.01M); David Sharpe ($940K)
DL (7): Calais Campbell ($9.44M); Michael Pierce ($5.905M); Justin Madubuike ($3.107M); Broderick Washington ($968K); Travis Jones ($1.206M); Brent Urban ($940K); Rayshad Nichols ($750K)
LBs (9): Roquan Smith ($9M); Tyus Bowser ($6.5M); Patrick Queen ($3.87M); Odafe Oweh ($3.093M); Malik Harrison ($1.31M); David Ojabo ($1.798M); Daelin Hayes ($1.103M); Josh Ross ($753K); Jeremiah Moon ($750K)
CBs (5): Marlon Humphrey ($19.994M); Jaylin Armor-Davis ($1.06M); Damarion Williams ($996K); Daryl Worley ($940K); Thakarius Keyes ($940K)
S (5): Marcus Williams ($7.803M); Chuck Clark ($6.268M); Kyle Hamilton ($3.694M); Brandon Stephens ($1.305M); Ar’Darius Washington ($940K)
ST (2): Justin Tucker ($5.958M); Jordan Stout ($1.045M)
The above 53 players are under contract for a total Rule of 51 Salary Cap commitment (which includes dead money from players no longer on the team) of $199,712,303.
The Salary Cap for 2023 has been set at $224.8M. This would be an increase of $16.6M from 2022 of $208.2M, but still probably $15-20M less than where most had originally expected the 2023 Cap to be if not for the COVID-reduced Cap of 182.5M (Cap went down from 198.2M to 182.5M from 2020 to 2021).
So, with a Salary Cap of $224.8M, the Ravens presently have $26,483,480 in Cap space, accounting for the 53 players presently under contract.
This will be the basis for a lot of early reports on the status of the Ravens’ 2023 Salary Cap, and while that doesn’t sound too bad, it’s important to keep in mind that this number is based on just the 53 players who are presently under contract and nowhere near representative of the team’s Cap with a full roster and with the other factors that will be explained below.
So, between now and Wednesday, March 15th at 4:00 p.m., when the new league year and free agency begins, the Ravens have a lot of work to do and really not a whole lot of Cap space with which to accomplish it.
PRACTICE SQUAD FREE AGENTS (FAs)
The Ravens have already re-signed nine players from their 2022 Practice Squad to contracts for 2023. There are six former members of their Practice Squad who are presently free agents:
WR Tarik Black
TE Nick Boyle
LB Josh Bynes
WR Binjimen Victor
Depending on the player’s service time, these players will receive minimum salary deals based upon the player’s length of service in the league ($750K, $870K, $940K or $1.01M). At this point, it does not appear that they plan on re-signing any of the remaining unsigned players.
2022 SALARY CAP CARRYOVER
Under the terms of the CBA, teams are allowed to carry over excess Salary Cap space from one year to the next. The Ravens have carried over $1,395,783 in 2022 Cap space. This will increase the Ravens’ 2023 Cap space by that amount.
OTHER SALARY CAP ADJUSTMENTS
WORKOUT BONUS ADJUSTMENT: All teams will have an adjustment of $849,600 added to their Cap for the team’s expected workout bonuses. This number is essentially the maximum amount of CBA mandated workout bonuses that could be earned by the players in the offseason. This amount is a charge against the Cap. Once training camp begins, this debit will be removed and the actual amount of workout bonuses earned by the players will be added to the Cap.
INCENTIVE ADJUSTMENTS: The Ravens’ 2023 Cap will also see adjustments for incentives earned that didn’t count against the 2022 Cap (“Not Likely To Be Earned” incentives) but that were actually earned and incentives that did count against the 2022 Cap (“Likely To Be Earned” incentives) but weren’t earned. The net amount of these will count against 2023 Cap as a positive or negative adjustment.
For many years, the Ravens have used NLTBE incentives as a way of lessening the present year’s Cap number, especially in years with tighter Caps. Unfortunately, since the details of incentives are not widely reported, it is hard to make an accurate estimation of the amount of this adjustment, which likely will not be known until the beginning of the 2023 league year in March.
The following Ravens earned incentives in 2022 that will become debits against the Ravens’ 2023 Salary Cap:
Justin Houston – $1.0M (7.5+ sacks)
Calais Campbell – $500K (5+ sacks)
Mark Andrews – $250K (Pro Bowl)
Marlon Humphrey – $250K (Pro Bowl)
Patrick Ricard – $150K (55% playing time)
Those debits will be offset by guaranteed salaries the Ravens gave to players who were released that counted against the 2022 Cap, but contained offsets when they were re-signed, signed to the PS or signed by another team. Those amounts total $118,000.
There may also be some other adjustments for grievances and unknown credits or debit, but those are usually minor, so for now, we will use $2,032,000 as an estimated incentives debit for 2023.
PROVEN PERFORMANCE ESCALATOR: The 2011 CBA mandated four-year contracts for all draft picks, which eliminated a player’s chance to receive the higher paying RFA tender in their fourth year. To offset this, the 2011 CBA implemented the Proven Performance Escalator (PPE), which allows draft picks (third through seventh rounds) to receive an upgrade salary that is equivalent to the low RFA tender if the player performed well over the first three years of his contract. The 2020 CBA added second round picks to this calculation, changed the criteria for earning the PPE and adding additional compensation levels. Under the revised rules, meeting playing time thresholds (35%) still will earn the PPE at the low RFA tender level, while more playing time (55%) will earn the low tender and reaching the Pro Bowl (first ballot only) will be paid at the second Round RFA tender level.
The Ravens have two players from the 2020 draft who have earned the PPE – WR/KR Devin Duvernay and DT Justin Madubuike. By virtue of making the Pro Bowl as a kick returner, Duvernay has earned the Level 2 PPE and has had his 2023 base salary increase from $1.01M to $4.304M. Madubuike earned the Level 1 escalator by virtue of attaining the requisite playing time thresholds and thus earned a pay raise from $1.01M to the low RFA tender salary of $2.743M. These escalators have already been factored into the above numbers; however, do keep in mind, that the PPE is not guaranteed, so if the player is released or traded, the PPE will have zero effect on the Ravens’ Cap. In Duvernay’s case, earning the PPE may actually hurt his chances of being retained by the Ravens as a $4.304M salary may be a too much to pay for a player who may not be one of the team’s top WRs in 2023.
EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS FREE AGENTS (ERFAs)
ERFAs are players with less than three (3) years of service time (accrued seasons) in the league. In order to be retained, the Ravens must tender the player with an ERFA tender by the first day of the league year on Wednesday, March 15th. Based on the player’s length of service in the league, the player will receive a one-year deal with the applicable league minimum salary ($870K, $940K or $1.01M). Once tendered, these players are fully under the team’s control and are not free to negotiate with other teams.
Unlike past years, the Ravens do not have any Exclusive Rights Free Agents (ERFA) this year.
RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS (RFAs)
Restricted Free Agents are players whose contracts have expired and who have three years of accrued service time. In order to attempt to retain the player’s services, the team must tender the player with an RFA offer. Once tendered, another team can sign the player to a RFA offer sheet, but the Ravens then have seven 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, they would then receive compensation based on the level of RFA tender made to the player.
Under the terms of the CBA, the RFA Tender amounts increase annually at the same rate as the overall Salary Cap.
There are basically four RFA tenders: 1st Round Tender, 2nd Round Tender, Low Tender and Right Of First Refusal (ROFR).
* 1st Round Tender: allows the team to receive compensation of a 1st round pick – $6.005M.
* 2nd Round Tender: allows the team to receive compensation of 2nd round pick – $4.304M.
* Low Tender: allows the team to receive compensation of a draft pick equal to the round in which the player was originally drafted – $2.743M.
* ROFR: allows the team to simply match an offer, with no draft pick compensation or for players who were UDFAs – $2.627M.
The Ravens have six players who are pending Restricted Free Agents (RFAs):
OL Trystan Colon
LS Nick Moore
OLB Del’Shawn Phillips
Due to some of the rules changes in 2020 because of COVID, several of the above players earned an accrued season in 2020 for playing in just 1-3 games (as opposed to the normal six games needed to earn an accrued season). This rule change allowed these players to become a RFA, as opposed to an ERFA, a year sooner.
Given the sharp increase in salary (from the non-RFA minimum of $1.01M), the Ravens may very well not tender any of their RFAs. In some cases, as they have often done in the past, the Ravens will likely offer several of these players lesser deals for closer to the minimum (often with a little bit of guaranteed money to help entice the player). Players in this position will often accept such an offer because the Ravens might be offering the best deal and the player is unlikely to earn anywhere near the RFA tender amount elsewhere any way.
Backup QB Tyler Huntley likely provides the biggest RFA decision to be made as the second-round RFA tender of $4.304M may be a little too pricey for the Ravens, but the low tender of $2.743M (with no draft pick compensation) might be too low and possibly invite an offer sheet the Ravens are unable to match.
PROJECTED ADJUSTED TEAM CAP AND RULE OF 51 SALARY CAP COMMITMENT
Based on all of the above, it is estimated that the Ravens will have an Adjusted Team Salary Cap of $223,314,183. The team’s Adjusted Cap consists of the projected league-wide Salary Cap of $224.8M, plus the carryover of the 2022 excess Cap space of $1,395,783, less the incentives adjustment ($2,032,000) and the workout bonuses adjustment ($849,600).
During the offseason, though, when rosters can balloon to up to 90 players, only the highest 51 Salary Cap numbers (and all 2023 bonus prorations and all dead money from released players) are counted for Salary Cap purposes. This is called the “Rule of 51.”
As such, the Ravens’ estimated Rule of 51 number – but without assigning any RFA tenders – would be a Cap commitment of $199,712,303.
When compared with the team’s Adjusted Cap of $223,314,183, this would leave the Ravens projected cap number to be $23,601,880 under the Salary Cap.
Again, this is just an early estimate and done before the Ravens make other roster moves that will create additional Salary Cap space and/or make additions that will strengthen the roster, but it underscores that the Ravens will again be tight against the Cap and have some work to do to create Cap space, especially given the uncertain status of Lamar Jackson.
UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS (UFAs)
The following 16 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 15th at 4:00 p.m.:
LB Vincent Beigel
RB Kenyon Drake
CB Kyle Fuller
RB Justice Hill
OLB Justin Houston
QB Lamar Jackson
OT Ja’Wuan James
DE Steven Means
TE Josh Oliver
WR Demarcus Robinson
FRANCHISE TAG
The window for using the Franchise Tag began on Tuesday, February 21st and ends at 4:00 Tuesday, March 7th.
This is obviously the biggest domino in the Ravens’ offseason plan. It seems certain that Jackson will be given the Franchise Tag if he is not re-signed by March 7th. The question then becomes whether he will receive the Non-Exclusive Tag ($32.416M) or the Exclusive Tag ($45.248M). Needless to say, in order to accommodate either of those numbers, the Ravens are going to have to make a lot of moves to create Cap space and, if it’s exclusive tag, make some decisions they’d rather not have to make by releasing players they’d prefer to keep around.
If, on the other hand, the Ravens and Jackson are somehow able to find middle ground on an extension, they would likely craft a deal which would see Jackson receiving a 2023 Cap number in the $20-30M range. As such, the Ravens will still have some work to do to create the needed space, but in that case, it would not be anywhere near as drastic as what would be needed to accommodate the Exclusive Franchise Tag.
2023 DRAFT PICKS
The Ravens will have the #22 overall pick in the first round and presently only have five total picks in the 2023 draft. They presently have their first, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-round picks. The Ravens traded their own second and New England’s fifth (acquired in the 2022 trade of CB Shaun Wade) to Chicago for LB Roquan Smith and also traded their seventh as part of the 2022 trade of G Ben Bredeson to the New York Giants.
Based on their present draft position, the Ravens will likely have a rookie Cap of somewhere around $6.4M. While that number won’t factor into their initial Cap calculations, it is something that the team will be very mindful of as they build their roster.
EXTENSION/RELEASE/RESTRUCTURE
Given the need for Cap space to accommodate a Franchise Tag or contract extension for Jackson, the Ravens are going to have to make moves to create additional Salary Cap space in order to be able to re-sign players and/or sign other players to the roster. There are three primary ways of creating additional Salary Cap space – (1) signing players to contract extensions to lessen their 2023 Cap number, (2) releasing/trading players and/or; (3) restructuring contracts.
If however, the Jackson situation is resolved by trading Lamar, the Ravens will have ample Cap space and many of the below maneuvers will not be needed.
EXTENSION: An extension is generally used when a player has a large base salary and is in the later years of his contract. An extension will allow the team to turn much of that large base salary (and often, more) into a Signing Bonus to go along with new years that are added to the contract. This essentially works to reduce the player’s present Cap number. Of course, it takes two to tango and teams and players often don’t see eye to eye on value, so extensions aren’t always a foregone conclusion.
As stated above, Jackson would be the primary candidate, although an extension for Jackson would not create any Cap space (other than likely being less than the Franchise Tag).
Two other prime candidates for extensions would be DT Calais Campbell and G Kevin Zeitler. Both are in the last years of their deals and given their ages, it’s very possible the Ravens would consider given them the “Marshal Yanda” treatment by adding on an additional year to their deals, thus being able to spread some of the 2023 money due out over 2023 and 2024. The Ravens and Yanda did this several times over the last couple years of Yanda’s career.
By doing so, the Ravens could create $3-4M in 2023 Cap savings for each of Campbell and Zeitler.
The Ravens may also look to extend Duvernay as a way of reducing his Cap charge caused by the PPE.
RELEASE/TRADE
The below chart includes players who have most often been discussed by fans as candidates for release and lays out the Salary Cap implications of the release or trade (both are treated the same for Cap purposes) of those players:
With a tight Cap, creating Cap space is going to be imperative, but the Ravens really don’t have a great deal of candidates for release.
CHUCK CLARK: Clark is probably the likeliest veteran to be release or traded. While Clark is still a solid performer, the drafting of fellow Safety Kyle Hamilton has made Clark somewhat expendable. Additionally, Clark, himself, may see the writing on the wall and ask (or have asked) to be traded. Releasing or trading Clark will create $3.64M in Cap space.
GUS EDWARDS: Edwards is definitely a guy the Ravens would probably rather hold on to, but given the team’s needs for Cap space, being able to save $4.384M by cutting (or trading) Edwards will be really hard to pass up.
CALAIS CAMPBELL: A contract extension to help reduce his Cap number is probably the more likely outcome here, but if the team feels that the entire $7M in Cap space is needed, Campbell could well be released. They won’t like doing it though.
DEVIN DUVERNAY: Duvernay, like Edwards and Campbell, is probably a player the team would rather not let go of, but by virtue of earning the PPE, Duvernay – at Cap number of 4.529M and with a Cap savings of $4.304M – is probably at great risk.
MICHAEL PIERCE: Pierce played well in the 2+ games he appeared in 2022, but has now missed 40 (out of a possible 50 games) due to injury and opting out of the 2020 season due to COVID. The $2.095M in not a great deal of Cap savings, but the Ravens may need every penny. Pierce’s status is also probably tied to that of Campbell as it seems unlikely that the team would move on from both of their veteran DTs.
PATRICK RICARD: There’s not a lot of Cap savings ($1.745M if per-June 1; $2.9M if with a post-June 1 designation), so Ricard’s status may depend on how he fits into new Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken’s plans.
PATRICK MEKARI: This is another one that doesn’t seem likely, given the modest Cap savings ($2M if per-June 1; $4M if with a post-June 1 designation).
MORGAN MOSES and KEVIN ZEITLER: These two appear highly unlikely, but it seems like there’s a surprise cut every couple of years, and while the Cap savings isn’t much in either case, the Ravens – especially if they have to use the Exclusive Tag on Lamar Jackson – may be looking for everyone penny they can find.
RESTRUCTURES: The main drawback of constantly restructuring contracts is that it often becomes a vicious cycle that forces the team to continue to restructure deals year after year. The Ravens have been stuck in this cycle over the last couple of years and those restructures have created some bloated Cap numbers that aren’t easy to get away from.
And, of course, 2021 with a greatly reduced Cap forced a lot of teams, the Ravens included, to restructure deals in order to create needed Cap space.
In 2023, if not for COVID, the Salary Cap would likely have been roughly $15-20M higher, so the need to restructure deals would likely not have existed. But with a tight Cap expected due to the Jackson situation – and with the Cap expected to jump substantially in the coming years – restructuring deals will be on the agenda again in 2023. The only real question is just how much restructuring will need to be done.
The candidates for restructures are as follows:
Ronnie Stanley – $7,556,667
Marlon Humphrey – $7,252,500
Mark Andrews – $4,446,667
Roquan Smith – $2,736,000
Tyus Bowser – $1,710,000
Patrick Mekari – $1,460,000
Morgan Moses – $1,417,500
Michael Pierce – $1,417,500
OUTLOOK
Without knowing Jackson’s status, it’s kind of hard to project what moves the Ravens will make this month and how much Cap space they will likely have on March 15. It’s also hard to predict what free agent moves (re-signings or signings) they will be able to make.
One thing that’s not hard to predict is that the next couple of months will not be dull or uneventful.
The Salary Cap is always a puzzle and the Ravens’ Front Office will likely use a combination of the above maneuvers to create the Cap space necessary to address the team’s pressing roster needs. This year, the Jackson saga makes the offseason even more challenging and the Ravens are likely to have several plans in place and adjust according depending on the resolution of Jackson’s status.
So, as always, the months of March and April will be an interesting time for the Ravens as they look to resolve the status of their quarterback and then construct their roster for the 2023 season.
One Response
Pretty obvious Lamar Jackson is not in the budget. This franchise won a superbowl with Trent Dilfer as the QB. So, LJ is really not a necessity.