Colts Cap Update – 25 May 2023
 

Let’s start with the basics.

$224.800m = 2023 NFL Salary Cap
$006.654m = Colts 2022 Cap Rollover
$000.717m = Adjustment from unused 2022 practice squad allotment
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$232.172m = 2023 Colts Salary Cap

$183.468m = Top 51 Off-Season Contracts
$024.819m = Dead Money (Matt Ryan = $18m, Nyheim Hines = $3m, Gilmore = $2m)
$001.800m = Spots 52 and 53 on in-season roster
$004.320m = 16-man practice squad
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$214.407m = Set cap liabilities

$017.765m = FREE CAP SPACE

Some portion of that $17.7m will have to be reserved for in-season “churn” space for when players on the 53-man roster get injured and a practice squad or street free agent is signed. Typically, around $4-5m is reserved for this purpose so in reality, the Colts only currently have around $12m of 2023 cap space to either sign new players or give new contracts to current players.

Additionally, we have not yet signed three of our top four draft picks. First round pick QB Anthony Richardson is projected to have a cap hit of $6.180m, 2nd round pick CB Julius Brents will be around $1.490m and 4th round pick OT Blake Freeland a cap hit of $0.954m. In total, those remaining rookies are going to eat up around $8.624m of that $12m so the Colts are only sitting on about $3.5m in “free” cap space.

A bit of relief is that so far, all the other 8 rookies have lower cap hits for 2023 than our current minimum paid player so if/when they make the final 53-man roster, they will bring a combined cap relief of around $1.000m if all 8 make the final roster. $4.5m in “free” cap space.

The largest cap relief can be gained by cutting the following players:

$009.625m = NT Grover Stewart
$008.166m = CB Kenny Moore
$007.875m = OC Ryan Kelly
$004.304m = RB Jonathan Taylor
$002.993m = WR Michael Pittman Jr
$002.920m = TE Mo Alie-Cox
$002.743m = FS Julian Blackmon
$002.100m = LB Zaire Franklin

I am going to stop there because the rest are under $2.0m in cap savings which is peanuts in today’s salary cap amounts. I do not see much fat there to be trimmed without making a new gapping hole that we do not have the body to fill with. The only guy that I see as a “probable” cap casualty is MAC as we have a crowded Tight End room.

So, in the end, without some restructuring (which is not going to happen as 4 of our 5 largest contracts have more dead money than cap hit for 2023 meaning they are all recently signed: Leonard, Smith, Buckner and Nelson), the Colts are not going to be able to commit more than about $7.5m in 2023 cap space to new / re-signed players assuming they end up cutting MAC.

An early re-sign of Taylor or Pittman seems highly unlikely to me under the 2023 cap numbers. The team is probably going to have to wait until the 2024 cap season where the projected cap rises by $10m to $235m, the Colts only have $177m in obligations and there is projected right now to be around $57m in free cap space.

NOTE: Practice Squad Allotment: Since the NFL went to the 16-man practice squad, there is now a two-tier pay system in place. At least ten of your 16 players must have less than two accrued seasons of NFL experience and will make $12,000 per week in 2023. No more than six of your 16 players can have any number of accrued seasons and will make $20,000 per week in 2023. All NFL teams must allot a salary cap amount as if they will have all six “veteran” practice squad positions filled for all 18 weeks of the year ($20k x 6 spots = $120k per week x 18 weeks = $2.160m). Ten “newbie” practice squad positions filled for all 18 weeks of the season ($12k x 10 spots = $120k per week x 18 weeks = $2.160m). The adjustment can come when you have less than six “veteran” practice squad members on any given week and thus you are not spending the maximum amount of the allotment. That unspent portion is then ‘refunded” back to the team’s cap at the end of the season for use the following season.

Thanks, for the update I always look forward to this !!! :cool:

I guess this means we don't have cap space for Nuk?

Nuk ?

Hopkins