Examining the Seahawks “True” cap space after a wild weekend of trades and cuts
By Geoff Shull
The vast majority of the Seahawks draft pool remains unsigned
The NFL as a whole has been very slow to sign draft picks this year. It wasn’t until the NFLPA and the NFL came together to set up specific guidelines to ensure this season occurred that teams really started signing their players.
The Seahawks are one of the teams that have slow-rolled it. To date, they have only signed 3 of their draft picks, Jordyn Brooks, Colby Parkinson and Freddie Swain. The other 5 players remain unsigned.
Below is the expected cost for each of the draft picks, as well as the top-51 cut off-line:
2020 Projected Draft Pool Cap
Round 1, Pick #27: Jordyn Brooks $2,224,656 (signed)
Round 2, Pick #48: Darrell Taylor $1,229,910
Round 3, Pick #69: Damien Lewis $891,299
Round 4, Pick #133: Colby Parkinson $777,610 (signed)
——————Top 51 Cut-Off——————–
Round 4, Pick #144: DeeJay Dallas $733,600
Round 5, Pick #148: Alton Robinson $697,837
Round 6, Pick #214: Freddie Swain $642,353 (signed)
Round 7, Pick #251: Stephen Sullivan $628,872
Projected Draft Pool: $7,826,137
Top 51 Cap Hit (total): $5,123,475
Top 51 Left Unsigned: $621,209
As we spoke about on the last page, the top 51 rule applies here as well. From Deejay Dallas to Stephen Sullivan, their cap hits fall below the threshold of $750k and will not be counted towards the salary cap.
There are 2 players from the Seahawks rookie class that will count toward the salary cap, that remain unsigned. Those two players are Darrell Taylor and Damien Lewis. The combined cap hit between the two players stands at $2,121,209.
There is one missing element before we can deduct this from our “true” cap estimate. We must remove the players’ salaries they will be replacing in the top 51. With the bottom threshold being $750k and these 2 draftees replacing them; the math will look like this: 2 players x $750k = $1.5 million.
To get the final cost of the rookie pool all that has to happen is subtract the 2 players being replaced by the draftees. The math looks like this: $2,121,209 (Taylor and Lewis) – $1,500,000 (the two players that dropped out of the top 51). What this equation equals out to is $621,209. This is the portion from the missing rookie contracts that will affect the salary cap.