A great year for draft trading? I hope so... (1 Viewer)

[the branded hand]

Who's going after that #1 spot? Which teams with cap room want a shot at McFadden? ARI, DET, HOU, TB, or OAK seem to be in positions to move on it. Who can make it happen?

The trickier question... who's looking to trade down (besides Miami)? The Rams, Falcons, Ravens, or Panthers could drop a few spots and still be able to pick up a solid pick and possibly a veteran or late round selection. Any teams with depth AND cap room looking to trade up?

Team needs were something I wanted to add, but there are too many opinions on who needs what, so I'm sticking to the basics.

PICK / TEAM / CAP ROOM

1 Miami Dolphins $35.56

2 St. Louis Rams $9.61

3 Atlanta Falcons $5.79

4 Oakland Raiders $25.98

5 Kansas City Chiefs $20.27

6 New York Jets $27.72

7 New England Patriots (from 49ers) $10.93

8 Baltimore Ravens $5

9 Cincinnati Bengals $31.45

10 New Orleans Saints $31.69

11 Buffalo Bills $32.05

12 Denver Broncos $16.77

13 Carolina Panthers $6.05

14 Chicago Bears $19.80

15 Detroit Lions $23.50

16 Arizona Cardinals $30.27

17 Minnesota Vikings $14.88

18 Houston Texans $22.91

19 Philidelphia Eagles $17.17

20 Tampa Bay Buccaneers $25.90

21 Washington Redskins ($20.72)

22 Dallas Cowboys (from Browns) $20.61

23 Pittsburgh Steelers $18.61

24 Tennessee Titans $40.85

25 Seattle Seahawks $9.55

26 Jacksonville Jaguars $32.69

27 San Diego Chargers $43.03

28 Dallas Cowboys $20.61

29 San Francisco 49ers (from Ind.) $30.91

30 Green Bay Packers $18.37

31 New York Giants $24.47

 

[coolnerd]

I see where you are attempting to go, but there are somethings to consider.

There is a rookie cap to sign players that is related to the position and numbers of picks. This is announced post draft. Having cap dollars this year does not aid a team in signing the player.

Follwing from that it is the 5 or 6 years of managing 30 plus million guaranteed. In other words, it is not just this year's cap to consider, but full length of time.

As for trading up, over the past few years there have been very few involving the Top 10 overall picks and most of those were swaps with other top 10 teams. The difference between say player 15 and player 5 or 6 rarely equals the monetary difference bewteen the picks.

The essential problem will still be that teams don't want to give up the picks or players it would take to move up even if they are not concerned about the money.

 

[GregR_2]

I see where you are attempting to go, but there are somethings to consider.

There is a rookie cap to sign players that is related to the position and numbers of picks. This is announced post draft. Having cap dollars this year does not aid a team in signing the player.

Follwing from that it is the 5 or 6 years of managing 30 plus million guaranteed. In other words, it is not just this year's cap to consider, but full length of time.

As for trading up, over the past few years there have been very few involving the Top 10 overall picks and most of those were swaps with other top 10 teams. The difference between say player 15 and player 5 or 6 rarely equals the monetary difference bewteen the picks.

The essential problem will still be that teams don't want to give up the picks or players it would take to move up even if they are not concerned about the money.

I don't believe the bolded part is accurate. The rookie cap is not separate from the team salary cap. It is the limit of how much your rookie's first year salaries can be. However, you still have to fit it underneath the regular team cap.So let's say you have a team with absolutely zero dollars in salary cap room when their veteran players are accounted for. They could not sign any rookies to a contract that would count towards their salary cap, unless they cut or restructured some of their vets first. So yes, team cap room does matter. The Redskins for example, who are currently over the cap, are in a worse position to be able to sign a #1 overall pick than is one of the teams with plenty of cap room.

 

[coolnerd]

I see where you are attempting to go, but there are somethings to consider.

There is a rookie cap to sign players that is related to the position and numbers of picks. This is announced post draft. Having cap dollars this year does not aid a team in signing the player.

Follwing from that it is the 5 or 6 years of managing 30 plus million guaranteed. In other words, it is not just this year's cap to consider, but full length of time.

As for trading up, over the past few years there have been very few involving the Top 10 overall picks and most of those were swaps with other top 10 teams. The difference between say player 15 and player 5 or 6 rarely equals the monetary difference bewteen the picks.

The essential problem will still be that teams don't want to give up the picks or players it would take to move up even if they are not concerned about the money.

I don't believe the bolded part is accurate. The rookie cap is not separate from the team salary cap. It is the limit of how much your rookie's first year salaries can be. However, you still have to fit it underneath the regular team cap.So let's say you have a team with absolutely zero dollars in salary cap room when their veteran players are accounted for. They could not sign any rookies to a contract that would count towards their salary cap, unless they cut or restructured some of their vets first. So yes, team cap room does matter. The Redskins for example, who are currently over the cap, are in a worse position to be able to sign a #1 overall pick than is one of the teams with plenty of cap room.

this I understand, as having no or little cap room won't allow you to sign your picks. With the cap under the cap though having 12 million to 20 million to 33 million is not a particular advantage or a reason to trade up. I think the highest cap under cap figures have been around 7 million if my memory works.Edit: here is last year's rookie cap figures

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2862869

 

[Bracie Smathers]

The trickier question... who's looking to trade down (besides Miami)? The Rams, Falcons, Ravens, or Panthers could drop a few spots and still be able to pick up a solid pick and possibly a veteran or late round selection. Any teams with depth AND cap room looking to trade up?

PICK / TEAM / CAP ROOM

3 Atlanta Falcons $5.79

8 Baltimore Ravens $5

13 Carolina Panthers $6.05

The above appear to be teams who will have to make room in order to sign rookies and who may be more open to trading down. Here is the critical portion of the rookie cap.http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2862869

... The rookie pool is essentially a cap within a cap. It represents the maximum each franchise can spend, in terms of total cap dollars, on its first-year players. A team's rookie allocation is part of, not in addition to, its overall spending limit.

So the rookie cap doesn't mean a team gets ADDITIONAL cap money, its a restriction on dollars that can be paid out to rookies of every NFL team based on a formula of number of picks and how high their picks are in the draft.

 

[Anarchy99]

Just to clarify, a rookie is treated like anyone else as far as counting toward the salary cap, but teams only count a certain number of players toward the salary cap. Teams could also place their draft picks on the practice squad (provided they meet whatever waiver rules to get there). Not all rookies will even make a roster, so most teams will only have to worry about a few players making the team (and for not a lot of money). The only huge payouts typically would come from early round first round picks. The Pats, for example, only had one player on the roster from their 2007 draft (Brandon Meriweather) and he counted only $1.1 million against the cap this season. They may have had other players that went on IR, but those players did not count very much toawrd the salary cap.