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Cap Casualties
Established NFL "names" are being released left and right - including John Abraham, Adrian Wilson, James Harrison, and now possibly Anquan Boldin. Many NFL teams are cutting players in March in order to scramble to get under the $123M salary cap for 2013. The Seahawks have $17M or so in cap room, so they have the advantage of waiting until the end of training camp, August 2013, if they so desire, to make their "cap casualty" cuts.
Of course, in the end, they may make zero cap casualty cuts if they so choose. They can gather more information, monitor injuries, and chart the progression of their young players and recent draft picks before making a final decision on anyone. There are currently only 17 Seahawks earning over $2M in "cap" dollars currently signed in 2013. This makes digging through the list pretty easy. Let me group them into buckets:
(A) COST MORE TO CUT THAN KEEP (+ ARE REALLY GOOD PLAYERS): NOT GOING ANYWHERE
The "Net Cap Savings" I list below is their current cap hit minus the dead money incurred if cut:
PLAYER - NET CAP SAVINGS (Negative Number means would cost more to cut than to keep)
Russell Okung: (-$4.3M)
Marshawn
Lynch: (-$3.0M)
Red
Bryant: (-$3.0M)
Max
Unger: (-$1.9M)
Bruce Irvin: (-$5.5M)
James
Carpenter: (-$1.0M)
These six players above all likely have guaranteed money in 2013.
(B) GOOD PLAYERS LIKELY STAYING
PLAYER - NET CAP SAVINGS IF CUT
Earl Thomas: $600k
Zach Miller: $4.0M
Sidney Rice: $6.1M
Chris Clemons: $2.3M
Brandon Mebane: $4.6M
(C.) POSSIBLE CAP CASUALTIES IF NEW BLOOD STEPS UP
I don't think all of these players below will get cut, but perhaps two or three could be replaced this year with Draft picks or young players.
PLAYER - NET CAP SAVINGS IF CUT
Matt Flynn: $1.25M
Breno Giacomini: $3.5M
Paul McQuistan: $3.0M
Leon Washington: $2.1M
Michael Robinson: $2.5M
Ben Obomanu: $2.3M
Heath Farwell: $1.3M
(Farwell's Cap is under $2M, $1.67M, but wanted to include)
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