A way too early look at the Seahawks 2024 salary cap picture

This first week of April marks the midpoint between the start of free agency and the 2023 NFL Draft, meaning it’s as good a time as any to start taking inventory of where things stand for the future. It’s no secret that it’s been a busy offseason for the Seattle Seahawks, who have extended Pro Bowlers Geno Smith and Jason Myers while also revamping the defensive front seven and bringing back All Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner.

These moves have stirred up the optimism of many fans, and with a pair of selections in each of the first and second rounds of the draft, Pete Carroll and John Schneider could use this offseason to continue to significantly improve the roster for the coming years. Obviously, it’s no secret that the Hawks have nearly depleted their 2023 cap space and will need to create space in the coming months in order to complete this season. So, with that in mind, here’s a quick review of where things stand as of this moment for 2024.

As always, the starting point for this analysis is the $54,077,560 of 2024 cap space the Seahawks are projected to have per OverTheCap.com. It is obviously important to note that one of the questions about which fans often inquire when discussing the salary cap for future seasons is whether rollover is included, and the answer to that question is ‘no’. However, in this instance, it doesn’t seem imprudent to ignore any potential rollover, given the current state of the salary cap for 2023. In short, since the Hawks are effectively out of cap space for this coming season already, there is unlikely to be a significant amount of cap space available left unused at the end of the season, and therefore likely no rollover.

So, starting with the $54,077,560 for the 25 players the Hawks have under contract for 2024, the next step is to take into account how much of the salary cap will be consumed by the 2023 draft class of the Seahawks. Obviously it’s unlikely that all of the members of this year’s draft class will be on the 2024 roster, but those roster spots will be filled by someone, and even if the 2023 draftees are not on the roster, the dead money from their signing bonus dead money will be. Thus, looking at the estimated 2024 cap hits for the currently ten draft picks the Seahawks currently hold in 2023 yields the following:

• 1.5: $7,729,654
• 1.20: $3,457,926
• 2.37: $2,159,620
• 2.52: $1,611,198
• 3.83: $1,261,358
• 4.123: $1,110,971
• 5.151: $1,001,759
• 5.154: $1,000,247
• 6.198: $962,087
• 7.237: $939,472
• Total: $21,234,292

Adding those ten players to the roster gives Seattle 35 players under contract for the 2024 season, meaning that to round out the roster they would need an additional 16 players. So, signing 16 rookies to minimum salary contracts of $795,000 would cost the team $12,720,000.

Deducting these two amounts, the $21,234,292 for the 2023 draft class and the $12,720,000 to fill out the roster, nets a cap number of $20,123,268 for the 2024 season. That is obviously a long ways off, and there could be significant shake ups to the cap situation between now and then, so there’s no need to fret just yet.