Baltimore Ravens 2024 Salary Cap Preview

With the Super Bowl mercifully now behind us, it’s time for every team and fan base to fully turn their attention towards the 2024 offseason.

Unlike last offseason, the Ravens don’t have the Lamar Jackson saga hanging over their heads, but they do have a lot of pending free agents in addition to many holes to fill and, presently, not a lot of Cap space with which to do so.

So, as it always seems to be with the Ravens, they enter another offseason of change as they try and rebuild their roster in hopes of making another run at bringing home a Super Bowl trophy.

PLAYERS PRESENTLY UNDER CONTRACT

The Ravens currently have the following 55 players under contract for 2024 (with Cap Numbers indicated):

QBs (2):  Lamar Jackson ($870K); Malik Cunningham ($915K)

RBs (4):  Justice Hill ($2.971M); Keaton Mitchell ($921K); Owen Wright ($795K); Gus Edwards (VOID)

FBs (1):  Patrick Ricard ($5.155M)

WRs (6):  Rashod Bateman ($4.008M); Odell Beckham Jr. (3.977M); Zay Flowers ($3.19M); Tylan Wallace ($1.226M); Sean Ryan ($795K); Nelson Agholor (VOID)

TE (4):   Mark Andrews ($16.908M); Charlie Kolar ($1.161M); Isaiah Likely ($1.111M), Scotty Washington ($915K)

OL (11):  Ronnie Stanley ($26.168M); Morgan Moses ($6.96M); Patrick Mekari ($6.350M); Tyler Linderbaum ($3.61M); Ben Cleveland ($1.501M); Daniel Faalele ($1.185M); M. Aumavee-Laulu ($958K); Andrew Vorhees ($941K); TyKeem Doss ($795K); Tashawn Manning ($795K); Kevin Zeitler (VOID)

DL (5):  Broderick Washington ($4.54M); Michael Pierce ($4.072M); Travis Jones ($1.447M); Bravvion Roy ($1.055M); Rayshad Nichols ($795K)

EDGE (4): Odafe Oweh ($3.609M); David Ojabo ($2.157M); Tavius Robinson ($1.095M); Malik Hamm ($796K)

LBs (4):  Roquan Smith ($13.5M); Tyus Bowser ($7.5M); Trenton Simpson ($1.228M); Josh Ross ($915K)

CBs (8):  Marlon Humphrey ($22.878M); Brandon Stephens ($3.037M); Jaylin Armor-Davis ($1.175M); Trayvon Mullen ($1.125M); Damarion Williams ($1.111M); Christian Matthew ($985K); Tre Swilling ($795K); Rock Ya-Sin (VOID)

S (3):  Marcus Williams ($18.723M); Kyle Hamilton ($4.433M); Geno Stone (VOID)

ST (3):  Justin Tucker ($5.8M); Jordan Stout ($1.159M); Nick Moore ($1.455M)

The above 55 players are under contract for a total Rule of 51 Salary Cap commitment (which includes dead money from players no longer on the team) of $238,323,575.

2024 Salary Cap

Present projections for the 2024 Salary Cap indicate that the Cap will be in the $240-250M range, with the Cap likely to come in around $245M.  This would be an increase of $20.2M over the 2023 Cap of $224.8M.  The Ravens will most certainly hope it reaches 245M and will definitely hope it won’t be any lower.

So, using the figure of $245M for the estimated Cap, the Ravens will initially have around $8,814,330 in Cap space (which includes the $2,137,905 in 2023 carryover), accounting for the 55 players presently under contract.  But, keep in mind that if no contract extensions are reached before February 19th with the five (5) players (Zeitler, Edwards, Agholor, Ya-Sin and Stone) who have voiding contracts, that number of players currently under contract will drop to 50.

This will be the basis for a lot of early reports on the status of the Ravens’ 2024 Salary Cap, but while that doesn’t sound too bad – and certainly better than for a lot of NFL teams – it is important to keep in mind that this number is based on just the present 55 players that are presently under contract and nowhere near representative of the team’s Cap with a full roster.

So, between now and Wednesday, March 13^th at 4:00 p.m., when the new league year and free agency begins, the Ravens have a lot of work to do with a lot of pending free agents and a very tight Salary Cap.

2023 SALARY CAP CARRYOVER

Under the terms of the CBA, teams are allowed to carry over excess Salary Cap space from one year to the nex.  The Ravens have carried over $2,137,905 in 2023 Cap space.  This will increase their 2024 Cap space by that amount.

OTHER SALARY CAP ADJUSTMENTS

WORKOUT BONUS ADJUSTMENT

All teams will have an adjustment of $907,200 added to their Cap for the team’s expected workout bonuses. This number is essentially the maximum amount of CBA mandated workout bonuses that could be earned by the players in the offseason. This amount is a charge against the Cap. Once training camp begins, this debit will be removed and the actual amount of workout bonuses earned by the players will be added onto the Cap.

INCENTIVE ADJUSTMENTS

The Ravens’ 2024 Cap will also see adjustments for incentives earned that didn’t count against the 2023 Cap (“Not Likely To Be Earned” incentives) but that were actually earned and incentives that did count against the 2023 Cap (“Likely To Be Earned” incentives) but weren’t earned.  The net amount of these will count against 2024 Cap as a positive or negative adjustment.

For many years, the Ravens have used NLTBE incentives as a way of lessening a player’s present Cap number, especially in years with tighter Caps.  Unfortunately, since the details of incentives are not always widely reported, it is hard to make an accurate estimation of the amount of this adjustment.  As such, the full extent of the team’s incentive adjustment will not likely be known until the beginning of the 2024 league year in March.

However, the following earned incent incentives in 2023 that will become debits against the Ravens’ 2024 Salary Cap:

Jadeveon Clowney – $2.25M

Nelson Agholor – $500K

Kyle Van Noy – $100K

Geno Stone – $250K

Gus Edwards – $1.1M

Ronald Darby – $500K

Total – $4.7M.

Those debits will be offset by 2023 LTBE incentives that were not earned and for some offsets for guaranteed salaries.  Those adjustments amount to credit of $680,000, which will offset the above $4.7M in earned incentives.

There may also be some other adjustments for grievances and unknown credits or debit, but those are usually minor, so for now, we will use $4,020,000 as an estimated incentives debit for 2024.

PROVEN PERFORMANCE ESCALATOR: PROVEN PERFORMANCE ESCALATOR

The 2011 CBA mandated 4-year contracts for all draft picks, which eliminated a player’s chance to receive the higher paying RFA tender in their 4^th year.  To offset this, the 2011 CBA implemented the Proven Performance Escalator (PPE), which allows later draft picks (3^rd through 7^th rounds) to receive an upgraded salary that is equivalent to the low RFA tender if the player performed well over the 1^st 3 years of his contract.  The 2020 CBA added 2^nd round picks to this calculation, changed the criteria for earning the PPE and added additional compensation levels.  Under the revised rules, meeting playing time thresholds (35%) still will earn the PPE at the low RFA tender level, while more playing time (55%) will earn the low tender and reaching the Pro-Bowl (1^st ballot only) will be paid at the 2^nd Round RFA tender level.

The Ravens have one player from the 2021 draft who has earned the PPE: CB Brandon Stephens.  By virtue of reaching the playing time thresholds, Stephens earned the Level 1 escalator and earned a pay raise from $1,208,500 to the low RFA tender salary of $2.863M (est).

EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS FREE AGENTS (ERFAs)

ERFAs are players with less than three (3) years of service time (accrued seasons) in the league.  In order to be retained, the Ravens must tender the player with an ERFA tender by the first day of the league year on Wednesday, March 16^th.  Based on the player’s length of service in the league, the player will receive a 1-year deal with the applicable league minimum salary ($795K, $915K, $985K or $1.055M).  Once tendered, these players are fully under the team’s control and are not free to negotiate with other teams.

This year the Ravens have only one (1) player who is an Exclusive Rights Free Agents (ERFA): DB Ar’Darius Washington ($1.055M)

RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS (RFAs)

The Ravens have no pending Restricted Free Agents (RFAs) this year.

PROJECTED ADJUSTED TEAM CAP AND RULE OF 51 SALARY CAP COMMITMENT

Based on all of the above, it is estimated that the Ravens will have an Adjusted Team Salary Cap of $242,210,705.  The team’s Adjusted Cap consists of the projected league-wide Salary Cap of $245M, plus the carryover of the 2023 excess Cap space of $2,137,905, less the incentives adjustment ($4,020,000) and the workout bonuses adjustment ($907,200).

During the offseason, though, when roster can balloon to up to 90 players, only the highest 51 Salary Cap numbers (and all 2024 bonus prorations and all dead money from released players) are counted for Salary Cap purposes.  This is called the “Rule of 51”.

As such, the Ravens’ estimated Rule of 51 number would be a Cap commitment of $238,583,575.

When compared with the team’s Adjusted Cap of $242,210,705, this would leave the Ravens projected to be $3,627,130 under the Salary Cap.

Again, this is just an early estimate, done before the Ravens make other roster moves that will create additional Salary Cap space and/or make additions that will strengthen the roster, but it underscores that the Ravens will again be tight against the Cap and have some work to do to create Cap space.

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS (UFAs)

The following 23 players are Unrestricted Free Agents (UFAs) and will be free to sign with other teams if they haven’t re-signed with the Ravens before Free Agency begins on Wednesday, March 13^th at 4:00 p.m.:

WR Nelson Agholor (VOID)

DE Jadeveon Clowney

RB Dalvin Cook

CB Ronald Darby

RB JK Dobbins

WR Devin Duvernay

RB Gus Edwards (VOID)

LB Malik Harrison

QB Tyler Huntley

QB Josh Johnson

DT Justin Madubuike

CB Arthur Maulet

OL Sam Mustipher

LS Tyler Ott

LB Del’Shawn Phillips

LB Patrick Queen

LB John Simpson

S Geno Stone (VOID)

DE Brent Urban

DE Kyle Van Noy

CB Daryl Worley

CB Rock Ya-Sin (VOID)

OG Kevin Zeitler (VOID)

FRANCHISE TAG

The window for using the Franchise Tag begins on Tuesday, February 20th and ends at 4:00 Tuesday, March 5^th.

This year, the Ravens have one (1) main candidate for the Franchise Tag – DT Justin Madubuike.  However with a Franchise Tender of close to $20M for a DT, they’re going to have to do some major Salary Cap gymnastics to create the necessary space to fit in the Tag and have enough excess Cap space to address other areas of need.

2024 DRAFT PICKS

The Ravens will have the 30^th overall pick in the first round and presently are expected to have 8 total picks in the 2024 draft.  They currently have their 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 7^th Round picks. The Ravens traded their own 6^th (2023 draft day trade – Andrew Vorhees) and acquired the Jets’ 7^th (for Chuck Clark).  The Ravens are also expected to receive a 4^th Round Compensatory Pick for the 2023 loss of G Ben Powers.

Based on their present draft position, the Ravens will likely have a rookie Cap of somewhere around $9M.  While that number won’t factor into their initial Cap calculations, it is something that the team will be very mindful of as they otherwise build their roster.

EXTENSION/RELEASE/RESTRUCTURE

Given the need for Cap space to possibly accommodate the Franchise Tag for Madubuike, the Ravens are going to have to make moves to create additional Salary Cap space in order to be able to re-sign players and/or sign other players to the roster.  There are three primary ways of creating additional Salary Cap space – (1) signing players to contract extensions to lessen their 2024 Cap number, (2) releasing/trading players and/or (3) restructuring contracts.

EXTENSION

An extension is generally used when a player has a large base salary and is in the later years of his contract.  An extension will allow the team to turn much of that large base salary (and often, more) into a Signing Bonus to go along with new years that are added to the contract.  This essentially works to reduce the player’s present Cap number.  Of course, it takes two to tango and teams and players often don’t see eye to eye on value, so extensions aren’t always a foregone conclusion.

RICARD

FB Patrick Ricard is entering the final year of his contract and has a $4M base salary for 2024.  Given the reduction in snaps this year, it’s fair to wonder if that salary is too much, especially given the team’s tight Salary Cap.  Ricard is also on the below list as a potential cut, but perhaps a better result for Ricard and the team would be a contract extension that would reduce his 2024 Cap number and keep him around for 2024 and beyond.

STEPHENS

CB Brandon Stephens had a breakout year in 2023 and would seem like an ideal candidate to be signed to a contract extension.  Signing Stephens to an extension would not create Cap space though and would actually cost the team additional Cap space, but the goal of the extension would not be about Cap space but about securing Stephens into the future.

BECKHAM

Beckham redid his contract in early January and removed the void years from his contract in 2024 and 2025.  This restructure allowed the team to avoid the acceleration of his void years into 2024 and allowed the Ravens to release Beckham with a post-June 1 release if he is not re-signed by March 16^th.  Like with Stephens, an extension would increase Beckham’s Cap number for 2024.

RELEASE/TRADE

The below chart includes players who have most often been discussed by fans as candidates for release and lays out the Salary Cap implications of the release or trade (both are treated the same for Cap purposes) of those players:

With a tight Cap, creating Cap space is going to be imperative, but the Ravens really don’t have a great deal of candidates for release.

ODELL BECKHAM

As mentioned above, Beckham signed a revised contract in January. This revision allows the Ravens to avoid Beckham’s contract voiding on February 19^th and having $11.068M in dead money accelerate onto the 2024 Cap.  Instead, if a contract extension is not reached by March 16^th, the Ravens will use a post-June 1 release on Beckham which would instead allow the Ravens to only have to account for $2.767M in dead money in 2024 and push the remaining $8.301M onto the 2025 Cap.

TYUS BOWSER

This would appear to be the easiest of the potential cut decisions for the Ravens. With $5.5M in savings, Bowser, who has played in only 9 of a possible 34 regular season games over the last 2 years, would seem to be a prime cut candidate both because of his lack of availability and the sizeable amount of Cap space created.

RONNIE STANLEY

Stanley, with potentially $15M in Cap savings, is going to be an interesting decision for the Ravens.  Getting rid of a veteran LT is not what teams generally like to do, but with $15M in cash due in 2024 and with Stanley’s up and down last 2 seasons, it’s going to be hard to keep him at that number. A pre-June 1 release would create $8.332M Cap savings, whereas a post-June 1 release would create $15M in Cap space, but would push $6.668M in dead money onto the 2025 Cap.  Stanley would also seem like a prime candidate to take a pay cut ,which would reduce his 2024 Cap number and not create another hole in their roster.  A pay cut for Stanley would seem to make sense for both sides since Stanley is unlikely to come close to making $15M in 2024 compensation on the open market.  If a pay cut cannot be reached, a post-June 1 release would seem like the most likely result.

PATRICK RICARD

As mentioned above, Ricard’s snaps decreased in 2023, to his lowest total since 2019, which leads to the question of – is his $4M in salary too much for his reduced role in the offense?

MORGAN MOSES

Moses’ future is likely tied with that of fellow Tackle Ronnie Stanley.  If the Ravens do move on from Stanley, it seems unlikely that they would move on from both starting Tackles.  Moses’ future is also dependent on whether the Ravens have any confidence in Daniel Faalele being ready and able to step into the starting role.  Releasing Moses would save $5.5M in Cap space.

JUSTICE HILL

Given the lack of depth at Running Back, releasing Hill would seem unlikely.  Releasing Hill would create $2.5M in Cap savings. 

PATRICK MEKARI

Similarly to Hill, releasing Mekari, who is highly valued for his ability to play any position on the offensive line, seems unlikely.  However, with $4.35M in Cap savings, a release might not be out of the question given the team’s tight Cap.

MARLON HUMPHREY and MARK ANDREWS:

Two more unlikely cuts, but two players who have at times been mentioned by fans and the media.  There has been talk that Humphrey should take a pay cut to remain with the Ravens, but such talk ignores the reality of the dead money at issue ($23.817M).  In order to get a player to consider a pay cut, you have to be able to threaten him with being released.  With that amount of dead money at play, it seems unlikely that Humphrey would be swayed by any threat of being cut.  The only release that sort of makes sense for Humphrey would be a post-June 1 release, but with OBJ and Stanley already candidates for post-June 1 releases, the Ravens are not going to want to push that much dead money into 2025.

RESTRUCTURES

The main drawback of constantly restructuring contracts is that it often becomes a vicious cycle that forces the team to continue and continue to restructure deals year after year. The Ravens have been stuck in this cycle over the last couple of years and those restructures have created some bloated Cap numbers that aren’t easy to get away from.

The candidates for restructures are as follows (below amounts are based on “simple” restructures and do not include adding void years, which in some cases would produce more Cap savings):

Lamar Jackson – $11M

Marlon Humphrey – $7,905,000

Marcus Williams – $7,193,333

Ronnie Stanley – $6,895,000

Mark Andrews – $4,937,500

Roquan Smith – $3,656,250

Justin Tucker – $1,717,500

FUTURE EXPENSES

One of the biggest mistakes fans often make is thinking that the amount of Cap space available before the beginning of the new league year and/or immediately after the new league year begins is money that can be fully spent on free agents, without considering the future expenses teams will have.  From signing the team’s draft picks to the end of the Rule of 51, at which point all players whether on the 53-man roster, IR, PUP or the PS count against the Cap, to weekly Practice Squad elevations and to having a Cap space reserve to cover in-season injuries, teams will need a lot of Cap space that simply isn’t available for signing free agents.  So, teams will be mindful of those expenses, that can cost teams between $14-16M in Cap space.

OUTLOOK

Over the next month a lot of these items will come into better focus as the team starts making moves to get their Salary Cap in order and create Cap space to help improve their roster.

One thing that’s not hard to predict is that the next couple of months will not be dull or uneventful.

Countdown to Free Agency ’24 – Important NFL Offseason Dates

The Salary Cap is always a puzzle and the Ravens’ Front Office will likely use a combination of the above maneuvers to create the Cap space necessary to address the team’s pressing roster needs.  So, as it always seems, the months of March and April will once again be an interesting time for the Ravens.

The post Baltimore Ravens 2024 Salary Cap Preview appeared first on Russell Street Report.