A look at the Seahawks 2024 cap situation on the eve of the 2024 NFL Combine

There has been no shortage of discussion regarding which Seahawks might be cap casualties, but the decisions will go deeper and need to take into consideration when and how.

The 2024 NFL Combine is just around the corner, with players beginning to arrive in Indianapolis over the weekend, giving teams an early chance to evaluate draft prospects in person before Pro Day season begins. In addition, three weeks from Wednesday marks the start of the new league year for the NFL, when all 32 teams must be in compliance with the 2024 salary cap by 4pm New York time and March 13.

There has been no shortage of grumblings regarding the state of the salary cap for the Seattle Seahawks, with multiple fans, observers and outlets widely reporting that as of right now the Hawks sit somewhere in the neighborhood of $5M over the projected 2024 salary cap of $242M. That number is the amount currently being used by OverTheCap.com, but according to a report earlier this week from ProFootballTalk, the actual number could come in slightly higher, somewhere in the $243M to $250M range.

Now, it doesn’t take a PhD in Mathology to determine that if the Seahawks are projected to be roughly $5M over a $242M salary cap, that they would be in compliance with a salary cap of $250M. In any case, there has been no shortage of reports that as things stand now the Hawks are currently looking at being about $5M over the 2024 salary cap, so as usual Field Gulls is here to set things straight and let readers know it’s not really that bad.

In reality, the cap situation is much worse than being $5M over the cap, but in spite of reality being worse than widely reported, it’s not crippling.

As for why things are worse than most outlets have reported, the starting point is basically the same as it is every spring when fans start gearing up for their team to go on a free agent spending spree. Thus, to begin, here’s a screengrab from the Seahawks team page at OverTheCap.com showing that the team is somewhere in the neighborhood of $5.23M over the salary cap, and also subtly highlighted is the fact that the $5.23M number is only taking into account 49 contracted players.

NFL teams, of course, have more than 49 players on the roster, though during the offseason only the 51 largest cap hits count against the salary cap. Thus, the first thing to do is to fill out the roster. For the Seahawks, this will likely be done by extending exclusive rights free agent tenders to the five ERFAs who were with Seattle during the 2023 season. Those players and their associated tender amounts are:

• DT Myles Adams: $985k
• TE Brady Russell: $915k
• OL McClendon Curtis: $915k
• OL Raiqwon O’Neal: $915k
• EDGE Josh Onujiogu: $795k

Since the Seahawks need to account for the top 51 cap hits, if the Hawks tender all five, the two largest cap hits would count against the cap. In addition, if Seattle opts to tender all five, then the cap hits of Curtis and O’Neal would likely replace a lower cap hit in the top 51, leading to an incremental charge of $120k each. In short, tendering the ERFAs will likely cost the Seahawks a hair over $2M of cap space. Putting that together with the $5.2M or so that the Hawks are already over a projected cap of $242M, that leaves the team somewhere around $7.5M over the projected cap. Now, if the cap comes in at $250M, then they’d be in compliance, but wouldn’t have a whole lot of space available for free agency, signing their draft picks, a practice squad or an injured reserve pool.

However, worrying about a practice squad and injured reserve pool is getting ahead of things because before they get there they will need to work through free agency, and before free agency arrives they will need to figure out what to do with their restricted free agents (RFAs). There are four RFAs on which the Hawks will need to make a decision on whether to extend a tender, and if they do extend a tender, they will need to decide what level of tender to extend. The three levels of tender and the associated cap hits are projected as follows (Author’s note: Tender amounts will increase slightly if the salary cap comes in above the currently projected $242M, but the amounts listed here are based on a 2024 salary cap of $242M.)

• First Round tender: $6.464M
• Second Round tender: $4.633M
• Right of First Refusal tender: $2.828M

The way the tenders work is that if a team extends a tender to a player it’s an offer for a one year contract at the requisite amount, but the player is free to pursue offers from other teams in free agency. If the player signs an offer sheet with another team, the Seahawks would then have the opportunity to match the terms of the offer sheet, and would receive compensation based on the level of tender extended to the player. Say, for example, Seattle extended a first round tender to Jon Rhattigan and he signed an offer sheet with the Chicago Bears and the Seahawks opted not to match the offer sheet, the Bears would send the Hawks the first overall pick in the draft in exchange for Rhattigan. If Seattle extended a second round tender to Rhattigan and he signed an offer sheet with the Bears that the Hawks opted not to match, Chicago would send Seattle their second round pick. If Rhattigan signed a right of first refusal tender, Seattle would have an opportunity to match the tender offer, but would not receive any compensation in return from Chicago should they opt to not match the offer sheet.

For players such as Darrell Taylor and Mike Jackson who were drafted in the second and fifth rounds, respectively, extending the right of first refusal tender would mean that any team signing either to an offer sheet would be required to send Seattle their pick in the round in which the player was originally drafted.

For the Seahawks, the full list of RFAs this offseason is:

• Darrell Taylor (selected in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft)
• Mike Jackson (selected in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft)
• Jon Rhattigan (undrafted free agent in 2021)
• Jake Curhan (undrafted free agent in 2021)

Whether or not the Hawks extend a tender to any or all of these players, the team will be required to be under the salary cap with any tender amount included, so this is probably a few million extra of cap space that will be needed on top of the $7.5M number already discussed.

And then the discussion finally arrives at how the Hawks will come up with the cap space they will be required to free up, regardless of where the final number for the 2024 cap comes in. There’s been no shortage of discussion regarding which players the team is likely to release, but there are a handful of key things to keep in mind, which are as follows.

Teams must be in compliance with the 2024 salary cap by 4pm on March 13

Whatever the final number winds up being for the 2024 cap, the deadline for teams to be under the cap is when the new league year begins at 4pm New York time on Wednesday March 13.

Each team may designate up to two players as post-June 1 releases

Using the post-June 1 designation pushes the pro-rated signing bonus from future league years, ie 2025 and beyond, onto the 2025 salary cap. This means using the post-June 1 release gives teams additional cap space in 2024 at the expense of 2025 cap space.

Teams may not use post-June 1 designations until the new league year begins

This is one of the catches with post-June designations, in that they cannot be used by a team in order to come into compliance with the salary cap since teams are not allowed to make use of the post-June 1 designation until after the deadline for cap compliance has already passed.

Cap space from post-June 1 designations is not available until June 2

Here is the second big catch when teams use a post-June 1 designation. The player becomes a free agent immediately upon release, however, the team is required to carry the player’s cap hit for the current league year on the books through the end of the league business day on June 1. So, for all those fans ready to release Jamal Adams with a post-June 1 designation the instant that becomes an option, just keep in mind that doing so keeps his entire $26,916,666 cap hit on the books through June 1. That, of course, means that the $17,122,000 of cap space that releasing Adams with a post-June 1 designation frees up will not be available to the Seahawks to spend during free agency.

It could certainly be put to use during the summer and fall to sign the draft class, pay the practice squad and maintain an injured reserve pool. But, for any fans hoping the Hawks free up $34.122M to play with during free agency by releasing Adams and Tyler Lockett with a post-June 1 designation, it’s important to keep in mind that the majority of free agents will be long gone by the time the team could actually put that $34.122M to use.

Putting everything together, the Seahawks have their work cut out when it comes to not just becoming salary cap compliant in the weeks before the start of the new league year in mid-March. They not only need to create enough space to be under the cap where ever it lands, but also have plenty of decisions to make on their own players on expiring contracts, including ERFAs, RFAs and unrestricted free agents. In addition, they also need to not only come into cap compliance for 2024, but also create enough cap space to operate through free agency.

There are plenty of options available and levers to pull to create the space needed, so creating the space should not be too difficult. What may be difficult is that the Seahawks are still finalizing their 2024 coaching staff and have less than three weeks to come into compliance with the 2024 cap and have the combine to attend for one of those weeks. In short, John Schneider and Mike Macdonald will have plenty of decisions to make in the coming weeks regarding not just which moves to make, but when and how to make them.