Detroit Lions News: Team Above Average in Salary Cap Space
By Zac Snyder
Detroit Lions News takes a look at the team’s salary cap situation in comparison to the rest of the league.
After years of feeling like the Detroit Lions were always tight against the NFL’s salary cap, there is finally breathing room. More than league average, in fact.
The already had cap space to work with but got some more when they finally released Stephen Tulloch earlier this month. That move upped the team’s room under the 2016 salary cap to more than $19.7 million according to the NFLPA’s public salary cap report. Per that same report, the current league-wide average for salary cap space is $13.9 million.
The Lions’ salary cap situation will change some before the regular season arrives. During the offseason, only the top 51 contracts count against the salary cap while the full 53-man regular season roster will have to fit inside the 2016 salary cap before the season begins.
Being nearly $20 million under the cap gives the Lions a lot of flexibility to deal with injuries throughout the season without having to restructure any deals. More importantly, it gives them the ability to plan ahead with extensions for key players like cornerback Darius Slay.
Related Story: Projecting a new contract for Darius Slay
In the last year of his rookie contract, Slay is a bargain counting a little under $1.7 million against the team’s cap this season. By agreeing to a new contract this offseason instead of waiting a year allows the scheduled proration of any signing bonus money to start immediately. That will raise Slay’s cap number for this year some, but means less money will need to be accounted for against future caps.
This strategy to “pay it forward” is a total departure from cap strategies from the previous front office regime that extended the contracts of Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson to lower cap numbers by pushing money out into the future. Basically, instead of making credit card payments, the Lions have money in the bank earning interest instead of paying interest.
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Well, it’s the second full week of July and the trainign camp page on the Detroit Lions website still hasn’t been updated from 2015. A training camp schedule for 2016 has to be coming out this week, right?