In response to our item from earlier today regarding the ability of teams to carry over cap space from year to year simply by submitting a piece of paper signed by the owner indicating a desire to do so, some of you have suggested that teams will refrain from doing so because it would drive up their minimum cash spending requirement.
Per a league source with knowledge of the dynamics of the CBA, it won’t.
When the 89-percent per-team spending minimum kicks in next year, the threshold will be based on the unadjusted cap number. And so no amount of carried-over cap space will increase the amount each team must spend on a rolling three-year average, as of 2013.
As a result, there’s no reason for any team to avoid carrying over the full amount of any excess cap space. Unless, of course, the team is cheap.
Here’s the full list of remaining cap space, by team. Five teams have more than $20 million: the Jaguars ($31.66 million); the Broncos ($27.88 million); the Buccaneers ($25.05 million); the Chiefs ($24.01 million); and the Seahawks ($21.27 million).
The five teams with the least remaining 2011 cap space are the Lions ($1.47 million); the Texans ($1.08 million); the Giants ($1.06 million); the Falcons ($747,000); and the Steelers ($506,000).