For those calling for more roster reinforcements... | Cap Accounting
There is plenty of chatter in the sub about trading for a cornerback, or another pass rusher. Everyone knows we have about four dimes and a nickel left in cap space but \*what about NFL cap magic\*??
Lady and gentlemen, **here is the available cap magic that EDC can execute:**
On the active roster, only 8 players have over $2.0M in *salary*, which is money that could be moved around.
4 of those 8 players have a salary under $4.0M (barely anything to move) *and* they are in the final year of their deal
* Calais Campbell | $2.50M * Justice Hill | $2.75M * Trenton Simpson | $3.67M * Tavius Robinson | $3.67M
That leaves us 4 players who each have over $10.0M in salary.
* Trey Hendrickson | $11.0M * Marlon Humphrey | $15.3M * Roquan Smith | $16.0M * Nnamdi Madubuike | $22.0M
Removing a veteran minimum salary ($1.3M) from that salary, *and* prorating the salary for the 5 games they’ve already been paid … leaves us with the salary that could actually be affected
* Trey Hendrickson | $6.85M * Marlon Humphrey | $9.88M * Roquan Smith | $10.38M * Nnamdi Madubuike | $14.61M
Trey Hendrickson is early in his deal, so EDC could convert excess salary into a signing bonus. This would spread the cap hit over 5 years and account for 20% of the value this year. That opens $5.5M in cap space.
Roquan and Marlon are terrible candidates for converting salary to bonus. Marlon is in the last year of his deal with an already nasty $12M dead cap hit next year, and Roquan has one year left with an equally nasty $32.7M cap hit next year thanks to previous years of converting his salary to bonus.
However, both athletes are good candidates for extensions. This could wipe their current salaries off the table, but the cap table would also have to include 20% of whatever signing bonus they receive.
Marlon is playing well at outside corner. Even with an eye on safety in the future, if he signed an extension now it would be at elderly corner, setting him up for a 3 year, $60M deal. A $15M signing bonus leaves the Ravens with \~$6.5M in cap relief this year (remove 9.5M in salary, add 3.0M in bonus)
Roquan is the heart of this defense. He should slightly top Fred Warner’s contract with a 4 year, $84M deal. A $25M signing bonus leaves the Ravens with \~$5.3M in cap relief this year (remove 10.3M in salary, add 5M in bonus)
I don’t think we can touch the Nnamdi money with his injury issues.
In all, a Roquan extension + a Marlon extension + a Trey salary conversion could at most open up around $18M in cap space for this year, while worsening the cap situation in the near future. Also, every week longer that it takes to execute these wild ideas reduces the 2026 savings, as salary is paid out per game.
Before you, dear reader, get all excited about the idea of shoving $10-20M into the future so we can trade for Vita Vea or something, keep in mind EDC would be pushing millions of dollars owed to 30 year old NFL football players to add another expensive talent to a team and eat up future cap space that we *need for a Lamar Jackson extension!!!*