Salary Cap Status Update

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by killromo

How much will the April draft picks affect us do you think?

Last year our rookie pool was $3.4 million. The rookie pool is an allottment the NFL assigns to teams based on the number of picks they have, and where those picks are. Higher picks results in a higher rookie pool. Ultimately, you have to fit all your picks under the rookie pool. So our guys took up less than $3.4 million last year.

The average rookie pool last year for the 32 teams in the NFL was $4.27 million. This year, we pick 21st and we're missing a pick from the Kendall deal. You gotta figure the rookie pool will go up a little bit, so for the average team, I'd say it will be around $4.4 or $4.5 million. We'll get less than the average team because our picks are later than average (21st) and we're missing a pick. I'd predict our pool will be $4.0 million.

So we'll HAVE to keep them under $4.0. That's easy to do. Last year we had the 6th pick in Landry who got a big bonus, and we still managed to keep the rookies under $3.0 million. Rookies don't have a big impact on your cap - that's why it makes so much sense to build through the draft!