Breaking down the Bengals cap situation

[BengalChris]

(03-04-2016, 05:37 AM)oncemoreuntothejimbreech Wrote: Oh, God, the rookie pool BS.  Please somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

I checked Spotrac.  The estimated $36 million cap is for the top 51 and the dead space money.  The rookie pool is approx 7 million.  If they draft 7 rookies, let's assume all seven make the 53 man roster.  Players from the top 51 along with their salaries will be replace by the rookies and their rookie contracts.  

Hobson and Joe Banner make is seem like it is $36M - $7M = $29M cap space remaining.  It's not like that at all.  The rooke deals are replacing pre-existing deals already on the books.

...

Not exactly. Hall's $9M contract from last year is gone and is already part of that $36M, as are the contracts of all current free agents. However, if a draft pick replaces a player currently under contract, say like a player named Margus Hunt (cough, cough), then Hunt's contract would go away, but any dead money in that contract would still count against the cap. For Hunt I believe the dead money in the deal if he were cut this year would be $262K. If we sign a new Kicker, then all of Nugent's money would return to the cap since there is no dead money in it.