Washington 2022 Roster and Salary Cap Update, Part 1
February 1, 2022
by Steve Thomas
Since the Redskins have Washington has entered into the infant stages of its 2022 offseason plan, this week seemed like the right time to give a salary cap update for the coming season. The NFL and the NFLPA previously agreed that the 2022 salary cap would be fixed at $208.2M for the 2022 season. This isn’t the norm – salary cap calculation is governed by the Collective Bargaining Agreement; however, this negotiation took place as a result of the severe drop in income during the 2020 season due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The league and the players agreed to spread out the loss over a number of years in order to prevent the 2020 salary cap from being reduced to the point that it would have ruined the rosters of every team in the league.
Washington also has the benefit of what is at this moment $4,080,239 in what is known as rollover cap space. Every team is required to calculate the amount of salary cap space it did not use during the prior season (i.e., 2021) and report that number to the NFL. The league then must audit that reported number. Washington recently reported the $4,080,239 figure. The final number – again, the team’s reported figure, as audited by the NFL – is then applied to the salary cap for the following year. Therefore, this number could change once the NFL’s audit is completed.
This means that at this moment, Washington has $212,280,239 in available cap space for the 2022 season. Various other adjustments are sometimes made to each team’s final cap number, so this final number will most likely eventually change by a relatively small amount.
In the offseason, the top 51 active contracts are counted against the team’s salary cap. This is called the “Rule of 51”. For the contracts below the Rule of 51 line, only the amounts that are beyond the NFL minimum are counted against the cap. In a practical sense, that means that draft picks and free agents with guaranteed money will have the prorated amount of their guarantee applied to the cap, but not their base salaries. This rule is in place to allow teams to reach a full 90 man training camp roster without vastly exceeding the salary cap.
Washington signed a number of players to what are known as “futures contracts” shortly after the regular season ended. These are given to practice squad players, because the practice squad technically goes away after the season. They are called “futures contracts” because teams can’t sign players to new contracts until the new league year and free agency begins on March 16. A futures deal doesn’t technically begin until the new league year, but allows the team to continue to hold the players’ rights and allows the player to stay around the team and use the facilities.
Finally, Washington also holds the rights to number of young players who fall into a category known as “exclusive rights free agent”. Players in this category have less than three accrued NFL seasons plus have an expired contract. All the team has to do in order to keep the rights to these players is to make what’s known as a “tender offer”, which is essentially a one year minimum salary contract offer. These aren’t made until after the season ends, so Washington has not yet made its tender offers. Therefore, I have not counted these players against the 2022 salary cap, but will do so in the future.
With that said, let’s dive into Washington’s current salary cap status for the 2022 season. For this exercise, I’m treating the roster and cap as if we are already under the 2022 offseason rules, even though the 2021 playoffs are still ongoing and the 2021 league year won’t end until March. I’m going to review Washington’s cap status by position group. The team currently has 56 players signed to the roster, so five contracts don’t count against the cap.[1] Those 56 players have a combined cap hit of $184.97M, with $179.6M counting under the Rule of 51. Including almost $703K in left over dead money, Washington is about $31.9M under the cap under the Rule of 51.
This piece was originally one single column, but I’ve broken it up into two parts because of length. Therefore, I’ll cover the defense this week and the offense and specialists next week.
Defense
In total, Washington has 26 defensive players on the roster for the 2022 season, at a combined total of $102.4M in cap space, $99.5M under the Rule of 51. In total, a little over 51% of the salary cap (including those below the Rule of 51 line) is dedicated to the defense.
Defensive line
Washington has $44.45M obligated to the salary cap for this group for the 2022 season, with a total of 11 players signed. Only $43M currently counts under the Rule of 51. The players with big cap hits are Jonathan Allen ($9.5M), Chase Young ($9.4M) Daron Payne ($8.529M), Matthew Ioannidis ($8.4M), and Montez Sweat ($3.7M). Everyone else are on contracts with 2022 cap hits of less than $1M, including 2020 draft pick James Smith-Williams, 2021 draft picks William Bradley-King and Shaka Toney, Casey Toohill, who was acquired off of waivers from Philadelphia, and futures contract recipients David Bada and Tyler Clark. This group takes up a total of 20.94% of the salary cap, not including the Rule of 51 exemptions. Two players, Bada and Clark, are below the Rule of 51 line. Allen is signed through 2025. Young, Smith-Williams, and Toohill are signed through 2023. Everyone else is only signed through 2022, although Washington holds a fifth year option for 2023 on Sweat. This is the most expensive individual position group on the team.
Middle linebackers
This group is easy. Washington only has one, David Mayo, who was re-signed last week to a one year, $1.187M extension that occupies 0.49% of available cap space. Washington has no other middle linebackers on the roster.
Outside linebackers
Washington only has 4 outside linebackers on the roster for the 2022 season, not including Landon Collins, who I’ve left in the safety group since that’s how the team lists him. Cole Holcomb is entering the final year of his rookie contract. He received a performance bonus for 2022 due to his play time in 2021, so his cap hit will be $2.598M. Last year’s first round pick, Jamin Davis, has a cap hit of $3.135M for 2022 and is signed through 2024, although the team holds a fifth year option on him for 2025. Khaleke Hudson has a $973K cap hit for 2022 and is signed through 2023 on his rookie deal. De’Jon Harris is also on the roster through 2022 with an $825K cap hit. In total, this group occupies 3.55% of the salary cap. In total, all linebackers, including the middle and outside linebackers, cost a combined $8.58M, which is 4.04% of available cap space.
Corners
Washington has 5 corners signed for 2022, with Kendall Fuller and William Jackson III on big money multiyear deals. Fuller has a 2022 cap hit of $11.125M and is signed through 2023. Jackson will count for $14M against the cap in 2022 and is signed through 2023, although 2024 and 2025 are voidable years in order to reduce his cap hit. 2021 rookie draft pick Benjamin St-Juste has a 2022 cap hit of $1.1M and is signed through 2024. Corn Elder and D.J. Hayden are both signed for 2022 with cap hits of $915K each. In total, this group currently occupies 16.05% of the 2022 salary cap as a result of the enormous contracts of Fuller and Jackson.
Safeties
Washington currently has 5 safeties under contract for the 2022 season. Of that group, Landon Collins and Darrick Forrest are both signed through 2024 at cap hits of $16.2M and $902K, respectively, for 2022. Kamren Curl’s rookie contract extends through 2023, and he has a cap hit of $923K for 2022. Deshazor Everett and Jeremy Reaves are both entering the final years of their contracts and have cap hits of $2.3M and $965K, respectively. In total, the safeties occupy a little over 10% of Washington’s total available cap space, due primarily to Collins and Everett. The entire secondary, including the corners and safeties, occupies a combined $49.4M in cap space, which is 26.08%.
That’s it for this week. The offense and specialist group will follow next week.
[1] Last year, two players, TE Tyrone Swoopes and guard Najee Toran, were signed to the roster for 2021 on futures deals but failed to report to camp. Washington requested roster exemptions for both players. Those exemptions were granted and they were placed on the Reserve/Did Not Report list for the 2021 season and did not count against the 2021 salary cap. Technically, those contracts should now roll over to 2022, but we have no information indicating that either man intends to report. Regardless, their contracts are both under the Rule of 51 line, so they are irrelevant in any case for purposes of the offseason salary cap. I mention them here for the sake of completeness. Technically, the team has 56 players on the roster for 2022, although the number is 54 in a practical sense.