Tennessee Titans Salary Cap Update

It has recently been reported that the Titans have about $9M in cap space entering the 2013 season. This is always a fluid situation, and from time to time I like to look in on what the Titans are doing with their contracts and see what they really have. So let's do a little math.

They currently have $9,896,815 in cap space with their top 51 contracts accounted for.

This number doesn't include Justin Hunter's new deal which has a base salary of $405,000 and as well as a signing bonus of $2.3M. I don't have the information on how they will distribute his signing bonus, but if you spread that evenly over his 4 year deal, that's another $580,000 in year one.

There are also two rookies left unsigned by the Titans in Blidi Wreh-Wilson* and Chance Warmack. I'm expecting about a $13M deal for Chance Warmack with around an $8M signing bonus. For the sake of this prediction we will use a $2.5M cap hit for 2013. BWW's cap hit should be more around the $500,000 mark.

The other rookies that the Titans have signed are also not reflected in the cap number, yet.

Zaviar Gooden, Brian Schwenke, Lavar Edwards, Khalid Wooten and Daimion Stafford each have base salaries of $405,000 with various signing bonuses that aren't associated with this year. Partly due to the new CBA, these signing bonuses are so small that if the Titans cut all the rookies just mentioned, there would only be a total cap hit of $1.5M due and none of the base salary due.

There are a handful of other players that may or may not make the team, which will affect this cap number once they are on the opening day roster. So let's adjust for all the rookie contracts.

$9.9M to start with available.

-$2.5M for Warmack

-$985,00 for Hunter

-$500,000 for BWW

-$1.65M for the rest of the rookies, (they all make around $400k each in their first year).

= $4.26M

Now after signing the rookies, the Titans have 56 men on the final roster counting against the cap. Assuming the likes of Jalen Parmele, Kasey Studdard, and Keyunta Dawson are the ones to get the ax, that would free up about $1.825M. This number will fluctuate obviously depending on who gets cut towards the beginning of the season, but the majority of the players "on the bubble" are scheduled to make under $700k.

Once you account for the cuts, the Titans usable cap room at this point is right around $6M. They will probably leave this alone in order to leave some wiggle room in case of injury and the need arises to sign someone at a later date. You could also expect to see the Titans accelerate bonuses due on some contracts, once they feel their roster is set, in order to free up future money.

Next Up: A look at the Titans 2014 Free Agents and Cap Space.

* Update: Blidi Wreh-Wilson has now signed his contract.