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Oakland Raiders: Comprehensive Cap Breakdown

By Nick Hjeltness

Sep 30, 2014; Alameda, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie at a press conference to introduce Tony Sparano (not pictured) as Raiders interim coach at the Raiders practice facility. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 30, 2014; Alameda, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie at a press conference to introduce Tony Sparano (not pictured) as Raiders interim coach at the Raiders practice facility. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /
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December 21, 2014; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie (left) and owner Mark Davis (right) before the game against the Buffalo Bills at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
December 21, 2014; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie (left) and owner Mark Davis (right) before the game against the Buffalo Bills at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports /

A comprehensive breakdown of the Oakland Raiders roster and salary cap. How many players are under contract, how much cap is available, and more.

After a few moves to start the offseason, the Oakland Raiders stood at roughly $71M in available cap space. This includes a $13M carryover from last season and then the release and re-signing of Nate Allen.

Marquette King was re-signed to a five-year, $16.5M contract, and tenders were extended to Matt McGloin, Neiko Thorpe, and Benson Mayowa. This puts the Raiders at just above $60M in available cap space.

According to Over The Cap, Oakland has 52 players under contract for next season. 11 of those are players with non-guaranteed contracts that played either no or very little snaps last season. Some of them were only signed to futures contracts. Releasing those players would save $5.5M combined.

Those players are Giorgio Tavecchio, Chris Hackett, Garrett Gilbert, Mitchell Bell, SaQwan Edwards, George Atkinson III, Tevin McDonald, John Lotulelei, Richard Gordon, and Dewey McDonald.

Other players such as Jimmy Hall ($13,334 in dead money, $443,332 in savings), Mychal Rivera ($26,213 in dead money, $1,671M in savings) and Andre Debose ($57,759 in dead money, $411,494 in savings) could all be released with little financial repercussion. But we’ll spare them for now.

Matt McCants is a likely option to be released if the Raiders can find offensive line help, and Roy Helu is also likely to be gone. McCants would save $1.6M and Helu would save $2M.

So let’s add McCants and Helu on top of the salary saved from the aforementioned group of 11 players, totaling an additional $9.1M in savings. That would bring Oakland up to $69.1M in available cap space.

The last two restricted free agents that are likely to be taken care of are Denico Autry and Seth Roberts. For easy math purposes, let’s say they combine for a cap hit of $5M. That brings the Raiders down to $64.1M in cap space.

Based on the team that had the 14th overall selection last season, Oakland will spend about $6.2M on draft picks, assuming the number of picks they have (which is eight) stays the same. That number can go up or down slightly depending on if they gain or trade away any draft picks.

That drops the available cap space down to $57.9M. Also, the Raiders only have $420,336 in dead money, but that is already taken into account with the $57.9M number.

The 2016 Salary Cap was set at $155,270,000. With the cap carryover from last year, Oakland’s adjusted cap number is $168,332,753. With the estimations and hypothetical moves made in this column, that puts the Raiders at roughly $110.4M in total cap.

If McKenzie spends close to exactly what is required to reach the cap floor, he’ll have about $16M in cap space remaining. He’ll want to save some cash, as Derek Carr and Gabe Jackson will be up for extensions. Khalil Mack has a 5th-year option and his extension will likely come once that option has been exercised.

Back to the three players that were spared previously – Hall, Rivera, and Debose. Let’s say Oakland releases all three of those players ($2.3M in savings), on top of the group of 11 that were mentioned together, and then McCants and Helu as well. That is a total of 16 roster spots that become available. But then Autry and Roberts were hypothetically re-signed, bringing that number down to 14 available roster spots.

So 14 available roster spots and back up to $60.2M in cap space. Donald Penn could obviously affect this as well.

Oakland has eight draft picks, presumably all of which will make the team. That leaves six spots available via free agency. Of course, it won’t work out as exact as that, but it’s a pretty good idea of what to expect. A player that is a UDFA can surprise and make the roster, some sort of trade can take place, or Oakland can add or trade away draft picks.

But six free agent signings is a realistic number to expect. The Raiders signed 11 last year, but three of them didn’t make the 53-man roster. So they could sign more than six free agents, with the expectation that a few of them might not make the roster.

So with the rough estimation of signing six free agents and spending at least $42M in cap space, who do you want Oakland to sign?

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