Free Agents - Cap Space - who stays, who's gone

[trharder]

I fully respect those fans who are really into the draft, but I'm not one of them.

I am, however, very interested in who stays and who will not be on the team next year.
Going back to my previous bias, I don't want to see them burn cap by paying Woolen.
I see K9 is predicted at about 9 mill / year. That doesn't seem that bad, although it's unlikely he will ever have
as healthy a season as he did this year.

[Sibelius Hindemith]

Here's the complete list via Spotrac...

Screenshot_20260215_120214_Chrome.jpg (191.04 KiB) Viewed 115 times

[trharder]

Types of Free Agents
Unrestricted free agent (UFA)
Any player with four or more accrued seasons and an expired contract; free to negotiate and sign with any team.

Restricted free agent (RFA)
A player with three accrued seasons and an expired contract. RFAs are free to negotiate and sign with any team, but their original team can offer them one of various qualifying offers ("tenders") that come with the Right of First Refusal and/or draft-pick compensation. If the tender is withdrawn by a team, the RFA becomes an unrestricted free agent. Teams must submit these tenders before the start of the 2025 League Year (4 p.m. ET on March 12). These amounts change annually but the following numbers are for the 2025 season (players can choose either (a) or (b) regardless of which is greater in the applicable tenders below).

The RFA tenders are classified as follows:

First-round tender: One-year contract worth the greater of (a) $7.458 million or (b) 110 percent of the player's prior-year base salary. If the player's original team decides not to match an offer sheet signed with another team, it is entitled to a first-round draft pick from his new team. Unless received two days or later prior to the NFL Draft, draft compensation for each tender is due in the same League Year as the offer sheet is signed.

A signed offer sheet with a new team includes Principal Terms that must be matched by the prior club. However, if the new team includes a term(s) that waives or limits its ability to designate the RFA a franchise player in the future, the prior team will not have to match this term if it has tendered the player with an offer worth $500,000 more than the first-round tender ($7.458 million in 2025).
Second-round tender: One-year contract worth the greater of (a) $5.346 million or (b) 110 percent of the player's prior-year base salary. Draft-choice compensation: second-round pick.
Original-round tender: One-year contract worth the greater of (a) $3.406 million or (b) 110 percent of the player's prior-year base salary. Draft-choice compensation: a pick in the round the player was originally drafted in.
Right-of-first-refusal tender: One-year contract worth $3.263 million. Team has the right to match any offer sheet signed with another team, but there is no draft compensation tied to this tender.
Upgraded Tender: If a team places a first-round tender on a player who was selected outside of the first round, it can only receive a second-round pick as compensation for any of its other RFAs who were first-round draft picks. The same is true for the second-round tender—if a team uses it on a player drafted in the third round or lower, it can only receive a third-round pick for any other second-round RFA it intends to tender.

Example: The Saints used a first-round RFA tender on QB/RB/WR/TE Taysom Hill during the 2020 offseason. Had the Saints had any RFAs who were former first-round picks, it would only have been able to receive a second-round selection in return for a declined offer sheet.
Exclusive rights free agent (ERFA)
Any player with fewer than three accrued seasons and an expired contract. If his original team offers him a one-year contract at the league minimum (based on his credited seasons), the player cannot negotiate with other teams.

Accrued seasons
Used to determine a player's free agency status (unrestricted, restricted, exclusive rights). In order to accrue a season, a player must have been on (or should have been on) full-play status for at least six regular-season games in a given season. A player under contract must report to his team’s training camp on his mandatory reporting date to earn an accrued season. If player holds out his services for a “material period of time,” he is also at risk of not accruing a season.

Credited seasons
Used as a measure for many benefits, it most notably determines a player's minimum salary. To earn a credited season, a player must be on (or should have been on) full-pay status for a total of three or more regular season games.

Below is a list of minimum salaries based on credited seasons for the 2025 season:

0 seasons ($840,000)
1 season ($960,000)
2 seasons ($1,030,000)
3 seasons ($1,100,000)
4-6 seasons ($1,170,000)
7+ seasons ($1,255,000)

[Seattle or Bust]

Probably tag K9.

I'd like them to re-sign Woolen.

Clearly need to bring back Drake Thomas and Ty Okada.

Everyone else can go sign elsewhere given projected value and impact.

[trharder]

JSN and Spoon are likely to have the 5th-year option exercised. According to AI "Grok" -

JSN would make this year $2,715,996 (base salary/cash payout) cap hit in 2026 is around $4.587 million.
In 2027 he would make between $24-25 million guaranteed. cap hit - same.

Spoon would make $5.095 million in 2026. His cap hit is around $10.138 million.
In 2027 he would make approximately $21.414 million (fully guaranteed cash and cap hit that year;

https://operations.nfl.com/inside-footb ... -language/

[trharder]

ProFootballTalk
@ProFootballTalk
·
9h
Cooper Kupp's $9 million in 2026 full guarantees vested last week, which means the Seahawks intend to keep him for the second season of his three-year deal.

[trharder]

How about this:
It was a good trade because Shaheed had some huge plays on special teams and stretched the field in a way that none of the other receivers could have.
+1 for Michael and Donn
It wouldn't be a good idea to sign him at projected market value ($14 mil per) with Horton back and so many other players they could use that money to keep like Walker, Woolen and Bryant.
+1 for SorB
Now can we just agree to disagree on the finer points regarding his value as a receiver and move on to other topics...

$14 mil does seem high for Shaheed, I'm not going to lie, but I'd rather see them let Woolen leave so we could keep Shaheed, not
the other way around. Woolen will not get smarter after he gets paid.

[trharder]

It seems the Hawks are OK with moving on from K9 and will look to draft a RB... at least based on reporting... which I struggle with given that the same reporters said the Hawks were looking to hire an OC within and then went and nabbed someone from the 49ers.

The reports are saying the Seahawks aren't going to franchise tag K9. But the thing is, the Seahawks almost never use the franchise tag.
They tagged a kicker once and tagged Frank Clark and then traded him.
I think they will re-sign K9 and also draft a RB, so knock yourself out with what RB that will be...

[Donn Beach]

The franchise tag is still probably a little high terms of his value but it does buy you a year. That might have some importance with the rb situation as it is

[HawkandMariner88]

-K9
-Spoon
-Shaheed

Can't let him go to Vegas