The Denver Broncos are projected to be about $24 million over the salary cap this offseason. There are contract moves the team can make to create more cap space, but Denver probably won’t be able to re-sign all of its in-house free agents this spring.
Broncos coach Sean Payton is familiar with salary cap crunches. The New Orleans Saints were frequently up against the cap during Payton’s tenure, and the team still has the biggest cap deficit in the league two years after the coach left New Orleans. Payton left the Saints in a bit of a pinch. Now he’ll attempt to navigate a cap mess in Denver.
“The salary cap — those are challenges that every year you’re familiar with,” Payton said during the Broncos’ end-of-season press conference on Jan. 9. “I’m familiar with it. There [were], I think, three or four teams in the postseason this year that finished in the bottom four of our league, relative to cap issues or dead money.
“I’m not suggesting we’re going to have either or, or one or the other, but that’s part of the puzzle. That’s part of the puzzle. … It’s year-to-year and the fortunes can quickly change, or quickly go the other way. It’s a new puzzle every year. That’s what I began to see over time after having done this for a while. We begin that, in earnest, this week.”
The Kansas City Chiefs, who have advanced to Super Bowl LVIII, have just $2,826,341 in cap space this year, according to Spotrac.com. So being right up against the cap and still reaching the Super Bowl is feasible, but it’s probably not the best practice.
The San Francisco 49ers, with a starting quarterback on a rookie contract, are on the opposite end of the spectrum. The 49ers, who will face the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, have almost $38 million in cap space, most in the NFL.
The Broncos won’t be able to emulate San Francisco’s model anytime soon (due in part to Russell Wilson’s contract), and Payton’s history in New Orleans suggests he’s not interested in saving cap space. Denver will likely attempt to follow the Kansas City model, hoping to compete for titles while being right up against the cap.
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