The Arizona Cardinals are a little less than a month away from the start of NFL free agency. That means the salary cap space they have will matter.
The Cardinals have about $41 million in cap space, based on Over the Cap’s numbers. It is the ninth-most cap space in the league.
The team can do some things that will free up space.
Below are some of the top cap-saving moves the Cardinals can make. We go over the numbers and whether or not they will make them.
Trade (or cut) S Budda Baker
Cap savings: $14.6 million
Baker counts $18.5 million against the cap this year in the final year of his contract. If traded, they will save $14.6 million against the cap. He will want to be extended or traded.
His deal will count $3.9 million in dead money.
Will it happen? I think he will be either traded or extended.
Cut LT D.J. Humphries
Cap savings: $9 million
Humphries is signed through 2025. He tore his ACL at the end of the year. However, he could be cut. He has no injury guarantees in his contract.
Cutting him would save a little more than $9 million in cap space and would carry $13.8 million in dead money.
While he will not likely be able to play until December if at all, it would be a bad look in the locker room to cut a team captain while he is hurt.
My guess is they will keep him on the roster, have him play in December and then trade him next offseason.
Cut LB Kyzir White
Cap savings: $4 million
White is due $5 million in salary in 2024, with $1 million fully guaranteed.
Cutting him would cost $1 million in actual money and count $2.7 million in dead money, and they would have to find a new linebacker.
This isn’t likely going to happen.
Cut OL Will Hernandez
Cap savings: $4.1 million
Hernandez has one year left on his contract and is due to make $3.15 million. Cutting him would create $1.25 million in dead money and they would have to find a new starting right guard.
This isn’t a likely move that will happen.
Cut K Matt Prater
Cap savings: $3.5 million
Prater was great last season but did miss a game-winning kick against the Seahawks in Week 18.
He has one year left on his contract and is due to make $3.5 million. Cutting him would create $1.25 million in dead money and a need to find another kicker.
Cut C Hjalte Froholdt
Cap savings: $3.2 million
Froholdt was a surprise starter at center all season and wasn’t bad. He will count nearly $3.8 million against the cap this season. If cut, his contract would carry $550,000 in dead money, which isn’t much.
However, then they would need to have a new center and to have him get in a rhythm with Kyler Murray. This doesn’t seem likely.
Cut LB Dennis Gardeck
Cap savings: $3.1 million
Gardeck enters the final year of his three-year, $12 million contract. After leading the team with six sacks last season, he is due $2.61 in salary. Cutting him would create $667,000 in dead money.
It would seem unlikely they would cut a team captain and sack leader when he is relatively inexpensive for what he does.
Cut WR Zach Pascal
Cap savings: $1.92 million
Pascal signed a two-year, $4.5 million deal last offseason and he was great in the locker room, as a blocker and on special teams. But he is a fourth or fifth receiver. Due nearly $2 million in salary, he is perhaps the most likely cut candidate. Cutting him costs $750,000 in dead money.
Cut OL Dennis Daley
Cap savings: $1.6 million
Daley looked like he was going to be a starter before he got hurt in the preseason. By the end of the year, he was a healthy scratch.
He is likely to go. Cutting him will cost only $175,000 in dead money.
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