The 5 O’Clock Club – Commander position spending and salary cap; how will Adam Peters change the roster in 2025?

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POSITION-RELATED EXPENSES

Bobby Gould published an article a few weeks ago about Sam Cosmi’s contract extension and some of what he said in that article prompted me to look at Over the Cap for details. I never found what I was looking for but did stumble upon a position spending chart I had seen before. I played with the chart for a few minutes (it’s sortable in either direction for each column in the chart) and thought I’d share some of the stats I found there.

When I started working on this article in early June, I immediately ran into a problem. The Commanders’ allocation for the quarterback position was very close to the $6 million cap hit that could be attributed to Marcus Mariota. I knew that couldn’t be right. A quick check confirmed what I already knew – that several of Washington’s draft picks were still unsigned. When I looked at the other teams, I realized that there were simply too many unsigned draft picks across the league for the chart to have any meaning.

I’ve decided to wait until mid-July and try again then. There are still 5 first-round picks from the draft of 24 that have not been signed yet, but I think it’s doable. I’ve listed those five players in the table below, along with the name and position of the player who falls out of the offseason top 51 calculation.

Given the general nature of positional spending and the limited number of items I want to focus on, adjustments for these 5 players/3 teams (if needed) should be sufficient. The difference in cap space between Day 2 and 3 picks and the player each replaces is small enough (and there are so few unsigned players) that this is trivial for the scope of this article.

Let’s look at some headlines that might be of interest to Washington fans.

The Commanders have the 8th cheapest offense in the NFL and have $106.9 million in salary cap.. I don’t even need to consider the Bears, Packers or Vikings, who all have unsigned first-round offensive players. Here is the list of the 7 cheapest offenses with their 2023 offensive ranking and record:

In general, these cheaper 2024 offenses were not highly ranked in 2023. Only the Bills were in the top 10 offenses and the Packers were the only other team in the top half of the league. The Bills and Steelers are the only teams with double-digit wins.

• The Bills – the most successful of the low-cost offenses mentioned above – had the ninth-highest spending on QB. Even with a rookie QB on the Commanders roster, 9 teams spend money fewer for the quarterback, including the Bears and the Vikings. The NFC champion 49ers are the lowest-paid player in the NFL at $5.6 million.
• Only 6 teams spend less on the OIL than Buffalo in 2024. The Bills spend $35.2 million on the OL; Washington is the next cheapest at $34.8 million. The Seahawks are the most frugal at $26.5 million. The Panthers spend the most cap space on those big uglies at $73.1 million. The Super Bowl champion Chiefs are No. 3 in OL spending at $70.6 million.
• Only the Rams spend less on the RB position ($5.13 million) than the Bills ($5.6 million). Washington ranks 18th in RB spending. The Saints spend $28 million, $13.1 million more than the next team on the list (the Cardinals). Alvin Kamara’s salary cap alone is higher than every other NFL team’s total cap at the RB position in 2024.
• The Bills have the fifth cheapest WR group in the NFL behind the Packers, Saints, Steelers and Ravens. The Commanders are the twelfth most expensive at $39.3 million. What the Niners save on QB, they spend on WR; San Francisco has the most expensive WR group in the league at $55.2 million.
• The invoices are largely unremarkable at close endranking 14th in the NFL. The Commanders rank 21st with a budget-friendly $9 million. The cheapest tight end room in the league is Arizona ($5.3 million), while the most expensive is the Chiefs ($26.5 million).

If we look at the defensive side of the ball, the picture changes somewhat.

Washington has the NFL’s 12th most expensive defense, which translates to $120 million in salary cap space. Not surprisingly, 5 of the 7 teams that spend less on offense than Washington spend more on defense than the Commanders. The two that don’t are the Buccaneers and the Bills. The 49ers rank 3rd in defense spending and the Ravens 8th.

• It will come as no surprise to anyone that the Commanders are number 1 in the league in terms of salary cap for inner defense line for $49.5 million. The Steelers and Falcons are the only other teams to spend more than $40 million on the position. The Cowboys spend the least cap space on the IDL of any NFL team, at just $10.6 million.
• Washington ranks 22nd in cap spending. Edge/DE Position at $20.7 million. The most expensive players in the league are the Chargers at $60.8 million (the Raiders are number 2 at $43.7 million). No one spends less on this position than the Rams at $13.5 million.
• The Commanders are in the league average in LB The spending cap is $15.6 million. The Bears spend the most ($35.7 million) and the Chargers spend the least ($9 million).
• At SecurityWashington is back in the middle of the pack at 18th place with $14.6 million. The Cardinals spend the most ($35.5 million), while the Jets spend only $4.9 million on this position.
• At this point, it will be no surprise that Washington is in the middle of the league in CB Cap spending of $19.5 million. Nobody spends more on CBs than the Jets ($38.5 million) and nobody spends less than the Chiefs ($13 million).

I think it’s worth noting that since the Commanders have so many players on one-year (or expiring) contracts, the salary cap numbers for Washington are pretty telling as to how much contract money is actually being spent on the position groups.

Cap Space Update

Now that all of Washington’s draft picks are under contract, it seems like a good time to update the Commanders’ estimated salary cap space. According to Over the Cap, the current estimated available salary cap space is $37 million.

This number is by no means final. First of all, it is based on only 51 players, according to the offseason rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The final roster will, of course, include 53 players and an additional 16 practice squad members subject to the team’s salary cap (and one player in the International Player Pathway program paid by the league).

As players get injured during the season and have to be replaced by others, this will likely mean $5-8 million in salary cap space.

At the end of the season, adjustments are made for things like bonuses earned, player benefits paid out, and the like.

When all is said and done, I expect the Commanders will likely free up between $24 million and $30 million in unused salary cap space.

Currently, Over the Cap estimates the Commanders’ available salary cap space for 2025 at $71.2 million. That number could rise to around $100 million once the rollover is applied, with the possibility of increasing the amount further if Washington considers giving up any of its high-priced player contracts.

In 2025, Adam Peters will have the opportunity to reshape the roster and use of salary cap space to suit his goals. Entering the 2025 season, only 4 players currently under contract will have salary cap hits over $10 million: Terry McLaurin, Daron Payne, Jonathan Allen, and Andrew Wylie. For each of these 4 players, the team will increase their available salary cap space by cutting or trading them. If Adam Peters were to actually trade all 4 players, he would be able to reallocate $38.9 million in salary cap space to optimize the roster and allocation of salary cap space.

While the current roster appears to be largely filled with “placeholders” that will allow the team to field a competitive but unspectacular team in 2024, Adam Peters appears ready to use the 2025 draft, free agency and salary cap space to make major strides toward his “ideal” roster next offseason when he will have almost total freedom to shape it as he sees fit.