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Their cap situation will also improve markedly next Thursday, when the NFL's 2011 league year belatedly begins. Peter Ruocco, the league's senior vice president of labor relations, confirmed Thursday that all dead money — money amortized from the contracts of cut or traded players — will come off the salary caps of all NFL teams in the new league year. That will clear roughly $17 million off the Broncos' books and put them well under the $120 million cap.
This provision of the new collective bargaining agreement was first reported locally by the Mile High Report, a Broncos blog that quoted the relevant portion of the as-yet- unpublished CBA. It will ease salary cap pressure on a number of teams, but few more so than the Broncos because of their high player turnover in the past couple of years.
In effect, teams were permitted to dump all their dead money into the uncapped 2010 league year, when there were no rules governing the amortization of signing bonuses. Salary cap figures provided to player agents by the players' association presumed those cap rules would continue operating through the uncapped year, but Ruocco said they did not. Those rules resume with the new league year, but dead money from players cut after June 1 don't show up on team caps until 2012.
As a result, the Broncos should retain a modest amount of cap room even after they've signed their 2011 draft picks, which they were well on their way to doing Thursday. It may not be enough to support high-profile free-agent signings, but then, they may not make many high-profile free-agent signings.
This provision of the new collective bargaining agreement was first reported locally by the Mile High Report, a Broncos blog that quoted the relevant portion of the as-yet- unpublished CBA. It will ease salary cap pressure on a number of teams, but few more so than the Broncos because of their high player turnover in the past couple of years.
In effect, teams were permitted to dump all their dead money into the uncapped 2010 league year, when there were no rules governing the amortization of signing bonuses. Salary cap figures provided to player agents by the players' association presumed those cap rules would continue operating through the uncapped year, but Ruocco said they did not. Those rules resume with the new league year, but dead money from players cut after June 1 don't show up on team caps until 2012.
As a result, the Broncos should retain a modest amount of cap room even after they've signed their 2011 draft picks, which they were well on their way to doing Thursday. It may not be enough to support high-profile free-agent signings, but then, they may not make many high-profile free-agent signings.
Basically, it looks like we'll wait until August 4th to make any significant moves in terms of signing free agents.
FA Targets: DT Jason Jones, DT Pat Simms, S Reggie Smith, LB Dan Connor 
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