Salary Cap: Can the Jets afford to sign their rookies?

The Jets have pushed their cap constraints to the limit this year as they seek to strengthen their roster to make a run at a playoff spot. The same question that pops up every year is whether they have enough cap space to sign their rookies and the answer is always "Yes, comfortably." Is this year any different?

Here's where they currently stand:

The NFLPA database currently has the Jets at $3,115,925 in available cap space.

Only the Bucs and Seahawks have less cap room than this and Jason from OverTheCap.com projects that they will need to make other cap saving moves before they can pay their rookies. He also lists the Giants, Falcons, Dolphins and Bills as teams that will be tight against the cap once they've signed their rookies.

He does not, however, list the Jets among these teams, mainly because the John Franklin-Myers trade is not yet reflected in the NFLPA numbers. Although that trade saved them $7.3m, the net saving is closer to $6m and OTC's number for cap room reflects this already at $9.2m.

While the cap value of the rookie pools for the seven draft picks the Jets made is almost essentially the same at $9.2m, the net cost will be much lower than this since adding these seven contracts will bump seven other contracts out of the current top-51. The actual net cost should therefore be between $3m and $4m.

In conclusion, the Jets essentially already had enough money to pay their rookies BEFORE the Franklin-Myers trade and that net saving of about $6m will therefore potentially be available to further improve the team.