Jaxson De Ville
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- Mar 19, 2019
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At his season-ending press conference, Jaguars General Manager Dave Caldwell said he was bracing for a challenging offseason, in large part because his team had so little salary cap space. Rebuilding the Jaguars’ roster may still prove challenging, but cap space is no longer constraining the Jaguars.
Today’s decision to trade A.J. Bouye to the Broncos, combined with the decisions not to pick up the options of Marcel Dareus and Jake Ryan, have freed up a whopping $37 million in cap space, according to Spotrac.com.
The Jaguars, who were over the projected salary cap as of last month, are now under the cap by an estimated $33 million. They’re still closer to the bottom of the league than the top in terms of available cap space, but they now have plenty of room to operate.
When the Jaguars place the franchise tag on defensive end Yannick Ngakoue, that will take up about $19 million in cap space. But he’ll only be there as long as it takes the Jaguars to find a trade partner.
Jacksonville is also well positioned to draft some good players, who are cost-controlled thanks to the league’s rookie salary structure. The Jaguars already had an extra first-round pick from the Jalen Ramsey trade and now have an extra fourth-round pick from the Bouye trade. They should get more picks from Ngakoue, and possibly from trading Nick Foles.
So now the Jaguars’ offseason appears to be challenging less because of the absence of cap space than because of the importance of hitting on all those draft picks. This year’s draft will go a long way toward determining what kind of roster the Jaguars have going forward.