re: Saints 2014 Offseason Thread

It's not already figured in. The whole confusion about draft picks I think arose from the top 51 rule. Starting around the third round, guys are barely making over the rookie minimum, so including a small signing bonus, they barely eat into the cap. 5th/6th/7th rounders may get no signing bonus or get something in the ~$20k range, so they pretty much don't affect the cap at all. They could even free up a little cap space for the team if their previously 51st highest paid player was counting as a 2nd year vet min against the cap (which is the case for ALL vets on one year minimum deals, regardless of experience).

Another bit of confusion is probably from draft picks not counting against the cap until they're actually signed, so you don't have to worry about them at the start of FA. Teams can just go up against the cap and then cut a fairly low cost vet to free up the space whenever they want to sign their picks.