Raiders in good position with $4.5 million in salary cap space carry over

The Raiders came into this off-season with a few contracts that needed addressing. Contract numbers for the 2013 season had them sitting at $9 million over the salary cap. Then one more piece of information was revealed on Wednesday that many had forgotten about - the 2012 unused salary cap carry-over money.

As part of the new CBA, teams are allowed to carry over any unused salary cap money from previous seasons. Believe it or not, after all the salary slashing the Raiders did last season, they ended up $4.5 million under the 2012 salary cap.

That unused cap money can be added onto the 2013 salary cap figure should the Raiders so choose to do so. If they do, their cap ceiling raises to $125.6 million.

The top ten salary cap hits for the Raiders reach $104, 877,104 according to numbers acquired by CSN Bay Area. The remaining current player salaries add up to a total of $25,009,500. After that there is $2,326,000 in dead money. For a total against the cap of $132,212,600. That puts the Raiders at just $6,612,500 over the salary cap.

That alone is not a bad place to be with regard to the salary cap. And that's before Richard Seymour's $19 million cap hit is off the books as well as several of the expected cuts are made.

In the end, the Raiders should be in very good position to be players in free agency.

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