Here is how I see it. Assuming we are right up against the CAP now @ 120 million. Assuming the CAP will go up to 127 million.
Data from Sportrac.
Jeff Garcia Unable to find what we paid him.
Jake Delhomme Unable to find what we paid him.
Quintin Demps cap hit was $668,750 this past season.
Dominique Barber cap hit was $587,000 this past season.
Arian Foster cap hit was $525,000 this past season.
Joel Dreessen cap hit was $1.225 million this past season.
Jason Allen cap hit was $1.23 million this past season, assuming we took over his original contract with the Dolphins.
Chris Myers cap hit was $3.5 million this past season.
Neil Rackers cap hit was $2.15 million this past season.
Matt Turk cap hit was $2 million this past season.
Derrick Ward cap hit was $1.75 million this past season.
Jon Weeks cap hit was $405,000 this past seaason.
Mario Williams cap hit was $15.15 million this past season.
That is roughly $36 million to play with. Plus whatever we paid those 2 vet QB's.
I really only see the Texans resigning Chris Myers, Arian Foster and Mario Williams. And maybe 1 or 2 others depending on their cost and value to the team. The others are more easily replaceable.
Jon Weeks is replaceable, but Kubiak seems to put a premium on deep snapping.
Neil Rackers could be replaced, but Kubiak will want a vet kicker. Neil has to be willing to keep his cap hit down.
Jake Delhomme and Jeff Garcia are gone.
Jason Allen will easily be replaced by Brandon Harris & Roc Carmichael.
Derrick Ward will easily be replaced by our draft class.
Joel Dreessen might be retained with a friendly cap number, but can be replaced by Garrett Graham.
Matt Turk will be replaced by Brett Hartmann.
Quintin Demps and Dominique Barber will be replaced by our draft class.
I would put Mario's cap hit around $10 million his first year. Foster, $7 million, Myers $5 million.
That is only $22 million. Even if I am off a few million here or there, it looks to be very achievable.
Great effort compiling all that, but there are a few more things to consider.
I added up those contracts you posted and got 29.19 million, not 36. Maybe someone else can double check the math for us.
Garcia and Delhomme didn't make enough this year to effect the 2012 cap of the Texans. If either gets re-signed, that new money will of course count. Matt Turk made 2 million deal with Jax, but was released. We likely paid him minimum for the games he played (terms were undisclosed), which means there won't be any significant money to count towards your total. Mike Brisiel is also a free agent this year, but I don't know what he makes, I would assume around 500k.
Contracts that will be going up next year:
Andre Johnson at at 6,000,000 6,500,000
DeMeco Ryans at at 5,800,000 5,900,000
Matt Schaub at at 5,700,000 7,150,000
Antonio Smith at at 4,600,000 5,500,000
Eric Winston at at 4,500,000 5,500,000
Kevin Walter at at 3,000,000 3,500,000
Matt Leinart at at 2,500,000 3,000,000 (probably will be cut)
Wade Smith at at 1,750,000 2,000,000
Rashad Butler at at 1,017,280 1,532,720
Brian Cushing at at 774,000 1,153,000
Kareem Jackson at at 405,000 700,000
Total cost 6.389 million in escalations from those contracts alone.
There are 12 rookie deals that will all be going up 85k each this year for a total cost of 1.02 million in escalations.
Contracts going down next year:
Shaun Cody at at 3,500,000 2,250,000
Savings of 1.25 million
Contract bought out:
David Anderson WR 333,333
Savings of 333k
Wild cards - Don't know the year-to-year salaries/bonuses:
Jonathan Joseph's deal
Daniel Manning's deal
JJ Watt, Reed, Harris, etc deals
Any of these deals could go up or down. For our purposes let's assume they stay the same.
Adding up all the costs and savings I get 6.033 million in extra cost next year. Subtract that and 2 million for Turk from your 36 million and you get approximately 28 million in free capspace to work with. If the total is 29 million as I got from adding your contracts, we have only 21 million to work with. Which makes it much more difficult to sign Foster, Mario and Myers.