It should be noted that the $19 mil cap space includes NOTHING for Shields and EDS, both restricted FAs.
The consensus seems to be EDS will draw a 2nd. round tender...that would result in a $2 mil cap hit. He might even draw a 1st. round tender when you consider he's the only guy on the roster who can snap the ball, other than a PS guy picked up last month. That would be a $2.9 mil hit.
The consensus also seems to peg Shields at a 2nd. round tender as well. Personally, I think that would be a mistake. More than one team would be willing to give up that pick for a quality #2 cover corner (if not #1). We could always match the highest offer (in which case TT would probably go out back and flagellate himself), so you'd think he'd work to avoid that with the 1st. round tender.
So, EDS and Shields knock that $19 mil down to $13 - $14 mil.
Crabtree, Zombo and Francois are also RFA's, but the low tender is $1.3 mil. Only Crabtree might draw that, or he might not be tendered at all. If tendered, he'll roll one of the min salary guys out of the top 51...about a $900,000 cap hit.
That takes you down to $12 - $13 mil.
You often see the draft picks estimated at $5 mil per team. But you have to subtract the cap hits of the guys they displace. If, for example, you kept 7 draftees at $5 mil, but cut 7 minimum salary guys at around $500k each to make room, the draft should cost about $2.5 mil in cap hit.
Now we're down around $10 mil. And teams usually like to keep a few million cushion.
We could probably extend both Rodgers and Matthews without any hit to the 2013 cap...but it would require very fat signing bonuses in "cap friendly" deals. Those deals would be crushing in terms of escalating cap hits down the road, or the dreaded dead cap if these players get hurt or go into decline down the road. Matthews is a concern on this latter count.
I think somebody else of note would have to be cut to make those numbers. Finley, Pickett, T. Williams. Of course, we'd all like to send Hawk packing, but that's only $2 - $2.5 mil in cap savings (depending on the source), unless we cut him after 6/1. But that just pushes the dead cap problem to next year.
So...somebody needs to explain to me how we're going to overpay Raji for inconsistent performance in an extension? Wouldn't it be ironic if Pickett were cut to sign Raji long term?
If anybody thinks we should sign Benson, B. Jones or Walden, they're FAs and not counted in the numbers above. All of these guys would make more than the guys at the bottom of the top 51, so you'd have to subtract some from the cap space...something like $500,000 per player.
Woodson was not a choice...it was nearly an imperative.