Salary Cap Growing

According to Adam Schefter of the NFL Network the salary cap will grow in 2009.Teams didn’t spend as much as they were supposed to under the collective bargaining agreement the past three years, therefore the salary cap will increase over $4 million to $127 million for this coming year. The collective bargaining agreement calls for cap adjustment down if teams spend over the cap in cash and adjustment up if they don’t spend up to the cap. Teams believed they would see a mild increase in the salary cap, but this is bigger than teams expected.The increase defies logic in this tough economic time, but as we are less than 24 hours from the start of free agency, teams actually will have more flexibility and salary-cap room.For teams such as the Colts and Panthers, who are pressed against the cap, this is tremendous news and not such good news for teams such as the Buccaneers and Chiefs, who were way under the cap. Now their advantage is somewhat compromised.

14 Players Tagged

A record 14 players were given the franchise tag designation from their respective teams. Here is a complete list of all the tagged players. Prior to this season the previous record for taggings was 11 set twice in 2005 and 2008.
Arizona: LB Karlos Dansby
Atlanta: P Michael Koenen
Baltimore: LB Terrell Suggs
Carolina: DE Julius Peppers
Cincinnati: K Shayne Graham
Houston: CB Dunta Robinson
New England: QB Matt Cassel
N.Y. Giants: RB Brandon Jacobs
Pittsburgh: OT Max Starks
San Diego: RB Darren Sproles
St. Louis: S Oshiomogho Atogwe
Seattle: LB Leroy Hill
Tampa Bay: WR Antonio Bryant
Tennessee: TE Bo Scaife

49ers cut two, more to follow?

In a cap clearing move the San Francisco 49ers have released two players today, LB Tully Banta-Cain and special-teamer Keith Lewis.Banta-Cain who joined the team in 2007 via free agency from New England was solid in his first season with the team notching a career high 59 tackles in 16 games, but virtually vanished in 2008 where he tallied just 12 tackles and played exclusively on special teams.Lewis, a 6th round pick of the teams in 2004 is a special teams regular who made only 13 starts in 5 seasons in the teams secondary, but none since 2006.This move clears up approximately $2 Million in salary cap space, which lead to speculation that more cuts will be made soon. One of which might be the release of Offensive tackle Jonas Jennings, who at 31 years old has played less that half on the games since signing a $36 Million contract in 2005. Cuitting the oft-injured tackle would save the team around $3 Million.

Coaching Carousel

No longer an Interim Head Coach, Mike Singletary signs 4 year extension.

Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz is fired

Quarterbacks coach Ted Tollner and running backs coach Tony Nathan have also been released.

Former 49ers Fullback Tom Rathman has been hired as new running backs coach.