With the release of veteran safety Barry Church and the talk from defensive tackle Malik Jackson knowing his time in Jacksonville is limited, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the Jacksonville Jaguars salary cap and what it’s going to look like in 2019. A lot of fans seem to be concerned because as of right now, the Jaguars are projected to be over the cap which means they’ll need to shed salary to get under to make some moves.

It’s not as dire straits as some would lead you to believe, especially since some of the salary shedding was already planned.

First, the 2019 salary cap is going to grow by at least $10 million. That has already been announced, so to take the conservative route we will use that figure. With that figure, the Jaguars are projected to be $18 million over the cap. So you push that extra $10 million and now they’re sitting at $8 million over the cap. The aforementioned Barry Church shaves another $6.25 million which puts the Jaguars right around $2 million over the cap.

As it stands as of the time of me writing this, the Jaguars also have $11 million in current cap room. I have not verified it just yet, but I believe that can be rolled over into 2019. For this exercise, we’re going to assume we cannot roll that $11 million over. If they can however, you can clearly see that puts them under the cap.

Now, going off where we currently stand at ($2M) the team can/will release Jackson for a cap savings of $11 million which would bring the Jaguars to $9 million in cap room. Now you release Blake Bortles, without the post-June 1 designation and eat all the dead cap now. That’s an additional $4.5 million savings at minimum, as Bortles has off-set language up to $6 million. That would bring the Jaguars cap space to roughly $13.5 million. Next you release Jermey Parnell for an additional savings of $6 million, bringing their cap room to $19.5 million.

You can also do some things like release Austin Seferian-Jenkins for a savings of $4.75 million, Carlos Hyde for $4.75 million, Niles Paul for $2 million (Jaguars released Niles Paul today) and Tashaun Gipson for $7.45 million. I’m not sure if they do all of that, but if they do I also do not think it’s going to huge losses or players you cannot replace. That would bring their cap room to a total of $38.5 million. Mind you, this is not including any roll over whatsoever because I have no verified how much they have to do that, if any.

This isn’t even making the big cuts some people expect like Calais Campbell (+$9.5 million) or Marcell Dareus (+$10.585M) or restructuring people like Dareus or A.J. Bouye. The latter you could restructure and get cap relief of around $8 million.

So, as I just show, I created $38.5 million in cap room without losing any vital pieces on the Jaguars defense or offense and all positions they’d likely be replacing anyway. The Jaguars were never going to be expected to be big players in free agency in 2019, but that kind of room also allows you to sign a player or two if you see the need or re-sign some of your own players like Yannick Ngakoue or Jalen Ramsey. This is another reason why it makes the most sense for the Jaguars to draft a quarterback with the first round pick, getting the most important position on a cheap controlled contract going forward.

So please, stop worrying about the salary cap or about how they need to blow up the roster. They don’t.