Here is what you need to know on this Tuesday, April 3, 23 days before the NFL draft.

How much cap space will the Redskins need to sign their draft picks?

The Redskins have $17.2 million in remaining cap space and eight picks in the upcoming draft. Some fans are thinking that paying the draft picks will eat up a good chunk of that cap space. But the reality is that it won’t. Here's why.

Their top pick is at No. 13 overall. Per the NFL’s slotting system for rookie deals, we know that this player’s contract, no matter what position he plays, will have a 2018 cap hit of $2.631 million (all salaries rounded to the nearest $1,000, cap information via Over the Cap).

The Redskins’ next pick comes in the second round, the 44th pick overall. That deal will cost $1.166 million in 2018 cap space. This year’s cap hits for the rest of their picks are as follows.

4 (109)—$657,000

5 (142)—$558,000

5 (163)—$547,000

6 (188)—$520,000

7 (231)—$503,000

7 (241)—$499,000

That totals $7.1 million (may not be exact due to rounding). That would put quite a dent in the Redskins’ remaining cap space.

But you don’t subtract nearly that much from the remaining cap space due to the Rule of 51. That rule applies during the offseason, from the start of the league year in March until Week 1 of the regular season. Teams must be under the NFL salary cap of $177.2 million during that time, but since they can carry up to 90 players on the roster they can’t count everyone towards the cap. So the rule is that only the top 51 cap hits on the roster count towards cap during the offseason. When a player is signed to a deal that would be in the top 51 cap hits, the player with the 51st-highest cap hit is taken out of the calculation.

Here’s how it works. When the Redskins sign their first-round pick, his contract will be in the top 51 cap hits. That deal will push Josh Harvey-Clemons’ cap hit of $576,000 out of the top 51. So that $2.631 cap charge for the top pick adds only $2.055 million to the top 51.

The contract of the second-round pick will push Chase Roullier’s $592,000 hit out of the top 51 so that is a net charge of only $574,000. The fourth-rounder will hit the cap for a net of only $33,000 after Jeremy Sprinkle is pushed below the 51 line.

After that, the contracts of the fifth- through seventh-round picks will be “free” for the purposes of the 2018 offseason salary cap. They will fall out of the top 51.

Looking at the contracts that will count against the cap, the net cap charges will come to $2.596 million. That would leave them with a shade under $15 million, enough to land another free agent or two and perhaps give some of their own players' contract extensions. They will want to go into the season with around $5 million to cover paying the practice squad and paying players on injured reserve.

Stay up to date on the Redskins. Rich Tandler covers the team 365 days a year. Like his Facebook page, Facebook.com/TandlerNBCSand follow him on Twitter @TandlerNBCS.

Tandler on Twitter

It’s starting up, folks. #Redskins offseason schedule:



—Rookie camp May 11-13

—OTAs May 22-24, May 29-31, June 4-7

—Mandatory minicamp June 12-14 — Rich Tandler (@TandlerNBCS) April 2, 2018

Timeline

Days until:



—Offseason workouts begin (4/16) 13

—Training camp starts (approx. 7/26) 115

—2018 NFL season starts (9/9) 159

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