Asked and Answered: March 14

DENNIS SLEEGER FROM YORK, PA: I’m curious. Our own unrestricted free agents, do they show up on our salary cap even though they’re not signed? Like with Cam Sutton signing with Detroit, does that give us any more salary cap space?
ANSWER: Until the official start of the new league year, which in 2023 is 4 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 15, all talk about salary cap and signing unrestricted free agents is theoretical. Whatever “salary cap space” a team is said to have or to lack before Wednesday at 4 p.m. is a projection/estimation and is entirely unofficial, which is a fancy way of writing “it doesn’t matter a whit.” At 4 p.m. on Wednesday, all 2022 contracts expire, and players who are set to become unrestricted free agents are off the books, and all teams must be in compliance with the 2023 salary cap, which is $224.8 million.

JEFF BANKOVICH FROM ELIZABETH TOWNSHIP, PA: What is the difference between restricted and unrestricted free agents?
ANSWER: I’m going to avoid the legalese version and attempt to boil it down to the essentials. A restricted free agent is a player who has three NFL seasons to his credit (also referred to as “accrued seasons”), while it takes 4 or more accrued seasons to qualify for unrestricted free agency. In the case of a restricted free agent, his team can offer him a tender, and the amount of that tender triggers compensation to the original team should the player sign an offer sheet from another team and have the original team decline to match. The levels of the tenders are:

• RIGHT OF FIRST REFUSAL: One-year contract worth $2.627 million. Team has the right to match any offer sheet signed with another team, but there is no draft compensation tied to this tender.

• ORIGINAL ROUND TENDER: One-year contract worth the greater of (a) $2.743 million or (b) 110 percent of the player’s prior-year base salary. Draft-choice compensation: a pick in the round the player was originally drafted in.

• SECOND ROUND TENDER: One-year contract worth the…