Free agency could be an awkward time this year. With the pandemic putting a strain on the NFL’s budget, it could mean some NFL teams are feeling a pinch. The Raiders are among those teams who will be forced to get creative not only with regard to signing outside free agents but keeping their own players.

GM Mike Mayock spoke with The Athletic and detailed some of the difficulties facing the Raiders this offseason with regard to the salary cap and how it affects free agency for them.

“I think the hardest thing, Tashan , is that in most years we’ll know what our budget is economically. We’ll know what the salary cap is and we’ll know how much cash we have to spend against it. This year, we don’t know anything yet. Just to give you an example, the salary cap this year fell at $195 (million) to $200 (million). In a typical year, we would jump up to about $220 (million) to $225 (million). This year, we’re looking at a floor that was negotiated a year ago between the union and the league at $175 million.

So, worst-case scenario, we could be looking at a $175 million cap when, in a normal year, we’d be at two and a quarter. You’re looking at a $50 million differential, worst case. Now, that could get re-negotiated with the league and the union and it might get higher. I hope it does. But, to answer your question, against that backdrop it becomes more difficult than any other year. Because you really don’t know, at this point, what budget you’re working with.

We’re running a whole bunch of different hypotheticals. What if the cap is this? What if it’s $10 million more or what if it’s $10 million more than that? We’re prioritizing our free agents. We’re prioritizing and grading every free agent in the league. We’re trying to understand who might be cap casualties and who might be traded. It’s a typical year except for the fact that it’s made much more complicated by the uncertainty of the budget.”

Currently, the Raiders sit at over $201 million in salary cap commitments, according to OverTheCap. That would put them $25 million over the cap Mayock said he was expecting, which is the 7th highest deficit in the league. So, before they can even think about signing anyone else, they have got to start cleaning out some of their current salary cap spending. That could come in the form of cuts, trades, or restructures (which are often extensions).

For their purposes, they do have quite a few players’ contracts they can shed in order to get where they need to be. I detailed several recently and you can see those here.

From there, they have to think about which of their own free agents they would like to keep. I listed all of their free agents in order of priority and you can see those here.

As Mayock said, these decisions are made simultaneously, but the problem is without knowing what the salary cap will be he’s dealing in hypotheticals. Every team in the league is doing the same thing, but most teams aren’t approaching that as far into the red as the Raiders are.