Top Commanders draft picks Emmanuel Forbes & Quan Martin signed contracts on Friday - salary cap update

With everything else going on, the signing of Washington’s 1st & 2nd round picks went almost unnoticed on Friday, but it happened.

The Commanders had their rookies and quarterbacks report on July 21st — and one has to imagine that the players, if they had the chance to attend the afternoon pep rally, would have been impressed by the gala atmosphere surrounding the introduction of the new owners to Washington fans. I mean, how often does a young guy — even an NFL player — get to rub shoulders with a bunch of billionaires, and, more importantly, Magic Johnson?

But there was still business to take care of, and that included signing Emmanuel Forbes and Quan Martin to their initial NFL contracts.

Per Over the Cap, Forbes signed a 4-year, fully guaranteed deal worth $15.4m, while Martin inked a 4-year, $7.6m contract with $5.1m guaranteed.

The two signings have an impact on the team’s available cap space for the 2023 season, as well as changing the widely reported figure of $83m in available cap space for 2024. Per Over the Cap, the team now has $9.3m in available space for the coming season, with an estimated $79.7m for 2024. Of course, both numbers include every player currently under contract with the Commanders, which includes last year’s starting LG Andrew Norwell. It’s accepted as a matter of fact that Norwell will be released by the team at the earliest opportunity. When that happens, the available cap space will change again.

Forbes’ cap hit for 2023 is $2.8m, per OTC, while Martin will count $1.39m towards this season’s Commanders salary cap number. Washington also placed UDFA S Xavier Henderson (Michigan State) on the active/PUP list. He will still count against the 90-man roster limit, and can be activated at any time during training camp and return to practice with the team immediately.