Former NFL Executive Breaks Down How Teams Are Beating The Salary Cap

[TheCasillas]

 

[Louie]

Great breakdown of how teams can basically circumvent the salary cap for several years.

[panthers55]

2 hours ago, Louie said:

Great breakdown of how teams can basically circumvent the salary cap for several years.

The Saints have done it a decade or more. This is exactly why I keep saying the cap can be manipulated so you can sign who you want. Stop posting we have cap issues and that we have to choose between this guy and that. We can sign anyone we want. Now an ex-GM confirms it.

[Khyber53]

Wow that was enlightening. I kinda understood what was happening but couldn't get it all straight in my head. Now it makes sense and so does the idea of getting that under control to restore some parity.

[kungfoodude]

10 hours ago, panthers55 said:

The Saints have done it a decade or more. This is exactly why I keep saying the cap can be manipulated so you can sign who you want. Stop posting we have cap issues and that we have to choose between this guy and that. We can sign anyone we want. Now an ex-GM confirms it.

Yeah but you have to be smart enough to manipulate it. For a long time, we were not smart enough to do so.

[BrianS]

The other caveat is that you need to have long term vision and planning.  Head coaches don't tend to be on board with that because they are evaluated on wins and losses.  GM's are evaluated on talent evaluation and acquisition.

A GM might evaluate his roster and think "We're not going to be very good this year, so let's take our medicine".  It could come in the form of cutting ties with a player to take a big hit.  It could come in the form of extending a player with a LOT of money right up front. 

A coach wants a roster that can win now.

[kungfoodude]

2 minutes ago, BrianS said:

The other caveat is that you need to have long term vision and planning.  Head coaches don't tend to be on board with that because they are evaluated on wins and losses.  GM's are evaluated on talent evaluation and acquisition.

A GM might evaluate his roster and think "We're not going to be very good this year, so let's take our medicine".  It could come in the form of cutting ties with a player to take a big hit.  It could come in the form of extending a player with a LOT of money right up front. 

A coach wants a roster that can win now.

And this is more relevant to our current situation where we have a head coach that is a GM. We have fuged up two straight seasons/offseasons with big pushes to "win now" when we didn't have the roster to do so.

It's the classic example of why you want a GM that operates independently from the head coach. Doesn't mean they can commiserate on the future but the GM is really supposed to be managing that long term direction. 

[panthers55]

33 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Yeah but you have to be smart enough to manipulate it. For a long time, we were not smart enough to do so.

Actually I don't think Richardson had or wanted to spend the money. Tepper seems willing to spend it and has billions more than Richardson.  Of course we have struggled mightily with picking the right guys and paying them appropriately.

[kungfoodude]

44 minutes ago, panthers55 said:

Actually I don't think Richardson had or wanted to spend the money. Tepper seems willing to spend it and has billions more than Richardson.  Of course we have struggled mightily with picking the right guys and paying them appropriately.

We didn't have a problem spending money, look at the cap hell Hurney created. We just had a problem being smart with it.

I have yet to determine if Tepper is willing to spend it. The smoke around all the QB's we have pursued certainly seems to indicate that he is.

[countryboi]

I hate it when these podcast hosts wont let their guest talk, let the man finish his thought and shut the hell up. 

[kungfoodude]

11 minutes ago, countryboi said:

I hate it when these podcast hosts wont let their guest talk, let the man finish his thought and shut the hell up. 

poo, they do it on TV as much or more. Especially in the sports or political realm. 

[Riverboat Ron]

You fix this by making contract split evenly over the span ex.(5yr/$100 million contract is automatically $20 million a year). Let’s say only $45 million is guaranteed, that number has to start at the front and end in the 3rd year with a $5 million guarantee, no more spreading numbers out in ghost years. 

[SCO96]

13 minutes ago, Riverboat Ron said:

You fix this by making contract split evenly over the span ex.(5yr/$100 million contract is automatically $20 million a year). Let’s say only $45 million is guaranteed, that number has to start at the front and end in the 3rd year with a $5 million guarantee, no more spreading numbers out in ghost years. 

I went to bed a little too late last night and I will admit that  my reasoning is a bit amiss this morning. Can you breakdown your scenario a little bit more. I don't understand the part about the 3rd year having a $5mil guarantee. Wouldn't that be each of the first 3 years be $15 mil?

[kungfoodude]

20 minutes ago, Riverboat Ron said:

You fix this by making contract split evenly over the span ex.(5yr/$100 million contract is automatically $20 million a year). Let’s say only $45 million is guaranteed, that number has to start at the front and end in the 3rd year with a $5 million guarantee, no more spreading numbers out in ghost years. 

Neither the players nor owners would want this situation. That's the problem with this solution.