Balancing a salary cap

I have a question for all the salary cap gurus out there. What is better?

Plan A: Have a good bit of your salary cap spent of two or three high impact players. This then limits the amount you can spend on other positions and backups, who are probably then of lower skill.

Plan B: Opt for slightly lower tier players at key positions, and have funds for better players at other positions and better quality backups to fill in injury happens.

I had this thought with Watt's salary. Sure he is a great player and deserving of his $$$, but when he misses games due to injury or illness, or Ben does, it really has an effect. The Steelers seem to have opted for Plan A, but with Plan B, if there was cap space to invest in other positions and backups who were a bit more skilled, losing the key player or two would not be so devastating.

Of course, that is ignoring the 29 points scored when he was in the game and the few that were scored when he was out.

 

Regardless what the approach is, any players brought in have to have character-the willingness to buy into the team approach.
It seems players like that (Heyward) are few and far between on this roster.

 

These are the questions that make me glad I am not a GM. So my unprofessional opinion answer would be I'd get the best players I could that would fit and it could be either way you describe above. The is a big-time chess game so you figure out how well we're capable of doing. JMO>

 

From a simplistic point of view, I would split the cap number in half for offense and defense and try to adhere as close as possible to that. But obviously I'm sure it's nowhere near as simple, when salaries for individual players are all over the place.

 

The Steelers theory of don’t overpay in free agency, fill in the blanks with average players before the draft, and draft the best impact player available works. Unfortunately they have had a tendency to hold on to older players too long. The only problem is you need a good quarterback. Finding one is way easier than just wishing and hoping.

A great quarterback can help you keep your hopes up. Ben has proven this, but only one Super Bowl in 18 years. An average QB, with a good offensive ensemble and a very good defense can make you very competitive.

 

After some thought, I now lean toward paying for a couple of big impact players. Games seem often seem to be decided on big plays - long last minute TDs, interceptions, strip sacks - and those are often caused by your big impact players. I admire folks like Najee Harris' grind 'em out style, but that doesn't seem to win as many games anymore as the big splash play. Pay for a good QB that can make the big play at the big moment (like Ben could and has), a defensive star that can create turnovers (Troy and Watt when healthy), and surround them with the best you can with what is left over.

 

TJ Watt is worth what they are paying him. You have to have those impact players on your team.

The key is drafting well behind them and having some good players on rookie deals.

The 2018-19 drafts are killing the
Steelers right now, those classes are the ones that should be underpinning the team with good value contracts but apart from Diontae they really didn’t get anything there. They have done better more recently but two bad draft classes in a row will make things hard on any team.

 

Hopefully Watt learned his lesson this year with his stupid Hold-Out, causing him to be fighting a soft tissue injury all year long.

You can't just stand on the sideline all through training camp and preseason and then expect to just step on the field for game 1 and expect your body to be ready to go as hard as he goes in live action.

 

It's just not that simple to pick one strategy over the other. If you end up with a player like Watt, you don't let him go. You hold onto him because you can't easily replace him. Finding another guy like that can take many, many years.

But GM's do need to decide who is expendable in order to fit an entire roster under the cap. So there's elements of both strategies in play at all times

 

But isn’t that exactly what he did? And isn’t he nearing the single-season sack record? Aren’t all the talking heads using Watt and DPOY in the same sentence? I’ve even heard MVP tossed around.

He kind of benchmarked the “hold-out doesn’t affect my on-field play” move.

I will say, I am a bit suspicious of him taking off the pads after a 29-0 beating in that first half. That was a MUST WIN. If there was ever a time to suck it up and play through, it was on Thursday night. And now we hear it’s just a tweak, he’s good to go. Realllyyy??? $90M, season on the line…not a good look.

 

Wait Ben's been to 3 Super Bowls and won 2 in that timeframe.

 

So, he should've kept playing and possibly injure himself worse .

 

OR, he should have kept playing and added to his sack total, believed in his team and helped lead them to a W.

With $90M comes high expectations.

 

If his groin is injured, he's not getting any sacks or leading the team to a win .

 

I’m missing your point?

 

Your original post only said one.