The power that the clowns ...

Have over the nfl. I can't believe that they did it again. First time, was when they signed Watson to a 200mil contract. So cause and effect, every qb that was better than Watson, contracts ballooned from $100mil to $200mil or better.
Now, fast forward, and they sign Garrett to this huge contract and now every team with a star pass rusher will have to pay these enormous contracts. 40mil and above is crazy money

 

Money is out of hand in Pro sports. At some point you'd think it will bite them in the ass. Already bit Cleveland in the ass with Watson. How about you get paid for your performance Although , I'd love being a bench sitting scrub in any of the Pro sports. Imagine playing 10-15 years in a sport where you rarely got in the games. Hell of a way to have millions.

 

Longsnapper. Best job in pro sports.

 

The Browns have to overpay because it's still Cleveland

 

The Watson contract is probably the worst in all pro sports. He has been hurt or suspended for most of it. They have had to restructure it multiple times. They can’t cut him, the dead hit would be more than the GDP of many third world countries.
Looks like Watson will be the world’s most highly paid clipboard holder for the next two seasons.

 

Plus whenever the starter has a rough day you're the most popular guy in town.

 

Also a pretty hard job, that is not easy. I remember in school how hard it was to find someone that could do it well.
Remember what happened to us when ours went down. LoL

 

3rd string would be my preference. LoL.
I might not even have to dress.

 

Oh yes you would................. .

 

Deebo just needed a couple more snaps

 

Nonsense. There’s a salary cap. The Browns are free to overpay whoever they want, but then they have to figure out how to fill a roster with whatever $ is left. Somehow it doesn’t seem like their approach is working. Successful teams know how to allocate $ wisely.

Teams need to remind their players that the deal YOUR union negotiated makes it very hard for you to be a SB champion, the highest paid guy at your position and a one-helmet guy at the same time. Teams can look out for their best interest just like you do.

 

The steep pay increases just create the dynamic (which has been going on since the early days of the cap across the league) of teams willing to grossly overpay to excite their fans over star power over managing the entire team. So agents will push for their client, forcing teams seeing the depth of things the strain of trying to retain top talents while managing the rest of the roster.

Good front offices typically find their way, though.

 

And yet every year that the Steelers don't over pay in FA some bone head or two will call them cheap

 

Agreed , and the only thing you can really accused them of being cheap about is maybe the staff, but we have finally started to add to that.

 

Actually the best position in pro sports is the players agents. They do nothing at all and make up to 7% of these ridiculous salaries and laugh all the way to the bank.

 

Good point. And I might add that agents can make up to 10-20% on the players endorsement contracts also according to what I read.

 

It's not necessarily the cap that teams have to worry about. That can be dealt with using extensions, restructures, voided years, etc. It's the annual cash outlays that drive roster construction and it hasn't been completely an even field for all teams.

So, here's an example of how a team can manipulate the cap and cash:

So, how bad has the cash differential gotten in the NFL? According to Spotrac, the Cleveland Browns have spent $401.3 million more on players than their divisional rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers, have since the start of the 2020 league year. That debt has been added to the team’s accounting in future years, but, again, there’s no due date to get cap neutral, so in theory, that money can continue to be kicked into the future in perpetuity.

While the Browns don’t make much of a case that spending equals winning, the next four teams behind them in 2020 to 2025 cash spending are a group of teams that have found success: the San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles. Earlier this offseason, the 49ers’ CEO Jed York curbed cash spending on his team, following a season where San Francisco failed to make the postseason, sold six percent of the franchise and the team still has $92 million in dead cap on their books in 2025.

If an owner was well-moneyed beyond his football franchise, though, he could have continued to push through that bump in the road and spent and restructured deals to the NFL’s liking.
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The last sentence is the key to the problem. Rich owners/teams can simply outspend teams like the Steelers, piling up future debt that never is forced due.

 

I was listening to a podcast a few days ago that made the point that if TJ signs for $40m APY that’ll be a smaller percentage of the cap than when he signed his current deal. The cap is expanding very quickly so contracts are going to go up

I wouldn’t be too worried about APY numbers but with TJ they do need to be careful about the number of additional guaranteed years at his age.

@Bubbahotep thats a good post about the cash vs cap spending. This has been really key to the Eagles success and it’s the reason why they seemingly defy any constraints that the salary cap places on teams in the NFL

 

you have a franchise Qb and you have a guy vying for DPOY and are paying him top money it sure makes paying a good amount to the rest and that's why you have these older vet minimum or one year deals to fill holes. add a top WR, LT, RB, LB, CB, S and it makes you have to question your best bang for the buck. you hope guys that are on first contracts step up. you have too. it's a juggling act. we haven't had to pay TJ and a franchise QB for several years now.

 

This x 1,000

The 3 best organizations over the last decade have been the Patriots, Chiefs and Eagles. None of these teams are dishing out 200 million dollar contracts on mediocre QBs and 100 million for edge rushers.

 

There is truth in your post, but the 'in theory' part is ridicules. That accounting in the CAP will come due one day and the team has to deal with it, there is no infinity clause. The biggest issue for owners with limited outside income is the ability to put the guaranteed money in escrow accounts, in other words not all billionaires (on paper) have the expendable cash on hand to put into those accounts at signing. It was reported a few years ago even Haslan was trying to find the cash from his other interests for the guaranteed contract he gave to Watson.

 

With that we have not paid much in O at all, the D has taken a bulk of the CAP cash and it shows. As the OL and other positions come up no doubt that % will swing.

 

Good point on Philly. They have a number of top contracts expiring in 2029. Add 4 years of voids and wallah, year 2033. That year just happens to be the final year of streaming contracts. So Expect a large cap jump the following year. Savvy cap management.