Salary cap

[The Bard 11]

Someone please explain how this works. When linebackers make 5 year 64 million...thats almost 13 million a year. Isnt the cap 188 million per year? Then the qb might make 25 a year, rb another 20 a year. Well thats 68, over 1/3 the cap on 3 guys. So 50 guys making 120/year. Thats not even 3 a year for each. I dont get it.

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

8 hours ago, The Bard said:

Someone please explain how this works. When linebackers make 5 year 64 million...thats almost 13 million a year. Isnt the cap 188 million per year? Then the qb might make 25 a year, rb another 20 a year. Well thats 68, over 1/3 the cap on 3 guys. So 50 guys making 120/year. Thats not even 3 a year for each. I dont get it.

20 per year for a rb? I think that's high. The 25 a year for a qb is on the lower side from what I hear about the deal. If Zeke really wants 20 per year he is going to be out of the League. 

You are also forgetting they want to pay Cooper too. Dallas may really screw themselves here, but Jerry wants to win right the F now. 

[oldtimer 84]

11 hours ago, The Bard said:

Someone please explain how this works. When linebackers make 5 year 64 million...thats almost 13 million a year. Isnt the cap 188 million per year? Then the qb might make 25 a year, rb another 20 a year. Well thats 68, over 1/3 the cap on 3 guys. So 50 guys making 120/year. Thats not even 3 a year for each. I dont get it.

Teams aren't paying the players the full amount of these contracts.  Normally you have to read the fine print.  In many instances, a contract that is for 5 years and 64 million works something like this;  Year One - $8 million fully guaranteed.  Year Two - $10 million fully guaranteed.  Year three $12 million fully guaranteed.  Years 4 & 5 have no guaranteed money left, so the player can be released with no salary cap ramifications.  The last two years of most deals are the really large payments.  Very rarely are they ever paid.  They get renegotiated with a year or two remaining, like most QB contracts, so the player never sees anywhere near the stated amount of the deal. 

A team can get around the salary cap in many ways.  They may have 8 guys making $10 million or more per season, but they also have the vast majority of the roster on rookie contracts and making under a million.  Go look at www.overthecap.com and you will see what I mean.  The site makes it easy to understand how the cap truly works. 

Most QB's are making near the $30 million mark, or will be after this season.  Paying a franchise QB is something most teams just accept.  RB's don't make anywhere near that.  I believe only two current running backs make over $9 million.  Gurley being the obvious one.  He is also the prime example of why you do not give a RB a ton of guaranteed money.  The Rams hurt themselves with that deal. 

Most teams also do not start all veterans.  It seems the offensive, linebacker and the secondary are prime choices to go cheap.  Other teams make the contract length work for them.  Look at some of the monster 7 year deals you see.  There aren't many that are that long, but there are some.  The guaranteed money is only over the first 5 years, but the salary cap hit is that of an average player, not a superstar.  In year 5, the player is likely to be released, or sign another deal pushing back the big money to the final years of the contract.  The player rarely sees the final year or two of their deal. 

In the mid to late 90's, teams had not yet figured out how to work with the salary cap.  Teams didn't structure the contracts very well, paying too much money to the players upfront.  This led to the dreaded "salary cap hell" many teams found themselves in.  You don't see that anymore.  At any given time, teams have players with no remaining guaranteed money on several of their contracts.  They may not want to release that player, but they can if need be. 

When a contract is announced, it's only stated as a 5 year 64 million dollar deal.  Read the details the following day, or when they are available.  It will make more sense as to how teams remain under the cap.  It's basically a game.  The player gets to pretend they will see all that money and the owners get to act like they will pay it.  I can think of maybe three instances where a massive contract was signed and not later renegotiated or the player wasn't released after two to three years, when the guaranteed money was paid out. 

Contracts are not what they seem.  Fairy tales.  Nothing more. 

[oldtimer 84]

3 hours ago, Frozenbeernuts said:

20 per year for a rb? I think that's high. The 25 a year for a qb is on the lower side from what I hear about the deal. If Zeke really wants 20 per year he is going to be out of the League. 

You are also forgetting they want to pay Cooper too. Dallas may really screw themselves here, but Jerry wants to win right the F now. 

Zeke isn't getting $20 million per year from anyone.  He has no negotiation room, no leverage.  With two years left on his rookie deal, he's flat out stuck.  Plus, they can also franchise him the third year.  Jerry holds all the cards.  The Cowboys only need to sign one of Cooper and/or Prescott.  They can then tag the other in the offseason.  They also have Byron Jones to sign though.  The NFL Network was talking about their situation yesterday.  The Cowboys are in excellent cap shape, provided they don't overpay Zeke.  He is the key.  If you budget $30 million for Zak and $17/18 million for Cooper, they are absolutely fine.  Zeke needs to take slightly less than what the Rams overpaid for Gurley.  He could get as much as $14 million per season, but as a Cowboys fan, I hope they don't even do that.  Years ago, Jerry screwed up their salary cap situation.  His son now runs everything and has for the past several years.  He straightened Dallas out and they have been sticking by their guns;  Great drafts followed by not throwing money away on free agents they would have to drastically overpay.  I am impressed with how well they have done in not massively overpaying players.  Free agents rarely turn out to be as expected anyway.