brooks1957 Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 (edited) I couldn't find a thread already started on this topic, so here goes...... I have looked at a couple of references, and they tell me the NFL cap is a HARD cap, i.e. you are not allowed to exceed it at any time. Also all player contracts must be approved by the league office. That being said, with those systems and checks and balances in place - how in the world does a team (New Orleans in this case) get to be $60 million OVER the cap? Surely that cannot be good for the game on two fronts - it allows a team to gain a competitive edge by signing premium free agents, and it destroys credibility of a team later when they are forced to release players that make just a tick more than a rookie contract. Does anyone have a better idea of how a team gets themselves into this jackpot? Edited March 4, 2021 by brooks1957 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forge Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 You have until the start of the league year to get compliant with the cap. That's why you see several teams that are above the cap in the current point in time as the league year has not started. Now, technically you can exceed the cap after the start of the year, however that can make you subject to disciplinary actions. In this particular case this season, I doubt that there would be any punitive measures taken if teams are acting in good faith to get their cap down (so I would not be surprised to see a team over the cap at the start of the league year) . It's a unique circumstance. What the NFL is most likely to do in that scenario would be to simply not allow them to sign free agents as all contracts must pass through the league office and the league office can simply decline the contract. I doubt you see any teams trying to sign a premium free agent while sitting above the cap without a corresponding move. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanedorf Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 1 minute ago, Forge said: What the NFL is most likely to do in that scenario would be to simply not allow them to sign free agents as all contracts must pass through the league office and the league office can simply decline the contract. I doubt you see any teams trying to sign a premium free agent while sitting above the cap without a corresponding move. yep. The rulebook also states that if a team is over the cap during the season, the league starts cancelling contracts in reverse order of when they were signed - and they keep cancelling contracts until the team is below the cap. Its never happened before and it won't happen this year. Teams don't want to cede control of their roster to the league. I don't know if there are additional punitive measures, but I can imagine losing draft picks might be on deck if things aren't corrected quickly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forge Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 Just now, Shanedorf said: yep. The rulebook also states that if a team is over the cap during the season, the league starts cancelling contracts in reverse order of when they were signed - and they keep cancelling contracts until the team is below the cap. Its never happened before and it won't happen this year. Teams don't want to cede control of their roster to the league. I don't know if there are additional punitive measures, but I can imagine losing draft picks might be on deck if things aren't corrected quickly. Yes, just typical punishments. Loss of draft picks and huge fines, I believe. Dallas and Washington previously lost cap space for future seasons when they were punished for circumventing the uncapped year, but that may have been a punishment specific to that situation as it was also a bit unique. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeT14 Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 4 hours ago, Forge said: Yes, just typical punishments. Loss of draft picks and huge fines, I believe. Dallas and Washington previously lost cap space for future seasons when they were punished for circumventing the uncapped year, but that may have been a punishment specific to that situation as it was also a bit unique. Yup. It wasn't illegal what you all did in the uncapped year, but we asked you not to nicely. Also it was the Raiders not Dallas I believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soko Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 4 hours ago, brooks1957 said: That being said, with those systems and checks and balances in place - how in the world does a team (New Orleans in this case) get to be $60 million OVER the cap? Surely that cannot be good for the game on two fronts - it allows a team to gain a competitive edge by signing premium free agents, and it destroys credibility of a team later when they are forced to release players that make just a tick more than a rookie contract. They’re over because of how they structured, re-structured, and cut deals. It’s largely a combo of big cap hits for some players in 2021 and dead cap from players no longer on the roster. To clarify, the teams have an excess of cap because the league year hasn’t begun. They aren’t allowed to just exceed the cap throughout free agency without any consequences. The league would start declining their contracts. There’s not a competitive advantage in that sense, and even if there were, it would be an oversight/loophole that all teams would be able to exploit. As for the credibility, most teams that are over the cap can get under without cutting tons of quality players. Teams like the Saints or Eagles have very clear avenues on how to get under. It just requires making a few cuts (many of them no-brainers), letting some FAs walk, and being a bit restricted in their FA spending for the upcoming offseason. It’s a bit of a crutch for 2021, but they aren’t gutting the entire roster or anything. They’ll likely be fine cap wise beyond this year and I doubt any players put any relevant weight into how teams get under the cap unless they’re chronically cheap or something (like the old Thompson Packers refusing to spend or the Bengals being notoriously stingy). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakuvious Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 Technically no one is over the cap, right now. They're projected to be over the cap, but since the new league year hasn't started, there isn't even actually an official salary cap number, yet. That's why being over right now doesn't matter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soflbillsfan Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 5 hours ago, brooks1957 said: I couldn't find a thread already started on this topic, so here goes...... I have looked at a couple of references, and they tell me the NFL cap is a HARD cap, i.e. you are not allowed to exceed it at any time. Also all player contracts must be approved by the league office. That being said, with those systems and checks and balances in place - how in the world does a team (New Orleans in this case) get to be $60 million OVER the cap? Surely that cannot be good for the game on two fronts - it allows a team to gain a competitive edge by signing premium free agents, and it destroys credibility of a team later when they are forced to release players that make just a tick more than a rookie contract. Does anyone have a better idea of how a team gets themselves into this jackpot? 2 ways to get under it, one is flat out cutting a player which they have been doing with some guys and another is restructure. Some people have what are called roster bonuses or incentives in the base salary that hit the hard cap. By turning those roster bonuses or incentives on a base salary to a signing bonus they can reduce this years cap while forcing that money to be pushed over the length of a contract. So for instance Ben just restructured his deal in which he had 19 mil due this year, 4 mil in base salary and 15 mil in roster bonus. They restructured it by giving him a signing bonus of 14 mil in which the base salary dropped to 1 mil and 3 mil for signing bonus this year and have a 10 mil dead cap next year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scar988 Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 5 hours ago, brooks1957 said: I couldn't find a thread already started on this topic, so here goes...... I have looked at a couple of references, and they tell me the NFL cap is a HARD cap, i.e. you are not allowed to exceed it at any time. Also all player contracts must be approved by the league office. That being said, with those systems and checks and balances in place - how in the world does a team (New Orleans in this case) get to be $60 million OVER the cap? Surely that cannot be good for the game on two fronts - it allows a team to gain a competitive edge by signing premium free agents, and it destroys credibility of a team later when they are forced to release players that make just a tick more than a rookie contract. Does anyone have a better idea of how a team gets themselves into this jackpot? They have to be under by the first day of the league year and stay under during that year. Right now, they are under for the 2020 league year so there's no penalty. But once we get to the 2021 league year on March 17th, all bets are off. They have to get under or they will lose a draft pick depending on the severity of how far they are over the cap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scar988 Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 5 hours ago, Forge said: Yes, just typical punishments. Loss of draft picks and huge fines, I believe. Dallas and Washington previously lost cap space for future seasons when they were punished for circumventing the uncapped year, but that may have been a punishment specific to that situation as it was also a bit unique. The punishment for that uncapped year thing was a bit BS. The year was uncapped and they could spend as much as they wanted to spend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWood21 Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 On 3/4/2021 at 10:54 AM, brooks1957 said: Does anyone have a better idea of how a team gets themselves into this jackpot? You only have to be under the cap in that given year. Future years you don't have to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyld Stallyns Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 Back on the late 90’s/early 2000’s the Broncos were twice punished for contracts that were in violation of the cap in ‘96-‘98 seasons resulting in lost 3rd round picks in 2002 and 2005 and fines of $950K and $968K those years I’m not sure why it took so long for those penalties to be handed down or how the violations were discovered but they will catch it eventually Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trojan Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 On 3/4/2021 at 1:35 PM, MikeT14 said: Yup. It wasn't illegal what you all did in the uncapped year, but we asked you not to nicely. Also it was the Raiders not Dallas I believe. Washington was the worst offender, Dallas was second worst. Those two took penalties like fees and lower cap space the following year. The Raiders and Saints also messed around but didn't get fined, but they werent awarded extra space from the DAL/WAS redistribution while everyone else was awarded a small bump in cap space equivalent to a distributed amount WAS/DAL were in trouble for. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkippyX Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 Yeah, I don't think anyone thought Dallas or DC were evil for what they did. They were 2 owners in a trade association of 32 owners. They tried to get cute and the other 28 made them pay for their bad faith dealings. The other 2 got off lucky. Remember that Spygate was about a in-season memo about where to stand and that memo's rule change was not ratified by the owners. It did not help BB and the Pats from avoiding punishment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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