Salary Cap fact versus fiction

2 hours til brackets and I have time soooo... let's try to make the board a little smarter.

Idiom: The cap keeps rising so pushing money off means it is worth less and is a good strategy.
FICTION: This is a very common and accepted bunch of nonsense. Why?? Because you know what else goes up? Player contracts. You need more money to sign the next guy because the next guy is on a higher salary scale. You are competing in any given window and you've shorted yourself for that window to benefit one that will quickly be in the past. Any GM who hands out 50M+ in restructures then wins 7 or less games should be fired week 17.

Idiom: The salary cap isn't real and cap hell doesn't exist.
HARD MEH: This is one of those things people like to say and sound smart but they will eventually capitulate and admit teams have to make tough decisions versus the cap. Those tough decisions are very real for the teams making them. The cap has a ton of built in flexibility but all money does come due.

Idiom: There are 3 ways to improve a roster: Drafting, FA and trades.
HARD MEH: This is one of those meaninglessly true statements always taken out of context. Drafting is numero uno by a mile. Trading is very limited and free agency is more about finding value and especially among un-drafted guys than it is adding super stars. Superstars in FA are a terrible "hit rate". In truth, the 2nd best way to improve a roster is to exercise good cap mgmt. That way you maintain good players and continue to develop depth going forward without coming in 1 man short because you cut a guy and paid him anyway. Trades are very tough because the team you are buying from knows the player/s you are acquiring better than you. Hard to outsmart someone on a guy they saw daily during the NFL season for years.

Idiom: But we can free up 70M THIS easy.
MOSTLY FACT: It is very easy to flip deals because most players want that guaranteed money that handing them a check today delivers. They can claim the interest on that large sum of money. BUT, not if the agent wants a longer term deal you can't. The agent can play hardball knowing you have a large cap hit you don't want to eat.
This is a lot like knowing you can take out a pay day loan or remortgage your house for money. These things are factually possible but also still really desperate acts that will almost certainly cost you more money in the end.

Idiom: So we should just never sign anyone ever then.
MOSTLY FICTION: Teams have to "pay" for draft mistakes. See Cam Fleming. Chaz Green was trash thus that expenditure was VERY necessary. WR misses amongst later picks made signing Hurns a reality. But you merely want to fill absolute holes so you can draft true to your board. You don't go get shiny player X because you think he makes you better. A lot of the FA safeties would have been superior to Jeff Heath. Very, very few of them that have already signed would have been a better value.

Idiom: The only cap that matters is this year.
FICTION x 10: This is where fan GMs get in the most trouble. They could care less about future seasons but the NFL is a business and businesses very much do care. They have 3 and 5 year plans. Transformation projects and overall directions that go well beyond 1 season or year. DAL has a great cap situation but they also know they have to pay DLaw, Zeke, Dak and Amari. These are elite players at expensive positions. You have to plan for that. 120M cap space in a future season? You can basically assume 75M of that is gone for these 4 guys. DAL planned ahead smartly. Compare to Philly who have ~30M free but a cap projection of 30m per season for Wentz. Franchising Wentz if needed to bide time for deal would essentially be impossible without drastic moves elsewhere.

This stuff would frustrate me far less if Dallas fans hadn't witnessed the failure of credit card cap management and Free Agency as a primary roster building pillar for a decade plus. Restructuring guys with injuries: Lee, Romo, Dez. Restructuring guys who were crazy: Ratliff. Restructuring guys who were simply poor cap values: Brandon Carr/late in career Witten.

It is quite OK to NOT be off-season champs. That title means exactly zero come week 1 much less by the Super Bowl.

jterrell said:

Click to expand...

This.

And how many Cowboy fans applauded the Giants for the money they spent the last couple years?


The answer is many.

Ok but good teams sprinkle in good free agents. They just don’t Ignore the process.

I could write a book, too. Wouldn't change the fact that we only need one or two impact players from FA to reach a Super Bowl, or the fact that the organization refuses to take this final step to win it all.

jterrell said:

2 hours til brackets and I have time soooo... let's try to make the board a little smarter.

Idiom: The cap keeps rising so pushing money off means it is worth less and is a good strategy.
FICTION: This is a very common and accepted bunch of nonsense. Why?? Because you know what else goes up? Player contracts. You need more money to sign the next guy because the next guy is on a higher salary scale. You are competing in any given window and you've shorted yourself for that window to benefit one that will quickly be in the past. Any GM who hands out 50M+ in restructures then wins 7 or less games should be fired week 17.

Idiom: The salary cap isn't real and cap hell doesn't exist.
HARD MEH: This is one of those things people like to say and sound smart but they will eventually capitulate and admit teams have to make tough decisions versus the cap. Those tough decisions are very real for the teams making them. The cap has a ton of built in flexibility but all money does come due.

Idiom: There are 3 ways to improve a roster: Drafting, FA and trades.
HARD MEH: This is one of those meaninglessly true statements always taken out of context. Drafting is numero uno by a mile. Trading is very limited and free agency is more about finding value and especially among un-drafted guys than it is adding super stars. Superstars in FA are a terrible "hit rate". In truth, the 2nd best way to improve a roster is to exercise good cap mgmt. That way you maintain good players and continue to develop depth going forward without coming in 1 man short because you cut a guy and paid him anyway. Trades are very tough because the team you are buying from knows the player/s you are acquiring better than you. Hard to outsmart someone on a guy they saw daily during the NFL season for years.

Idiom: But we can free up 70M THIS easy.
MOSTLY FACT: It is very easy to flip deals because most players want that guaranteed money that handing them a check today delivers. They can claim the interest on that large sum of money. BUT, not if the agent wants a longer term deal you can't. The agent can play hardball knowing you have a large cap hit you don't want to eat.
This is a lot like knowing you can take out a pay day loan or remortgage your house for money. These things are factually possible but also still really desperate acts that will almost certainly cost you more money in the end.

Idiom: So we should just never sign anyone ever then.
MOSTLY FICTION: Teams have to "pay" for draft mistakes. See Cam Fleming. Chaz Green was trash thus that expenditure was VERY necessary. WR misses amongst later picks made signing Hurns a reality. But you merely want to fill absolute holes so you can draft true to your board. You don't go get shiny player X because you think he makes you better. A lot of the FA safeties would have been superior to Jeff Heath. Very, very few of them that have already signed would have been a better value.

Idiom: The only cap that matters is this year.
FICTION x 10: This is where fan GMs get in the most trouble. They could care less about future seasons but the NFL is a business and businesses very much do care. They have 3 and 5 year plans. Transformation projects and overall directions that go well beyond 1 season or year. DAL has a great cap situation but they also know they have to pay DLaw, Zeke, Dak and Amari. These are elite players at expensive positions. You have to plan for that. 120M cap space in a future season? You can basically assume 75M of that is gone for these 4 guys. DAL planned ahead smartly. Compare to Philly who have ~30M free but a cap projection of 30m per season for Wentz. Franchising Wentz if needed to bide time for deal would essentially be impossible without drastic moves elsewhere.

This stuff would frustrate me far less if Dallas fans hadn't witnessed the failure of credit card cap management and Free Agency as a primary roster building pillar for a decade plus. Restructuring guys with injuries: Lee, Romo, Dez. Restructuring guys who were crazy: Ratliff. Restructuring guys who were simply poor cap values: Brandon Carr/late in career Witten.

It is quite OK to NOT be off-season champs. That title means exactly zero come week 1 much less by the Super Bowl.

Click to expand...

Good post. Only thing I don’t like is the use of the word idiom:

An idiom (Latin: idiom from Ancient Greek: ἰδίωμα, "special feature, special phrasing, a peculiarity", f. Ancient Greek: ἴδιος, translit. ídios, "one's own") is a phrase or an expression that has a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning. Categorized as formulaic language, an idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning.[1] There are thousands of idioms, occurring frequently in all languages. It is estimated that there are at least twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions in the English language.[2]

jterrell said:

2 hours til brackets and I have time soooo... let's try to make the board a little smarter.

Click to expand...

then delete your account

Nightman said:

then delete your account

Click to expand...

I don't usually laugh out loud, but I just did.

jterrell said:

2 hours til brackets and I have time soooo... let's try to make the board a little smarter.

Idiom: The cap keeps rising so pushing money off means it is worth less and is a good strategy.
FICTION: This is a very common and accepted bunch of nonsense. Why?? Because you know what else goes up? Player contracts. You need more money to sign the next guy because the next guy is on a higher salary scale. You are competing in any given window and you've shorted yourself for that window to benefit one that will quickly be in the past. Any GM who hands out 50M+ in restructures then wins 7 or less games should be fired week 17.

Idiom: The salary cap isn't real and cap hell doesn't exist.
HARD MEH: This is one of those things people like to say and sound smart but they will eventually capitulate and admit teams have to make tough decisions versus the cap. Those tough decisions are very real for the teams making them. The cap has a ton of built in flexibility but all money does come due.

Idiom: There are 3 ways to improve a roster: Drafting, FA and trades.
HARD MEH: This is one of those meaninglessly true statements always taken out of context. Drafting is numero uno by a mile. Trading is very limited and free agency is more about finding value and especially among un-drafted guys than it is adding super stars. Superstars in FA are a terrible "hit rate". In truth, the 2nd best way to improve a roster is to exercise good cap mgmt. That way you maintain good players and continue to develop depth going forward without coming in 1 man short because you cut a guy and paid him anyway. Trades are very tough because the team you are buying from knows the player/s you are acquiring better than you. Hard to outsmart someone on a guy they saw daily during the NFL season for years.

Idiom: But we can free up 70M THIS easy.
MOSTLY FACT: It is very easy to flip deals because most players want that guaranteed money that handing them a check today delivers. They can claim the interest on that large sum of money. BUT, not if the agent wants a longer term deal you can't. The agent can play hardball knowing you have a large cap hit you don't want to eat.
This is a lot like knowing you can take out a pay day loan or remortgage your house for money. These things are factually possible but also still really desperate acts that will almost certainly cost you more money in the end.

Idiom: So we should just never sign anyone ever then.
MOSTLY FICTION: Teams have to "pay" for draft mistakes. See Cam Fleming. Chaz Green was trash thus that expenditure was VERY necessary. WR misses amongst later picks made signing Hurns a reality. But you merely want to fill absolute holes so you can draft true to your board. You don't go get shiny player X because you think he makes you better. A lot of the FA safeties would have been superior to Jeff Heath. Very, very few of them that have already signed would have been a better value.

Idiom: The only cap that matters is this year.
FICTION x 10: This is where fan GMs get in the most trouble. They could care less about future seasons but the NFL is a business and businesses very much do care. They have 3 and 5 year plans. Transformation projects and overall directions that go well beyond 1 season or year. DAL has a great cap situation but they also know they have to pay DLaw, Zeke, Dak and Amari. These are elite players at expensive positions. You have to plan for that. 120M cap space in a future season? You can basically assume 75M of that is gone for these 4 guys. DAL planned ahead smartly. Compare to Philly who have ~30M free but a cap projection of 30m per season for Wentz. Franchising Wentz if needed to bide time for deal would essentially be impossible without drastic moves elsewhere.

This stuff would frustrate me far less if Dallas fans hadn't witnessed the failure of credit card cap management and Free Agency as a primary roster building pillar for a decade plus. Restructuring guys with injuries: Lee, Romo, Dez. Restructuring guys who were crazy: Ratliff. Restructuring guys who were simply poor cap values: Brandon Carr/late in career Witten.

It is quite OK to NOT be off-season champs. That title means exactly zero come week 1 much less by the Super Bowl.

Click to expand...

What bother me is our philosophy of spending money on several sub par free agents who typically end up useless or cut. I realize you have to fill out a roster, but Id much rather sign one or two legit players and then pay guys like Nolan Carroll.

No one said to break the bank but you have to do something. Again if this team flops this year like they do every time they have any success then maybe its time to change the way your doing things.

The problem with the overreliance on building through the draft is that even if you buy into the notion that you will hit on most of your picks, that by the time your talent has developed you will naturally have new holes. Fix the offensive line and by the time they're all solid contributors, your secondary is a liability. Fix the secondary, and now some of your offensive linemen have priced or aged themselves out of the plan. It's plugging dam holes with your fingers.

It's also arrogant and ignorant to assume you are that much better at drafting than your playoff competitors. Even with recent success, you can't just expect to make bigger strides than your competitors. It's simply not realistic. Take this year for example. We lost to the Rams so it's a logical statement to say the Rams are slightly ahead of us. The Patriots won the Super Bowl so that should be the bullseye we are aiming for. However, both of those teams have more draft capital than us in the upcoming draft (Rams barely, Patriots significant).


The Cowboys also seem to think they will simply improve on their own. Jerry recently said the team can expect to advance by individual players improving. He acts as if they exist in a vacuum, that only his team will get better via the draft and that only his players will get better through individual improvement.

Free agency isn't "bad" and avoiding it because you are bad at it is like punting on 4th and 1 in critical games. You're playing scared and you're not giving yourself a chance to make it.

Nightman said:

then delete your account

Click to expand...

So much of what was written by the OP is per speculation he's been spouting for years about the cap. This is the mantra of those who don't understand the malleable nature of the cap. I hope fans don't buy into this just because he used a lot of words.

CowboysWillRise said:

What bother me is our philosophy of spending money on several sub par free agents who typically end up useless or cut. I realize you have to fill out a roster, but Id much rather sign one or two legit players and then pay guys like Nolan Carroll.

Click to expand...

and Thornton, Paea, Mayowa, Olewale, Butler, Flemming, McFadden, DThompson, BeneB, KMoore, Weeden

KingintheNorth said:

The problem with the overreliance on building through the draft is that even if you buy into the notion that you will hit on most of your picks, that by the time your talent has developed you will naturally have new holes. Fix the offensive line and by the time they're all solid contributors, your secondary is a liability. Fix the secondary, and now some of your offensive linemen have priced or aged themselves out of the plan. It's plugging dam holes with your fingers.

It's also arrogant and ignorant to assume you are that much better at drafting than your playoff competitors. Even with recent success, you can't just expect to make bigger strides than your competitors. It's simply not realistic. Take this year for example. We lost to the Rams so it's a logical statement to say the Rams are slightly ahead of us. The Patriots won the Super Bowl so that should be the bullseye we are aiming for. However, both of those teams have more draft capital than us in the upcoming draft (Rams barely, Patriots significant).


The Cowboys also seem to think they will simply improve on their own. Jerry recently said the team can expect to advance by individual players improving. He acts as if they exist in a vacuum, that only his team will get better via the draft and that only his players will get better through individual improvement.

Free agency isn't "bad" and avoiding it because you are bad at it is like punting on a 4th and 1 in critical games. You're playing scared and you're not giving yourself a chance to make it.

Click to expand...

great chart and great analysis

Rockport said:

Good post. Only thing I don’t like is the use of the word idiom:

An idiom (Latin: idiom from Ancient Greek: ἰδίωμα, "special feature, special phrasing, a peculiarity", f. Ancient Greek: ἴδιος, translit. ídios, "one's own") is a phrase or an expression that has a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning. Categorized as formulaic language, an idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning.[1] There are thousands of idioms, occurring frequently in all languages. It is estimated that there are at least twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions in the English language.[2]

Click to expand...

This is fair tbh but I do have an English BA degree and was referring largely to the "which has become accepted in common usage" part of the definition. Like saying "There is no such thing as cap hell" to me does rate very similarly to saying "It is raining cats and dogs".

On reflection though DOGMA would be a far better word choice. And had I ever actually used that BA for anything I'd probably be more accurate.
These are blanket statements accepted as true and in reality are dubious at best.

Point being, in salary cap parlance we have created these sayings which are largely unchallenged, often do not mean exactly what it stated and are accepted as fact.
Because of that, cap management is "self-taught" on boards and apps in a very poor way.

jterrell said:

This is fair tbh but I do have an English BA degree and was referring largely to the "which has become accepted in common usage" part of the definition. Like saying "There is no such thing as cap hell" to me does rate very similarly to saying "It is raining cats and dogs".

On reflection though DOGMA would be a far better word choice. And had I ever actually used that BA for anything I'd probably be more accurate.
These are blanket statements accepted as true and in reality are dubious at best.

Point being, in salary cap parlance we have created these sayings which are largely unchallenged, often do not mean exactly what it stated and are accepted as fact.
Because of that, cap management is "self-taught" on boards and apps in a very poor way.

Click to expand...

Your point is a very excellent one.

Vinnie2u said:

Ok but good teams sprinkle in good free agents. They just don’t Ignore the process.

Click to expand...

Meaningless post.
Every team participates in free agency.
Some focus mor eon their own guys, some on lower end cheap guys, some go try to win the off-season by signing the biggest names.

Good teams do VERY little of the latter.

jterrell said:

2 hours til brackets and I have time soooo... let's try to make the board a little smarter.

Idiom: The cap keeps rising so pushing money off means it is worth less and is a good strategy.
FICTION: This is a very common and accepted bunch of nonsense. Why?? Because you know what else goes up? Player contracts. You need more money to sign the next guy because the next guy is on a higher salary scale. You are competing in any given window and you've shorted yourself for that window to benefit one that will quickly be in the past. Any GM who hands out 50M+ in restructures then wins 7 or less games should be fired week 17.

Idiom: The salary cap isn't real and cap hell doesn't exist.
HARD MEH: This is one of those things people like to say and sound smart but they will eventually capitulate and admit teams have to make tough decisions versus the cap. Those tough decisions are very real for the teams making them. The cap has a ton of built in flexibility but all money does come due.

Idiom: There are 3 ways to improve a roster: Drafting, FA and trades.
HARD MEH: This is one of those meaninglessly true statements always taken out of context. Drafting is numero uno by a mile. Trading is very limited and free agency is more about finding value and especially among un-drafted guys than it is adding super stars. Superstars in FA are a terrible "hit rate". In truth, the 2nd best way to improve a roster is to exercise good cap mgmt. That way you maintain good players and continue to develop depth going forward without coming in 1 man short because you cut a guy and paid him anyway. Trades are very tough because the team you are buying from knows the player/s you are acquiring better than you. Hard to outsmart someone on a guy they saw daily during the NFL season for years.

Idiom: But we can free up 70M THIS easy.
MOSTLY FACT: It is very easy to flip deals because most players want that guaranteed money that handing them a check today delivers. They can claim the interest on that large sum of money. BUT, not if the agent wants a longer term deal you can't. The agent can play hardball knowing you have a large cap hit you don't want to eat.
This is a lot like knowing you can take out a pay day loan or remortgage your house for money. These things are factually possible but also still really desperate acts that will almost certainly cost you more money in the end.

Idiom: So we should just never sign anyone ever then.
MOSTLY FICTION: Teams have to "pay" for draft mistakes. See Cam Fleming. Chaz Green was trash thus that expenditure was VERY necessary. WR misses amongst later picks made signing Hurns a reality. But you merely want to fill absolute holes so you can draft true to your board. You don't go get shiny player X because you think he makes you better. A lot of the FA safeties would have been superior to Jeff Heath. Very, very few of them that have already signed would have been a better value.

Idiom: The only cap that matters is this year.
FICTION x 10: This is where fan GMs get in the most trouble. They could care less about future seasons but the NFL is a business and businesses very much do care. They have 3 and 5 year plans. Transformation projects and overall directions that go well beyond 1 season or year. DAL has a great cap situation but they also know they have to pay DLaw, Zeke, Dak and Amari. These are elite players at expensive positions. You have to plan for that. 120M cap space in a future season? You can basically assume 75M of that is gone for these 4 guys. DAL planned ahead smartly. Compare to Philly who have ~30M free but a cap projection of 30m per season for Wentz. Franchising Wentz if needed to bide time for deal would essentially be impossible without drastic moves elsewhere.

This stuff would frustrate me far less if Dallas fans hadn't witnessed the failure of credit card cap management and Free Agency as a primary roster building pillar for a decade plus. Restructuring guys with injuries: Lee, Romo, Dez. Restructuring guys who were crazy: Ratliff. Restructuring guys who were simply poor cap values: Brandon Carr/late in career Witten.

It is quite OK to NOT be off-season champs. That title means exactly zero come week 1 much less by the Super Bowl.

Click to expand...

Nightman said:

and Thornton, Paea, Mayowa, Olewale, Butler, Flemming, McFadden, DThompson, BeneB, KMoore, Weeden

Click to expand...

nit picking, but i thougt paea played good not mcfaddens fault we sucked on O was Kellen Moore drafted? Flemming isnt bad, resigned with us. . the rest of your post is ok.

jterrell said:

2 hours til brackets and I have time soooo... let's try to make the board a little smarter.

Idiom: The cap keeps rising so pushing money off means it is worth less and is a good strategy.
FICTION: This is a very common and accepted bunch of nonsense. Why?? Because you know what else goes up? Player contracts. You need more money to sign the next guy because the next guy is on a higher salary scale. You are competing in any given window and you've shorted yourself for that window to benefit one that will quickly be in the past. Any GM who hands out 50M+ in restructures then wins 7 or less games should be fired week 17.

Idiom: The salary cap isn't real and cap hell doesn't exist.
HARD MEH: This is one of those things people like to say and sound smart but they will eventually capitulate and admit teams have to make tough decisions versus the cap. Those tough decisions are very real for the teams making them. The cap has a ton of built in flexibility but all money does come due.

Idiom: There are 3 ways to improve a roster: Drafting, FA and trades.
HARD MEH: This is one of those meaninglessly true statements always taken out of context. Drafting is numero uno by a mile. Trading is very limited and free agency is more about finding value and especially among un-drafted guys than it is adding super stars. Superstars in FA are a terrible "hit rate". In truth, the 2nd best way to improve a roster is to exercise good cap mgmt. That way you maintain good players and continue to develop depth going forward without coming in 1 man short because you cut a guy and paid him anyway. Trades are very tough because the team you are buying from knows the player/s you are acquiring better than you. Hard to outsmart someone on a guy they saw daily during the NFL season for years.

Idiom: But we can free up 70M THIS easy.
MOSTLY FACT: It is very easy to flip deals because most players want that guaranteed money that handing them a check today delivers. They can claim the interest on that large sum of money. BUT, not if the agent wants a longer term deal you can't. The agent can play hardball knowing you have a large cap hit you don't want to eat.
This is a lot like knowing you can take out a pay day loan or remortgage your house for money. These things are factually possible but also still really desperate acts that will almost certainly cost you more money in the end.

Idiom: So we should just never sign anyone ever then.
MOSTLY FICTION: Teams have to "pay" for draft mistakes. See Cam Fleming. Chaz Green was trash thus that expenditure was VERY necessary. WR misses amongst later picks made signing Hurns a reality. But you merely want to fill absolute holes so you can draft true to your board. You don't go get shiny player X because you think he makes you better. A lot of the FA safeties would have been superior to Jeff Heath. Very, very few of them that have already signed would have been a better value.

Idiom: The only cap that matters is this year.
FICTION x 10: This is where fan GMs get in the most trouble. They could care less about future seasons but the NFL is a business and businesses very much do care. They have 3 and 5 year plans. Transformation projects and overall directions that go well beyond 1 season or year. DAL has a great cap situation but they also know they have to pay DLaw, Zeke, Dak and Amari. These are elite players at expensive positions. You have to plan for that. 120M cap space in a future season? You can basically assume 75M of that is gone for these 4 guys. DAL planned ahead smartly. Compare to Philly who have ~30M free but a cap projection of 30m per season for Wentz. Franchising Wentz if needed to bide time for deal would essentially be impossible without drastic moves elsewhere.

This stuff would frustrate me far less if Dallas fans hadn't witnessed the failure of credit card cap management and Free Agency as a primary roster building pillar for a decade plus. Restructuring guys with injuries: Lee, Romo, Dez. Restructuring guys who were crazy: Ratliff. Restructuring guys who were simply poor cap values: Brandon Carr/late in career Witten.

It is quite OK to NOT be off-season champs. That title means exactly zero come week 1 much less by the Super Bowl.

Click to expand...

Shorter: Bills come due eventually.

My pet peeve is people saying that keeping a player on the roster instead of cutting them "saves cap" because dead money doesn't come due that way, instead of *adding this year's salary * to the player's cumulative cap hit.

Dead money is dead. It is not resurrected by pushing it off to future years *and* adding another year's salary to the damage.