Breer: How the Eagles have circumvented the salary cap the last couple of years

[CowboysLakerBamaFan]

I've recently read that the tricks the Eagles use to dominate the salary cap may be banned in next couple of years.

The crappy owners out there seem to be taking the tact of "If we can't bear them, outlaw everything they do well"

Tush push. Cao wizardry. All getting targeted by the lazy owners

 

[conner01]

Being a smart businessman doesn't somehow mean you can run a football team and manage contracts competently. Lurie is also a very successful businessman but he knows his limitations and gave football authority to Roseman. Jerry it too arrogant to understand his limitations/flaws.

The smartest people surround themselves with smart people who knows all the things they don’t know

 

[TwoDeep3]

I always thought it would be a clever idea to create a company which the players invest that has zero to do with the franchise. It guarantees them X amount of dollars in the future, and they accept a very team friendly contract with the Cowboys.

I also admit I was best friends with Timothy Leary at one time.

 

[gimmesix]

I'm not saying they are not smarter than Jerry, because the results speak for themselves.

What I'm saying is the void years is not some sort of magic Howie/Eagles-only strategy because the Cowboys and other teams have been doing that for years.

As I said, the main difference is that Howie is willing to reset the cap every so often to avoid getting hamstrung by it where Jerry is more concerned with trying to maintain popularity every single year.

From Jerry's business perspective, fielding a team that loses in the playoffs every year is a better financial strategy than winning a Super Bowl and ultimately having 2+ bad seasons in a row.

Howie would have moved on from Dak when his last contract ended and accepted 2025 may be a down season.

Jerry had no real future QBs on the team last season so he kicked the can down the road to maintain the status quo.

We really seem to have leaned into void years of late. For example, Lamb's deal has four void years. I don't remember seeing a lot of that when I looked at contracts a few years back. When we restructured Lamb this year, we pushed $5 million into that first void year. I'm certain will push more into the others before his contract is done.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Can any board cap expert make sense of this ...........man, if this is true, Howie is 4-5 steps ahead of the Jerry.

https://www.si.com/nfl/nfl/nfl-mailbag-rams-nfc-west-favorite

From Birds By A Billion (@SeeUSoonBoyy): Is the league talking about changing the salary cap rules because the Eagles have broken the system? They have been successfully pushing payments into void years. The Eagles are paying Jason [Kelce] $14 million in 2025 and he retired before last season. Make it make sense.


From Steelers Depot (@Steelersdepot): Recently, Roger Goodell talked about the need to look into the integrity of the salary cap, which is probably related to cash spending, void years and rolling option bonuses. Off the cuff, what, in your opinion, would be a good solution to restore that integrity?

Steelers and Birds, I do think some of this relates to cash spending.

So, for those who don’t know, the Eagles have effectively, legally circumvented the salary cap over the past couple of years by pushing cap charges way off into the future. That, to be clear, doesn’t eliminate those charges. It just leaves them to be accounted for some other day. And it’s through no nefarious method. You or I could scribble out a similar strategy on a page of notebook paper. It is simply buying something now that you’re paying for in cash that will be accounted for on the salary cap later.

I have been saying it for a couple of years. It's cap management 101. Push to future the bill comes due in dead cap and you reset. The problem is Jerry was a big spender initially when he bought the team. They put the cap for teams like Ni ers, Cowboys and Washington. But team learned how to manipulate it.

But Jerry is now focused on cash management year overbearing and stopped spending. That is why our deadline cap is so low for several years.

Teams can spend the cash if they want to. Some owners don't. In the end when you calculate cash spent it's never above the cap. And it's never below the cap floor.

 

[KingCorcoran]

I have been saying it for a couple of years. It's cap management 101. Push to future the bill comes due in dead cap and you reset. The problem is Jerry was a big spender initially when he bought the team. They put the cap for teams like Ni ers, Cowboys and Washington. But team learned how to manipulate it.

But Jerry is now focused on cash management year overbearing and stopped spending. That is why our deadline cap is so low for several years.

Teams can spend the cash if they want to. Some owners don't. In the end when you calculate cash spent it's never above the cap. And it's never below the cap floor.

“They” is Jerry Jones. He was the primary driver for establishing the salary cap. He wanted it established for his interests. It wasn’t thrust on the Cowboys. Along with negotiating media right deals it’s why he’s in the Hall of Fame.

The irony is the very salary cap system he created he’s the least capable GM in the league managing it.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

“They” is Jerry Jones. He was the primary driver for establishing the salary cap. He wanted it established for his interests. It wasn’t thrust on the Cowboys. Along with negotiating media right deals it’s why he’s in the Hall of Fame.

The irony is the very salary cap system he created he’s the least capable GM in the league managing it.

If he created it then his goal was money and with Cowboys being most valuable franchise despite 30 years of futility he has then accom0lished his goal.

 

[KingCorcoran]

If he created it then his goal was money and with Cowboys being most valuable franchise despite 30 years of futility he has then accom0lished his goal.

Yes, he has. And he’s living his best life. I don’t believe he feels he needs another Super Bowl victory to make his life complete.

 

[jmnichols75]

For those who don’t quite know what we’re talking about, void years are fake years put at the back of a player’s contract where the team can “hide” cap hits, making the player cost less today than what you paid him.

Philadelphia isn’t unique in using this strategy, but they are by far the league’s biggest culprit:

This reminds me of the signing bonus loophole(s) that existed in the early and mid 90s. San Francisco started leveraging the prorated nature of the signing bonuses, allowing them to lure in free agents with big payouts but spreading the costs out over the length of the contracts. Jerry Jones (and others) argued that it was a violation of, at least, the spirit of the cap but the league gave the tactic it's blessing. That let the 49ers to be very aggressive in the 1994 offseason, allowing them to sign some big name players like Deion Sanders and even snatch Ken Norton, Jr., from the Cowboys (an effective 2-for-1 move since it negatively affected their biggest rival and primary obstacle to a championship).

The Cowboys said, "two can play at that game" and, during the next offseason, gave Deiom Sanders a $35 million contract. I believe $15 million was signing bonus which, according to the rules at the time, would be evenly spread out over the contract's give year length). The Cowboys returned to the Super Bowl after employing the tactic and beat the Steelers to get another Lombardi Trophy.

This "void years" issue seems similar. Perfectly legal according to cap rules, but probably shouldn't be. Or, like with the signing bonus issue of 30 years ago, should have a few more limits, rules, and/or stipulations attached. I don't really have an issue with how the Eagles are using the loophole, but that also doesn't mean that it shouldn't be closed. While it exists, every team should look to use it, the Cowboys included. But it probably would simplify things and, I suspect (though I'd have to give this a little more thought) it might provide an advantage to large market teams or those with crazy rich (even by NFL standards) owners.

 

[KingCorcoran]

This reminds me of the signing bonus loophole(s) that existed in the early and mid 90s. San Francisco started leveraging the prorated nature of the signing bonuses, allowing them to lure in free agents with big payouts but spreading the costs out over the length of the contracts. Jerry Jones (and others) argued that it was a violation of, at least, the spirit of the cap but the league gave the tactic it's blessing. That let the 49ers to be very aggressive in the 1994 offseason, allowing them to sign some big name players like Deion Sanders and even snatch Ken Norton, Jr., from the Cowboys (an effective 2-for-1 move since it negatively affected their biggest rival and primary obstacle to a championship).

The Cowboys said, "two can play at that game" and, during the next offseason, gave Deiom Sanders a $35 million contract. I believe $15 million was signing bonus which, according to the rules at the time, would be evenly spread out over the contract's give year length). The Cowboys returned to the Super Bowl after employing the tactic and beat the Steelers to get another Lombardi Trophy.

This "void years" issue seems similar. Perfectly legal according to cap rules, but probably shouldn't be. Or, like with the signing bonus issue of 30 years ago, should have a few more limits, rules, and/or stipulations attached. I don't really have an issue with how the Eagles are using the loophole, but that also doesn't mean that it shouldn't be closed. While it exists, every team should look to use it, the Cowboys included. But it probably would simplify things and, I suspect (though I'd have to give this a little more thought) it might provide an advantage to large market teams or those with crazy rich (even by NFL standards) owners.

Since the cap must be bargained the only change or new “stipulation” will have to enrich players. Since the notion of that contradicts the owners desire for a salary cap, in the first place, there isn’t likely to be any changes. It is tied to increase in revenues so players and owners get rich together.

 

[Pass2Run]

The smartest people surround themselves with smart people who knows all the things they don’t know

That's right.

 

[Pass2Run]

They havent circumvented anything, though admittedly it appears alien to us Cowboys fans as it's the polar opposite from how we operate.

Roseman is prepared:

• to have 'retool years'
• trades (even prepared to trade away 'star' names)
• he drafts well - the starting SB Defense consisted of 'home' drafted (Davis, Carter, Dean, DeJean, Mitchell, Smith and Sweat)

Im sure we'll get to the Hurts question, well they've kicked the can and yes he'll eventually have to produce with less weapons/protection.....but Roseman realizes he can/ AND IS PREPARED to either:

a) cuts Hurts, and suffer a one year re-tool year
b) trade him, take the draft picks and pays off the signing bonus in a limited re-tool
c) extends him (when he's only 31), spreading that signing bonus him into the future

Jerry can only add to the elite and gets in a mess as he just cant trade.

This is true. Jerry knows this might be a rebuild year. Too many question marks at LB and in the secondary.

 

[CowboyoWales]

This is true. Jerry knows this might be a rebuild year. Too many question marks at LB and in the secondary.

Yep.....but I wonder what could of happened had Jerry gone 'rebuild' last year and what he could of gotten for DLaw, Martin and J-Lew?
He signed Dak to silly money and then brought back the 1-year gang, but killed the roster. I suppose it's the age old issue of 'apparent relevancy'.