Here's the real problem with salaries

[Flamma]

Good thoughts, but we want to add even more rules to a bad salary restricted system.
Truth is that the franchise tag is extremely unfair and it prevents that player from reaching true free agency. The revenue share is 51 49 in favor of the owners, the 2011 CBA prevented the rookies from making a metric ton of money.

Running back problem will not be solved, another truth is... there are too many good running back in the league and more come out every year. That will not change.
When you can draft Pacheco, Pollard, Kenneth Walker, Khalil Herbert types from round 2-7 why pay Barkley? I mean heck I would not even have drafted Barkley.

Today the Bears signed Cole Kment to a 4 year 50 million dollar contract, supply and demand. Every team has a RB or more. TE's are more rare.

Yeah, pretty much agree. They could probably marginally help the RB situation by eliminating a 5th year option or any tags for RBs. If you drop that number to 3 years, like I've heard suggested, the league is going to want something big in return.

 

[RxMan]

I get what you're saying, it's just the math I have issue with. Dak is an 11.5% cap hit. The top 3 players add up to 23.5% against the cap. If I had to guess, your numbers are probably closer to average salary for each player. That's not what goes against the cap.

Thank you for getting the correct math. Dak is indeed at 11.5% of the cap.

 

[Bobhaze]

Changes to the cap and salaries are years away from being addressed. We must remember that it will be 2030 before the next collective bargaining agreement is established. The current CBA took effect in 2020 and will last a decade.

Which means there cannot be changes to salary structures until the negotiations create a new agreement where possible changes could take place by 2030.

Bottom line: We will see this trend continue for at least 7 more seasons.

 

[ghst187]

Another problem is that the nfl has a moron for a commissioner who has never come up with a single creative solution to a problem nor has he ever gotten in front of an issue before it became a big problem…

 

[ElGatoGrande]

Good thoughts, but we want to add even more rules to a bad salary restricted system.
Truth is that the franchise tag is extremely unfair and it prevents that player from reaching true free agency. The revenue share is 51 49 in favor of the owners, the 2011 CBA prevented the rookies from making a metric ton of money.

Running back problem will not be solved, another truth is... there are too many good running back in the league and more come out every year. That will not change.
When you can draft Pacheco, Pollard, Kenneth Walker, Khalil Herbert types from round 2-7 why pay Barkley? I mean heck I would not even have drafted Barkley.

Today the Bears signed Cole Kment to a 4 year 50 million dollar contract, supply and demand. Every team has a RB or more. TE's are more rare.

Supply and demand, competition, incentive,,,, these are all things that help create quality products. Perhaps the salary cap system needs some more tweaking but the NFLPA represented the playres and this is the system they helped build. These organizations are all putting their money where they believe it will do the most good for their respective teams, how they manage their salary distribution is part of the game too...

 

[zrinkill]

There is not a salary problem ...... There is a salary cap problem that the owners made on purpose.

The owners are all making more money than ever ...... and they just keep getting richer.

People need to understand that they could triple the salary cap tomorrow if they wanted too.

Players greed is not the problem ...... It's owners greed

 

[blueblood70]

With all the talk about the collapse of the running back market and the insane salaries given to (fill in the blank -- be it player or position), there's an element of player salaries that is not discussed nearly enough:

The NFL salary table is incredibly top heavy.

Dak's salary takes up nearly 18% of the team's salary cap this year. (This is not a Dak thread. This is not a Dak thread. This is not a Dak thread.)

The top 3 salaries on the roster take up more than 35% of the salary cap.

That leaves 65% of the cap -- less, actually, because of dead money -- for the remaining 50 players on the roster.

There are 35 players on this team earning less than $1 million per year. I know, no one here is crying for them. But when you have 35 players on one team earning less, combined, than 1 player on that same team, something is wrong.

Understand: This is not a Cowboys problem. This is an every team in the NFL problem.

What's more: Salaries increase for players after their 4th year in the league. But how long is the average career? Less than 4 years. So, rosters are always going to be top heavy. A few will earn more in one season than most of their teammates will earn in their entire careers.

Saquon says he doesn't want to be an "a-hole" to his teammates. But, guess what? Every star players is already telling his lower tier teammates that their pockets don't matter. Every. Darn. Day.

Why should we care? Because this is a team sport, but the top heavy contract structure destroys teams. It encourages teams to jettison good players, who have attracted fans to the team -- not because they aren't good anymore, but because they aren't affordable anymore. It encourages players to leave teams for a huge contract elsewhere -- that will only be broken in a year or two. It shortens careers, because good players can't be paid like great players, and cheap players don't have to be good. It starves young players and leaves young men broken at age 25, without the financial resources that start players have to care for themselves.

How can this be fixed?

Make it so that no single player can earn more than 10% of the cap.

Make it so that the top 3 contracts, combined, can't be more than 20% of the cap.

Make it so that no player earns less than 1/2 of 1% of the cap. (Currently, the minimum is 1/10 of 1 percent).

Make player more equitable, and players and teams and fans will all win.

Actually, you missed the biggest point,

It's that with social media the Internet and everyone up in everyone else's business where there's nothing a secret anymore...

an influx of opinions and false narratives, fans need to just stay out of the contract negotiations.

Contracts should not be part of sports and the fact that they become so out in the open has now cluttered up our views on players because of how much money they make.

I hate to break it to most fans you are not professionals at pro sports, you do not hold employment as a professional general manager for a sports teams, you are not a CPA, or a lawyer for a sports team you have no idea about contracts and truly have no true understanding of the salary cap.​

Oh, I know you think you do but it's only because of what you read and what they allow you to see but now everyone's an expert at everything you have YouTube and Google and everybody just goes and looks at everything and then comes in and says how this guys overpaid, that guys overpaid, the structure of how people are paid or wrong.. blah blah blah

You NEED TO realize teams are made-up of layers of management and professionals along with the fact that these are billion dollar franchises Being overseen by $100 billion entity in the NFL.

they're all businessmen and they all have people working for them that know 1000 times more than any fan.

I don't care what you do in math, economics, management, or what you do in your regular life in business and you think you know what's right​

​

you do not, you do not build teams, you do not run teams, and you not structure salary caps...​

​

So, in my opinion all that above what you wrote is great you said your peace but the real thing is just this fans stay out of another man's money and stop trying to tell professionals how to structure and run their teams as far as salaries go..​

You're not professionals in this business, therefore you need to stay out of it we come on here so we could be fans of the team the players watch games debate games and that's where it should end all this contract talk and everybody worried about everyone else's bag and what they got paid and how it's going to affect the team, it's just useless...

Now off my soapbox...

 

[blueblood70]

Changes to the cap and salaries are years away from being addressed. We must remember that it will be 2030 before the next collective bargaining agreement is established. The current CBA took effect in 2020 and will last a decade.

Which means there cannot be changes to salary structures until the negotiations create a new agreement where possible changes could take place by 2030.

Bottom line: We will see this trend continue for at least 7 more seasons.

The true bottom line is fans need to stay out of how salaries are given out how big contracts are and anything to do with players money...

I mean this is not why we're supposed to be watching games and debating football, this is outside our purview as fans..

Seriously, it makes no difference this billion dollar industry ran by a multibillion dollar entity and I think they understand a ton more than fans do no matter how much information we can find on the Internet.

It sure would be nice to get back to just debating football,

you know watch the games, debate the games, debate the stats, talk about players, you know the fun of football and share our ups and downs and for the love of the game.​

​

not this nonsense about money,​

​

it is changed the way fans look at sports not just betting. but fantasy football, analytics, statistics that are just over saturated people's brains.​

It still comes down to one thing, we can't wait till football season, and we just need to watch football and debate football...

 

[Vtwin]

Another problem is that the nfl has a moron for a commissioner who has never come up with a single creative solution to a problem nor has he ever gotten in front of an issue before it became a big problem…

He doesn't see a problem. What he sees is a massively successful enterprise.

It's only us hardcores that focus on the quality of the game itself, that see a problem.

 

[Mac_MaloneV1]

Vet and rookie minimums are way too low. They should be doubled, at least.

 

[blueblood70]

I get what you're saying, it's just the math I have issue with. Dak is an 11.5% cap hit. The top 3 players add up to 23.5% against the cap. If I had to guess, your numbers are probably closer to average salary for each player. That's not what goes against the cap.

Yes but this is the only way you can fit 60 players into specific roles with a hard salary cap and it works, it's been working...

So I don't think any fans gonna come in here with a plan to fix something that, let's be clear, 32 billionaire businessmen who run corporations many have more businesses and corporations than just their NFL franchise they have thousands of employees who are professionals ,who are money people, who deal with this every day and that includes the people who run the NFL..

I believe they made this structure this way for a reason and they will tweak it and change it as time passes but any fan who comes in here and thinks that they know what's wrong and how to fix it better go look at the rest of these lower end NFL wannabes in the XFL, USFL,AFL, I don't even know all the other ones in Europe they cannot ever be the NFL because they think they could do it better and it's not working.

There's a reason the NFL is so big,

They figured out a plan and a structure and it's working nothing is without its flaws but fans need to stay out of this money talk the salary cap this is not why we watch sports the Internet in this open Information Society we live in is ruining sports because fans think they know more and they think they have a plan to get it fixed let me be clear, it's not broke.

Each time they go back to the table the CBA all parties get to vote and they will figure out a fine line and meet in the middle sign the contract and we're good for ten years all this fan talk about money and business and the salary cap and who's making too much money who's not making enough it's ridiculous.

Football seasons ahead ,

fans used to just want to watch football games ,debate football games ,and talk about their favorite players and talk about their least favorite players that's where we need to be.

 

[Mac_MaloneV1]

Yes but this is the only way you can fit 60 players into specific roles with a hard salary cap and it works, it's been working...

So I don't think any fans gonna come in here with a plan to fix something that, let's be clear, 32 billionaire businessmen who run corporations many have more businesses and corporations than just their NFL franchise they have thousands of employees who are professionals ,who are money people, who deal with this every day and that includes the people who run the NFL..

I believe they made this structure this way for a reason and they will tweak it and change it as time passes but any fan who comes in here and thinks that they know what's wrong and how to fix it better go look at the rest of these lower end NFL wannabes in the XFL, USFL,AFL, I don't even know all the other ones in Europe they cannot ever be the NFL because they think they could do it better and it's not working.

There's a reason the NFL is so big,

They figured out a plan and a structure and it's working nothing is without its flaws but fans need to stay out of this money talk the salary cap this is not why we watch sports the Internet in this open Information Society we live in is ruining sports because fans think they know more and they think they have a plan to get it fixed let me be clear, it's not broke.

Each time they go back to the table the CBA all parties get to vote and they will figure out a fine line and meet in the middle sign the contract and we're good for ten years all this fan talk about money and business and the salary cap and who's making too much money who's not making enough it's ridiculous.

Football seasons ahead ,

fans used to just want to watch football games ,debate football games ,and talk about their favorite players and talk about their least favorite players that's where we need to be.

It's not the 1970s man. Fans have been talking about how to build rosters for and fit them under the cap more than 20 years.

You could do it on Madden in like 1999.

 

[john van brocklin]

With all the talk about the collapse of the running back market and the insane salaries given to (fill in the blank -- be it player or position), there's an element of player salaries that is not discussed nearly enough:

The NFL salary table is incredibly top heavy.

Dak's salary takes up nearly 18% of the team's salary cap this year. (This is not a Dak thread. This is not a Dak thread. This is not a Dak thread.)

The top 3 salaries on the roster take up more than 35% of the salary cap.

That leaves 65% of the cap -- less, actually, because of dead money -- for the remaining 50 players on the roster.

There are 35 players on this team earning less than $1 million per year. I know, no one here is crying for them. But when you have 35 players on one team earning less, combined, than 1 player on that same team, something is wrong.

Understand: This is not a Cowboys problem. This is an every team in the NFL problem.

What's more: Salaries increase for players after their 4th year in the league. But how long is the average career? Less than 4 years. So, rosters are always going to be top heavy. A few will earn more in one season than most of their teammates will earn in their entire careers.

Saquon says he doesn't want to be an "a-hole" to his teammates. But, guess what? Every star players is already telling his lower tier teammates that their pockets don't matter. Every. Darn. Day.

Why should we care? Because this is a team sport, but the top heavy contract structure destroys teams. It encourages teams to jettison good players, who have attracted fans to the team -- not because they aren't good anymore, but because they aren't affordable anymore. It encourages players to leave teams for a huge contract elsewhere -- that will only be broken in a year or two. It shortens careers, because good players can't be paid like great players, and cheap players don't have to be good. It starves young players and leaves young men broken at age 25, without the financial resources that start players have to care for themselves.

How can this be fixed?

Make it so that no single player can earn more than 10% of the cap.

Make it so that the top 3 contracts, combined, can't be more than 20% of the cap.

Make it so that no player earns less than 1/2 of 1% of the cap. (Currently, the minimum is 1/10 of 1 percent).

Make player more equitable, and players and teams and fans will all win.

Very well thought out post !
The Players should approve these changes as it would help the majority of them.
And when they count the votes the majority rules !
I have long said they should cap the % that QBs can make relative to the overall cap of a team.

 

[CouchCoach]

The problem with salaries is the cap and the 8 zillion complicated ways to wrap around it.

The real problem is the league allowing the teams to manipulate the cap and kick the problem down the road.

They should have simplified this from the beginning and these agents and players would know just how much room these teams have.

Every agent is doing their job of pushing the players and positions up the contract ladder and there will be a ceiling soon because this will not just continue to go up.

Fantasy and league sanctioned gambling can take this just so far and those are the two main reasons for the growth.

At some point the greedy owners, agents and players will hit a wall with the public.

 

[blueblood70]

Very well thought out post !
The Players should approve these changes as it would help the majority of them.
And when they count the votes the majority rules !
I have long said they should cap the % that QBs can make relative to the overall cap of a team.

sure, let's discuss it in 2030 when it runs out, in the meantime, let's get back to football....

 

[FanofJerry]

Some sort of lid on percentage of cap but also with some sort of Bird Rights so the team that drafted said player can offer more than every other team?

Or get weird and implement a rule that states the higher you pay your QB the less roster you can have. Example...you want to pay your QB more than the suggested NFL ceiling of 14% of cap...you can do that...but you can only have a certain number of players on your team...you cant have 53. And the higher you pay your QB the less players you can have.

 

[diamonddelts]

sure, let's discuss it in 2030 when it runs out, in the meantime, let's get back to football....

People have the right to discuss whatever they want to here. I can make the argument that casual fans don't know anything about what goes into coaching,game plans, position coaches, adjustments, etc.

But yet you have no problem with them debating and discussing it in this forum. Have you ever played any position for the N.F.L.? Has that stopped you from coming here and giving your opinions on N.F.L. games? Nobody likes a conversation policeman.

If you don't like the discussion, simply bow out. No need to tell everyone what you think we're qualified to talk about.

 

[cowboybish]

People are just emotional right now especially the RB's.....

At the end of the day the QB position is important. More important than 10 percent of the salary cap. Micah Parsons is more important the the guy next to him. It's just what it is. The NFL doesn't see it as a problem and it's really not one. There may be an issue with running backs down the line but then don't play the position. Go play another position because you see where the market is going if you're a up and coming guy.

So maybe what needs to be done is a certain percentage of the total cap should go to each position with a max at each position, and the overall Should be increased… yeah, good luck with that. All the crybabies would have a conniption fit but in reality that’s what really should happen.

 

[john van brocklin]

sure, let's discuss it in 2030 when it runs out, in the meantime, let's get back to football....

Looonnnggg off season, so this is the chatter we fill the time with.....

 

[sunalsorises]

The players union should address this. They are supposed to represent every player in the league, not just QBs and franchise tag players or guys who assault massage therapists and want to skate on the suspension.