The NFL should have a soft salary cap with a luxury tax like the NBA

[Flamma]

The hard cap is insane. If a team drafts a player they should be able to go over the salary cap to re-sign them just like the NBA (Bird Rights). The hard cap should only apply to outside free agents (you can't go over the cap to sign them). A team that drafts well shouldn't be penalized by losing their players. If team is over the salary cap after signing their own players they should simply pay a luxury tax penalty. This should seriously be discussed at the next CBA negotiations.

There are other ways to allow teams to spend more without any disadvantage. For example. Anytime a team resigns a player they drafted, 25% of their salary doesn't go against the cap.

The problem with your suggestion and mine, it will cost owners more money. Do you think they'll go for that? They have a hard cap. They're never letting that go.

 

[lk8701]

Do you understand how the luxury works?

@CalPolyTechnique how much were the Warriors paying for Kelly Oubre with the tax?

The luxury tax doesn't have to be as punitive as the NBA luxury tax. I believe Oubre cost them 80 million.

 

[Ranched]

The "hard cap" isn't insane. Why have a soft salary cap when the luxury tax will spike you over?! The NFL knows what they're doing unlike the NBA. That's why the NFL is the wealthiest sports league.

NFL Salary Cap: $208.2 Million

NBA "Soft" Salary Cap $122 Million
Luxury Tax $149 Million
----------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL: $271 Million

 

[conner01]

I agree. I don’t think JJ is a tight wad (SJ is another story) and I also think the Cowboys are one of the better teams drafting these days. But the majority of the NFL owners place their greed above making the game better.

IMO, Jerry straddles the fence. I believe he would be willing to “buy” a title because I honestly don’t think he and #1 son have a clue how to build a championship roster under current cap rules.

I don’t know why people think Jerry is tight or that he could out spend the rest of the league. We pretty much stay maxed on cap so he’s not tight and Jerry is far from the wealthiest owner. Tepper is much richer and Kroenke is as well plus his wife is worth 3-4 times what he is since she is Alice Walton of Walmart

 

[lk8701]

I don't think the soft cap has helped the NBA all that much and having no cap at all has made MLB all but unwatchable as big money teams nearly always win it all while the have nots are really just the Washington Generals. I like the hard cap but I would certainly not be opposed to exceptions for great players you drafted. A version of the NBA "Bird Rights" rule.

Exactly what I'm advocating for.

 

[darthseinfeld]

The luxury tax doesn't have to be as punitive as the NBA luxury tax. I believe Oubre cost them 80 million.

The purpose of it is to be punitive if you go over. May not be have to be punitive as the NBA, but its not going to be a good fit for the NFL

 

[lk8701]

There are other ways to allow teams to spend more without any disadvantage. For example. Anytime a team resigns a player they drafted, 25% of their salary doesn't go against the cap.

The problem with your suggestion and mine, it will cost owners more money. Do you think they'll go for that? They have a hard cap. They're never letting that go.

That's actually a great suggestion. I would like it be 33.3%

 

[conner01]

That's exactly what this thread is about.

That not the same as a luxury tax
You still have to be below the cap on your remaining roster but you get an exemption for one guy, you drafted only. And it probably couldn’t be a total exemption but maybe say 10% of that one guys salary is exempt

 

[Kingofholland]

I don't think that's the case.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/193704/revenue-of-national-basketball-association-teams-in-2010/

Example: In 2020 -2021 Pacers made the least revenue at 179 million. Their player salaries were at 129 million. Even with other expenses (for other employees etc) I think they still turned a decent profit. Plus they also receive a share of luxury tax payments from the tax paying teams.

That's revenue before operating expenses. I attended an event about 4 years ago with an NBA executive he talked about how at the time most NBA teams lost money before revenue sharing except the big market teams.

 

[Flamma]

That's actually a great suggestion. I would like it be 33.3%

Well yeah, the number I used was just an example . You could pay your player more than any other team and still save on cap space. Problem is, you have to draft well or you're screwed. But that's only a disadvantage if you draft like crap.

I think it might have the unintended effect of lowering FAs asking prices. But not by much.

 

[speedkilz88]

If the nba owners could press a button that made them have a hard cap, every single one is pressing it.

 

[tunahelper]

The hard cap is insane. If a team drafts a player they should be able to go over the salary cap to re-sign them just like the NBA (Bird Rights). The hard cap should only apply to outside free agents (you can't go over the cap to sign them). A team that drafts well shouldn't be penalized by losing their players. If team is over the salary cap after signing their own players they should simply pay a luxury tax penalty. This should seriously be discussed at the next CBA negotiations.

It would be nice, but NBA is paying 12 players. NFL has the most players to feed at 53. I think they need the hard cap to keep competitive balance.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

soft cap helps the Cowboys. I am down.

 

[plymkr]

The hard cap is insane. If a team drafts a player they should be able to go over the salary cap to re-sign them just like the NBA (Bird Rights). The hard cap should only apply to outside free agents (you can't go over the cap to sign them). A team that drafts well shouldn't be penalized by losing their players. If team is over the salary cap after signing their own players they should simply pay a luxury tax penalty. This should seriously be discussed at the next CBA negotiations.

Completely agree. I had a post about my dream system of the NFL that was long and had a lot of holes in it. But the jist of it was teams should be rewarded for drafting well and keep the players they draft. I bash our GMs a lot. But I will admit we draft well. We don't do 2nd contracts well or FA well, but we draft really good. Lol, except the 2nd round, but overall we draft well. I wish there was a CBA agreement that allowed teams to keep their draft picks at a reduced cap hit.

 

[John813]

The spend a percentage of revenue that goes up if revenue goes up
The cap doesn’t save the owners money so much as it saves some teams from being priced out of being able to compete

Maybe but a soft cap with luxury tax would cost more for the owners based off whatever % agreed upon for salary cap calculation.
While some teams will never enter the luxury threshold at times, the ones that will could pay a lot more due to the tax. Imo the owners would never want it. I think there’s only a handful of owners willing to buy a championship when they got to pay payroll and a tax.

 

[conner01]

Maybe but a soft cap with luxury tax would cost more for the owners based off whatever % agreed upon for salary cap calculation.
While some teams will never enter the luxury threshold at times, the ones that will could pay a lot more due to the tax. Imo the owners would never want it. I think there’s only a handful of owners willing to buy a championship when they got to pay payroll and a tax.

I think so
But the league needs parity to drive tv ratings for all games
They are very content with the system
And for the most part so are players even though because a few get so much the majority get less. Seems like the majority of players would figure out that a few positions and players get the biggest part of the money on every roster
Since there is only so much to go around it costs the non elite money. But they are athletes not accountants lol

 

[fivetwos]

I'm not sure that the owners would be looking to fix something that isn't broken.

In the spirit of supporting the thread, maybe something like only salaries 2-53 count against the cap if #1 was drafted by you.

That would major concession to the players side though, and they would need to offer up something in return on the next CBA negotiations.

If anything I'd rather see something that reels in the ridiculous QB salaries.

 

[Mannix]

they could easily do it, but the owners want a hard cap. No way in hell do they wat the Cowboys to be able to outspend the rest of the league.

This is the FIRST thing that I actually thought of when initially reading this thread.

 

[charron]

The hard cap is what makes the NFL great. Means teams have got to work harder to build rosters and levels the playing field where the NBA you basically know which teams will win. I get it though. The Dallas cowboys ownership isn't able to win with how the cap is structured but it is better for the league and it's what has grown this sport to dominance in the US sports world.

 

[jrumann59]

Soft cap would destroy the cap, if the exclusion is players you drafted. URFA would be full of bums and practice squad guys, why, because teams retained all their good draft pick players