BTW, those guys are already about to dance around w/ the trophy over there.
Well... you're kinda-sorta right. The SKins are never in the trouble the media makes them out to be in, but... they are in trouble. The media gleefully reported that they were at $114 million against the cap when any fifth-grader could figure out that there were very simple steps they could take to step under it (mostly by reconfiguring guaranteed bonuses, which they did). As I've said before, it ain't cap hell, but it is cap heck.
Here's the problem for the Skins with the cap: they're thin. They devote a greater proportion of their cap dollars to the few players at the top than most teams do, and the result is that they have to rely on very cheap players to fill out the roster. Take a look at the cap numbers for the playoff teams last year: the Skins devote more cap room to fewer players at the top than the others. Every team has a handful of players who eat up lots of the cap, but the Skins take it to the extreme. Couple that with pretty poor drafting outside of the first two rounds, and you've got a problem.
When other teams lose an offensive lineman, they don't have to turn to a 45 year old. The Skins do. And they're still in that boat. They're going to be a very talented squad this fall, but they're not very far from being a terribly untalented squad.
Picture this: Springs gets injured. Or Griffin. Or Jansen. The talent level at those positions drops precipitiously. Now, no team has all-pros waiting in the wings, but other teams have slightly better backups because they pay them and develop them better. The Skins tend to have bargain-basement journeymen as backups, not future starters or significant contributors being developed. We have seen this at linebacker -- young players turning into starters over time -- but then they immediately leave, so I'm not sure it's a great example.
For the Skins prior to recent renegotiations, the top 8 players eat up about a third of the cap for 2006. That has changed, esp with the departure of Lavar, but there is the question of philosophy: if you have $5 million in cap room, what do you do with it?
Do you (A) sign two big talent stars, or (B) sign four pretty darn good players? That will, of course, depend on your needs, but if you always land on the "A" side of the fence, I suspect you end up in trouble eventually.
The Skins were remarkably healthy last year. None of their critical players went down until Thomas was KO'ed. Portis played in the playoffs pretty banged up. Imagine if Moss or Portis had been injured? Or Springs? Or Cooley?
You go from Cooley to Royal (last year). You go from Moss to... umm... well... I guess nobody. We know what you got when Thomas went out. So don't celebrate the Skins cap management too much. Everyone who writes that the Skins will have to demolish the team to get under the cap is a fool, but anyone who thinks there isn't a price for the way they manage the cap is also a fool.
