Why NFL teams are willing to pay their Franchise QB’s

[Diehardblues]

How is the game going to suffer? No matter how much the QBs get paid, the league will still have the same players actually playing in the league. The game wont change 1 bit, just who is making the lions share of the money. The league/owners have exactly what they want with a cap.... a league that allows teams like the Bills and Bengals to get in a super bowl. If there was no cap, the Cowboys would be like the Dodgers and Yankees, and the Bengals would be like the Oakland A's.

The league has never been more popular/powerful, and the cap is part of the reason for that..... by the way, I despise the cap.

Agree

The Cap is apparently necessary to continue the Parity in the Unlimited FA era that the Equal TV Revenue initially established.

That said , doesn’t mean there hadn’t been some effects to the how teams are managed within the Cap. Many which have watered down the depth in the league.

 

[Diehardblues]

in 2 years the Rams are ging to look exactly like the Saints have looked..... in big cap trouble. IM not saying they are doing it wrong... but how the Saints looking right now?

I’d take living in Cap hell while hoisting a Lombardi

The good news is if the right risk and decisions are made you can beat the Cap. Several teams now have illustrated a way to have have success within the limits.

 

[zrinkill]

wait till 2023 and 2024 when his cap hit is 49 and 52 million.

Oh yeah?

Well just wait till 2025 when his cap hit is one billion dollars!

 

[joseephuss]

It's the new NFL.
We may not like it, but that's how it gonna be.
It's hard to be competitive with mediocre QB play,
So if you have a decent QB, he's gonna get paid.

The money has greatly increased, but the NFL has basically been the same. It was always difficult to consistently be competitive on a yearly basis with mediocre QB play. There have always been more teams than available top tier QBs available. The salary cap era just exasperated those challenges and now salaries are even higher. Same basic challenges that each team faces with elevated salary implications.

 

[Bobhaze]

How is the game going to suffer? No matter how much the QBs get paid, the league will still have the same players actually playing in the league. The game wont change 1 bit, just who is making the lions share of the money. The league/owners have exactly what they want with a cap.... a league that allows teams like the Bills and Bengals to get in a super bowl. If there was no cap, the Cowboys would be like the Dodgers and Yankees, and the Bengals would be like the Oakland A's.

The league has never been more popular/powerful, and the cap is part of the reason for that..... by the way, I despise the cap.

You may be right. I just think the game would be better served if the salary cap were more flexible.

The NBA for example has its “Bird Rights” built into their cap. Which means an NBA team can offer a player they originally drafted more to stay with the team than another team and not count as much against the cap. It fosters teams being able to have more cap space to hang onto their original stars. I think the NFL would greatly benefit from a change like that.

The reason I say the QB market is hurting teams is that the QB position is getting a larger and larger share of the cap pie which is in turn squeezing what teams can pay other positional players. In time, if the cap rules don’t change, we could have 32 highly paid QBs, and the rest of the roster just be a bunch of young players on rookie deals. That would not be good for competition.

 

[john van brocklin]

The money has greatly increased, but the NFL has basically been the same. It was always difficult to consistently be competitive on a yearly basis with mediocre QB play. There have always been more teams than available top tier QBs available. The salary cap era just exasperated those challenges and now salaries are even higher. Same basic challenges that each team faces with elevated salary implications.

True, I think it just crystalized more so lately.

 

[Reid1boys]

I expect him to resign next year in 2023 to avoid the first big cap hit of this contract .

His first two years of his contract with 17 and 19 million cap hits are minimal and I’d argue a bargain, next year with 49 million a worthy argument and why I’d expect a restructure or resigning to avoid heading into 2024 without a contract.

But these average yearly salaries aren’t really a true measurement as most of these are back loaded with the big signing bonuses up front.

Watsons entire deal was guaranteed, and Murray's has a huge amount guaranteed also, so you got to pay the piper at some point. You could do what the saints did and keep kicking the can, and the Saints suffered for it also.

 

[Reid1boys]

Our team is so handicapped by Daks salary we still have over 20 million left.

Wait! what?

we dumped Cooper's 20 million dollar contract and screwed up on Gregory....... thats money wasnt expected to be there, until the FO screwed up this off season.

 

[Reid1boys]

I’d take living in Cap hell while hoisting a Lombardi

The good news is if the right risk and decisions are made you can beat the Cap. Several teams now have illustrated a way to have have success within the limits.

what teams? The Rams are the obvious choice. They went for broke and it worked. I agree with you, i dont care about 5 years from now if we win a title today.... BUT, the Rams havent mastered anything until we see what they look like in 2025.

The Pats are the only team I can think of that would fit what you are talking about... BUT, they didnt master any cap, they just got lucky that their QB has a rich wife so he was always willing to take less for the team. You thtink their current QB is going to do that when he is due a big payday? I doubt it.

 

[Jake]

wait till 2023 and 2024 when his cap hit is 49 and 52 million.

They will most likely restructure, convert part of it to a signing bonus and add a year or two to spread out the hit.

This place is going to be fun when that happens.

 

[Reid1boys]

They will most likely restructure, convert part of it to a signing bonus and add a year or two to spread out the hit.

This place is going to be fun when that happens.

If he plays well and we go deep into the playoffs, nobody will care. If we dont make playoffs or get ousted in the first game.... yep, gonna be fun. Honestly, if we dont do better in these next 2 years, why would we even keep him? IM being serious. If Dak is in year 7 or 8 in the league and we are just still mediocre nothing... why pay a qb like that. Just let him walk and start over...... but, I digress....lol

 

[CowboyRoy]

Murray is another great example in a long line of less than Elite QB’s getting their payday the priorities of the franchises.

Which is once they find a QB good enough to bring them to a competitive stature in making the playoffs they are willing to make them their franchise QB paying Market Price .

And then it’s up to them to build around him the best they can. It brings legitimacy to their program , fan support, butts in the seats, merchandise sales and sponsor support .

Its a much sounder position for franchises than being a 4-6 win team continuing to look for that Top 5 Elite QB which only a handful of teams get.

And in most cases like with Dak the cap hits are minimal the first couple seasons after huge signing bonuses with bigger cap hits at end of contract.

Simpler than that...........................................

You can win a SB with any of these top 10-12 guys. Good luck doing it without one.

Finding a top 10 QB is also the hardest thing to do in the NFL.

 

[CowboyRoy]

wait till 2023 and 2024 when his cap hit is 49 and 52 million.

At some point, Dak will get extended or restructured before those hits happen. Which will extend the cap hit out again over many years.

 

[CouchCoach]

I get why QBs are monstrously overpaid. It’s the hardest position to find even a decent starter, so all our fans that screamed about Dak’s contract have never seemed to understand that it’s just how the market pays QBs. In another year, Dak’s pay will seem pedestrian compared to some other guys.

At current pace, if NFL owners don’t agree to make the salary cap more flexible (as the NBA and NHL have) they are going to all strap themselves with a whacked out QB market and little cash to pay anyone else. The QB market costs are far outpacing the league’s other salaries.

The salary cap has been a good thing for NFL owners. But their greed is seemingly always the bigger motivator behind what’s best for the game, They need to re-examine the cap rules and find some more flexibility or the game will suffer, IMO.

Bullet, they should have considered the effect on the game when they started making QB and WR friendly rule changes. They created this and it's not going to change and the horses are all out of the barn.

Look at the escalating contracts of the two connected positions to the QB, LT and WR. 50M QB's, 30M WR's and 25M LTs are going to be the norm soon enough.

All this money exploding and the game is barely worth watching to me anymore.

 

[CowboyRoy]

If he plays well and we go deep into the playoffs, nobody will care. If we dont make playoffs or get ousted in the first game.... yep, gonna be fun. Honestly, if we dont do better in these next 2 years, why would we even keep him? IM being serious. If Dak is in year 7 or 8 in the league and we are just still mediocre nothing... why pay a qb like that. Just let him walk and start over...... but, I digress....lol

What is "not doing better"? 11-6 or 12-5?

And the fact that your predicting doom and gloom reveals your agenda.

 

[DFWJC]

How many of these threads are we going to have?

 

[817Gill]

in 2 years the Rams are ging to look exactly like the Saints have looked..... in big cap trouble. IM not saying they are doing it wrong... but how the Saints looking right now?

Bad take for two reasons:

A) The Saints are still looking like a possible wild card 9ish win team and that’s without a clear-cut franchise QB. They went 9-8 with a WR-hybrid playing QB, they were 5-2 with wins against GB, NE, and Tampa with Jameis as QB. They still have an extremely strong team and signed Tyrann Mathieu and Marcus Maye, two very good players who weren’t cheap, amongst a flurry of other signings. They are still cap wizards and with a franchise QB they are a 11-12 win team.

B) The whole “cap coming back to bite them” thing doesn’t exist if Drew Brees is still here. In a broader sense if they had a franchise QB they’d be a very strong team right now. In reality the cap hasn’t made them take a step back, it’s the curse of trying to find a franchise QB. That’s why when you have one you pay him, because you can maneuver the cap like the Saints and build a good to great roster it’s doable.

 

[Jake]

If he plays well and we go deep into the playoffs, nobody will care. If we dont make playoffs or get ousted in the first game.... yep, gonna be fun. Honestly, if we dont do better in these next 2 years, why would we even keep him? IM being serious. If Dak is in year 7 or 8 in the league and we are just still mediocre nothing... why pay a qb like that. Just let him walk and start over...... but, I digress....lol

Dak is the best QB Dallas has drafted since Troy Aikman. Other notables include Quincy Carter, Stephen McGee, Mike White - and the two guys they tried to draft before Dak in the same draft - Paxton Lynch and Connor Cook. Romo was a fluke of a free agent find.

The fact is the Cowboys have not done well when it comes to targeting QBs in the draft. They may even have enough self-awareness to realize that, making them reluctant to move on from one who continues to keep them relevant (even if SB dreams are a stretch).

I don't believe Dak is going to win a championship, but I also don't believe he's the only reason that won't happen. I won't be upset if they actually do move on in a couple years, but I won't be at all shocked if they end up with something worse. I'd probably bet on it.

 

[Diehardblues]

Watsons entire deal was guaranteed, and Murray's has a huge amount guaranteed also, so you got to pay the piper at some point. You could do what the saints did and keep kicking the can, and the Saints suffered for it also.

True. But kicking that can buys you time and Cap space .

We had 4 Rookie season contracts. And now 2 cap seasons with 17 and 19 million. And this dysfunctional organization still unable to put together a top 10 defense.

 

[Diehardblues]

You may be right. I just think the game would be better served if the salary cap were more flexible.

The NBA for example has its “Bird Rights” built into their cap. Which means an NBA team can offer a player they originally drafted more to stay with the team than another team and not count as much against the cap. It fosters teams being able to have more cap space to hang onto their original stars. I think the NFL would greatly benefit from a change like that.

The reason I say the QB market is hurting teams is that the QB position is getting a larger and larger share of the cap pie which is in turn squeezing what teams can pay other positional players. In time, if the cap rules don’t change, we could have 32 highly paid QBs, and the rest of the roster just be a bunch of young players on rookie deals. That would not be good for competition.

Ultimately a Cap on QB contracts or by position could be the solution. But then that would limit FA movement.

As revenue grows the league will continue expanding the Cap. It won’t be long until we have our 1st billionaire QB’s and then that will become the norm. As always follow the money trail. It is what it is.

But for the sake of competition isn’t probably a reason for them to change.