21st Century NFL economics and how to build a team like John

[Jsteve01]

You know there's always been this idea that you can't shell out big money in free agency because it puts you in cap hell in the future ala the Dallas Cowbows. Something that seems seems to have been lost in this whole discussion is that although you still have to build the core of your team through sound drafts and rookie deals, the new rookie wage scale has allowed much more flexibility for teams on the cusp to sign smart fair market deals to super charge their rosters. This off season is a fantastic example of how sound budgeting combined with good to excellent drafting with a dose of excellent recruiting by your front office can lead to huge bumps in the talent you field on Sundays. I've seen a lot of hand wringing from fellow Broncos fans as to this "win now" approach that the team seems to have taken in the past few years. Of course they want to win now, but what we are witnessing is the new breed of team building.

This isn't the old Snyder/Johnson approach. It's a team that has drafted well the past few years, written good deals, allowed old guys, malcontents and non essential players to walk all the while steadily improving the roster at every opportunity. No need for cap purges like we've seen other teams making because Elway and his numbers guys seem to fully understand the symbiosis between the draft, well written contracts, the pursuit of top tier free agents, and the decision to at times make the hard decision on which of your players to give their walking papers.

This is exciting to watch

[dogfish]

yep, thanks for posting. . . the game has officially changed-- this is the era of building super teams through FA with no cap consequences, most people just haven't realized it yet. . .

[LawDog]

yep, thanks for posting. . . the game has officially changed-- this is the era of building super teams through FA with no cap consequences, most people just haven't realized it yet. . .

I wouldn't say no cap consequences, just mitigated consequences. A huge example of this is the signing bonus. The current CBA allows signing bonuses to be prorated against the cap for the life of the contract up to 5 years. If the player is cut, the remaining bonus accelerates into the next year. I haven't seen any new Bronco signing with a bonus over $5mil. How does that work then? Well for Talib and DRC it happens like this. Talib has a $5mil bonus and DRC got $10mil. Assume for this exercise that they both only last one year. Talib will count $1mil for that first year and then the remaining $4mil advances against the cap the next year. DRC counts for $2mil in the first year and then the remaining $8mil is dead money against the cap in the second year. How about they last two years each? Talib counts $1mil in each of the first two years with only $2mil remaining as dead against the cap. DRC counts $4mil over the first two years but still has a whopping $6mil in dead money that advances in year three. After a third year of service, Talib only has $1mil in bonus against the cap while DRC still has $4million. Talib has a bunch of bonus money in his contract that he only gets paid if he is on the roster in March of each season - if he goes headcase on the Broncos, gets injured or simply drops off the cliff in performance, they cut him and that unearned bonus disappears along with him. Both of these guys will get paid, but in DRC's case, the cap hit will force the team to think twice about cutting him if his performance is marginal just because of the cap hit alone. Denver has very little exposure in that situation which makes it a much smarter contract - IMHO.

[Buff]

I've been trying to convince Lancane of this new reality.

The rookie wage scale has prevented the mega-insane future-wrecking deals from happening. And has made the salaries by position a lot more logical.