For anyone who slammed Moriarty for our past salary cap issues related to contract structuring

[esmd]

This pretty much makes it clear that Moriarty was only acting on orders from above, and it seems pretty clear now that it was Ozzie. EDC seems to have a different philosophy on how to operate going forward:

https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/03/18/fr...ay-tyreek-hill

"3. If you want to make sense of what the Ravens have done over the last week, the money is where you want to look. Baltimore parted ways with four big pieces: C.J. Mosley, Za’Darius Smith, Eric Weddle and Terrell Suggs. Weddle was cut; Smith was at a deep position and was actually discussed in trade talks in 2018. Mosley and Suggs were really the two the Ravens made an effort to hang on to. Suggs wanted to go home to Arizona, and got a good deal from the Cardinals. As for Mosley, the Ravens’ offer to him reached $14 million per year, but the deal the Jets put in front of Mosley in the wee hours of Tuesday morning was in another universe. So the Ravens’ plan became to wait for the first wave of signings to pass, then find a leadership type on offense, defense and special teams. They wound up with Mark Ingram on offense and Justin Bethel on special teams, then moved the money they’d earmarked for Mosley over to Earl Thomas and swooped in to essentially intercept the five-time All-Pro before he could land with the Chiefs. (Kansas City had a one-year, $12 million deal on the table to pair Thomas with Tyrann Mathieu, which looked like it was going to get done.)

The goal for the Ravens was to act with fiscal responsibility and repair their finances by doing more flat deals (even year-to-year, to stop the flow of salary-cap debt), and that was accomplished. The idea, in a post-Joe Flacco world with new GM Eric DeCosta at the helm, is to create room to keep guys (they would have liked to hold on to pieces like Ryan Jensen and Ricky Wagner in the recent past), be more aggressive in doing so (there’s now some regret in not getting Mosley done last year), and maintain flexibility. Of course, the critical questions long term for the Ravens surround Lamar Jackson’s development. But at the very least, with some tweaks on the business side, they believe they’ll be positioned to be better around him."

[GOTA]

They still aren't going completely flat. Check out the contract for Earl Thomas. They lowered his cap number for this year to $7 million which pushes up the other 3 to $15 $16 & $17. Why lower the year 1 number so much? It makes those last 2 years very high for a 32 33 year old

[GreatWhiteNorthRaven]

They still aren't going completely flat. Check out the contract for Earl Thomas. They lowered his cap number for this year to $7 million which pushes up the other 3 to $15 $16 & $17. Why lower the year 1 number so much? It makes those last 2 years very high for a 32 33 year old

Becuase this year we still have some of Joe's hit. Next year we break completely free meaning extra dollars in those years isnt' as big of a deal.

If we sign JHouz this year it may have been the difference in fitting him or not without a massive backload.

They have so much cap space in the next few years that it makes complete sense IMO.

[Worthy]

They still aren't going completely flat. Check out the contract for Earl Thomas. They lowered his cap number for this year to $7 million which pushes up the other 3 to $15 $16 & $17. Why lower the year 1 number so much? It makes those last 2 years very high for a 32 33 year old

Because the Ravens will have MEGA Bucks in those years in salary cap room. Next year, even with Earl Thomas salary, the Ravens will have over $105M in cap room.

https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/baltimore-ravens/

If he drops off, in years 3 and 4, the Ravens can cut him and have only a Dead Money situation of $10 Million if cut in year 3 of his contract and $5 million in year 4 of his contract, while creating in year 3 $6 million in cap room and $12 million in year 4 if cut either of those years.

[srobert96]

They still aren't going completely flat. Check out the contract for Earl Thomas. They lowered his cap number for this year to $7 million which pushes up the other 3 to $15 $16 & $17. Why lower the year 1 number so much? It makes those last 2 years very high for a 32 33 year old

Its like crack. Tough to quit cold turkey

[esmd]

I guess my overall point was, ultimately it's on the GM, Ozzie previously and EDC now. Moriarty only does what he is instructed to do.

[GreatWhiteNorthRaven]

I guess my overall point was, ultimately it's on the GM, Ozzie previously and EDC now. Moriarty only does what he is instructed to do.

That's fair. Moriarty could have been going home and pouring a large glass of scotch everynight because they kept ignoring his advice.

[BPF2]

I guess my overall point was, ultimately it's on the GM, Ozzie previously and EDC now. Moriarty only does what he is instructed to do.

I don't disagree, but even so we were always in bad cap shape because of a couple bad drafts, failed free agency to recover from those, and the losses of guys like Pitta, Rice, Webb way sooner than expected. We had to really scrape just to get below the cap each year. This is the first year we could actually afford to right some (not all) of the painful contracts of the past.

[The Excellector]

The Ravens may have all of this cap room next season, but so will other teams. If the Ravens won’t pay the same prices as other teams and then panicky on the back end, cap space won’t matter.

[The Excellector]

Its like crack. Tough to quit cold turkey

Lol......

[srobert96]

It is less Moriarity's fault and more Ozzie's. Ozzie had this philosophy of getting performance out of guys playing for their 2nd contract. He wanted the players hungry to earn that big payday. When they did earn the payday and they were guys we wanted to keep we overpaid with backloaded deals. The way Ozzie approached the cap was similar to Billy McFarland trying to put on Fyre Festival. Bad deals followed by refinanced bad deals leading to no room which in turn leads to more bad deals eventually ends up with a ton of dead cap space.

[LC_Ravens_87]

Bad deals followed by refinanced bad deals leading to no room which in turn leads to more bad deals eventually ends up with a ton of dead cap space.

There's plenty of blame to go around but some it was bad luck esp with Pitta and Ray Rice. Overpays but they essentially got nothing out of those guys after their extensions.

The amazing thing is this all started after the 2012 Super Bowl. They've double and tripled down on this with more questionable extensions and signings, but it's hard to imagine still digging yourself out of hole that was made going into the 2013 season, but that's where they are.