2020 Off-Season Thread: News & Rumors

[BcRaven]

LOL, my deepest apologies, steve... Bc

[WNCRavensFan]

Bills extend LT Dion Dawkins 4 year $60M

I think that's a pretty good deal for the Bills. Though I still wonder if LT is Dawkins' best position.

[GOTA]

Big extensions this offseason (so far)

Patrick Mahomes: 10/$503M
Christian McCaffrey: 4/$64M
Laremy Tunsil: 3/66M
Chris Jones: 4/$80M
Derrick Henry: 4/$50M
Joey Bosa: 5/$135M
Myles Garrett: 5/$125M
George Kittle: 5/$75M
Travis Kelce: 4/$57.25M
Dion Dawkins: 4/$60M

I heard John Clayton this past weekend talking about the lowered salary cap for next year. Some of these deals going that were signed last season are going to end up being terminated. There are certain teams he mentioned who could be in serious cap difficulty. He mentioned the Saints, Falcons and Chiefs. The Chiefs have 3 guys on your list.

[QtR Nevermore]

I heard John Clayton this past weekend talking about the lowered salary cap for next year. Some of these deals going that were signed last season are going to end up being terminated. There are certain teams he mentioned who could be in serious cap difficulty. He mentioned the Saints, Falcons and Chiefs. The Chiefs have 3 guys on your list.

Looks like they're going stars and scrubs with their roster, which doesn't often work. Maybe Mahomes is talented enough to make it succeed, but I'm hoping they're making a big mistake.

Worst case scenario would be that next years salary cap drags the price of solid starters down low enough that they're able to fit decent players around the stars.

[moose10101]

I heard John Clayton this past weekend talking about the lowered salary cap for next year. Some of these deals going that were signed last season are going to end up being terminated.

Doesn't a contract termination cause cap effects in the current year?

[stevez51]

Looks like they're going stars and scrubs with their roster, which doesn't often work. Maybe Mahomes is talented enough to make it succeed, but I'm hoping they're making a big mistake.

Worst case scenario would be that next years salary cap drags the price of solid starters down low enough that they're able to fit decent players around the stars.

KC could go the Belicheat way of signing former stars to 1-2 yr deals with the chance at a championship.

[GOTA]

Doesn't a contract termination cause cap effects in the current year?

The prorated money left from any bonus gets accelerated into the current year. Usually though the base salary is kept low the first 2 years of a contract to keep the cap cost down and then balloons up in the 3rd. That base salary can be more than the prorated amount left from the bonus. Teams will save cap space but they do create dead money.

For example in 2021 the Ravens have a cap number for Earl Thomas of $16 million, which is $11 million base salary and $5 million bonus. Thomas signed a 4 year deal so he also has $5 million of bonus that goes against the 2022 cap.

If they cut Earl Thomas in 2021 they don't pay that $11 million base salary. The $5 million for this year and the $5 million bonus for 2022 now count against the 2021 cap instead of being split equally over 2021 and 2022. That's $10 million in cap cost but it would have cost $16 million because they would also have to pay that $11 million in base salary if he stayed therefore the Ravens save $6 million on the 2021 cap. That $10 million charge becomes dead money.

That's a simplified version of how a player who signed a 4 year big money deal just last year could end up getting cut by a team in 2021 if the salary cap goes down. I think every player over 30 and running backs in their late 20's who signed deals in 2019 should be worried. If you're the Chiefs and cutting Tyrann Mathieu saves you almost $15 million on the cap you might not be able to keep him especially if the other alternatives are Frank Clark or Tyreek Hill

[JimZipCode]

I heard John Clayton this past weekend talking about the lowered salary cap for next year.

I don't think there'll be a lowered cap for next year.

The agreement the league cobbled together with the players union this offseason, as part of the Covid response, included spreading out the revenue hit from this season over the next – 3? I think it's 3 seasons. Could be 4.

I think we'll see a flat cap for 3 seasons, and then the new TV money will kick in.

[WNCRavensFan]

I heard John Clayton this past weekend talking about the lowered salary cap for next year. Some of these deals going that were signed last season are going to end up being terminated. There are certain teams he mentioned who could be in serious cap difficulty. He mentioned the Saints, Falcons and Chiefs. The Chiefs have 3 guys on your list.

https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space/

Effective cap space 2021

This is at a base salary cap of $215 mil.... which I think is going to be a high estimate:

Eagles - $51.4 over
Saints - $37.7 over
Falcons - $7.2 over
Chiefs - $12.1 under
Texans - $15.0 under
Steelers - $17.8 under
Raiders - $20.5 under
Bears - $23.1 under

These are the teams in trouble as constituted. Everyone else is close to or over 30 mil; the Ravens are at $63.3 mil. If the cap stays the same at $198.2 mil or close to it, you can lop off $17 mil from those totals.

[WNCRavensFan]

Cap savings: 2021

Eagles
(-51.4 mil)

10.051 Derek Barnett - definitely not worth it; thought he would be better.
7.977 Alshon Jeffery - bye. Wouldn't be interested.
7.144 Fletcher Cox - big trade candidate IMO but teams might wait the Eagles out.
5.132 DeSean Jackson - he's got to go too.
4.702 Zach Ertz - this one will hurt but we might be talking $75 mil the team has to save.
4.281 Marquise Goodwin - forgot he gets pushed back. All the WR are gone.

That still only brings us to $39.3 mil in space. The team is going to have to restructure some deals and perhaps designate some post June-1 cuts to get there. Frankly I see it difficult to be able to even field a full roster. There have been a few instances where it's happened before.

[GOTA]

https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space/

Effective cap space 2021

This is at a base salary cap of $215 mil.... which I think is going to be a high estimate:

Eagles - $51.4 over
Saints - $37.7 over
Falcons - $7.2 over
Chiefs - $12.1 under
Texans - $15.0 under
Steelers - $17.8 under
Raiders - $20.5 under
Bears - $23.1 under

These are the teams in trouble as constituted. Everyone else is close to or over 30 mil; the Ravens are at $63.3 mil. If the cap stays the same at $198.2 mil or close to it, you can lop off $17 mil from those totals.

How do they know the cap space if they have no idea what the cap is going to be? It's been going up so long that they probably take this years number and add 10%. The NFL could be losing $7 billion in ticket revenue this year. Clayton was saying that this could knock the cap down by more than $20 million per team. Take $10 million off their projected increase and then another $20 million off in a cap reduction and you have a whole lot of teams in serious trouble.

[WNCRavensFan]

How do they know the cap space if they have no idea what the cap is going to be? It's been going up so long that they probably take this years number and add 10%. The NFL could be losing $7 billion in ticket revenue this year. Clayton was saying that this could knock the cap down by more than $20 million per team. Take $10 million off their projected increase and then another $20 million off in a cap reduction and you have a whole lot of teams in serious trouble.

Latest I heard was that the NFL and NFLPA agreed the cap would not be going down, but the loss of revenue would be recouped over time. I have a feeling we're going to see a flat cap for a few years of $198.2 mil, but I could be wrong.