Let’s talk about the Salary Cap, and teams uses of it

[Coochie liquor]

Saw this on Reddit. Thought it was a better talking point than trading McDuffie, or trading resources for a LT. Also hoping I can get a better understanding from some of you guys who understand it more than me.

The link https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/s/hPxltIJ2OQ

[OC] Assessing how aggressively teams are using future cap space - the Eagles effectively spent 399 million on their 2024 roster, 32% more than the average team and the most in the league

In recent years, teams have become more aggressive in structuring backloaded contracts to take advantage of the fact that the cap increases every year. Howie has taken this further than any GM in the league.

To assess this, I used APY, which is the average yearly cap hit of a contract. For example, if a player has a cap hit of $5 million this year and $25 million next year, their APY is $15 million.

By [summing the APY of the players on 2024 rosters](https://overthecap.com/contracts) instead of their 2024 cap hits, [we can see which teams are spending future money on current players](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing). I also included current dead cap in the calculation to get a full picture of 2024 spend.

|Team|2024 Effective Spend|
:--|:--|
|Eagles|$ 399,805,070|
|49ers|$ 366,851,304|
|Lions|$ 359,733,177|
|Jaguars|$ 358,339,795|
|Dolphins|$ 353,120,509|
|Vikings|$ 350,201,592|
|Bills|$ 344,423,075|
|Browns|$ 333,851,514|
|Jets|$ 328,251,189|
|Texans|$ 325,446,538|
|Broncos|$ 325,374,288|
|Saints|$ 306,845,039|
|Packers|$ 305,439,917|
|Ravens|$ 298,782,626|
|Buccaneers|$ 298,613,176|
|Panthers|$ 298,160,314|
|Falcons|$ 297,660,693|
|Cowboys|$ 288,264,115|
|Chiefs|$ 287,862,988|
|Seahawks|$ 287,471,672|
|Commanders|$ 283,193,993|
|Titans|$ 282,935,233|
|Giants|$ 282,618,087|
|Chargers|$ 275,610,516|
|Steelers|$ 275,385,342|
|Bengals|$ 274,078,824|
|Bears|$ 268,491,690|
|Patriots|$ 263,299,279|
|Colts|$ 259,613,378|
|Cardinals|$ 259,151,131|
|Rams|$ 245,518,950|
|Raiders|$ 232,167,153|

The average team is effectively spending $303 million on their roster, much higher than the current salary cap of $260 million. While this shows most teams are pushing some of their player's cap hits to the future, none are close to the Eagles. There are multiple reasons the Eagle's value is so high

1. Howie has signed many core players to long term, backloaded contracts
1. Howie aggressively uses void years to push money owed later for even short term contracts. For example, CJGJ has a cap hit of 14.5 million for the Eagles in 2027, even though his three year deal ends in 2026
1. Howie already been employing this strategy, meaning the Eagles had $61 million in dead cap in 2024.

You can see other teams like the Niners and Lions leaning into this strategy, giving long extensions to core players that push their cap hits into the future. Notable, the Chiefs have not, meaning they have the option to start spending more aggressively if they adopt this practice.

The most interesting question is if this practice is sustainable. Howie seems to plan to continually kick the can down the road, always paying the current roster with future cap. The advantage of this is clear, having a larger effective salary cap allows you to assemble/keep a talented roster. But there is a downside, it limits flexibility and can make it hard for a team to reset in a down year. Whether the Eagles will run into this problem, and whether adopts this practice across the board remains to be seen.

[Iconic]

you could realistically play void year musical chairs for roughly 10 years before the dam breaks. ironically this matches up perfectly with what you'd anticipate being mahomes remaining prime years.

got no clue why we aren't shooting our shot. sti down, make a 10 year plan. do everything to win for the decade. you will bleed afterwards for a few years, like it will be extremely dark and painful. but it would be worth it if it gets mahomes above bradys ring count.

[ThyKingdomCome15]

The Eagles will be in contention for many years. The biggest threat to them remaining in contention is themselves. In 2023 they simply imploded and didn't have a secondary. The next year they drafted Dejean, Mitchell, and got Saquan to go along with the stellar OL

I knew that were scary good going into the Super Bowl just by viewing their offensive and defensive lineup on PFF. I was stunned when I heard Thuney would be starting at LT and not Humphries or somebody else.

It was going to take a perfect game from Patrick and the offense in order to beat them just like in 2022. The Eagles did nothing that surprised us. The only surprise was how horrible Kelce and Patrick played. Little did we know that game was over before it started.

We can blame Nagy all we want but there was no fixing Patrick and Kelce on that day. Wasn't going to happen.

[In58men]

Patrick Mahomes's cap number balloons to more than $66 million for 2025. With a simple restructuring, the Chiefs can easily drop his total cap number to $28 million. https://t.co/IZCFNPmiwZ

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) February 17, 2025

[Okchief80]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

All teams don't have access to it. It's basically a high interest credit card and only teams that are cash flush can pay the monthly payments. It flies in the face of competitive parity.

There aren’t broke owners. All teams could afford this. There are cheap owners who refuse to pay up.

[Calcountry]

Originally Posted by Hoover

Which makes me wonder if we could tag Tre Smith and trade him to DA Bears.

DA Bears have some nice draft picks like 39, 41, 72 that I'd love to have. Clearing the money to allow the tag would be difficult I know, but if you could make it happen I'd love to try and pry one of those picks away from them.

FYP

[Okchief80]

Originally Posted by Iconic

you could realistically play void year musical chairs for roughly 10 years before the dam breaks. ironically this matches up perfectly with what you'd anticipate being mahomes remaining prime years.

got no clue why we aren't shooting our shot. sti down, make a 10 year plan. do everything to win for the decade. you will bleed afterwards for a few years, like it will be extremely dark and painful. but it would be worth it if it gets mahomes above bradys ring count.

I think eventually it would be the right thing to do. You want to suck after your star qb retires. I hope we go 1-16 the year after he retires. Bring back thigpen in 2035.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by Okchief80

I think eventually it would be the right thing to do. You want to suck after your star qb retires. I hope we go 1-16 the year after he retires. Bring back thigpen in 2035.

Or you go the Green Bay method and draft your QBotF 4 years in advance.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Okchief80

There aren’t broke owners. All teams could afford this. There are cheap owners who refuse to pay up.

There are owners that would have to borrow to pay these guarantees. Yes, there are owners that can't subsidize spending the way the Eagles do.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

There are owners that would have to borrow to pay these guarantees. Yes, there are owners that can't subsidize spending the way the Eagles do.

The Bangles, for instance.

[pugsnotdrugs19]

Originally Posted by In58men

Patrick Mahomes's cap number balloons to more than $66 million for 2025. With a simple restructuring, the Chiefs can easily drop his total cap number to $28 million. https://t.co/IZCFNPmiwZ

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) February 17, 2025

Good to see Florio staying in his lane, still pushing for a QB to account for a designated % of the cap which he’s been trying to push for a decade-plus now.

He frames the article that the Chiefs should be so devastated that they’re going to deal with big charges from Mahomes in the 1-2 years post-retirement….

Buddy, that’s an honor. We’d have it no other way.

[CatfishBob2]

Originally Posted by Hoover

Which makes me wonder if we could tag Tre Smith and trade him to the Bears.

The Bears have some nice draft picks like 39, 41, 72 that I'd love to have. Clearing the money to allow the tag would be difficult I know, but if you could make it happen I'd love to try and pry one of those picks away from them.

I've been playing around in mocks with the Bears as a trade partner, but with Thuney. I'm not a capologist by any means though. Is it completely illogical to eat some dead money to get younger and some extra draft capital?