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.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by Rainbarrel

The Eagles being rewarded for living in the red. Is wonderful glitter for followers to drool at. Spend like no tomorrow, what could go wrong

It's actually an easy way to stay good, all you have to do is kick the can until you have 1 blow up year and then do it again for a decade.

The Chiefs could literally do it for the rest of Mahomes career but that would require Clark to up his cash spending lowering his profit margin.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by O.city

The Chiefs have to balance and try to play the long game while also winning now. The Eagles and teams of that nature who do that...push for a year or two, then have down years.

Philly just drafted in the top 10 what like 2/3 years ago? The Chiefs don't have that luxury.

That top 10 pick wasn't their pick, their down year was 2020 that was when they fired Pederson and went from Wentz to Hurts, since then they've been in the playoffs every year.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Mecca

That top 10 pick wasn't their pick, their down year was 2020 that was when they fired Pederson and went from Wentz to Hurts, since then they've been in the playoffs every year.

21,22,23 they had picks in the top 13.

[Coochie liquor]

Originally Posted by Mecca

It's actually an easy way to stay good, all you have to do is kick the can until you have 1 blow up year and then do it again for a decade.

The Chiefs could literally do it for the rest of Mahomes career but that would require Clark to up his cash spending lowering his profit margin.

Not even to max it completely that way, but Clark/Veach should use a little of that thinking and put a top OL in front of Mahomes. How many years does he have to take a beating in his career to use the resources other teams are using to protect their golden goose? Don’t have to carry and kick what Philly is doing. Just some to ensure Patrick is not taking career high sacks. And maybe one more DL.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by O.city

21,22,23 they had picks in the top 13.

Yea lets go over that..

Jalen Carter at 9, that is the Saints pick they got by trading a pick from the previous years draft because the Saints just had to come back up and get Trevor Penning.

Jordan Davis at 13, #1 the Eagles have 3's this year, 1 of them is traded for AJ Brown. Another was traded in a trade with the Saints that became Jalen carter in 23.

And yes in 21 they did not have a good year that year, that was the last year of Wentz. But he did result in them getting an extra 1 as I already alluded.

So a lot more goes into their draft history than just "oh look at all these high picks they got from sucking."

[Coochie liquor]

Also Lurie selling 5% of the team for that astronomical amount probably helped with the cash situation. But I’m guessing the share holders for KC don’t want to do that.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Mecca

Yea lets go over that..

Jalen Carter at 9, that is the Saints pick they got by trading a pick from the previous years draft because the Saints just had to come back up and get Trevor Penning.

Jordan Davis at 13, #1 the Eagles have 3's this year, 1 of them is traded for AJ Brown. Another was traded in a trade with the Saints that became Jalen carter in 23.

And yes in 21 they did not have a good year that year, that was the last year of Wentz. But he did result in them getting an extra 1 as I already alluded.

So a lot more goes into their draft history than just "oh look at all these high picks they got from sucking."

You want to point to the "things they do that Clark won't" when in reality....they smashed the last 3 drafts and had alot of ammo because they had some down years and traded away Wentz and assets to amass a war chest of picks.

Again...things the Chiefs don't have to deal with.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by O.city

You want to point to the "things they do that Clark won't" when in reality....they smashed the last 3 drafts and had alot of ammo because they had some down years and traded away Wentz and assets to amass a war chest of picks.

Again...things the Chiefs don't have to deal with.

They had 1 down year, 1, and they didn't pick at 4 they picked at 10.

They made the playoffs every other one of those years with 2 SB appearances and 1 win.

What they did that Clark doesn't do is they traded a 1 to pay AJ Brown after drafting Smith 10 and paid him too. It's obvious their cash budget is a lot higher than the Chiefs is.

[O.city]

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cash/_/y...ort/cash_total

Philly has spent more cash, nothing astronomical.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by O.city

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cash/_/y...ort/cash_total

Philly has spent more cash, nothing astronomical.

"Nothing astronomical" as they have 40 million more dollars of cash spending. Which also doesn't account for how much of their cap they open with void years.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Mecca

"Nothing astronomical" as they have 40 million more dollars of cash spending. Which also doesn't account for how much of their cap they open with void years.

They've got 60 million dollars in dead money.

If the Chiefs being a top 10 cash spending team is enough for you to cry Clark being cheap....seems that is more of a you problem.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by O.city

They've got 60 million dollars in dead money.

If the Chiefs being a top 10 cash spending team is enough for you to cry Clark being cheap....seems that is more of a you problem.

You also didn't account for in 25 they have 58 million dollars of cash spending more than the Chiefs already accounted for.

[O.city]

The Chiefs have 49 on the roster, clearly that number is gonna change.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by O.city

They've got 60 million dollars in dead money.

If the Chiefs being a top 10 cash spending team is enough for you to cry Clark being cheap....seems that is more of a you problem.

I don't care about their dead money, look at that roster.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by Mecca

It's actually an easy way to stay good, all you have to do is kick the can until you have 1 blow up year and then do it again for a decade.

The Chiefs could literally do it for the rest of Mahomes career but that would require Clark to up his cash spending lowering his profit margin.

The Saints are why you don’t go crazy with void years. You cannot compare the Eagles to us. It’s not kicking the can down the road when you are constantly paying a lot of your cap to players who don’t even play for you anymore.

They have been shelling out 60+million of dead cap since 2021. The only reason this has worked this well is because of the Carson Wentz trade that got them assets for Jalen Carter, AJ Brown, Cooper DeJean and DeVonta Smith as well as a lot of luck this last year, as well as being bad enough to draft top 10 which we never do.

Unless you want to trade Mahomes for those assets and get a decent but not great QB, go for it.

It’s like people forget that the Eagles crashed out badly last year and it took a phenomenal offseason to fix it which likely won’t happen again.

But sure give Veach extra draft picks like Howie. We saw what he can do in that situation in 2022.