Cash Spending in the NFL and the Impact on Free Agency

Basically what we have are 10 teams that are in “need to spend mode”, of which six should be in “must spend mode” in free agency. Those teams that must spend are the Panthers ($27.9 under), Colts($29.3 million under), Jets ($35 million under) , Jaguars($38.7 million under), Redskins($46.8 million under), and Raiders($70 million under).

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These numbers should be important to both agents and teams alike. Seeing where some of these big required spends should be should give prime targets for players. While the Panthers salary cap is a mess and might prohibit them from being involved this year the other five teams are flush with cap room making this a perfect storm for potential free agents to break the bank. I often pick on the Colts for some of the spending that they do in free agency, but the reality is their payrolls are so low they are in a position where it’s almost necessary.

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I’d look for more shorter term deals where cash and cap are much more aligned that they sometimes have been in the past. That likely means less signing bonus money which will be replaced by larger guaranteed base salaries and/or roster bonuses. Teams will then decide, at their discretion, which players to prorate money for in the future as they get first hand looks at free agents rather than just looking at them via film. This is the model the Buccaneers employ, seems to be where the Bears and Browns are headed and to a lesser extent has been used by the Rams. That is probably a negative in long term security and earning potential for the players, but it will result in higher first and second year cash totals than maybe they saw in the past.

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SeatownJay":2fvoztcb said:

It will be interesting to see just how irresponsibly Snyder spends his money this year.

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Seahawk Sailor":3ukxuqfv said:

Wait a minute. The Redskins have the second-most amount of money under the cap now? Wasn't it just a couple of years ago they and Dallas were way over and were taking penalties over it? They were docked $18 million the last two years against their cap, and suddenly they're peachy? Must be nice.

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