Former Green Bay exec Andrew Brandt: "The salary cap is just accounting"

[njbuff]

And I also think the Bills dropped a lot of dead wood along with.

 

It forced the staff to get rid of some old hands that needed to be sent packing.

[Niagara Dude]

On 6/9/2022 at 6:50 AM, GunnerBill said:

I have been saying it for years, but I think Andrew Brandt, who was the salary cap guru in Green Bay for a time jointed the Pat McAfee show yesterday to talk salary cap, specifically with the Rams moves and I think this is before the Kupp deal dropped. He does a really excellent job of explaining how so long as you have cash rich owners willing to spend up front the NFL salary cap is not the restriction people think. It's an accounting cap that should not stop good and smart teams from signing players so long as revenues continue to increase.

 

 

 

Remember folks - the salary cap is just accounting. 

Bills fans and Beane are very lucky to have Pegula who has spent money

[Sweats]

It's not too hard to figure out the cap game......restructure contracts, kicking deals down the road, etc.

You get yourself a financial wizard in the FO and they can work magic with the numbers.

[PBF81]

49 minutes ago, Matt_In_NH said:

Yesterday brought some clarity to this thread.   The cap is not fake but it soft and can be manipulated to a point.   But it is real not fake.   As polian says.  The cap does not forget and does not forgive.  

 

The cap is still somewhat of a zero-sum game, but with an ever-increasing sum, and with overlapping years in which the exercise is conducted allowing teams to "cheat" the game as it were.  

 

 

 

 

[PromoTheRobot]

On 6/9/2022 at 1:32 PM, frostbitmic said:

Next thing they'll be telling us is that ice is cold.

 

I love how people think the things they don't understand aren't real. Especially when some guy who used to do the job tells you. (Cap management skills might be a reason why.)

[Niagara Dude]

7 minutes ago, Sweats said:

It's not too hard to figure out the cap game......restructure contracts, kicking deals down the road, etc.

You get yourself a financial wizard in the FO and they can work magic with the numbers.

You also need an owner who is willing to write bonus cheques year after year

[SoonerBillsFan]

11 minutes ago, Sweats said:

It's not too hard to figure out the cap game......restructure contracts, kicking deals down the road, etc.

You get yourself a financial wizard in the FO and they can work magic with the numbers.

But like Beane said, the Bill eventually comes due.  And it got mostly paid off yesterday. 

[Matt_In_NH]

1 hour ago, Ya Digg? said:

Yes and no. I’m definitely someone who feels you can manipulate the cap for as long as a team wants. Does a team eventually have to pay for it of course, but teams can always do things if there is a player they want to sign or keep players they want to keep. Every move the Bills made yesterday can be justified outside of cap savings. If they wanted to keep all of those guys they could have, but having some time to digest what happened those were all smart business and football decisions 

The way I think about this is any big contracts you hand out affect your potential to hand out other large contracts, the cap is soft an manipulatable but the optimal way to approach it is with judicious decision making.  For instance did the Bills need to resign Poyer last year at 7M or whatever he got and 2M of dead cap this year?  They are ripping the band aid off now, I contend that could have been done last year.  Y

[Jrb1979]

1 hour ago, Niagara Dude said:

Bills fans and Beane are very lucky to have Pegula who has spent money

Wish he would do the same with the Sabres. Instead he cuts scouting to 1 pro scout and refuses to spend in free agency. 

[T master]

On 6/9/2022 at 5:50 AM, GunnerBill said:

I have been saying it for years, but I think Andrew Brandt, who was the salary cap guru in Green Bay for a time jointed the Pat McAfee show yesterday to talk salary cap, specifically with the Rams moves and I think this is before the Kupp deal dropped. He does a really excellent job of explaining how so long as you have cash rich owners willing to spend up front the NFL salary cap is not the restriction people think. It's an accounting cap that should not stop good and smart teams from signing players so long as revenues continue to increase.

 

 

 

Remember folks - the salary cap is just accounting. 

 

If that be true then the Saints have some pretty stupid people running their finances in house !! 

[Niagara Dude]

20 minutes ago, Jrb1979 said:

Wish he would do the same with the Sabres. Instead he cuts scouting to 1 pro scout and refuses to spend in free agency. 

Big difference in revenues including massive NFL TV money they receive. The Sabres don't have a franchise player like Allen,  Pegula is trying his best to win a chip during Allen's prime. If the Bills did not have Pegula  then we would have been seeing play cuts in previous years like we saw this season.  This is a reset year and that is why Beane loaded up with so many picks.  We will have plenty of young players on this team and they cut the vets making big dough

[Matt_In_NH]

1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

I love how people think the things they don't understand aren't real. Especially when some guy who used to do the job tells you. (Cap management skills might be a reason why.)

Or people don't know how to correctly interpret what they guy who used to do the job tell you.

[Nephilim17]

The cap may be "just accounting" but accounting can still be a a bit** if you don't pay your bills or account for what you want to buy next year.

 

It buys some flexibility, as someone said, but it doesn't make bills go away.

[OldTimer1960]

2 hours ago, Jrb1979 said:

Wish he would do the same with the Sabres. Instead he cuts scouting to 1 pro scout and refuses to spend in free agency. 

He has lots of revenue from NFL - NHL not so much.

[julian]

With a good GM and ownership with enough cash on hand to pay big lump sums up front, the salary cap is nothing more than a road bump.

 

If your team doesn’t have either the GM or willing owner, the salary cap becomes a 50 foot wall.

[Green Lightning]

On 6/9/2022 at 6:50 AM, GunnerBill said:

I have been saying it for years, but I think Andrew Brandt, who was the salary cap guru in Green Bay for a time jointed the Pat McAfee show yesterday to talk salary cap, specifically with the Rams moves and I think this is before the Kupp deal dropped. He does a really excellent job of explaining how so long as you have cash rich owners willing to spend up front the NFL salary cap is not the restriction people think. It's an accounting cap that should not stop good and smart teams from signing players so long as revenues continue to increase.

 

 

Remember folks - the salary cap is just accounting. 

Maybe  Morse, Tre, Poyer and others looking for a gig have a different view. 

[Aussie Joe]

It certainly helps to “push it down the road” when the Cap increases $30mil a year ..

 

Josh might have to get s salary bump soon to put him back up near the top of the list … maybe they can cry poor one more year ..but you think by 2025 … his dead cap will be over $100m when they restructure him again this season… they cant  do it every year …

[GunnerBill]

20 minutes ago, Green Lightning said:

Maybe  Morse, Tre, Poyer and others looking for a gig have a different view. 

 

The Bills moved on from those guys because the age and injuries didn't in their view match the financials. They could have found a way to keep all 3. They'd have had to punt some money ahead into the future years but that is doable. Because it is an accounting cap not a salary cap.

[Alphadawg7]

7 hours ago, Ya Digg? said:

Yes and no. I’m definitely someone who feels you can manipulate the cap for as long as a team wants. Does a team eventually have to pay for it of course, but teams can always do things if there is a player they want to sign or keep players they want to keep. Every move the Bills made yesterday can be justified outside of cap savings. If they wanted to keep all of those guys they could have, but having some time to digest what happened those were all smart business and football decisions 

 

Thats not fully accurate though because you only present one side of the equation.  Yes they can do "things" if there is a player they want to sign, but often those "things" are at the expense of filling other holes, or even creating more holes by losing other players or pushing something down the line the eventually means losing other players. 

 

That is IMO the biggest disconnect I think some have with the "cap isn't real" mentality...they see a team go get someone they want while in cap hell and don't pay attention to the 6 guys the team just lost as well to do that.  

 

The cap is very real, it will impact the team without question.  It can be massaged to for short term flexibility, but at some point the bill comes due, so it is not without risk or impact.  

 

Lucky for us, we do have a GM who is very cap smart in how he structures contracts and manages that cap.  

[Thurman#1]

15 hours ago, Sweats said:

It's not too hard to figure out the cap game......restructure contracts, kicking deals down the road, etc.

You get yourself a financial wizard in the FO and they can work magic with the numbers.

 

 

It's anything but magic. It's just borrowing from future years. Doesn't require a hat like Dumbledores.

 

Figuring it out ain't tough, you're right. Paying the price down the road, that's the hard part. Seeing guys like Mitch Morse get cut because you're feeling the pressure, that's the hard part.

 

8 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

Thats not fully accurate though because you only present one side of the equation.  Yes they can do "things" if there is a player they want to sign, but often those "things" are at the expense of filling other holes, or even creating more holes by losing other players or pushing something down the line the eventually means losing other players. 

 

That is IMO the biggest disconnect I think some have with the "cap isn't real" mentality...they see a team go get someone they want while in cap hell and don't pay attention to the 6 guys the team just lost as well to do that.  

 

The cap is very real, it will impact the team without question.  It can be massaged to for short term flexibility, but at some point the bill comes due, so it is not without risk or impact.  

 

Lucky for us, we do have a GM who is very cap smart in how he structures contracts and manages that cap.  

 

 

Yup. This.

 

Beane's damn good at this. He didn't like how this year started and is making sure things won't get that bad again and that we can still be competitive every year, their oft-stated goal.

 

Edited March 8 by Thurman#1