Cornerville Posted March 1, 2007 Posted March 1, 2007 I need an explanation as to how every year (as so it seems) that the Denver Broncos and the Washington Redskins are almost ALWAYS in the mix on almost every high priced FA?? How do these teams, who spend a boatload of cash, always seem to have enough room to fit high level players??? Im confused...
silvermike Posted March 1, 2007 Posted March 1, 2007 Well, the Redskins do it by cutting the previous year's crop - and it's wildly unsuccessful. The Broncos - I don't really see them as huge free agent players. There was Jake Plummer, yes, but otherwise? Bailey and Walker were trades, who else have they added? Some Browns retreads? John Lynch?
ganesh Posted March 1, 2007 Posted March 1, 2007 I need an explanation as to how every year (as so it seems) that the Denver Broncos and the Washington Redskins are almost ALWAYS in the mix on almost every high priced FA?? How do these teams, who spend a boatload of cash, always seem to have enough room to fit high level players??? Im confused... Simple. They mortgage the future and get bailed out later by a new CBA. For example, from 2000 to 2005 the Redskins kept spending and pro-rating the bonus over long contracts. They also kept extending contracts by pro-rating the bonus into the new contract. For example, this year Brunell was owed a 5M salary. That 5M salary was converted into a bonus on a new extension (this is called re-structuring). The player gets his money immediately, but gives cap relief to the team. However, down the line, when 2006 came, all those future contracts caught up and they had to cut 16+ players to get under the cap. However, right at that time the new CBA was negotiated giving a much higher cap room for all teams thereby saving the Redskins from having to cut that high a number of good players. Those high profile teams know that the cap will go up significantly when the new CBA begins and use that to their advantage. Of course, all this is possible only if you have sufficient cash flow to pay all those upfront signing bonus or restructured contracts. The Redksins earn on an average about 50M more than the Bills every year....That is 50M extra cash to sign these big ticket free agents.
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