Strategic planning: How teams should prepare for uncapped year

[bigbillsfan12]

something to think about.

 

Michael Lombardi

[Bflojohn]

I can hear the drum beat in the "not too distant future" being owner colussion and restraint of trade for those older veterans he (Lombardi) weeded out of his master plan! Believe me, law suits will be the order of the day when Pandora's box is slung wide open. The NFL as we know it might just reorganize to form a newer, more streamlined version of its former self. Why not, they have NO competition, to speak of, and the antitrust exemptions will still be available, in my opinion, when the dust settles. If the owners really want price constraints for salaries and overhead, they may eventually opt to collectively dismantle the old and usher in the new league under essentially the same guidelines. Its their toy, so they can obstentiably make the rules!!! Money talks, and in this possible squabble between millionaires and billionaires, I'd weigh in on the big boys winning the fight!

[The Rev.Mattb74 ESQ.]

I think an uncapped year would not hurt the Bills at all. In 2011 it would mean that everyone drafted by the Bills since 2005 is exclusive property of the Bills. Some teams would over spend but eventually in a year or two cooler heads would prevail and The Redskins and Cowboys of the world who overspent on free agents past their prime during uncapped years would find themselves in cap hell. While the Bills who have had some good drafts the last couple of years will hold onto their own players longer then they have in the past.

[nucci]

The players are just as greedy and I do not think they will like the fact that it will take 6 years to become an UFA. Most careers don't last that long. They will be a CBA. It is best for everyone.

[PromoTheRobot]

Losing the college draft in 2011 is a bigger issue than losing the salary cap for the Bills.

 

PTR

[BillsVet]

It seems like talking about salary cap related scenarios on this board is akin to discussing thermonuclear dynamics with grade schoolers. Well, perhaps not that bad, but this is a serious matter that isn't getting the headlines it should be.

 

Lombardi goes into some great detail about potential contingency plans, but it's worth noting that this is unprecendented territory the NFL may be heading into. With the way salaries are skyrocketing, it may take something like the union decertifying and a subsequent non-capped year to re-align the money situation league wide. The have's and have-nots are separating more each year.

 

Still, finding young cheap talent will separate the successful from the unsuccesful. It will give front offices more leeway in being good on the field without breaking the bank off it.

[My Friends Call Me Tebucky]

I think its a pretty short-sighted article. His plan works for the "small" to "mid" market teams, but that's about it. Either way, he, and just about every writer I see discuss this misses the boat.

 

Teams- especially the Cowboys, Redskins, Texans, Giants, and Patriots of the world are going to be able to restructure the deals of players ALREADY UNDER CONTRACT. If Andre Johnson is due 6 million in 2011, and 8 million in 2012, they'll tear up the deal, and offer him 12 million in 2011 and 2 million in 2012. The player will have no problem doing it- it's essentially a signing bonus for them. The "rich" franchises won't mind having their profit margin cut for one season, because down the road, in the years following, they'll be somewhat free of cap restraints after having loaded money into players' contracts in 2011.

 

The impact won't be in 2011- it'll be in 2012-2014, when the big market teams can sign whomever they want to deals because they still have the cap space after loading all of their team payroll into the 2011 season.

 

The only way to avoid it is a new CBA where player contracts and cap hits are calculated like they are in the NHL, and, in my opinion, that will never happen.

[Pyrite Gal]

I think its a pretty short-sighted article. His plan works for the "small" to "mid" market teams, but that's about it. Either way, he, and just about every writer I see discuss this misses the boat.

 

Teams- especially the Cowboys, Redskins, Texans, Giants, and Patriots of the world are going to be able to restructure the deals of players ALREADY UNDER CONTRACT. If Andre Johnson is due 6 million in 2011, and 8 million in 2012, they'll tear up the deal, and offer him 12 million in 2011 and 2 million in 2012. The player will have no problem doing it- it's essentially a signing bonus for them. The "rich" franchises won't mind having their profit margin cut for one season, because down the road, in the years following, they'll be somewhat free of cap restraints after having loaded money into players' contracts in 2011.

 

The impact won't be in 2011- it'll be in 2012-2014, when the big market teams can sign whomever they want to deals because they still have the cap space after loading all of their team payroll into the 2011 season.

 

The only way to avoid it is a new CBA where player contracts and cap hits are calculated like they are in the NHL, and, in my opinion, that will never happen.

I also think the article is short-sighted as it does not take into account at all the uncertainties of the situation and the fact that different teams will have different plans and these differences will in even a few cases will impact competitiveness of the product.

 

All it will take is a couple or more teams with money to spend and a demonstrated willingness to do this) (Snyder for example and probably Jones as well and perhaps a surprise or three) who accumulate players in the hopes of winning the SB even once. The reigning story of the NFL will not be of it as a fiscal juggernaut making more money than ever with grand plans to expand to new markets in foreign countries, but an incredible amount of whining from the small market or unwilling to spend teams that they simply are playing under different rules that the Snyders's and Joneses.

 

The NFL made so much money under the old and now the new version of the CBA because the labor peace promises the true cash cow of the networks a predictable source of product for them to sale commercials around with aggressive expansion plans into new markets of eyeballs.

 

For the nets, their plans and desires will turn to trying to develop alternative strategies like the reality shows were in relation to written and produced shows during the writers strike rather than a focus on strategies like flexible scheduling at the end of the season or expanding the number of nights or expanding the number of networks doing NFL coverage.

 

Lombardi describes a world in which s few teams already setting plans in place is going to make the rules when actually the reality of an uncapped year is going to be determined more by those few those few teams who do not make plans and whose willy nilly spending makes the plans of a few untenable.

 

Even worse for the few to even a moderate amount who make plans is that a few folks plans will be inconsistent with the reasonable approach laid out by Lombardi and these two plans will be competing in a different league and the NFL product will become stupid.

 

The only certainty here is that an uncapped year will produce an uncertain and likely bad product. To the extent there is any reasonable match-up between the plans of teams this opens the league up to legal accusations of collusion by individual players.

 

Uncertainty and lack of collaboration will be the only successful defense against the courts forcing the NFL into groups of haves, have nots, and in the middles. Without collaboration the NFL cannot produce a reasonable product to be sold based on reasonable competition.