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.
[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.
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. [Reply]
Originally Posted by RunKC:
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.
Nah the Saints are idiots they were right to do it until Brees retired, the fact that they didn't have a blow up year when he retired made no sense.
Look at the Eagles now or even the Rams you spend your money until you can't win that way then take your down year.
The Eagles also "crashed out" because Sirianni is a bozo they were still a playoff team. [Reply]
As for other teams with the fewest cap dollars currently in void years: 28. KC: $1.86M (DeAndre Hopkins via trade; Mahomes has empty void years) 27. TEN: $4.6M (Arden Key) 26. ATL: $5.6M 25. IND: $7.2M (DeForest Buckner) 24. LAC: $8.87M (Khalil Mack) 23. CIN: $9M (Joe Burrow)
As for other teams with the fewest cap dollars currently in void years: 28. KC: $1.86M (DeAndre Hopkins via trade; Mahomes has empty void years) 27. TEN: $4.6M (Arden Key) 26. ATL: $5.6M 25. IND: $7.2M (DeForest Buckner) 24. LAC: $8.87M (Khalil Mack) 23. CIN: $9M (Joe Burrow)
Lol, they're trying to win five more Super Bowls, not one. With Jalen Hurts, it makes sense to stress it in a way that gives him a super team.
You don't do that with the best QB talent of all time. We'd be putting out shit rosters in his mid to late thirties after just a couple bad draft classes. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rainbarrel:
Holding up the Eagles way against what the Chiefs have accomplished. Is close to ludicrous
I wouldn't look at it that way, I'd look at it this way, there is a recurring reason that every time the Chiefs go to the SB the narrative is the same. That narrative is the team the Chiefs are facing is top to bottom better than they are.. [Reply]
The Bengals have plenty of cash to spend and space to spend it. You don't run an organization like a mom and pop shop for all these decades, take all the NFL's money and end up poor.
It's just an absolute ridiculous argument to even make. [Reply]