I saw from Adam Schefter on Twitter that the cap is expected to go from $123M in 2013 to $133M this year. It is also expected to increase about $10M in 2015, and increase again my $10M in 2016 to be over $150M. This is pretty incredible news. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I have some initial thoughts....1. It really sucks that teams like the Bucs that have been smart with the cap and structured contracts in a responsible manner are getting screwed, while the irresponsible teams that are far over the cap are getting bailed out.2. How does nobody know this stuff in advance? The estimate was that the cap would remain flat and continue to only increase my a few million each year for the foreseeable future. If everyone is so completely in the dark about this, can we really trust that it will continue to increase by $10M over the next few years? 3. This year's free agents are gonna get paid. From the 1st tier to the last guy signed, everyone is getting paid. 4. If this news is in fact reliable, wouldn't it make sense to spend big now? I mean, if you sign a player to a big contract and that contract is 10% of your total cap....that same contract will only be around 7% of your total cap in two years when the cap has increased by $20M. So wouldn't it make sense to go get top FAs and resign your top players now while they are essentially discounted? 5. Every QB is going to think they are worth $20M/yr now. Agents in general are going to be blinded by $$$ and free agency is going to be frustrating to a lot of players, GMs, and fans alike. That's all I got right now, but this is big news that will have huge ramifications on the NFL.
This isn't news to any team. This is all in the new CBA that was agreed upon. The cap is going up because of the TV deals that were signed
This illustrates how the Bucs being smart... wasn't smart at all. The league will always let franchises out of cap troubles.
2. How does nobody know this stuff in advance?
Because the salary cap is the players cut of league revenue.
This illustrates how the Bucs being smart... wasn't smart at all. The league will always let franchises out of cap troubles.
I think it was very smart for the several years of a flat cap that hardly moved. Time to adjust though. You have to play the game differently when the rules change. In this case, you have to be more aggressive in your spending whether you want to or not.
With the carry over from 2013, the raising of the ceiling and the opportunity to cut major salaries (Penn, Joseph, Zuttah, Barth, Williams, etc) the Bucs could have $30M to $40M to spend. I say gut the team this year, cut your losses, get your guys in here for your system, the fans give a pss on a .500 record but we go balls to the wall and the playoffs in 2015.
Cap only stayed stagnant the immediate years after lockout. From the 90s-2005 it was going up at around 7-10% a year. In 2006 it actually went up 19.3%. This year it only went up 8.1%. The average cap increase from 1995-2009 was 9%.
Bottom line is if the Bucs need to meet the salary cap floor they will have to sign someone.
