Some NFL Teams Face a Fiscal Cliff Despite Increasing Salary Cap


The NFL salary cap is more like a predatory lending agreement than a fast-paced budget constraint. It is filled with loopholes that allow teams to overspend lavishly and carry financial results into the future years later. But, inevitably, bills come due.

This salary cap expected to increase $208.2 million in 2022, the maximum amount agreed in May by the NFL and the Players Association. That’s a 14 percent increase from this year’s cap, and it’s great news for most of the league. But the New Orleans Saints are in danger of seeing most of their roster reclaimed. Saints, Week 14 victory over the Jets According to OverTheCap.com, they have increased their enrollment to 6-7, with so many long-term contracts on their ledger that they are currently estimated to be worth an estimated $61 million above the 2022 cap.

Future frontier estimates can be misleading: A team with several million dollars in the red may actually have little financial concern. However, the $61 million shortfall cannot be made up by restructuring some contracts and cutting a few veteran backups.

The Saints’ long-term financial situation is actually worse than the raw numbers suggest. The only quarterback on the payroll beyond this season is Taysom Hill, 31, a career backup/gadget specialist/receiver/punt comeback best suited to the intense offensive philosophy favored by service academies. Jameis Winston, who led the team to a 5-2 starting record before his end-of-season knee injury, will be a free agent at the end of this season, as is Trevor Siemian, who replaced Winston before giving way to Hill.

Hill led the Saints to victory over the Jets, mostly by scattering the ball or diving into his own line, and could have enjoyed reasonably modest success if surrounded by a heaped offensive line, outstanding quarterbacks and a solid defense. Sadly, perennial Pro Bowl offensive lineman Terron Armstead is an upcoming free agent, as are many of this year’s lineups and guards.

The Saints can’t even lighten their future debt burden by trading two-time All-Pro receiver Michael Thomas, who is currently on the list of physically unable to perform with an ankle injury. can also be reversed with the organisation. In fact, trading Thomas could make things worse, as the Saints would immediately receive the remaining $22.7 million from the 2019 signing bonus, which is currently redeemed over the term of his contract. Also, trading with an outstanding player for a living is like selling your car for market money.

No matter how creative he is in his accounting, New Orleans will have to part ways in 2022 with many prolific startups. It’s good that Hill has experience in more than one position because next year he will have to play them all at once.

Most of the NFL sighed with relief when the solid 2022 capstone prediction was announced. The salary cap is tied directly to league revenues and fell drastically in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions resulted in empty or limited capacity stadiums. The cap fell from $198.2 million in 2020 to $182.5 in 2021, and would have fallen further if the league and player union had agreed to spread their revenue shortfalls over the next two years, so that teams wouldn’t have to build up very compelling rosters of just irreplaceable players. quarterbacks, minimum wage rookies, and accounting department trainees.

Next year’s cap increase leaves just three teams outside of the Saints in red. The Minnesota Vikings are capped at over $7 million, but they can easily restructure some contracts and maintain their traditional casual mediocrity status. The Cowboys cap is more than $12 million, but quarterback Dak Prescott and other top players are locked in long-term deals, so a tap on Jerry Jones’ financial wizardry is all it takes to keep their first-place roster intact. The Packers cap is over $39 million, but they can solve their problems by trading quarterback Aaron Rodgers and starting over: the football equivalent of downsizing in football after a messy divorce, or perhaps giving up earthly possessions to look for strawberries in the wilderness.

On the other side of the ledger, the Miami Dolphins lead the NFL with $77 million in 2022; The Los Angeles Chargers are second with $73 million. Gaudy’s future caps numbers can be as misleading as the dire ones: A team with millions of dollars to spend in the future has no one on the roster worth spending them on.

But the Dolphins (6-7) enjoy a five-game winning streak behind rising second-year quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, while the Chargers (8-5) are already led by Justin Herbert, one of the league’s brightest young stars. still in its second season. Both teams will be able to bid for the services of players that teams like the Saints have had to pour. Free agent spending spree teams don’t usually do better, but paychecks almost always make them worse.

The Saints got into this stalemate by holding together their veteran core in the final seasons of Drew Brees. In fact, next year’s $11.5 million deficit is “dead money”: amortized bonus scraps paid to Brees years ago when the Saints were balancing their budgets on a tightrope like a unicycle.

The Saints went 49-15 and won the NFC South four times from 2017 to 2020, so the franchise probably has little regret over their financial choices during the Brees’ golden years. However, they may wish to have dedicated the 2021 season to more intense credit repair. The Saints lost five games before beating the Jets and visited Tom Brady and the Buccaneers (10-3) on Sunday night. Even if New Orleans makes it into the playoffs, it will be an unsatisfying coda for an age of excellence, and the Saints will pay the price for it in years to come.

Not many years, sorry. your league 11-year, $110 billion media rights deals It will go into effect in 2023 with various publishers. The salary cap will then skyrocket, and every team – even the Saints – can go back to spending money like there’s no tomorrow.



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