THAT 99% SALARY CAP REQUIREMENT....DON'T BELIEVE IT
If you have been following the CBA negotiations & the "what's in it" release after the deal was finalized, you'll recall there was a stipulation in it that required teams to spend 99% of the $120.4 million 2011 & 12 cap. Don't believe it, the "per team" portion of that explanation was incorrect. I just now found out the 99% figure is league-wide, the average of all 32-teams. Since many teams will not only spend their entire cap, they might also borrow up to $3 million against next season's cap. This will allow a few teams to slide way under that 99% figure. It wasn't just me either, some of the biggest football sites on the internet just found out themselves. I have to tell you, I'm really disappointed the league & their players put out such a vague description. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk & NBC Sports said in a 2AM post he was completely in the dark after finding out the truth about the minimum floor for the salary cap. "We cannot have teams like KC spending only 67% of the cap like they did in 2009" said Drew Brees in a pre-settlement email. The really bad news is, the new cap minimum doesn't go into effect until 2013.
Now I'm beginning to understand why the Chiefs didn't have a couple of free agent signings yesterday. Scott Pioli is the general manager of an NFL team but he's shopping at Dollar General. He & a few other GM's may be waiting for most of the cap money to be used up around the league & then they'll go bargain hunting. Might not have any impact players left, warm bodies may be the order of the day. If they go the remainder of the weekend without a signing, I think we'll know the score.
Yesterday Kansas City signed TE Leonard Pope, the hero, Steve Breaston, a legitimate NFL wide receiver, Jon McGraw, excellent special teams player, center Casey Wiegmann, for his farewell tour & then came the warm bodies. Reshard Langford, Travis Daniels, Ryan O'Callghan, Mike Cox & even Jackie Battle, who was released just 3 days ago. I said it was doubtful the Chiefs had 50 players in St. Joseph yesterday, they claimed 61, but with some of the camp fodder already signed, 50 real players was probably closer to the truth. The NFL has allowed expanded camp rosters, to many as 90 players, Kansas City will come nowhere close to that figure.
The true numbers on #1 pick Jonathan Baldwin's deal is 4-years at $7.55 million, $3.99 mil guaranteed.
Speaking of guarantees, wanna know the difference in contracts between last year's #1 overall pick Sam Bradford & Cam Newton? Bradford got a 6-year deal for $78 million, with $50 million guaranteed. Cam Newton's post CBA deal was a 4-year contract for $22 million, "nearly all of it guaranteed." Talk about a helluva difference. The money that was saved on first round rookie deals is going to veteran players, much of it since the free agency period opened this week.
Finally, Jets' coach Rex Ryan, thinking he was oh so close to signing Nanamdi Asomugha, decided to bring out his big gun to close the deal. He had Adam Sandler call Asomugha personally to convince him to sign with the Jets. Really, that's your heavy hitter? The Jets really got played in this deal. Maybe they can attempt to resign Antonio Cromartie, the NFL's version of "Father of the Year." Antonio has 9 children with eight different women in six states.....and he's only 27-years old. He'll sign, he has bills to pay.
Now I'm beginning to understand why the Chiefs didn't have a couple of free agent signings yesterday. Scott Pioli is the general manager of an NFL team but he's shopping at Dollar General. He & a few other GM's may be waiting for most of the cap money to be used up around the league & then they'll go bargain hunting. Might not have any impact players left, warm bodies may be the order of the day. If they go the remainder of the weekend without a signing, I think we'll know the score.
Yesterday Kansas City signed TE Leonard Pope, the hero, Steve Breaston, a legitimate NFL wide receiver, Jon McGraw, excellent special teams player, center Casey Wiegmann, for his farewell tour & then came the warm bodies. Reshard Langford, Travis Daniels, Ryan O'Callghan, Mike Cox & even Jackie Battle, who was released just 3 days ago. I said it was doubtful the Chiefs had 50 players in St. Joseph yesterday, they claimed 61, but with some of the camp fodder already signed, 50 real players was probably closer to the truth. The NFL has allowed expanded camp rosters, to many as 90 players, Kansas City will come nowhere close to that figure.
The true numbers on #1 pick Jonathan Baldwin's deal is 4-years at $7.55 million, $3.99 mil guaranteed.
Speaking of guarantees, wanna know the difference in contracts between last year's #1 overall pick Sam Bradford & Cam Newton? Bradford got a 6-year deal for $78 million, with $50 million guaranteed. Cam Newton's post CBA deal was a 4-year contract for $22 million, "nearly all of it guaranteed." Talk about a helluva difference. The money that was saved on first round rookie deals is going to veteran players, much of it since the free agency period opened this week.
Finally, Jets' coach Rex Ryan, thinking he was oh so close to signing Nanamdi Asomugha, decided to bring out his big gun to close the deal. He had Adam Sandler call Asomugha personally to convince him to sign with the Jets. Really, that's your heavy hitter? The Jets really got played in this deal. Maybe they can attempt to resign Antonio Cromartie, the NFL's version of "Father of the Year." Antonio has 9 children with eight different women in six states.....and he's only 27-years old. He'll sign, he has bills to pay.
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