Elvis' 2025 cap and roster cleanup proposal

Ghost said
A better way to look at it might be this which is true for any NFL team:

There are three resources to build an NFL team:

1. Draft
2. FA
3. UDFA

All three however are subject to the salary cap. While true the bill never comes due, it does have a hard limit.

The practical effect of the Saints way of managing it is that it’s limiting. Let’s say for the sake of argument a team has $100 to spend to build a roster and $50 is taken up by the QB leaving $50 for the rest of the players. Banking on cap going up to $120 the next year sound great in a vacuum but does present problems.

- that QB might cost $60 the next year or $70
- 31 other teams got that $20 increase as well.
- it might not increase at all.
- a team might spend some of those dollars of which there is only 100 of on a player that doesn’t pan out and can’t be reallocated easily.

While it doesn’t prevent placing a team on the field it might not be the one you want as the other 31 teams have at least some of that $100 on the positive side as opposed to starting out at -$50 each year.

A team can be fielded sure, but it comes at a cost that other teams can get players easier than if for no other reason than they have the $ to do it. The Saints can always find a way but that too comes at a cost on the roster.

What is being overlooked in the accounting is that if you have $50.00 against the cap in the current year that was pushed forward from a previous year, then you were able to get an extra $50.00 spending credit in a previous year that didn't count against that years cap.

That money isn't being lost in the current year. You spent it in a previous year and didn't count it until the current year, but you still got to spend that money on someone you wouldn't have been able to get if you hadn't pushed the charge for it into the current year.

You aren't losing any net buying power. You already got someone for that $50.00 that counts this year, you just got them in a previous year. You can move current cap this year into the future to give you more space this year to go out an get more players. The cycle only breaks when there is a once in a hundred year occurrence that drives the cap down for a year or two. That shouldn't be an issue again for another 90 years or so.