Saints [possibly] have 39 million in cap space?!?! (1 Viewer)

[St. Geezy]

I'm not sure I understand you.. each year each team splits the TV money 32 ways.. let's say 120 million each (probably conservative). The cap space each year is set well below that amount (90 million?). That's before stadium revenue, NFL properties income, etc. Why would any of the teams not have the money to easily pay their salary cap? The ONLY reason would be if the owner kept it instead of investing it back in his team, and Benson has shown he is VERY free in his spending. Am I missing something?

Cap money and available bonus money are two different things. The Skins and teams in larger markets have a significant advantage when it comes to revenue that gets alloted for bonus money, namely sponsorship and suite sales.

Granted, the Saints sold out of suites last season but even then that figure is dwarfed because the Skins have 280 luxury suites and the Saints have less than half of that. The Saints' sponsorships pale in comparison to teams like the Skins as well.

Sure, the team will likely be able to sign a player or two to a big money deal but to expect them to get Samuels AND Briggs AND extend Colston AND fill whatever other needs they identify AND sign a top 10 draft pick all in one off-season is sort of not possible. That would cost close to $80 million in signing bonus money and like it or not, Tom Benson is not a Daniel Snyder or Paul Allen.

I know you look at the cap figure as being $39 million under, but that figure is different from a team's "real money" budget. Only so much can be afforded by each team as far as money available to pay hefty signing bonuses. Its not the fact that certain teams, namely Washington, just want to spend, its the fact that they have the means to do so with the ridiculous # of sold out luxury boxes in their stadium as well as other revenue that smaller market teams do not have access to.

 

[Geldo]

Tom's probably out looking for a couple of Ferraris this week then - the defence can wait for 10 years.

 

[St. Geezy]

Tom's probably out looking for a couple of Ferraris this week then - the defence can wait for 10 years.

There is a significant amount of cap space available throughout the league and there will be a significant number of teams that wont use all of it for the reasons I highlighted. Thats why Gene Upshaw and the players union are starting to make noise about collusion.

 

[Nonreg]

what I think saintaholic is trying to explain is that cap money goes againist the cap, which is how we have 39 mil available.

the "real money" or I think hes talking about signing bonus is what is not going againist the cap, its what they get when they sign that huge deal. you can see how the more larger markets have the advantage here, because they have that money on hand as opposed to the smaller markets having to generate that over a specific time period.

we need to worry about our team first, and then free agency. because we have so much money, we should lock up Colston, Smith and Evans for long term. I'm guessing that atlest divides the 39 in half. we then have 19.5 left. i think its highly unlikely for us to get briggs and samuel, but one is a possiblity.

asante samuel
alan faneca
zach thomas

if we can get those 3, draft BPA in the draft id call it a very successful offseason.

 

[Dan in Lafayette]

A new twist to this whole cash flow for bonuses problem is that the NFL wants to drop the amount of debt limit any team can carry from 150 million to 120 million, which will make it even harder for smaller market NFL teams to finance big up-front money contracts.

 

[guillermo]

I know it is impossible to obtain this information but I will be very interested to learn how much money Loomis has in his budget for signing bonuses this year. I know we will not re-sign all of our free agents but I think we at least should get two or three. Faine and Young will command 2 or 3 million of signing bonuses if they get new contracts.

I don't think it is the best interest of the organization to keep Coston, Evans and Smith to play the season in their current contracts. All 3 of them will demand a good coin of up-front money.

I can also see as a possiblity to renew the contracts of Sean Payton and Mickey Loomis, although I am not sure it will require up-front money.

All of this, not considering signings of new free-agents, plus a contract of a top 10 draft pick.

I don't even want to speculate on a possible sum, but it is clear that Mr. Benson will need to provide more then an AMEX black card to make all of these signings. Remember, I am talking about cash-flow, not salary cap.

 

[HennessyRob]

The Colts, while having less money than us ( $230,850 over the cap ) have been able to make Dallas Clark the highest paid TE, Dwight Freeny the highest paid DE, give Bob Sanders top 5 DB money, retain Reggie Wayne for big money, and give Manning top 3 QB money.

We have zero excuses to not be able to bring in bonafide playmakers instead of victims.

 

[morals99]

Wow I was holding out on my hopes b/c I didn't know how much money we had. Now, we can make a serious play for Briggs, Thomas, Crumpler, and if you get all those guys you ship a draft pick to someone for like a Lito Sheppard (our 3rd rounder?) Take that #10 pick and get the best player available !!!

 

[morals99]

The Colts, while having less money than us ( $230,850 over the cap ) have been able to make Dallas Clark the highest paid TE, Dwight Freeny the highest paid DE, give Bob Sanders top 5 DB money, retain Reggie Wayne for big money, and give Manning top 3 QB money.

We have zero excuses to not be able to bring in bonafide playmakers instead of victims.

and one day they'll pay the price, contracts are always backloaded and those contracts are all relatively new. You can spread salary cap money across the contract as you wish. In about 4 years the Colts are going to be in cap hell...but until they there going to win ALOT of games.

 

[Nonreg]

and one day they'll pay the price, contracts are always backloaded and those contracts are all relatively new. You can spread salary cap money across the contract as you wish. In about 4 years the Colts are going to be in cap hell...but until they there going to win ALOT of games.

but on the same side, if thats what you have to do to be deep playoff contenders every year like the colts, im all for it.

 

[HennessyRob]

and one day they'll pay the price, contracts are always backloaded and those contracts are all relatively new. You can spread salary cap money across the contract as you wish. In about 4 years the Colts are going to be in cap hell...but until they there going to win ALOT of games.

I'd glady go into ' cap hell" if it got us to the Superbowl.
We've tried the whole 'have tons of cap money" route. It has found us at home for the playoffs most of the time.

 

[RaginCajun83]

Who's to say that Loomis could spend all the cap space the Saints have to spend on playmakers and somehow keep the team out of cap hell. Its all in how the contract is set up, if a team cycles its contracts so that some are front loaded and then some are back loaded maybe a team could keep all its key players for years.

I'd trade cap hell for a Superbowl title in a heart beat

 

[BoNcHiE]

Who's to say that Loomis could spend all the cap space the Saints have to spend on playmakers and somehow keep the team out of cap hell. Its all in how the contract is set up, if a team cycles its contracts so that some are front loaded and then some are back loaded maybe a team could keep all its key players for years.

I'd trade cap hell for a Superbowl title in a heart beat

Because what team exactly has loaded up on overpriced FA's and won a superbowl lately?

Its not the way you win a superbowl. You win a superbowl by building through the draft and then, if your a piece or two away fill a few needs. We are nowhere near a piece or two away, so what we'd end up doing is spending serious cash on FA's, while not having built our base yet and we'll fall short. Then after 2-3 drafts have passed those FA's will be gone because of cap concerns but we'll finally have our base. We aren't in the position yet to grab Briggs and Samuel because we don't have the pieces around them to make them successful.

The Redskins and 49ers are very good examples and proof that going after bigname FA's without having a strong team already built through the draft is not a recipe for the superbowl.

The past three superbowl champs? Their entire teams almost exclusively built through the draft. The Colts entire team was drafted.

What should we do with this cap space? Sign one fair priced FA, of which I think Thomas would be, and use the rest to resign key players like Smith, Colston, Faine, etc. You can frontload their deals so we have plenty of cap space when we are finally in the position to plug a few holes with an overpriced FA or two.

 

[Saint Droopy]

I saw it this morning too... 39.2 million under the cap...

 

[TnSaint]

Since this is confirmed there is absolutely no reason not to sign either Briggs or Samuel.
Cmon do it....No Mora Excuses Benson