Bills one of 4 teams that don't carry over cap room

[Ickybaluky]

According to Andrew Brandt, the former Packers executive who runs the National Football Post website, the Bills are one of 4 teams that didn't carry over all their unused cap room from last year to this year. Brandt, who breaks down financial matters having to do with the NFL in his excellent column, the Bills lost $5M in cap room.

Here is the relevant part:


As expected, most teams used these maneuvers to dial down their Cap room to minimal levels at the end of the season. However, in what appears to be a precedent-setting move, it appears that four teams left over $40M of Cap room on the table.

According to Salary Cap data, the Buffalo Bills and Atlanta Falcons did not use roughly $5M each of Cap room, the Cincinnati Bengals did not use $10.8M of Cap room and, astonishingly, the Kansas City Chiefs elected to not carry forward almost $22M of available Cap room to 2009, preferring to leave their money on the table in 2008, never to be used again.

With a projected $123M Cap for 2009, all of these teams are presently showing less than $100M of committed Cap expenses for the year, so having extra room does not appear to be a problem. However, from a football operations point of view, it is always better to have as much flexibility as possible, which these teams appear not to be doing.

It will be interesting to see the union’s reaction to over $43M of available Cap room being flushed away with the end of the 2008 Cap year, never to be heard from again. $43M can pay a lot of players…

LINK (http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/2009/01/monday-money-matters-18/)

[streetkings01]

More reason to be depressed to be a Bills fan! :sad:

[Jan Reimers]

More astute cap management from our front office.

And we wonder why we haven't made the playoffs since the last millenium?

[ddaryl]

is there any penalty for moving the cap room over and not using it ?

[Ickybaluky]

is there any penalty for moving the cap room over and not using it ?

Not as long as you meet the cap floor, which is 90% of the cap ceiling. As long as you use up the minimum, you don't have to carry over the rest.

[HHURRICANE]

But Ralph is not cheap.

[HHURRICANE]

So the Bills are good enough that they don't need to take advanatge of an extra 5 million dollars in 2009?

Nice.

I'd like someone to justify this one considering we have FA and Peters on the docket.

[Stewie]

whats the point of carrying something over if you're not going to use it.. and 2010 is uncapped so who cares really?

[X-Era]

According to Andrew Brandt, the former Packers executive who runs the National Football Post website, the Bills are one of 4 teams that didn't carry over all their unused cap room from last year to this year. Brandt, who breaks down financial matters having to do with the NFL in his excellent column, the Bills lost $5M in cap room.

Here is the relevant part:



LINK (http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/2009/01/monday-money-matters-18/)

Thats a silly way to write it by that columnist.

What hes saying is that we chose not to use all of our cap room. That doesnt mean we wont have the same cap everyone else does this year... we will.

[Typ0]

Thats a silly way to write it by that columnist.

What hes saying is that we chose not to use all of our cap room. That doesnt mean we wont have the same cap everyone else does this year... we will.

but they could use that cap room to transfer some future expenditures thereby freeing up more room in the future. Is this what he's talking about? I agree it's confusing but it seems this is part of the cash to the crap philosophy. Every team that spends their cap dollars is going to have a competitive advantage over us.

[Philagape]

I've love to hear from someone who's surprised by this.

[NC-BILLS44]

If the Bills can show extra cap money is available, players and their agents can ask for even more. I don't agree with the philosophy, but I think I understand that the more is available, the more will be asked. In other words it is a way for the Bills to be - CHEAP.

[patmoran2006]

whats the point of carrying something over if you're not going to use it.. and 2010 is uncapped so who cares really?
I'll give you $5 more million reasons why Ralph cares.. its now his money.

[methos4ever]

Last year, the bills carried over a ton of space to this year (clump I think can confirm or deny this). I think at the end of the day, some of the owners are bracing for the next round of negotiations and want it to look as much as possible like they're barely getting by.

[madness]

I wish I could give myself a 5 million dollar raise. :(

[Dozerdog]

3 of the 4 teams listed have old school ancient ownership, and are in small markets.

They also stink. Basically, they want to take handouts from the Cowboys but do little to maximize their own product. I bet $5 million could have bought us a decent backup QB.

[trapezeus]

i think part of Ralph is a decent business man, but a stupid football guy.

Let me throw out three stats and then sum up what i think makes sense

1. Ralph's stance on cash to cap isn't ridiculous. If you look at the Giants, their new stadium situation is killing them. They have publically said that they expect trouble meeting player demands over the next couple years. The giants model of financing hte stadium is the same used by Dallas and NEw Orleans.
2. Other teams followed the Bills on Cash to cap including the broncos, a team that has done well and isn't exactly a small market
3.The Superbowl ad's are down this year and major names have decided not to do commercials.

My opinion:
The NFL is not bulletproof from the economic woes. The fact that suite sales aren't shared revenue and that the cap moves based on TV arrangement, ticket sales and suite sales makes it hard for teams that don't sell the $MM boxes. They don't have the same cashflow to support the Salary Cap.

If I said 4 people will have an expense budget of $100 for the year, but each have to pay from their pockets from their revenues, of course, the guy who made $10,000 in the year will be ok. For the guy who makes $110, he would be bad business man to say, ok, then i'm going to $100 as well.

So Ralph gets the business end. What he doesn't get is that he can spend wisely and get to his numbers without meddling in the football decisions, and putting a capable GM, Scout and Head Coach will get more out of average players and rookies. You can let the Schobel's of the league walk if you are getting better play. The players will always be there, but the scheme's and motivators are the key cost.

those are my two cents.

[patmoran2006]

A well said two cents at that Trap.

[Don't Panic]

3 of the 4 teams listed have old school ancient ownership, and are in small markets.

...and Atlanta was still reeling from Vick, so we can see why they didn't spend all of theirs. I bet they'll be spending to the cap this year.

[OpIv37]

is there any penalty for moving the cap room over and not using it ?

for a real team? The owner would fire the incompetent FO morons responsible for it.

For the Bills, no.

[Stewie]

I'll give you $5 more million reasons why Ralph cares.. its now his money.

Like I said - he wasn't going to spend it anyway. Having it officially available to spend didnt change anything.

[clumping platelets]

The Bills used the "LTBE loophole" to transfer $13 million from 2007 to 2008

So this year they decided to let $5 million far by the wayside..........big deal

[OpIv37]

The Bills used the "LTBE loophole" to transfer $13 million from 2007 to 2008

So this year they decided to let $5 million far by the wayside..........big deal

For most teams, it would be a big deal.

But Ralph is happier lining his coffin with the $5 million, so it's not like he would have spent it if it was available.

[clumping platelets]

It's not $5 million extra in his pocket.

Cap space is not cash to cap!

[Typ0]

It's not $5 million extra in his pocket.

Cap space is not cash to cap!


it's money not spent to help the team be competetive right? If it's not spent that means it's still sitting in someones pocket.