Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

[BillsFever21]

You can tell the huge differences from cap management that myself and many others have been saying for years when it comes to how the Bills work their salary cap and top notch teams over the years. The Bills have a bunch of average guys making 3+ million a year without many top level players. The Ravens have more top level players making big money but less guys in the middle making bigger money.

We will use the Ravens as one example since they have been good for years, won the SB last season and just finally ran into cap trouble this year. This is how you are supposed to build a team. You sign your young premium players and you do a good job at drafting or finding deals in free agency to fill out the rest of your roster as cheaply as you can.

The Bills have 11 players making 3 million dollars or more. The Ravens have 7 players making 3 million dollars or more.

The Bills have 17 players making 2 million dollars or more. The Ravens have 13 players making two million or more.

The Bills have 24 players making 1 million dollars or more. The Ravens have 20 players making 1 million dollars or more.

The Bills have 7 players making between 3-4million a year. The Ravens don't have anybody making between 3-4 million a year.

The Bills have 10 players making between 3-6 million a year. The Ravens have 4 players making between 3-6 million a year.

This is what many of us have been saying for years. The Bills love signing a bunch of average players to 3-6 million a year instead of paying a premium to retain or sign the premium players.

You build a team by keeping your good talent and filling out the roster with cheaper players by good drafting and having players that can fill in the gaps for the positions you can't retain. The Bills haven't learned this lesson yet.

[BillsFever21]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

The Bills have 4 players making 4 million or more a year. The Ravens have 9 players making 4 million or more a year.

The Bills 5th highest paid player on the team would be the 10th highest paid player on the Ravens.

The Bills have 1 player making more then 6 million a year. The Ravens have 4 players making more then 6 million a year.

Just more stark contrast on how a good front office manages their salary cap compared to the Bills previous regime.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/baltimore-ravens/cap-hit/

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/cap-hit/

[BillsFever21]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

The Bills have 13 players making between 2-4 million a year. The Ravens have 6 players making between 2-4 million a year.

This also shows that the Bills have plenty enough cap space to keep their good players and any other reasons are just an excuse.

The Bills strategy is to have a bunch of average players while a good team like the Ravens keep premium players signed for big money but they find other players at a cheaper price to fill out the rest of their roster. Mostly by good drafting and developing of players.

If the Bills didn't have so many players making between 3-6 million a year they could easily afford to keep almost every young guy they want to sign to an extension that was worth it. You are talking 10's of millions of dollars that could go to more elite players instead of a bunch of guys like McKelvin, Branch, Smith, Lindell, Jackson, Chandler, and Pears making between 2.8 million and 3.7 million a season. Most of these guys you can easily replace in the draft for 1 million or less a season. All of them contracts add up to 10's of millions of extra cap space a year when it's all said and done.

[better days]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

I heard John Clayton talk about the Seahawks cap in regards to Red Bryant. He said a team can only keep 8 players on a team that make more than $6 Million a year.

I think this is what matters when you have a GOOD team.

[BillsFever21]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

I heard John Clayton talk about the Seahawks cap in regards to Red Bryant. He said a team can only keep 8 players on a team that make more than $6 Million a year.

I think this is what matters when you have a GOOD team.

And that would probably seem around right too. Especially if you have some very highly paid players that season. The Bills only have one player making over 6 million this season.

That also doesn't mean an "average" of 6 million a year. Good teams can structure their contracts according to the needs of their cap. They have bigger salaries coming off the books while other ones are kicking in, etc.

It's amazing how many players the Bills have in the 2-4 million dollar range give or take. This takes up a big chunk of your salary cap when you can fill them slots for 1-2 million by drafting and developing good players.

When you build most of your team with a bunch of average players then you are going to get a bunch of average results. This is what the Bills have done for a while now and that's why we're always drafting right around the Top 10 every year.

The Bills wasted a great opportunity this year by not extending players a year or two away from free agency that they want to keep around. They could've signed them at a cheaper rate then they could a year or two from now and they also could've taken a bigger cap hit this season so their cap hits in the next several years would be smaller. Instead they stood pat and didn't even keep the guys up for free agency this year. In the end it's just an extra 20 million in Ralph's pocket this year.

[Bangarang]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

This thread has no substance.

You cherry picked one vague example and illustrated it as a proven fact.

[BillsFever21]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

This thread has no substance.

You cherry picked one vague example and illustrated it as a proven fact.

It doesn't have substance because it's not how the Bills manage their cap and 20 million in cap savings this season. That was the first one I checked and then I looked through other top teams tight against the cap and it's not like the Bills either.

The Packers have 7 players making between 3-6 million a year
The Packers have 5 players making between 3-5 million a year
The Packers have 10 players making between 2-4 million a year
The Packers have 6 players making 6 million or more a year
The Packers have 8 players making 4 million a year or more

This is just one more example.

The Texans have 3 players making between 3-4 million
They have 14 players making 2 million or more a year.

There's more but don't have time to post it now.

[X-Era]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

The Bills have 4 players making 4 million or more a year. The Ravens have 9 players making 4 million or more a year.

The Bills 5th highest paid player on the team would be the 10th highest paid player on the Ravens.

The Bills have 1 player making more then 6 million a year. The Ravens have 4 players making more then 6 million a year.

Just more stark contrast on how a good front office manages their salary cap compared to the Bills previous regime.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/baltimore-ravens/cap-hit/

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/cap-hit/

This is more telling.

What they have is a few stars and then lesser players from the draft and vets.

We don't have those stars. Some we have allowed to leave but we also haven't found players like Flacco, Suggs, and Ngata.

Having to pay a franchise QB like Flacco the big money can force a team to have a salary structure like the Ravens do.

[X-Era]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

This thread has no substance.

You cherry picked one vague example and illustrated it as a proven fact.

No, it has substance.

Teams like the Ravens take an approach of drafting well, not overpaying in FA to fill holes, and having a few stars with big contracts.

The Bills are trying to get there but are also trying to be competitive at the same time. They realize they don't have a proven franchise QB so they spend that money elsewhere to theoretically make a more competitive team.

If Manuel proves he's a playoff or SB QB I can see the Bills paying him the money and then structuring the rest of their salaries more like the Ravens.

That's really the issue. We don't have the stars that require the huge contracts.

BillsFever... do us a favor and show us the Pats... Brady has notoriously given the Pats cap breaks to help the team. I'd like to see if they fit the Ravens model or are more like our model.

[X-Era]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

I've got it:

Pats (going by cap figure):

6+ mill- 3, Bills have 1
4+ mill- 5, Bills have 4
3-6 mill- 6, Bills have 9
3-5 mill- 5, Bills have 7
2-4 mill- 11, Bills have 13

Bills:

11 players making 3 million dollars or more.
17 players making 2 million dollars or more.
24 players making 1 million dollars or more

Pats:
9 making 3 mill or more
16 players making 2 mill or more
26 players making 1 mill or more

Salary structure wise they are very close.

You could say the Bills are two proven stars and a generous HOF QB away from being the Pats... Salary structure wise.

I think the big thing is to realize it's more about who you pay and at what positions. And to realize the Bills still need a few stars at key spots to compete. A franchise QB is a glaring difference... The Ravens, Pats, and GB have some of the best and highest paid QB's in the league. We have a journeyman and a rookie.

[BillsFever21]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

Even if we take a team like the Seahawks that doesn't have a high priced QB since he is still under a rookie contract

They have 4 players making between 3-4 million a year
They have 8 players making between 3-6 million a year
They have 8 players making between 2-4 million a year
They have 11 players making 4 million a year or more
They have 7 players making 6 million a year or more

Even with a team like the Seahawks that has a cheap young QB under contract and has mostly been built through the draft has a huge difference on how they structure their salary cap.

The biggest issue I see with the Bills salary cap compared to many of these other teams are the huge amount of guys making in the 2-4 million range and lack of guys making 6 million a year or more. They are substituting the more elite players with a bigger collection of average guys that could be had with draft picks for a million a year or less.

It's not just about just having guys with them cap figures it's spending your money to keep or sign young top level players and having cheaper backups in their place. We have way too many backup or rotational players making 2-4 million a year. You need to have your main core of top players that will take up a good chunk of your cap and in return you have more players making 1-2 million a year instead of 2-4 million a year to make up the difference on your salary cap.

These show that the Bills have plenty of cap room to keep their good players. Some act like we need to watch cap dollars when we're 20 million under the cap and have like the 2nd or 3rd most cap room in the league. Mario Williams salary jumps up a lot next year but we have many almost average, useless or older guys making 2.5-4 million a year whose contracts will be expiring soon which will clear up a lot of cap with it. Guys like Pears, Smith, Lindell, and Jackson just to name a few. Just them guys alone are around 11 million in cap room. The roles of them players should be getting paid a combined 6 million a year at the very most and replaced with middle round draft picks or cheap free agents for depth.

[DesertFox24]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

This offseason will be the telling sign of our front office.

Woods, Dareus, Spiller are guys we need to resign and at critical positions.

Chandler is a guy I would like to bring back as well, but not a cornerstone so depends what he wants.

I hate to say it but guards and safeties are not that hard to find and good ones can be found in round 2-5. That is why Levitre was let go and probably why Bryd will be gone as well. The bills want to tie up the tackles, Center, QB, WR, RB, CB, LB before they pay big bucks for what they consider luxury positions.

It sucks from the standpoint that we let these guys go but if we had a top 10 qb and were in the playoffs no one would care. However, because we keep losing people point out all of the good players we let go.

[BillsFever21]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

This offseason will be the telling sign of our front office.

Woods, Dareus, Spiller are guys we need to resign and at critical positions.

Chandler is a guy I would like to bring back as well, but not a cornerstone so depends what he wants.

I hate to say it but guards and safeties are not that hard to find and good ones can be found in round 2-5. That is why Levitre was let go and probably why Bryd will be gone as well. The bills want to tie up the tackles, Center, QB, WR, RB, CB, LB before they pay big bucks for what they consider luxury positions.

It sucks from the standpoint that we let these guys go but if we had a top 10 qb and were in the playoffs no one would care. However, because we keep losing people point out all of the good players we let go.

Darues still has a ton to prove before you can even think about signing him to a contract extension. He hasn't even played up to his rookie salary let alone a raise and a contract extension up to this point.

Woods has been a good player but if he fails to stay healthy this year then there isn't anyway you can give him a long-term deal with a lot of guaranteed money. He has yet to stay healthy one season in his career. If he can't even stay healthy in his contract year then that definitely isn't a good sign.

Spiller has the chance to turn into an elite RB this year. Unless he does turn into an elite RB then that is one of the positions that is the least important to sign to a long-term deal. Their careers are short and many start losing a step in their late 20's and are usually finished as a feature RB by 30-32 years old. The RB position is also the easiest position to replace in the NFL and rookies can step right in from day one without a problem. If you have a good blocking scheme then many teams have shown you can find RB's in any round(or even as rookie free agents) and plug them in and get great production. If Spiller breaks out this season then we should lock him up instead of waiting another year. If he doesn't turn into an elite back that is a huge part of your offense then you let RB's walk instead of paying them long-term deals.

[BillsFever21]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

This offseason will be the telling sign of our front office.

Woods, Dareus, Spiller are guys we need to resign and at critical positions.

Chandler is a guy I would like to bring back as well, but not a cornerstone so depends what he wants.

I hate to say it but guards and safeties are not that hard to find and good ones can be found in round 2-5. That is why Levitre was let go and probably why Bryd will be gone as well. The bills want to tie up the tackles, Center, QB, WR, RB, CB, LB before they pay big bucks for what they consider luxury positions.

It sucks from the standpoint that we let these guys go but if we had a top 10 qb and were in the playoffs no one would care. However, because we keep losing people point out all of the good players we let go.

Also guards and safeties are only a luxury if you already have a good team and are strapped to the cap and need to pay for a high priced QB, LT or other positions. Plus the majority of the time good teams will already have somebody groomed and waiting to take their spot.

The Bills are still trying to build a winning team 13 years and running. When you already have a lack of talent then you need to keep your good young players to build a core around. You need to use your draft picks to upgrade and fill in other positions on the team instead of continuing to tread water and using your draft picks to replace positions you already were set at or to try and replace draft picks that you keep busting out on.

I could've handled losing Levitre if it meant we signed Byrd to a long-term deal. He is one of the best young safeties in the league that a struggling team with a ton of cap space would want to keep. He's just an your everyday safety that you can throw anybody in to match his production. The guy was a playmaker and turnover machine and good in coverage. In the end we spent two draft picks at safety this year hoping to find his replacement and will most likely end up spending another higher round draft pick on one in the next year or two if these guys don't work out. In the end we still won't have one as good.

Even one of the safeties we drafted this year could've went to help improve other positions like guard, LB or depth other areas on the team. That is how you continue to tread water instead of building a team. We have been using our draft picks to replace positions we didn't spend the money to keep or other draft picks that were busts. That's why we continue to stay a 6 win team and haven't been able to take that next step.

[SquishDaFish]

Re: Difference on how good teams balance their salary cap

This is a tough subject because Buffalo HAS to OVERPAY compared to the others just to get the players here.