Should the NFL have a hard salary cap?

[BigFin]

I like the hard cap, in general, but there should be such a way, in my opinion, that you should be able to retain the players you drafted if you can afford to pay them without thinking about the cap. It would take some thought, but I think it could be doable. Maybe allowing X amount re-signees/extendees on the team have half their salary count towards the cap?

 

[Manster7588]

Then there is no real cap. Or those teams are out of the free agency market leading to no real free agency.

 

[Ricky Roma]

I've always believed in some sort of system where a team can pay any amount to keep every player they've drafted, and set up that system so that the more you spend on your own, the less you can spend on free agents.

 

[michaeljordan_fan]

Yes, the NFL cap structure is the best of the big 3.

 

[Manster7588]

Yes, the NFL cap structure is the best of the big 3.

Baseball doesn't have a cap. As much as I don't like the cap I agree NFL is better than NBAs cap. Maybe the NFL can just do like MLB and introduce a Luxury Tax.

 

[BigFin]

Maybe have 5 players to designate as 50% “off-cap”? It’d be very useful for the teams’ franchise QB.

 

[michaeljordan_fan]

Baseball doesn't have a cap. As much as I don't like the cap I agree NFL is better than NBAs cap. Maybe the NFL can just do like MLB and introduce a Luxury Tax.

MLB is the worst of the 3.

 

[Debbie Does]

Baseball doesn't have a cap. As much as I don't like the cap I agree NFL is better than NBAs cap. Maybe the NFL can just do like MLB and introduce a Luxury Tax.

No, the whole idea of the cap is to level the playing field a bit and provide some measure of parity. The Luxury Tax allow the rich owners to dominate the league. That's bad for the sport and shuts out the smaller markets.

We should not play games with the cap after any single bad year. The owners took a gamble. They didn't have to spend up to the cap. If they made a bad decision, let them live with it. Their kids won't go hungry.

 

[RememberTheKoy]

You can have one Franchise contract where no part of that player's contract will count against the cap. But you also cannot use the franchise tag while you have an active franchise contract.

 

[SteelersPride]

Yes.

 

[Jikkle]

Having a hard cap is what keeps the league interesting and gives fans of all teams some measure of hope that they could be relevant with smart drafting and FA moves.

Now what they could do and I'm just spit balling here is maybe have a system to where you can designate one non QB contract of a player you drafted as exempt. So for example instead of the 49ers having to trade Buckner because they couldn't afford him they could designate his contract as exempt and retain him.

Right now I think the biggest problem with the NFL is that QB contracts take up too much of that cap space and giving some teams some wiggle room by giving them a contract exemption might help them still be competitive while still retaining the parity a hard cap brings.

 

[rmilia1]

No, the whole idea of the cap is to level the playing field a bit and provide some measure of parity. The Luxury Tax allow the rich owners to dominate the league. That's bad for the sport and shuts out the smaller markets.

We should not play games with the cap after any single bad year. The owners took a gamble. They didn't have to spend up to the cap. If they made a bad decision, let them live with it. Their kids won't go hungry.

The irony is the sports with a cap have seen fewer different teams win titles this century than the league with no real cap

 

[eaglesnut]

No, it should have a cap that is completely manipulable by cap genius like Howie Roseman while he strokes his Super Bowl Trophy.

 

[jarntt]

You can have one Franchise contract where no part of that player's contract will count against the cap. But you also cannot use the franchise tag while you have an active franchise contract.

So basically as is, but the QBs don't count...God would I like to be the first free agent QB to become available with this system in place...

 

[Pattersonca65]

The hard cap is fine as it is. Basketball had a system like the OP suggests with the Bird rule. Teams can sign their own draft picks that don't count under the cap. For years under this system, the big market teams like the Lakers had so much cash over smaller market teams that they just could ignore the cap and poach free agents from smaller market teams. These teams just paid the luxury tax year after year for going over the cap. This kind of soft cap ended up hurting the smaller market teams more. The NBA had to create a repeater tax to penalize teams that continually go over the tax. The cap is good as it is.

 

[RobToxin]

Nope.

If billionaire owners are stupid with their money, there should not be rules to prevent that.

 

[steelerssb]

Yes, the NFL cap structure is the best of the big 3.

I think the NHL's is the best simply because it's the most straight forward. No weird rules with regards to bonus or penalties like the NHL or none of the ridiculousness that is the NBA.

Just have to add up the AAV's on the book.

 

[TheBurgh88]

The hard cap is fine as it is. Basketball had a system like the OP suggests with the Bird rule. Teams can sign their own draft picks that don't count under the cap. For years under this system, the big market teams like the Lakers had so much cash over smaller market teams that they just could ignore the cap and poach free agents from smaller market teams. These teams just paid the luxury tax year after year for going over the cap. This kind of soft cap ended up hurting the smaller market teams more. The NBA had to create a repeater tax to penalize teams that continually go over the tax. The cap is good as it is.

I’m not sure the Lakers are a good example. While it is true they often paid a luxury tax as most contending teams routinely do, free agents were not the cause of their luxury tax penalty. It is a myth that the Lakers spend big in free agency. I can only think of two stars they got in free agency in the last 25 years. Of course those two were Shaq and LeBron but I can’t think of many others acquired in free agency. They may have gotten some role players too during that time frame but to say they just poached free agents every year from small market teams simply isn’t true.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

I've always hated the cap.

Still do.

Especially one that gets soaked up after 4 players...

I hate that good drafting causes you to have cap problems. Petulant stars on a shit team can go wherever somebody is dumb enough to pay them.

But if you draft well and everybody likes everybody there should be cap exceptions. The ability to keep a team together.

A good hired gun doesn't hurt but drafting a guy is better.

 

[wazzu31]

I like the idea of a hard cap but if you resign a player you drafted 80% of their actual contract goes towards the cap. Not counting a QB’s contract seems counter productive. If that is the case then every QB would hit free agency and defeat the whole purpose of a salary cap and that it parity.