Creativity With The Cap = Winning?

[Whatever]

(09-04-2018, 02:16 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: It seems year after year, the Bengals find ways to front-load deals so they can get close to the cap, while the good teams are finding ways to manage the cap so that they can stuff as much talent onto their team as possible.

Turns out, it's true.

Top combined average salaries on an active roster:

1. #Jaguars, $220M
2. #Vikings, $209M
3. #Rams, $200M
4. #Bears, $194M
5. #Packers, $191M

30. #Seahawks, $143M
31. #Ravens, $140M
32. #Bills, $122M

Full List: https://t.co/mz9xCO0k27

— Spotrac (@spotrac) September 4, 2018

Bengals are 24th on that list with a Total AAV of $160.4m.

Of the 10 Playoff teams in 2017, 5 of them were in the Top 10. The Steelers were 11th and Falcons 13th, so 7 in the top 13. Neither of the two 9-7 AFC Wildcard teams were in the Top 10.

It seems the good teams just find a way to work the cap space so that they can stuff the most talented players onto a team. It probably comes from having a professional GM and FO.

Keep in mind that the 2017 salary cap was set at $167m, and the Super Bowl winning Eagles had an AAV of $201.3m last year. The AFC winning Patriots had an AAV of $191m.


If you look at the NFC and AFC Championship games, of the 4 teams playing in it (Eagles, Vikings, Patriots, Jaguars) that is 3 of the Top 4 teams on that list. The Vikings were the outlier at 17th, and they got absolutely crushed by the Eagles (the Vikings are now 2nd in 2018 with $209.3m).

The Bengals were 7th in '15, 6th in '14, and 8th in '13.  They were also 11th in '16 and 16th last year.  Teams seem to cycle in and out of the top ten, which makes sense.  You push money off into the future to keep your cap down, then it catches up with you, so you have to clear cap space with a youth movement.

The Bengals are going to be down the list this year.  We're the youngest team in the league.  That means a lot of guys on rookie deals.  If you look at our offense, the only guys not on their rookie deals are Andy, Giovanni, AJ, Glenn, Boling, Hart, and Eifert.  It makes sense to front load deals this year to clear space in future years.