I know a lot of fans wonder how does a team with only 10 million left in cap space sign a player to a 5 year 50 million dollar contract. They normally do 1 or 2 things to make it happen. Below is a link to Spotrac restructure page. It shows existing contracts that were altered to create cap for 2021, pushing that 2021 cap to future years.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/transactions/restructure/

The second way is how they structure the contract for cap purposes. They do the same thing if tight on the cap for that year. Less cap in 2022 for example, but more cap dollars allocated for the life (number of years) of the contract.

I like Spotrac to track the cap because of its many layers. It has a projected rookie pool, you can look at cap in future years, not just 2022. It shows the current cap situation and why teams are forced to play cap gymnastics (manipulate it) while others like the Bengals rarely take an existing contract and convert it to a big bonus to gain cap space. They do use the second way as they sign new contracts at times.

WE have the 9th most cap space as of now at 18.1 million with 5.3 needed for the rookie contracts (this takes into account replacing players in the top 51 so it has some offset in it). As I said, we also could create more cap if the FO thought there was a player we needed to get us to the promise land. As a result of the cap management by our FO, we are in great shape also in 2023 while some teams are not.

Burrow is eligible for an extension after next season, is that right?

Maybe we are already saving cap space for that.

I look for us to maybe sign another veteran back up at OT, CB and/or DT.. But I don't expect any more big deals.

The point a lot of people miss about manipulating the cap is that eventually you have to pay.

If a team bumps $50 million of cap hit to the next season then they are going to be $50 million short on cap space. If they make moves to bump $50 million to the season after that they are just doing that TO BREAK EVEN. They are not spending over the cap every year. They are manipulating the cap just to get back to the original cap space.

(04-02-2022, 11:44 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Burrow is eligible for an extension after next season, is that right?

Maybe we are already saving cap space for that.

I look for us to maybe sign another veteran back up at OT, CB and/or DT..  But I don't expect any more big deals.

That is correct.  If the FO has any kind of brain, they should probably be talking to his representation now about parameters of what he wants to do and how it can be achieved to make both sides happy while keeping us from the being nailed with a contract that cannot sustain a team around him.  A big portion of the Patriots long term success was Brady staying underpaid so to prevent cap casualties from occuring around the remainder of the team.  They need to figure out now what is going to be required for Joey so guys like Bates, Wilson, Higgins, and Chase can get paid when their time comes (and it will come REAL FAST).

(04-02-2022, 11:44 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Burrow is eligible for an extension after next season, is that right?

Maybe we are already saving cap space for that.

I look for us to maybe sign another veteran back up at OT, CB and/or DT.. But I don't expect any more big deals.

I would love to see us sign Burrow after next season locking him in for 10 years. It would us to manage his cap hits in the early years risking the cap will jump by 10% a year.

I saw that the Watson contract in Cleveland could make it harder for qb deals as it had all the money guaranteed.

There's a real chance Burrow signs for $50+ million a year.

In terms of manipulating cap space, we can restructure both 91 and 98 for a combined $11.2 M but that's not our MO. Besides, its probably best to just let those cap hits be as they're really not bad at all for players of their caliber, and to save money for Burrow's extension.

(04-04-2022, 01:08 AM)BuildTheWall Wrote: In terms of manipulating cap space, we can restructure both 91 and 98 for a combined $11.2 M but that's not our MO. Besides, its probably best to just let those cap hits be as they're really not bad at all for players of their caliber, and to save money for Burrow's extension.

I think the FO would now at least consider cap gymnastics if they needed the cap space in 2022. But I agree, they won't do it unless it is needed to get the final piece or 2 they feel is needed to get back to the Super Bowl.