The Myth of Having to Go Into a Season With Cap Space

[jowczarski]

@ThePistons Football Management Theory - Modern free agency in the NFL began in 1992. The Bengals haven't won a single playoff game since then. Maybe they should start trying to be more like the rest of the league???

I can’t argue with that.

But – I will point out the following fact from the NFLPA PRIOR to free agency starting last year, “According to numbers compiled last week by the NFL Players Association, nearly one-third of the league's clubs are below the minimum cash spending floor for the four-year window from 2013 to '16, and those teams will have to make up the difference at a time the salary cap is rising.”

The Bengals were not one of those teams.

So where were they in total spending? The NFLPA updated team spending in December (we won’t get 2017 numbers for a few months).
https://twitter.com/NFLPA/status/805867703466676224

In a four-year period (2013-16) the Bengals trailed the following teams in total dollars spent:
1. Philadelphia
2. Denver
3. Seattle
4. Green Bay
5. Miami
6. Kansas City
7. Buffalo
8. Chicago

Now, we see Denver, Seattle and Green Bay in there. Some of those numbers include the huge salaries Peyton Manning/Von Miller and Aaron Rodgers/Clay Matthews earn. But when you say “like the top of the league”…well, I’d venture to say the Bengals have had more recent success than those other teams? And I realize this is a four-year compilation, and most definitely the Bengals kicked left over money from one year to the next, like most teams. But even the NFLPA, which tracks this stuff to the dollar, wouldn't call the Bengals "cheap" regardless of how they spend.



@SHRacerX - the Bengals had an incredible run of bad luck on consensus draft picks that crippled this team before the advent of the rookie wage scale.  … Ironically, their luck changed as the rookie wage scale was created


Tremendous points.

@Hoofhearted - Do you think they ever ponder if they should change their tactics at all in this regards? It certainly has it pros and cons.


This I can tell you – they won’t change it. They firmly believe it’s the best way to manage the cap and have the ability to carry a half dozen or so Pro Bowlers on any given roster at a given time, like this year’s team (Green, Atkins, Dalton, Dunlap, Burfict, Jones, Huber, Peerman) or last year’s team if you add in Whitworth.