Post by Funkytown on Aug 20, 2017 11:59:35 GMT -6
The Vikings Cap Conundrum by Stephen Moldovan
Plenty more at the link: thetailgatesociety.com/2017/08/the-vikings-cap-conundrum/
Despite an inconsistent-at-best offensive unit, the Minnesota Vikings boast maybe the NFL’s youngest elite defense. While the defense is among the NFL’s elite, the oldest key piece is Everson Griffen at relatively youthful 29. The average age of their starting nickel defense is 26.6 years even if you count 32-year-old Tom Johnson as the starting defensive tackle over 26-year-old Shariff Floyd or 23 old rookie Jaleel Johnson.
The offense, while underwhelming much of the time, also has some promising young players that have been or will need paid shortly, along with some veterans who are already being paid quite generously. Griffen, Joseph, and Rhodes all signed new contracts in the past month. This begs the question that many Vikings fans have been asking: How does Minnesota keep their young core with the incredible amount of upcoming salary cap space that will need to be spent on both sides of the ball? The answer to this question is multifaceted and relies on some educated guessing, but no doubt there is a solution and it has been in motion since even before some of these talented players were drafted.
Cap 101
In order to understand how the Vikings are working the salary cap system, we have to understand a couple important things about how the salary cap works. Here are some of the most important factors:
• Cap space rolls over to the next year if unspent. This means that there is no benefit to paying players more money (specifically unguaranteed money) early in their deals. There is only incentive to push unguaranteed money back as far as possible so the team has the option to pay that money or to cut ties for no penalty. If a player outperforms his deal, you get a bargain. If they underperform, you can cut them for no penalty or pressure them to re-negotiate.
• Guaranteed money vs non-guaranteed money: The two most important types of payment in the NFL are salary and signing bonuses. Signing bonuses are always paid to the player immediately, 100% guaranteed, and the cap hit is spread evenly over the length of the deal. On the other hand, you have non-guaranteed salary. This is the amount that is paid to the player much like most paychecks for regular jobs. As they play that season, they are paid. The team is only on the hook for this money if the player plays and they can cut them at any time without any responsibility to pay it. Salaries can be guaranteed by the team if they choose to, however, and it is very often preferable for teams to front load guaranteed salary so the years they know they want a player are the only years where the team pays guaranteed money. There are other ways to guaranteed salary like roster bonuses and incentives, but it’s easier to stick to the basics and it gets us the information we really need.
• Injury guarantees: These guarantees are only relevant if the player suffers an injury which keeps him from playing. They are rarely realized but an important safety net from the viewpoint of a player putting his body on the line in a violent sport. For the team’s purposes, it’s probably not going to be guaranteed money. This number is often reported in initial contract releases by reporters as players’ agents are leaking the deals and want them to sound larger than they really are.
Laying the Groundwork
The Vikings have already signed some big time deals for important players, and I want to go over how the structure of these deals helps the team maintain flexibility and leverage. One tool Rick Spielman uses is the 5th year option that teams are allowed to exercise on 1st round picks. The salary on that 5th year for top 10 picks is the average of the top 10 players at his position, and for the rest of the 1st round it is the average of the 3rd through 25th highest salaries at his position. These salaries can be high or low compared to the player’s worth, but the most important thing is that this salary is only guaranteed for injury until the 1st day of that league year.
This leads to new deals being agreed to shortly before the 4th year of players’ rookie deals. We have seen this with Kyle Rudolph in 2014, Harrison Smith in 2016, and Xavier Rhodes in 2017. I anticipate the same thing will happen with Anthony Barr, and had they not been injured I’m positive Minnesota had planned to do so with Teddy Bridgewater and Shariff Floyd as well. The ability to threaten to make players play the last year on their rookie deal and risk an injury that might take away a large amount of their first big NFL payday gives the team leverage and often results in a team friendly deal.
The offense, while underwhelming much of the time, also has some promising young players that have been or will need paid shortly, along with some veterans who are already being paid quite generously. Griffen, Joseph, and Rhodes all signed new contracts in the past month. This begs the question that many Vikings fans have been asking: How does Minnesota keep their young core with the incredible amount of upcoming salary cap space that will need to be spent on both sides of the ball? The answer to this question is multifaceted and relies on some educated guessing, but no doubt there is a solution and it has been in motion since even before some of these talented players were drafted.
Cap 101
In order to understand how the Vikings are working the salary cap system, we have to understand a couple important things about how the salary cap works. Here are some of the most important factors:
• Cap space rolls over to the next year if unspent. This means that there is no benefit to paying players more money (specifically unguaranteed money) early in their deals. There is only incentive to push unguaranteed money back as far as possible so the team has the option to pay that money or to cut ties for no penalty. If a player outperforms his deal, you get a bargain. If they underperform, you can cut them for no penalty or pressure them to re-negotiate.
• Guaranteed money vs non-guaranteed money: The two most important types of payment in the NFL are salary and signing bonuses. Signing bonuses are always paid to the player immediately, 100% guaranteed, and the cap hit is spread evenly over the length of the deal. On the other hand, you have non-guaranteed salary. This is the amount that is paid to the player much like most paychecks for regular jobs. As they play that season, they are paid. The team is only on the hook for this money if the player plays and they can cut them at any time without any responsibility to pay it. Salaries can be guaranteed by the team if they choose to, however, and it is very often preferable for teams to front load guaranteed salary so the years they know they want a player are the only years where the team pays guaranteed money. There are other ways to guaranteed salary like roster bonuses and incentives, but it’s easier to stick to the basics and it gets us the information we really need.
• Injury guarantees: These guarantees are only relevant if the player suffers an injury which keeps him from playing. They are rarely realized but an important safety net from the viewpoint of a player putting his body on the line in a violent sport. For the team’s purposes, it’s probably not going to be guaranteed money. This number is often reported in initial contract releases by reporters as players’ agents are leaking the deals and want them to sound larger than they really are.
Laying the Groundwork
The Vikings have already signed some big time deals for important players, and I want to go over how the structure of these deals helps the team maintain flexibility and leverage. One tool Rick Spielman uses is the 5th year option that teams are allowed to exercise on 1st round picks. The salary on that 5th year for top 10 picks is the average of the top 10 players at his position, and for the rest of the 1st round it is the average of the 3rd through 25th highest salaries at his position. These salaries can be high or low compared to the player’s worth, but the most important thing is that this salary is only guaranteed for injury until the 1st day of that league year.
This leads to new deals being agreed to shortly before the 4th year of players’ rookie deals. We have seen this with Kyle Rudolph in 2014, Harrison Smith in 2016, and Xavier Rhodes in 2017. I anticipate the same thing will happen with Anthony Barr, and had they not been injured I’m positive Minnesota had planned to do so with Teddy Bridgewater and Shariff Floyd as well. The ability to threaten to make players play the last year on their rookie deal and risk an injury that might take away a large amount of their first big NFL payday gives the team leverage and often results in a team friendly deal.
Plenty more at the link: thetailgatesociety.com/2017/08/the-vikings-cap-conundrum/
... and neither is this Chris guy.