Looks like the Cheaps Chiefs are going to save some money this offseason. The Chiefs have around $39 million in cap room, almost $10 M more than any other team. I don’t think the Chiefs have ever held this honor, and quite frankly I hate looking like the Arizona Cardinals, but I believe the Chiefs have a plan (hopefully). I think that they are saving money to add players through free agency next year to add to their young players.
The Green Bay Packers are in great shape financially.
The team is $30.5 million below its adjusted salary cap of $126 million.
That puts the Packers second in the NFL, behind only the Kansas City Chiefs, which have $39 million in room.
I also think with the Hunts putting in over $100 million in stadium renovation money, they realize they might need to save a few dollars. It’s smart business for them.
FanSided Sports Blog
Kings of Kauffman
NFL Mocks
Stock Car Spin
Bolt Beat
Just Blog Baby
Predominantly Orange
Ramblin' Fan
Loading ...
I have a love/hate relationship with the youth movement. I love having home-grown Chiefs make up the team, but I hate passing up on all the free agents.
Hopefully the passing was just temporarily, though. We better ante up next summer with all the scrill!
If this year’s youth movement pays dividends then you gotta love the options that this kind of dough could create as we roll out of this season and into next. I know it’s a kind of early to think about but I can’t help but wonder who’ll be available in the FA market.
New player possibilities always excite me. Free agency and the draft.
It’s like buying new pants or something.
Four things:
1. I believe that 39 million number was accurate prior to the signings of Albert and Dorsey.
2. After going 4-12, it was enormously difficult to find FA’s really interested in coming to KC – contrary to popular opinion, not all athletes are exclusively motivated by the money, and those who passed us earlier this year were mostly putoff by the prospect of losing more than the prospect of dealing with King Carl.
3. KC had so many holes to fill this year, it was nearly impossible to target the kind of FA’s we really needed except on the Oline, and I think if someone were to look at the last 20 FA Olinemen signings… you’d find none of them either an adequate solution or worth the money. D-Mac for instance – he aint be completely useless, but he’s probably not what KC paid for him.
4. Finally, KC has stated publicly they’re not getting back into the high dollar FA auctions; they’re specifically targeting young guys looking to sign their second contracts who may not have been able to crack the starting lineups where they were due to the pro bowlers ahead of them on the depth chart. As I’ve stated before, KC evidently has done some kind of cost/benefit analysis of FA’s and determined these types of FA’s are the only ones really worth what they cost.
One final thought: That 39 million is only good for THIS year… it does not accumulate or do us any good next year unless they sign someone and pay them with this year’s money… and just because the number is 39mil now does not mean that’s how much they have under next years cap.
For the record, I’m okay with going the route of CMF’s #4. If this year pans out okay, then #2 will take care of itself.
No. 4 is OK, as long as it’s legitimate and not just an excuse, which is really the way I see it. All the teams in last year’s final four had major players who were big-dollar free agent acquisitions. On the other hand, it is a rule that should have exceptions. For example, if we have a glaring hole and there is the perfect guy sitting there. Splurging just to splurge is stupid, but so is being overly frugal. Sometimes splurging is the right thing to do if it’s on the right guy.
Adam,
We thought Bell was the right guy, we thought Law was the right guy. Yikes…
Plaxico Burress was the right guy for the Giants. Charles Woodsen the right guy for the Packers. Adalius Thomas the right guy for the Pats. Our front office just needs to do a better job evaluating. The fans can be wrong on who we want, the front office can not continue to be. Just because the Chiefs have been mostly awful when it comes to free agency, that doesn’t give them a cop out. Other teams will still sign players, and, no, not just the Redskins and Raiders. The Cowboys, for example, have built their roster equally through the draft and FA. You can’t compete by staying completely put in FA.
I made a comment the other day about some skill positions in FA along the lines of: If a guy really IS a top tier/pro bowl type talent NOW (as opposed to in the past) then usually you cannot get those guys in FA because the team they’re on will do a sign and trade deal.
I think this is particularly true of starting linemen on both sides of the ball particularly O tackles and D ends. On the other hand, there have been several wideouts go FA and have big pro bowl type seasons afterwards, and KC never once tried to talk to any of them. I think that’s because the perception is you can find WR’s and RB in the later rounds of the draft so GM’s are loathe to pay them the big bucks.
I think the plan I recapped in #4 above is a solid position for them to take for the next couple of years, but if we get to the end of 2010 with a playoff caliber team with a glaring need – THEN I say spend the dough.
Finally, lets not forget our youth movement and bursting cap savings is coinciding with the Hunt family’s committment to fund 175 million of the renovation at Arrowhead – can we really smack their hand for managing the cap like this for now? I think not. They’re still going to have to write a check for at least 100 of that 175M number.
Also, stashing some dough in advance of the pending uncapped year is a good way to be sure you have enough money to compete with the larger market teams for your own star players in the event of an uncapped year.
CurtMerzFan: EXCELLENT point in your last paragraph there. I’m really surprised no one else has touched on that yet.
Kansas City is, in fact, a small market. Saving some money to make up for that is definitely not a bad thing.
This isn’t baseball–there’s a level playing field called the salary cap. I, for one, am not going to make excuses for us not spending money. Is not spending money better than blowing it? I don’t know, but can’t we find a happy medium here? I am fine with us saving money for the stadium’s renovation and the future. But we better spend when we get close to contending to put us over the edge. It just seems that a lot of fans have this attitude that you are either frugal or you blow money like the Redskins. That’s not necessarily the case at all.
If next year is indeed an uncapped year, however, then this might indeed be a great strategy. I do think the FA class will be considerably better. Then again, if teams don’t have to manage the cap, they might be less reluctant to retain players.
I’m willing to give the Chiefs the benefit of the doubt on being the cheapest team in the league for now, but this better not become an annual thing.
If I had to choose between paying Kendrell Bell or keeping the dough… NO doubt how I’d go on that one. If we could have signed Plax in his prime… man, I would have LOVED to see him with Kennison, TonyG, Trent and LJ two years ago. I believe that team might have won a playoff game or two… though I doubt they would have won it all.
A Salary Cap does not give the NFL a level playing field because big market teams manipulate player costs higher than necessary because they do not need to keep any of the TV money in order to show a profit.
The cap limits what they can spent in any given year, but because they make so much money from other revenue streams, higher ticket and parking prices, seat licenses… they can manage thier cap without caring too much about what any given player is paid. Other smaller mkt teams are being ham strung by this policy, and the evidence is right there in the rookie and FA contracts you’ve seen the last two years (since the NFL renegotiated the TV contract).
Exactly in that past we have signed guys off of injuries (Bell) or when they are past their prime (Law). If we would’ve signed Law when everyone really wanted him then we would have had his 10 interception season we probably would have been in the playoffs that year (went 10-6 and missed).
The Free Agents Adam brought up were all in their prime and almost the closest thing to a guarantee you could bring in. When was the last time the Chiefs ever signed a top 3-5 guy in FA?
I think that if the youth movement proves themselves this year or next then you bring in one big name to add to a solid foundation to put you over the hump.
Also the Chiefs aren’t saving money for uncap seasons they are saving it to pay back their 100+ million investment into the “new” Arrowhead. Might as save some money when you rebuild.
I.E. Caps are regulated by a percentage of distributed TV and other joint revenues, but not by ALL revenues a team can generate. This was one of the MAJOR sticking points in the last CBA because the NFLPA wanted ALL revenues to count for cap distribution purposes – and the fact that it did not include all team revenues is the reason they ended up with more than 50% of the TV revenue. The fact the league was willing to give the players a 60/40 split on the TV money gives you an idea of how vast that unincluded money is.
Zzch: I already said they were using that money for the renovation.
Yah I had that already in this post. See the last two sentences
The only reason we’re under the cap so much is because of the age of our team. No one (with a big contract) is towards the end of their contract. All contracts are end-heavy, so that’s gonna keep us lower. The only other points I’d like to make is that we don’t use this cap money to pay for renovations to the stadium and the cap DOES NOT ROLLOVER!!! So we can’t save money for next year! We should go with AT&T!!! Don’t they have a rollover plan?
Yes eyepod, no salary cap rolls over.
However, they can use the money they will save on contracts to help pay off the money the Chiefs organization put into the new Arrowhead since they will likely make the same revenue they did in previous seasons. So they will actually probably have more profits because they reduced their salary expenses. Does that make sense?
if we are that much under the salary cap WHY THE HECK DONT WE HAVE A BETTER QUARTERBACK?!?!?!?!
I think we should have been more aggressive in the free agency maybe.
Zach: see post 11, next to last ppg.
Exactly which FA QB out there this past offseason is actually better than Croyle? Culpepper? Please.
and eyepod, if you were reading for content you would realize nobody said cap money was rolling over to next year. We said it doesnt do that. jeez!
I know exactly what the chiefs are doing and i couldn’t be more excited. This cap room means they are fully behind the youth movement. Its a great stratergy in my eyes. I think we have some players that could really develop into something special. Theres no point spending big bucks on a player if he isnt going to effect those around him. If we can create a well unified and strong team with what we have, we are creating the building blocks for a good future. If we can take our team now and grow from here, into a more successful team, Imagine what will happen when we have massive cap room. Thats when you talk about championships. FA is all about filling in the missing peices. First we create the jigsaw, then build on it, and then finally we can complete it with big name FA.
As long as we complete the jigsaw puzzle by actually spending on a top-rate FA, instead of an aging star or second-rate guy, that’s fine. I’m somewhat skeptical of the Chiefs spending that kind of dough, regardless of how close we are to winning it all, though.
Curt – again I wrote the main post for this thread and mentioned that in my last two sentences
Sorry Zach, I didn’t see those two sentences after the quotes from the other source. And here I was thinking I was all smart and stuff…
its SO NICE to see so many positive posts, hope they last throughout the year
Curt its ok and you are still very smart, just wanted to show that I had said that instead of getting called out, lol
yea well… I getchera$$ next time!